The Best 25 Coffee Grinders of 2022

The coffee mill is probably the many underrated item of home barista gear, with lots of people spending a number of time choosing their coffee brewing gear, and then literally buying a coffee grinder as an afterthought. Given that you’re clearly looking for the best coffee grinders, and that you’re here, reading this article, then clearly you discover the importance of the coffee mill, so all good :-).

I did this when I first started getting into the home barista hobby. I spent ages researching the best espresso coffee machine for my budget (which was roughly zero at the time), and then just bought a grinding machine without providing it much thought. Thankfully, as I’ll speak about shortly, the mill I bought turned out to be a best choice. 

Numerous years down the line, although, I now fully find out literally how important the grinder is, and having used the majority of coffee grinders, I likewise have rather a little bit of experience with them, so when I’m talking about the perfect coffee grinders, generally I’m talking from experience, not just theoretically.

You’ll find a number of lists of the best coffee grinders which are merely scraped together lists with the marketing blurb basically paraphrased, by someone who probably hasn’t been in the same room as any of these grinders. You won’t find posts like that here, and anyone who has read any of my posts will understand that I’m genuinely passionate about all things coffee, I put real time and effort into writing these posts, so the info you’re about to read is my genuine opinion on these grinders, usually from my own personal experience with them.

This article is specifically about electric coffee grinders, by the way. If you’re thinking about manual coffee grinders, see my perfect manual hand coffee grinders post.

The various kinds of coffee grinders

Coffee grinders differ mainly by their price point, not only, but mainly.

So at the really entry-level you’ll find blade grinders, which simply needs to be known as “choppers” due to the truth that blades don’t grind, but I digress. I’m not a big fan of these, I think they’re a pain to work with, they’re noisy, and primarily because they don’t grind, they chop – nevertheless I’m including them, due to the reality that they’re the cheapest, the majority of people buy them, and I think grinding your own coffee beans even with among these is usually a better option than buying pre-ground coffee.

Next up we’ll move on to the “grinding wheel” grinders. These are a handful of grinders all with a similar design and a similar price point, and they have a couple of things in common.

1. They’re really cheap.
2. They have weird, blunt burrs, that the manufacturers refer to as “grinding wheels”.

Again, I’m not a massive fan of these for reasons I’ll explain when we get to this section, nevertheless I’m including them because they’re cheap, they’ve really popular, and due to the reality that I think using among these is a step up from using a chopper, and certainly a step up from utilizing pre-ground. 

The next sort of coffee grinder we’ll get onto is the entry-level burr grinders. There are very quite a few of these, they’re all extremely similar, they have proper (usually stainless steel, conical) burrs, they tend to range from around £80 – £200, and the majority of these grinders are actually fine for the majority of brewing methods, the one thing the majority of (there are one or two exceptions) of these grinders have in common, even though, is that they’re all-rounder grinders, not specialist grinders, and most of them won’t use espresso with traditional baskets. 

Finally, we’ll get onto the mid-range grinders and upwards. This is where you’ll find grinders such as the Eureka Mignon, Sette 270, Niche Zero, and other high quality, popular grinders. Obviously, if you know what type of grinder you’re looking for, you can just jump to the relevant section. 

The Best Blade Coffee Grinders

So I’ll kick things off in the cheap seats ;-), with the inexpensive blade coffee “grinders”. Let’s be honest, these contraptions aren’t in reality “grinders”, they have blades, how can they grind? They don’t perform brilliantly, in terms of particle uniformity, they produce uneven grinds, a number of fines & lots of bigger chunks, and there’s no way to adjust the grind size, the only thing you can control is how long you “grind” for.

So if you can, I would extremely highly suggest that you skip this section and move swiftly on, however if you can’t stretch the budget & you absolutely ought to get among the cheaper blade grinders, then have a look at these:

Duronic Electric Grinder CG250

Check Price – Amazon UK

As far as these blade grinders go, this isn’t a bad one, well – I’d say it’s among the perfect of a bad bunch ;-). Unlike some of these (and yes, I’ve had the misfortune of utilizing blade grinders) you don’t have to pick up the entire unit to empty the grinds into your brewer or portafilter, you basically twist out the metal cup part, so that’s good. 

Some of the marketing blurb does have me shaking my head, if I’m honest, for example, this is listed as working for espresso coffee, cappuccino, and Americano… The obvious error with this is that they’re all the same thing, cappuccino and Americano are of course made from espresso, and in fact, saying that a coffee grinder is compatible with espresso coffee is an error, too, though it’s an error a number of of the coffee grinder brands make. 

For me, the word “espresso” suggests traditional espresso coffee, and traditional espresso is crafted with traditional filter baskets, which require a fine and precise grind.  Yes, you’ll probably manage to get a grind fine enough for espresso with dual walled baskets, likewise known as pressurized baskets, with among these blade grinders and with many the budget burr grinders, however listing them as being capable of “espresso” – can be problematic, as they’re not creating it clear that this is espresso with dual walled baskets. 

If you have a budget espresso coffee machine costing from £50-£150, then you’re probably utilizing dual walled, pressurized baskets – and if you have an entry-level home barista espresso coffee machine such as the Gaggia Classic Pro or Sage Bambino Plus, then these come with both fundamental, traditional baskets, and dual walled baskets, so you can choose whether to utilize a higher quality coffee mill & basic baskets or a budget mill (or pre-ground) with the dual walled baskets. 

This blade grinder has thousands of reviews, and most are extremely positive, for the money it doesn’t look like a bad punt at all, I do like the reality that it has a removable grounds cup, as I’ve explained, and I think using one of these and whole beans, would usually be a better preference than buying pre-ground. 

I say “usually”, the exception is if you’re buying coffee beans from a local roaster who’ll grind for you when you collect, or if you’re buying from me :-), all of my coffee at The Coffee works is available whole bean of course, however if you want it pre-ground, literally select the pre-ground choice and we’ll grind it as we’re bagging it up, on the same day of dispatch, to maintain maximum freshness:

Use discount code CBNC25 for 25% off your first order at Coffeeworks

Muzili Family Electric Mill

Check Price – Amazon UK

This is an even cheaper blade coffee grinder, and I have got one of these – I bought it to experiment with using this kind of coffee mill as an choice vs pre-ground, and while I concluded that I wouldn’t want to use one of these vs using a proper burr mill, I likewise concluded that I’d quite have among these than to buy pre-ground coffee beans, generally speaking. 

Unlike the one above, this one doesn’t have a removable grounds cup, so I found it a little bit of a faff to dispense the grounds. It did the job, to a certain degree, but as with all grinders of this kind, there’s no way to set a particular grind size, all you can do in order to get any type of repeatable grind is use the same amount every time, and time the grind (chop).

I can’t deny how cheap it is, even though, and to be able to work with fresh coffee beans for such a low price is impressive, it truly is as cheap as chips. It’s worth noting that while this is sold as a multi-use “whizzer”, for utilize with nuts and spices too, I would extremely keep in mind that it can be very difficult to get strong flavours such as spices out of the blades of a machine like this, so if you do use one of these for spices and then go back to utilizing it for coffee, don’t be too surprised if you end up drinking spicy coffee for a while ;-).

Check Price – Amazon UK

If you can get beyond the brand name ;-), this appears to be a similar however slightly more premium version of the first blade coffee grinder featured above, with the same sort of removable grinds cup, however by the looks of it mildly more in the way of finesse, and with multiple timer options.

The timer options seem like a good idea actually, instead of having to remember how long you ground for to achieve a particular grind size, you can simply tweak the timer wheel, so once you find a grind size that works (well, a grind time, which should result in a similar overall grind size) you can just leave it at that setting. 

Best Grinding Wheel Grinders

OK so next we’re moving on to what I refer to as “grinding wheel” grinders. These are sold as burr grinders, and OK, I suppose they do have burrs, nevertheless they’re what the brands themselves tend to refer to as “grinding wheels”, and what they all have in common is that they have round grinding disks which are relatively blunt.

Extremely, when I’ve taken a couple of these apart to inspect the burrs, I’ve noted that the only real sharp surface is the heads of the screws that keep the burrs in place. 

I do think they’re a better option than the blade grinders, nevertheless still, I’d definitely prefer “proper” burrs, to these types of burrs, so if you can afford to jump up simply a few quid more in some cases, then I’d advise leapfrogging these and beginning off at the entry-level burr grinders below.

Check Price – Amazon UKCheck Price – Currys

The GVX231 mill by Krups has been around for almost 20 years, and I think it was the first grinding machine of this kind, which is why I’m putting it first in this section. I may be wrong, and apologies to DeLonghi if their KG79 below was first, however from what I can ascertain, the Krups is the first of this type of mill. 

There is a newer version, the G VX2 42 but that one is a lot more expensive, it’s more expensive than some of the entry-level burr grinders, which have proper burrs, so I can’t simply see the benefit of going for that one unless I’m missing something. 

Features:

Size & Weight: 21 x 17 x 30 cm – 1.95Kg
Hopper Capacity: 225g
Burrs: Stainless grinding wheels, not a classic burr set
Grind Settings: 17
Dosing: 12 dosage selections

My Observations

As I’ve explained this is among the grinders that have these blunt grinding wheels, and while in theory I’d rather have burrs than blades, and at least you can select a grind size with these, the truth is that they’re in fact crushing the beans rather than grinding them. 

Grinding coffee involves burrs that have sharp “teeth”, for want of a better word, and the beans are relatively (depending on the mill) precisely ground up into uniform-sized chunks. OK, you always have some fines and some bigger grinds, however with in fact blunt wheels like this, you’re going get quite a little of exploding coffee beans, leading to all manner of particle sizes. 

This coffee mill and the Krups below are very, very similar. Actually with the two units I have, it’s difficult to tell them apart, they even have the exact same brand of plug, so whether they’re made by the same factory, I’m not sure, but they look and perform really similar, and the burrs look spookily similar. 

I’m telling you this just so that if you’re trying to decide between among these grinders, you don’t waste too much time choosing, as they are very similar. 

Espresso Grinding

An important note on this grinding machine is that as with the other grinders at this sort of price point, it won’t grind fine enough for espresso coffee if you utilize standard, non-pressured baskets. As I mentioned earlier, if you’re using a budget espresso coffee machine with dual walled baskets, then you’ll be able to utilize a coffee mill like this, but, if you’re utilizing fundamental, traditional baskets, it’s unlikely you’re going to be able to grind fine enough with any of these grinders, and you likewise don’t have the fine-tuning adjustment you’d want for dialing in the grind with traditional baskets.

The blurb says it grinds for espresso, as do lots of of the reviews – while the majority of others say it doesn’t, and I think the main thing here is fundamental baskets vs pressured baskets.

I did an experiment using a bag of whole bean coffee and a bag of the exact same coffee pre-ground, both supplied by Blue Coffee Box.

I ground the beans via the Sage Smart Grinder Pro, the Krups coffee grinder, and also the De’Longhi KG79.

Via the Smart Grinding machine Pro, I was able to get fantastic results, with plenty of range left (I was at about setting 16, so nowhere near finest). With the Krups GVX231, and the De’Longhi KG79, I couldn’t get anywhere close to acceptable via standard baskets, so really under-extracted espresso coffee.

With pressured (or Dual-Walled baskets, as Sage calls them) baskets, I got the kind of espresso coffee I’d expect from pressurized baskets. So if you’re using a budget espresso machine that comes with pressured baskets, as a number of of them do, then you needs to find the Krups grinders, and the De’Longhi KG79 is fine – but I wouldn’t expect to get fine enough to utilize with basic baskets.

For manual brewing methods like pourover, filter coffee machines, Aeropress and so on, you’ll be able to grind fine enough, however still, I’d suggest going for a mill with proper burrs if you can, as the improved particle uniformity these will provide, must translate into better cup quality.

Check Price – Amazon UKCheck Price – Currys

The DeLonghi KG79 is another grinding machine that has been around a long time, and as I’ve literally said, this is really, really similar to the Krups coffee grinder above. It’s a bit more petite than the Krups, and it’s slightly lighter, plus it does have a smaller hopper at 110g – nevertheless they’re extremely similar grinders, with “burrs” (grinding wheels) which look pretty much identical to me.

Features:

Size & Weight: 16 x 13 x 26 cm. 1.5Kg
Hopper Capacity: 120g
Burrs: Stainless grinding wheels, not a classic burr set.
Grind Settings: 17
Dosing: 12 dosage selections

My Observations

This is marketed as a “professional” grinder. No, just no! Stuff like this literally winds me up, I don’t find out why marketing people have to make such huge jumps into alternate realities when writing marketing blurb.

This is not a professional coffee mill, to call it a professional grinder would indicate it’s for professional utilize, which would make it a commercial coffee grinder that a Barista may use, and, no… definitely not! Commercial grinders cost thousands of pounds, I’m sure no one expects a mill costing literally a few tenners, is going to be a commercial grinding machine. 

Nevertheless forgetting that, this is an exceptionally low cost grinder that as with the Krups, will give similar effects to blade grinders, nevertheless I think just a little bit better control over grind size, as you can change the actual distance between the burrs in order to alter the grind size, rather than simply changing the time as is the only control you have over the blade grinders. 

There are lots, and lots of very good reviews about this coffee grinder, from users who state it’s very good for a range from Espresso coffee to cafetiere, while some complain that it won’t grind fine enough for espresso, and as I referred to earlier, this will simply come down to whether you’re using a standard basket or pressurized basket. 

I’ve used all three of the grinders in this section, and I think they’re all a much of a muchness to be honest, particularly where particle uniformity is worried, and none of them are brilliant in this regard,  you do get quite the majority of fines, and larger chunks of ground coffee (boulders) as I’d expect from such a cheap mill with these dull burrs.

It does grind fast, so the beans do become heated to a certain extent. However when all said and done it’s a very cheap coffee mill, and it will do the job as well as any other coffee mill at this price in my opinion.

Check Price – Amazon UKCheck Price – Currys

The Melitta Molino has been around for a few years, occupying a similar space to the Krups & Delonghi grinders above, and it’s an incredibly similar option, with the same dull “burrs”, and again this is an preference for anyone who basically can’t currently afford to spend another £20-£30 on a grinder which has proper burrs.

Features

Size & Weight: 9.5 x 16.5 x 25.5 cm – 1.6Kg
Hopper Capacity: 200g
Burrs: Stainless grinding wheels, not a classic burr set.
Grind Settings: 17
Dosing: 14 dosage selections

My Observations

As I’ve said, I do think it’s a case of splitting hairs, truly, among these very cheap grinders. I’ve used all three, and there’s simply not a great deal of difference, in reality with the experience I’ve had of these three grinders, I’d just say if you’re going for one of these, go for the perfect deal you can get. 

At the time of writing, for example, the Molino is available for a price cheaper than even the blade grinders above, and it’s quite a bit cheaper than the other two in this category, so I’d grab this if I was wanting a simply cheap coffee grinder and I wasn’t too fussed about getting a better cup quality by investing in a grinder with proper burrs. 

Best entry-level burr grinders

So now we’re moving up to the entry-level burr grinders, and these start at around the £50/£60 mark.

Keep in mind, though, that if you’re looking for a coffee grinder for espresso, the majority of the budget burr grinders in this category are fine for dual walled baskets, nevertheless aren’t compatible with traditional baskets, as they won’t quite go fine enough and the grind adjustments aren’t small enough for the fine tuning you’ll need to do when dialing in with traditional non-pressured baskets. 

I’ll point out in my observations for each one, whether or not it’s capable of espresso with fundamental baskets.

Check Price – Amazon UK

There was a low cost coffee grinder around for a while, which I thought was good for the money, and better than most of the other similar priced options. This grinding machine was referred to as “Sboly”, which I found a little of a strange name. You’ll see my review of this grinding machine below.

The reason I mention this is that this mill appears to be the Sboly’s long-lost twin ;-). 

Features:

Size & Weight: 19.3cm wide x  24.3cm deep x 31.2cm tall. 2.2 Kg
Hopper Capacity: 200g
Burrs: stainless steel conical burrs
Grind Settings: 19
Dosing: 12 dosage selections

My Observations

This mill is about the lowest price “proper” burr coffee grinder available in the UK.

There was a grinder known as “Sboly” which I reviewed (video above), and which extremely quickly became an incredibly popular mill, due to the fact that it has proper conical burrs, and it’s truly very healthy for the money. What tends to happen, and this happens with some of the lower cost espresso machines too, is that a factory will produce the machine, and various businesses will buy them and sell them under different brand names.

This is why you’ll see some cheap espresso coffee machines which look identical however have different brand names. Not truly with coffee related products, this sort of thing occurs in most product categories.

I’m assuming this is what’s happening here, as the Sboly coffee grinder disappeared a while ago, but now this coffee grinder is available in the UK which appears to be the identical coffee grinder – and I’m glad it has due to the truth that I do think this is a cracking little grinder for the really small cost. 

When I say “proper” burr coffee grinder – as I’ve explained, the grinding wheel grinders in the last category I discussed do have “burrs”, but they’re these blunt “grinding wheel” burrs, which I believe are better than blades, nevertheless not as good as proper burrs, at least where particle uniformity is worried.

So the reason I think this grinding machine is worth looking at, is that for the price, I think it’s the cheapest grinder on the market that has proper burrs. I bought this grinding machine, and the previous sboly version which appears to be identical, and the burrs these grinders have look really similar to the 38mm conical burrs used in numerous of the other grinders which are all close to or more than double the price in some cases.

It’s worth pointing out although that this is still an incredibly cheap grinding machine, you’re not investing in a brand name, so it’s worth being mindful of the fact that you’re taking a risk by taking a punt on an unknown brand. If you want to up the investment mildly to take a bit less of a risk on a known brand, keep going and you’ll find some brands here that you know, including Gaggia & Sage.

Check Price – Amazon UKCheck Price – Currys

The Melitta Calibra is a relative newcomer, but Melitta themselves certainly aren’t. Melitta invented American coffee!

Back in 1908, a lady by the name of Melitta Bentz began experimenting, with the intention of making a cleaner coffee cup. What she created was the first known filter holder and drip filter for coffee.

This was a long time ago, of course, and the Melitta company has come a long way since then, but they’re still in coffee, producing bean to cup coffee machines, filter coffee machines, and more recently coffee grinders.

Features:

Size & Weight: 37 x 12 x 23 – 2.4Kg
Hopper Capacity: 375g
Burrs: 40mm stainless steel conical burrs
Grind Settings: 39
Dosing: Manual and by weight

My Observations

This is an interesting grinder from Melitta, for the price, and to me the many interesting thing about this budget grinder is the integrated scales. I think this is an very clever touch, though it’s worth noting that the scales are at the bottom where the grinds container sits, and not in the hopper itself, and I didn’t find them to be massively accurate if I’m honest.

I’ve seen this grinder getting a little of stick in the reviews for this, due to the fact that of course if you’re grinding directly into a portafilter or into a brewer that you can’t balance on the bottom bit, you can’t utilize the scales. The reality is even though it is in truth quite an ask to build scales into grinders in any other way than Melitta have done here. 

It’s possible, nevertheless the grinders that have such ability are usually a heck of a lot more expensive than these sub £100 grinders. What I’d say is if you’re wanting to grind for espresso coffee, get a dosing cup that fits your portafilter, put this on top of something that will fit on the scales, to raise the dosing cup up so it’s closer to the grinds chute, tare the scales and then load your portafilter this way.

Keep in mind that when I speak about using a portafilter, this won’t go fine enough for espresso coffee with fundamental baskets, nevertheless it will work fine for pressurized baskets. I did try this, and on the extremely finest setting, even with really dark roasts (which usually don’t require rather as fine a grind) I wasn’t able to get a shot time anywhere near what I’d be happy with.

I truly like the way you just have to push the button to eject the hopper, and that when you do that the hopper automatically locks so you don’t get coffee beans all over the place.

In a nutshell, I’m in fact impressed with this mill, for the price, when it comes to manual brew methods such as pourover, Aeropress, and cafetiere – and espresso with pressurized baskets.

Check Price – Gaggia Direct. Utilize discount code COFBLMD15 to get it cheaper!

The MD15 from Gaggia is a conical burr coffee grinder that they’ve launched specifically for their lower end espresso machines, the Gran Gaggia, Carezza, and Viva, and for the Gaggia Classic Pro with the pressurized baskets (the Classic Pro comes with both basic and dual walled pressurized baskets).

Features:

Size & Weight: 19.3cm wide x  24.3cm deep x 31.2cm tall. 2.2 Kg
Hopper Capacity: 350g
Burrs: 38mm stainless steel conical burrs
Grind Settings: 15
Dosing: On demand and 5 dose selections.

My Observations

For decades, Gaggia had the Gaggia MDF mill, which I always thought was a bit of a funny one, as it was a mill aimed at the domestic market but had a doser.

Doser grinders are the grinders you’ll be familiar with from seeing baristas in cafe’s frantically flapping the doser lever to dispense coffee that has already been ground and is sitting in the doser for fast access for the next few shots, and these sort of dosers aren’t in reality suitable for home utilize. 

Anyway, as far as I could see the fact the MDF was a doser coffee grinder was the only thing that put off most people from pairing their Gaggia Classic with this grinder, so when I heard Gaggia were bringing a new doserless coffee grinder to the market, I was extremely excited to see what they were going to produce. What they came out with wasn’t at all what I was expecting, to be perfectly honest.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with the new Gaggia MD15 Grinder, but what they’ve brewed is a coffee mill great to pair with the lower cost Gaggia espresso coffee machines such as the Gran Gaggia and Gaggia Viva, and all other cheaper domestic espresso coffee machines using pressurised baskets. 

I was expecting them to bring out a mill intended as the fantastic pairing for their flagship traditional espresso coffee machine the Gaggia Classic Pro, but that’s not at all with the MD15 is, it’s a mill suited to utilize with pressurized espresso coffee baskets and manual brew methods, it won’t grind fine enough for espresso coffee with basic, traditional espresso baskets. 

So just keep in mind, if you’re looking for a grinder to pair with something like the Gaggia Classic, Sage Bambino Plus, Rancilio Silvia, and so on, with traditional espresso coffee baskets, this isn’t the right coffee mill to look at.

But if you’re fine with pressurized baskets, or if you’re grinding for manual brew methods such as filter & cafetiere, then I think the MD15 is well-positioned to compete with the other options. 

It’s rather a nice looking little coffee grinder, it’s in truth humble to use with grinding volume (dosage) selections in the form of coffee beans, and it’s not particularly loud.

All in all, for the price, which is only forty or fifty quid more than the likes of the Delonghi and Crups grinders (and this is definitely a better choice as it has proper burrs, as I’ll speak about when I come to those grinders), I don’t think this grinding machine is a bad option as long as you don’t want a grinding machine for espresso with fundamental baskets.

By the way, if you were looking at the Sboly grinding machine, which is a budget mill which used to feature on this page until it totally disappeared from existence fairly lately for some strange reason, I’d recommend looking at the Gaggia MD15 instead. It’s a few quid more than the Sboly grinding machine was selling for, nevertheless not a wonderful deal – it has very similar features, but the Gaggia is literally a little bit of a nicer built machine and is almost as low-cost.

If you’re thinking of buying this grinding machine, if you order it from Gaggia Direct, work with the discount code COFBLMD15 and you’ll get the grinding machine for £60 less than RRP (until end of July 2022).

Check Price – Amazon UK

This is an incredibly interesting looking grinder from Barista & Co, for grinding for manual brew methods, with one of the a lot of interesting features being the easy removal of the mill unit, the part which houses the burrs.

Features:

Size & Weight: 34.5cm tall, 11.5cm wide, 22cm deep. 2.3Kg
Hopper Capacity: 240g
Burrs: 29mm stainless steel conical burrs
Grind Settings: 40
Dosing: On demand and timed with 10 second increments.

My Observations

Barista & Co have come up with a different, and quite intriguing design for this mill, with a removable grinding unit. This part can be easily removed to clean, which indicates it can be easily replaced too.

I do think this should probably be more obviously marketed as a mill for manual brew methods or for espresso only with dual walled baskets. The fact that this grinding machine comes with a portafilter cradle would give buyers the impression that it’s a coffee mill for espresso, and even though they do state on their website that this isn’t an “espresso specific” mill, what they don’t explain clearly is that as many of the other grinders in this category, it’ll grind fine enough for using with dual walled, pressurized baskets, but not for traditional baskets.

Having said that, Barista & Co have responded to some of the Amazon reviews (which is impressive as it’s rather rare to find a brand replying on Amazon) explaining that they’ve recently tweaked this grinding machine to be able to grind finer for espresso, and that if anyone has a slightly older model which doesn’t have this tweak, they gave their email answer and asked customers to email them for instructions to tweak their mill to grind finer.

I’m not completely sure what the crack is here if I’m honest, due to the fact that there are current reviews (current at the time of writing) that contradict each other where grinding for espresso coffee is concerned, with one user saying they choked their Sage Bambino at a finer setting, with basic baskets, however with another user saying that it doesn’t grind anywhere near fine enough for espresso with basic baskets. 

This could of course be that it’s two users utilizing different espresso machines and very different coffee beans, but it could likewise be an indication that the newer models will grind much finer, and it could be that the person singing its praises (who bought a few months later on. compared to the other guy) has a newer model with the finer grinding ability.

Interestingly this is the only conical coffee mill I’ve seen so far with a 29mm burr set, the majority of in this category have slightly bigger 38mm burrs. In theory, this does mean that the burrs will have to spin at a higher RPM to match the grinding speed of a grinder with bigger burrs, nevertheless, they’re very keen on pointing out in their marketing blurb that this coffee grinder ensures a best particle uniformity, so I’m assuming they’ve chosen this burr size for a specific reason. 

Check Price – Shop CoffeeCheck Price – Amazon UK

Features:

Size & Weight: 20cm wide x 15.5cm deep x 31.2cm tall. 3.9 Kg 
Hopper Capacity: 250g
Burrs: 40mm stainless steel conical burrs
Grind Settings: 17 (34 if you count the half steps)
Dosing: Timer

My Observations

The Wilfa Svart, while saying it out loud may sound a bit weird (Wilfa’s Fart?) is a fairly popular mill at this price point, particularly for manual brew methods. 

I’ve used this grinding machine, and while being completely honest I don’t think there’s much difference in grinds quality and therefore cup quality between this grinding machine and some of the cheaper 40mm conical burr grinders, the build quality is noticeably better on the Svart vs some of the cheaper, similar grinders – I also think it’s a few decibels quieter than some of the cheaper options. 

The hopper is turned in order to tweak the grind, and there are handy instructions on the hopper to tell you roughly what grinding range you’re within. 

Remember, no question what mill you choose, you’ll need excellent coffee beans to produce great coffee. These are the beans that I use daily:

Use discount code CBNC25 for 25% off your first order at Coffeeworks

Check Price – Shop CoffeeCheck Price – Amazon UK

Features:

Size & Weight: 11.94 x 16 x 35.05 cm 3.09 Kg
Hopper Capacity: 227g
Burrs: 40mm stainless steel conical burrs
Grind Settings: 40
Dosing: On demand

My Observations

The Baratza Encore is a grinder which has been around for a good few years now and is one of the a lot of popular entry-level grinders, especially for manual brew methods, and for espresso with pressurized baskets. Baratza is owned by Breville, by the way (who we understand as Sage, in the UK), which is only actually anecdotal information as they are run as completely separate businesses.

It has 40mm conical steel burrs, and a DC motor geared down to 450 RPM, with the purpose of reducing heat generated while grinding, and also reducing noise and static. 

With the second generation gearbox, the encore is more durable and quieter than the first version, and Baratza apparently did some basically vigorous testing of the failsafe built in to stop the coffee mill from breaking if foreign objects end up in the burrs, by trying to grind metal screws, which lead to everything stopping instantly and the thermal cutout being triggered, with no damage to the gears or the motor.

If you do accidentally grind a rock, or even worse a diamond, you’d be perfect checking the burrs for damage (particularly if it was a diamond as those things are tough! But if you do find a diamond in your coffee beans you’ll probably be able to afford replacement burrs) however it’s unlikely that any damage will be done to the rest of the grinder. 

The Encore has 40 grind settings, and it’ll do fine for manual brew methods, but, if you’re looking for a mill for espresso coffee, the Encore won’t rather get fine enough for espresso with fundamental filter baskets.

If you have a lower cost domestic espresso machine such as the Swan Retro, Gran Gaggia or DeLonghi Dedica EC685 with pressurised baskets, the Encore should be fine for you.

As far as these forms of grinders go, which are geared towards manual brewing or espresso coffee only with pressurised baskets, I think the Encore is one of the best quality choices, but it’s one of the most expensive too, so it should be truly.

Check Price – Amazon UKCheck Price – Currys Check Price – Sage Appliances

This is the mildly cheaper and mildly shorter sibling of the Smart Coffee grinder Pro, below, and it’s more or less the same grinder nevertheless without the digital grind size controls, timer programming and LED display.

Update: Sage Discount Codes!
If you’re in the UK and you’re thinking of buying any Sage coffee machine or grinding machine (or any other product from Sage Appliances) you might want to drop me an email. Click here to join my “Brew Time” mailing list, and then email me ([email protected]) to see if I have a recent discount code to Share. Sage Appliances sometimes share codes with me, I can’t publish them – and there’s no point as they’re usually time-limited anyway, but they do allow me to share them with subscribers via email.

Features:

Size & Weight: 20(W) X 16(D) X 34(H)cm. 3.54Kg
Hopper Capacity: 340g
Burrs: 38mm stainless steel conical burrs
Grind Settings: 60
Dosing: On demand and timed

My Observations

This is the first coffee mill so far that I’m featuring (by price) which is capable of espresso with fundamental baskets, and this is a best all-rounder grinder, capable of a wide range of brew methods from cafetiere to espresso coffee – and as I’ve spoken about, it’ll get you fine enough (with most coffee beans) for espresso with traditional baskets, too.

This is the mildly more budget sibling to the Sage Smart Coffee mill Pro which I’ll talk about shortly, and the main differences are that it has a mildly lower-powered motor (130W vs 165W) and that you fine-tune the grind via the hopper while on the smart mill pro there’s an LCD screen and a grind adjustment dial, oh and the hopper is slightly smaller and holds fewer beans too, 240g capacity vs 450g.

While this isn’t an espresso coffee specialist grinder, I think it’s about the cheapest coffee mill on the market which is capable for espresso coffee with traditional baskets, and it also has fairly small grind adjustments, but being a stepped coffee grinder it is very quick and simple to make big grind adjustments. So let’s say you’re dialed in for espresso coffee but you need to grind for cafetiere or filter, you can easily jump up to the desired grind size, and then jump straight back to where you were.

Espresso specialist grinders usually have stepless adjustment, which brews them excellent purely for espresso coffee, but not so healthy for jumping around to grind for different brew methods. 

Check Price – Happy Donkey

The Iberital MC2 is among the really cheapest espresso coffee specialist grinders, it sits in between the Sage Dosage Control Pro and Smart Mill Pro in terms of price, it’s not as good looking, it’s not as user friendly or visually appealing as the Sage grinders, and it’s a little messy, but I basically can’t argue with how well it performs for espresso coffee, given the price. 

Features:

Size & Weight: 16.5cm(W) X 27cm(D) X 37.5cm(H). 4.5Kg
Hopper Capacity: 500g
Burrs: 38 mm stainless steel conical burrs
Grind Settings: 60
Dosing: Timed

My Observations

The Iberital MC2 is an Italian brewed coffee grinder, that someone made me aware of via a Facebook article a while back, singing the praises of this low-cost grinder. Intrigued, I got hold of one & tried it, which was then given away to a lucky coffeeblog reader.

At the time this mill was quite a little bit cheaper than it is now, thanks to Brexit, Covid, and so on, this grinder has increased in price quite a little bit, and by quite a little more than lots of of the other prices have increased, so the difference in price between this and the dose control pro, for example, isn’t as much as it once was, however it’s still a inexpensive mill given how well it performs for espresso coffee.

The MC2 is really an espresso grinder, and still, at the newly increased price, it’s probably among the cheapest espresso coffee specialist grinders. This isn’t an all-rounder mill like the Sage grinders, it has a worm dial adjustment which is excellent for fine-tuning, but not excellent for creating big changes to change from one brew recipe to another. 

I wasn’t a big fan of the timer only grinding, I do like the ability to grind on demand, and I found it to be a bit more messy than other grinders, it’s definitely a little of a rough diamond, the grind button popped off a couple of times, it’s quite clear that a lot of of the build cost here has gone into performance. There are no bells or whistles here.

If you’re after a mill purely for espresso coffee even though, the MC2 is definitely worth considering if you’re on a particularly tight budget, as it’s the majority of grinder for the cash, purely based on performance.

For more see my Iberital MC2 coffee mill review.

Check Price – Gaggia Direct

The next entry-level burr grinding machine up, in price, is the Nemox Lux, which is literally the same coffee grinder internally as the Iberital MC2, however in a nicer, more aesthetically pleasing shell, and with stepped adjustment. 

Features:

Size & Weight: 9.5cm(W) X 18cm(D) X 30 cm(H). 2 Kg
Hopper Capacity: 500g 
Burrs: 38 mm stainless steel conical burrs
Grind Settings: 10
Dosing: On demand

My Observations

This is essentially the Ibertial MC2, but less rough around the edges, and with a stepped grind adjustment. 

There’s no doubt this is a nicer looking and sturdier feeling coffee mill than the MC2, and to be honest my only problem with it is that I find the stepped adjustments to be too big. I mean, they were always going to be – I’m very not rather sure what they were thinking if I’m honest. I can only assume that they wanted to make a stepped adjustment mill that was extremely easy to make big adjustments, and they weren’t simply thinking about espresso. 

If they were aiming this grinding machine purely at manual brew methods, then OK I’d still think 10 is a little bit on the low side, more like 15 – 20 would be have been better, but the fact is, this grinding machine will go fine enough for espresso coffee, so it’s a shame given that this is the case, that they’ve not likewise given it at least some level of fine-tuning ability. 

I’m not saying they should have added a worm dial, though to make it available as a worm dial preference I think would have been an exceptionally popular preference, actually, I’d hazard a guess that if they sold such an option it would outsell the other version by a number of times. But at least they could have given us more than 10 grind settings. 

Anyway, they haven’t, so the Lux isn’t best for espresso, it’s a good all-rounder for manual brew methods and it will grind fine enough for espresso with standard baskets, but getting dialed in I found it to be a little bit of a pain, thanks to the big grind adjustments. You can mod it, to add a worm dial, by the way, however it simply seems like a bit of a faff.

Check Price – Amazon UKCheck Price – Currys Check Price – Sage Appliances

I’ve had among these grinders for over six years at the time of writing, and I think it’s a brilliant grinding machine. In my simple opinion, if you’re looking for a excellent allrounder coffee grinder and you want the ability to grind for espresso with fundamental baskets too, then this is probably the perfect of this sort of mill, for this kind of money. 

Features:

Size & Weight: 22(W) X 15(D) X 38(H). 4.1Kg
Hopper Capacity: 450g
Burrs: 38 mm stainless steel conical burrs
Grind Settings: 60
Dosing: On demand & timed

My Observations

If you’re looking for user friendliness and beginner friendliness, I don’t think you’ll find a grinder to beat the Sage Smart Grinding machine Pro, at this price, particularly if you want a mill for multiple brew methods, as it’s so easy to make big grind adjustments with this coffee grinder and easily find your way back to where you were. 

The price of these grinders has increased lately with just about everything else, so while these used to be a sub £200 grinder, they’ve increased in price by about a tenner, so they’re just over the two hundred quid mark now, nevertheless – I do sometimes have discount codes, do it’s worth emailing me ([email protected]) to ask if I have a current discount code. If I do, I’ll send it to you.

See my Sage Smart Coffee grinder Pro Review

Sage (Breville as they’re known everywhere else, they sold the brand name in Europe in the 80s, so the Breville we know of here is a different brand) are very clever, and they in truth do make smart products, especially where user-friendliness is worried. 

So with this coffee mill there’s an LCD display, which tells you what grind size you’re at and what brewing recipe you’re in the range of with that setting, it has 60 grind settings, you can dosage on demand or via a timer, and it comes with a portafilter cradle for using for espresso, and with a grinds container for manual brew methods. 

There’s extremely not a lot I can say about the Smart Mill pro when it comes to negatives. 

If you do enough scientific research you will find some people saying that the impellers wear, which causes issues after a few years of grinding – this was really resolved a number of years ago when they started creating the impeller (the fan-shaped component that is responsible for brushing the grounds into the chute) out of a sturdier material, so don’t be put off if you read about that. 

I’ve ground a heck of a lot of coffee with mine over the years, and I’ve had no issues with the impeller, not only have I found it really modest to work with, but it’s been a genuine workhorse, too. 

I have to admit, I’ve not basically looked after my smart coffee mill pro when it comes to keeping it clean, I’ve not basically maintained it as well as I needs to have, and still, it’s been brilliant.

As I’ve come to expect from Sage coffee Machines the Smart grinding machine pro excels when it comes to user-friendliness. As you’ll see if you watch my video above, it’s basically ridiculously easy to use, it actually is smart. It grinds more than fine enough for espresso and will grind for a lot of brew methods including cafetiere, Aeropress & pourover.

The only adverse for espresso is that worm dial adjustment grinders (see the Iberital MC2 below) give you a slightly better ability to finely tune in the grind, this is a stepped grinding machine though the steps are really small.

Likewise when grinding for espresso coffee the smart grinding machine pro does create mildly clumpy grinds, but I think this is probably simply down to small conical burrs, and you can easily sort this with the WDT process, which simply involves utilizing a pointy implement to distribute the grinds in the basket and break up the clumps.

Best mid range & upwards coffee grinders

OK so we’ve dealt with the entry-level, now to discuss what I’m referring to as mid-range for want of a better word, and upwards. 

Check Price – Shop Coffee

The Rancilio Rocky has been around for ages and is probably on the underrated side. Some will argue that it’s overrated, this may have been the case in the past, nevertheless these days it’s not that often that this coffee mill will come up in conversation, and as the cheapest proper flat burr grinding machine on the market, I think it’s an exceptionally worthy choice at this price.

Features:

Size & Weight: 12 x 25 x 35 cm – 7 Kg
Hopper Capacity: 300g
Burrs: 50mm tempered steel flat burrs
Grind Settings: 55
Dosing: On demand 
Motor power: 166W
RPM: 1725
Special features: Extremely solid build quality

My Observations

As I’ve said, this was once a very popular coffee grinder, especially when paired with the Rancilio Silvia, for obvious reasons, nevertheless I think there’s basically so much competition at the entry-level that the Rocky probably doesn’t seem like the the majority of obvious option, however the reality is that this is the cheapest flat burr coffee mill I’m aware of, it’s a good £12o cheaper than the Eureka Mignon Manuale at the time of writing, and all things considered It think it’s worth a look.

It’s an exceptionally well crafted, sturdy coffee grinder, with high quality 50mm tempered steel flat burrs, and to me, it looks more along the lines of a small commercial grinding machine. I’ve put the build quality as the special feature because though this is a no-frills coffee mill, there are no bells or whistles, the build cost has clearly gone into the components and build quality, as it does look and feel really solid and sturdy considering the relatively low price.

The only thing I think is a little of a pain, is that you in fact need four hands to operate this grinder, if you’re to do it appropriately. You truly ought to have the coffee mill running when adjusting the grind, at least while adjusting it finer, and this is true with any grinding machine, but you have to push a little paddle down while turning the hopper to troubleshoot the grind. If you’re doing that, that’s your two hands busy, how are you going to hold the portafilter, and how are you going to press the grind button? 

You could single dose, and if you’re single dosing (literally throwing in the beans you’re about to work with) then you’ll probably be fine adjusting the grind both ways while it isn’t running, in which case two hands needs to suffice.

By the way, you’re clearly interested in improving cup quality given you’re looking to upgrade your grinder (unless it’s your first mill, of course, but in any case, this will still be relevant) however what about upgrading the quality of your coffee beans? Can I advise some wonderful quality, freshly roasted coffee beans, I hear you ask – sure :-). Here’s a shameless plug…

Try some of my coffee from The Coffeeworks, if you spend more than a tenner delivery is free within mainland UK, and here’s a discount for you, too:

Work with discount code CBNC25 for 25% off your first order at Coffeeworks

Check Price – Shop CoffeeCheck Price – Amazon UK

The Sette 270 is definitely a mill I think you must have on your shortlist if you’re looking at the entry to mid price range and if you’re looking for a grinder for espresso coffee and/or pourover, and if you’ve read negatives about this coffee grinder or if you have a negative impression of it for some reason, I’d highly advise reading below about the changes Baratza have brewed to this grinder. 

Features:

Size & Weight: 13cm wide x 40cm tall x 24cm deep. 3.2Kg
Hopper Capacity: 285g
Burrs: 40mm conical steel Etzinger burrs
Grind Settings: 30 stepped macro adjustments & stepless micro troubleshoot with 9 indicators.
Dosing: On demand plus three programmable timed presets
Motor power: 240W
RPM: 550
Special features: Ring burr drive system – direct grind path, for lower retention.

My Observations

The Baratza Sette may seem to be a coffee grinder that requires no introduction, however it probably callsfor a re-introduction, as I get the impression that most people aren’t aware of the fairly fundamental changes that have been brewed to the Sette 270.

This is a 40mm conical steel burr grinding machine, and it’s a grinding machine that has been primarily well accepted within the home barista market along with the Eureka Mignon as one of the obvious choices for an entry to mid-level burr coffee mill, particularly for espresso coffee even though it’ll work well with manual brew methods too.

One of the changes I’m referring to is that as well as the 30 macro grind steps, meaning bigger grind adjustments, there is an additional stepless micro-adjustment for espresso. I think this is genius and is something I think Baratza has literally got right with the latest iteration of the Sette 270.

Any coffee grinder that is intended to be used for espresso and/or for manual brew methods in reality need the ability to make macro and micro adjustments, and I’m surprised, if I’m honest, that all of the other grinder brands haven’t followed suit here, as it simply steeps sense. 

The other alter is that they’ve introduced a completely new drive system which spins the outer ring bur instead of the central conical burr. What this indicates is that the coffee falls directly into the grinds chute, and this leads to a lower retention, of approximately one gram, I’m told. 

In case you’re not familiar with retention, grinds retention, or more specifically what’s known as “exchanged retention”, refers to the coffee that ends up in your basket, or your brewer, or whatever, the next time you work with the mill. What this indicates is that if we don’t want to utilize some stale coffee when we brew for the first time of the day, we need to purge some coffee to ditch that exchanged retention, and we also have to purge whenever we tweak the grind, or we’ll be utilizing a mix of grind sizes. 

How much you need to purge depends on your mill and how much it retains, and this is exactly what the Niche Zero was built to address, which will feature shortly, as this is a coffee grinder that achieves extremely close to zero retention, and is crafted as a single dosage coffee mill, meaning you weigh the beans before you chuck them in, rather than filling a hopper and then weighing the ground coffee. 

But this change on the sette 270 literally puts it extremely close to the Niche Zero in terms of grinds retention, so it’s a big deal. 

The reason I explained earlier that this grinder is healthy for espresso and small batch pourover, is because, with a grinding range of 230–950 μm, it’s generally geared up towards finer grinding. It’ll work well for small-batch pourover brewing with Kalita Wave, Hario V60 & Chemex, however if you’re wanting to go more coarse than this for cafetiere and/or bigger batch filter brewing, you may find this doesn’t rather have the essential range on the more coarse side of things.

Check Price – Shop CoffeeCheck Price – Amazon UK

Features:

Size & Weight: H: 350 x W: 120 x D: 180mm – 5.6 Kg
Hopper Capacity: 300g
Burrs: 55mm Flat hardened steel
Grind Settings: Infinite stepless micrometric regulation
Dosing: On demand plus two programmable doses via digital touch screen
Motor power: 310W
RPM: 1350
Special features: Silent technology

My Observations

In my modest opinion, the Eureka Mignon is one of the perfect mid ranged grinders, and all things considered the Specialita is my favourite of the range. It’s a fairly big range which starts with the Crono at just over two hundred pounds, and the XL at simply over £700, but the Specialita is roughly in the middle of the price range, I’ve used it for quite a while paired with various espresso coffee machines, and I’m really impressed with it. 

It’s compact and solid, it’s clearly extremely well built, it’s quiet, the infinitely fine micrometric adjustment brews it ideal for dialing in, the two programmable doses are great, and it’s very quiet and relatively mess-free. 

I can tell you from personal experience that these grinders are sturdy, because when I tried to grind a lump of copper with this grinding machine, twice – it did no damage whatsoever. No, I didn’t do this on objective ;-). The coffee grinder jammed and turned itself off, I adjusted the grind much more coarse and tried grinding again, it jammed again. I took it apart and discovered that a lump of copper had ended up in with some coffee beans I’d received, odd. I removed it, with no problem whatsoever. 

Grinding foreign objects can happen, even though I’d usually think of this as pebbles quite than lumps of copper, as it does happen occasionally that a stone or extremely small pebble will end up in a bag of coffee beans. Manufacturers handle this in various ways, and clearly, the way Eureka deals with it works well.

Basically a quick comparison, and it’s not a fair comparison as I’m talking about a grinder at half the price – but the Sage Smart Coffee mill Pro has a clutch as a failsafe, similar to the clutch on a cordless drill, which is in place to limit the amount of torque that can be applied to the burrs.

This works extremely well too, and I’ve experienced this, the only downside – and I’m guessing the reason that some of the premium brands including Eureka and Niche have a different system for this, is that this can mean occasionally that if you’re using a especially lighter roasted and/or non-pourous bean which can be quite a little harder than a fundamental coffee bean, can trick the Sage grinders to thinking they’re trying to grind stones. 

It’s important to point out even though, that grinders that don’t have some type of failsafe will strip gears or cause other damage when they encounter something too hard for that grinding machine to cope with. 

Anyway, I’m a big fan of the Mignon Specialita, and there’s really little I don’t like about it. The only thing I can think of, if you were pushing me for any criticism, would be that although the grind adjustment is infinite, the numbers are far apart. There are 10 settings on the adjustment wheel (0-5 with half step increments), but if you’re grinding for anything other than espresso you may end up going over a full revolution of the wheel and being at 0 again with no reference to tell you that. 

There are many other versions of the Eureka Mignon, for more see:

Eureka Mignon Models Reviewed

Check Price – Shop Coffee

Features:

Size & Weight: 13cm wide x 37cm tall x 18 cm deep. 4.8 Kg 
Hopper Capacity: 300g
Burrs: 54mm ceramic flat burrs 
Grind Settings: 10 macro steps each divided into 20 micro adjustments
Dosing: On demand plus three programmable timed presets
Motor power: DC motor
RPM: 1350 
Special features: Big grinding range 230 to 1150 microns

My Observations

The Baratza Vario is an interesting choice, particularly when weighing up your options with the Sette 270 wi below, as they’re almost the exact same price however offer slightly different specialities. 

The Vario is essentially the same as the extremely popular and more expensive bigger sibling of the Vario, the Forte (which you’ll find a bit further down this article), with the same 54mm ceramic burrs, and the same big grinding range from 230 to 1150 microns, which steeps it a great all-around coffee grinder. The super-precise control over grind size is also a fantastic feature, and though the Vario doesn’t quite have the same precision here, a total of 200 grind settings (20 micro settings to every 10 macro settings) is most dialing in power. 

Combining a great coffee mill with ideal coffee will produce the best results. This is the coffee that I choose to drink:

Utilize discount code CBNC25 for 25% off your first order at Coffeeworks

Check Price – Shop CoffeeCheck Price – Amazon UK

So this is simply the Baratza Sette 270 however with built-in scales and Acaia technology. What this means is that you can create and store doses in reality by weight, not by time, thanks to the integrated scales. 

Features:

Size & Weight: 13cm wide x 40cm tall x 24cm deep. 3.2Kg    
Hopper Capacity: 285g
Burrs: 40mm conical steel Etzinger burrs
Grind Settings: 30 stepped macro adjustments & stepless micro troubleshoot with 9 indicators.
Dosing: On demand plus three programmable timed presets
Motor power: 240W
RPM: 550
Special features: Weight-based dosing with integrated scales

My Observations

This is the dosing by weight version of the Sette 270, and if you’re familiar with the 270W which also had the integrated scales, the W I is an updated model which addressed some of the niggles of the W version. 

The latest version in reality displays how smart Baratza is, and how well they’re able to answer user feedback. While the W was a popular and welcomed model, there were a few creases that they’ve ironed out well with the new version. One of the issues with the W was that people were finding it difficult to get a stable dosage on unstable surfaces. 

They dealt with this matter well on the new version, with an adjustable portafilter cradle and adjustable grinds container cradle, allowing the grinder to compensate for the instability. They also tweaked the new i version so that it automatically adjusts to counter offset, which indicates that for example if you set it for a 21g dose and you get 21.2g, over the course of a few shots it’ll fine-tune this automatically so you start getting closer towards the exact dose.

Check Price – Niche

While the Niche Zero doesn’t look like a representative grinder, and I suspect there was some eyebrow-raising, and even some sniggering from the well established grinding machine brands towards this strange-looking grinder initially, I don’t think anyone is laughing now… In truth, in my opinion, the Niche Zero has changed the market for home coffee grinders.

Features:

Size & Weight: 12.2 cm w x 21.1cm deep x 31.1 cm tall.
Hopper Capacity: 50g
Burrs: 63mm Mazzer Kony conical hardened steel burrs
Grind Settings: Infinite stepless with 50 indications
Dosing: Single dosage
Motor power: DC motor
RPM: 330 (geared down to 330 rpm)
Special features: Single dosing & close to single retention

My Observations

What initially looked like an extremely odd, strangely designed grinder – really, it didn’t look like a coffee grinder at all – has quickly become arguably the a lot of impactful home barista grinder ever crafted.

Martin Nicholson who designed this coffee grinder, was really experienced when it came to designing products, after working as a product designer for a few decades for some of the UK’s most well-known brands, however thankfully, he wasn’t particularly experienced where coffee grinders were anxious.

So here’s an experienced product designer whose ideas wouldn’t have been polluted deep-rooted grasp of the way things are usually done, and the results speak for themselves! While most of the other grinders at this type of level in the past are modeled on commercial grinders, really due to the reality that that’s the way things are usually done – James appears to have looked at what the home espresso coffee enthusiast needed, and designed a mill specifically to meet these needs. 

What resulted was a grinder which looks far more at home in a modern kitchen than in a cafe (though I do understand rather a few coffee shops do work with them as decaffeinated or backup grinders), but far more important than the stylish design is just how perfectly the coffee mill performs for the home barista. 

In a nutshell, this is an ultra-low (almost zero) retention coffee mill, designed for single dosing, with commercial-grade Mazzer Kony burrs 63mm burrs.

So what James clearly recognized was that the target market for this grinding machine, needed:

To not have to waste coffee by purging when dialing in 
To be able to single dose
The torque to grind all beans regardless of roast profile and porosity
High quality burrs capable of producing uniform grinds
A mill that looked at home in the home

The success of this grinder over the past few years has shown that the Niche Zero hits these requirements. For me what’s special about this grinding machine is that it isn’t basically delivering on one particular area, it’s close to perfection from just about all perspectives. For example, they could have purely focused on the single dosing and zero retention side of things, they could have focused purely on the design side of things, they could have focused purely on performance – however they’ve ticked off all of the possible boxes for home baristas. 

In fact, I think there was only one area the Zero initially came up short on, which was popcorning. When you grind the last few beans in the hopper in any grinding machine, you’ll usually get a little bit of popcorning where the beans fly around due to the reality that there’s no weight of other coffee beans feeding them into the burrs. With a single doser coffee grinder, the latter part of the grind is always going to end up popcorning, and in theory, this could lead to less uniform grounds, although it’ll only ever affect the last couple of beans so it’s probably not a huge deal anyway. 

However soon after the initial release, they fixed this with a simple plastic plate that fits over the burrs. This works very well, the only issue with it is if you’re grinding a bigger dose you might find it slows down the grind mildly. I literally remove this disk if I’m using the Niche to grind a larger dose, for example, if I’m grinding 40g or so for a cafetiere brew.

I work with the Niche Zero paired with my Sage Dual Boiler, a great pairing.

Check Price – Shop Coffee

Features:

Size & Weight: 13cm wide x 36cm tall x 18 cm deep. 6 Kg
Hopper Capacity: 300g
Burrs: 54mm ceramic flat burrs 
Grind Settings: 10 macro steps each divided into 26 micro adjustments
Dosing: By weight or by time
Motor power: DC motor
RPM: 1950 
Special features: Integrated scales + Big grinding range of 230 to 1150 microns

My Observations

The Baratza Forte is considered by a number of to be one of one of the extremely best coffee grinders for home baristas, for both espresso grinding and for brew grinding. As with the Baratza Sette 270 wi, the Forte has integrated scales so that you can choose to dosage by weight, and with the mix of macro and micro adjustment, you have a huge range of 260 settings from 230 to 1150 microns. 

This is a commercial-grade mill, and it actually has a lot going for it including fast grinding and a huge grinding range to cover all brew methods, and being able to dose by weight is excellent, too. For me, although, the ultra-precise dialing in this coffee mill enables, with each of the 10 grind steps having their own 26 (A-Z) micro-adjustments, is probably the biggest attraction. 

Check Price – Shop Coffee

If you check out the price of this mill, you’ll see we’ve taken a huge leap in price, and I’ve done this on objective, basically to show what a huge range of grinders there are over such a huge price range once we start getting up to the higher end of things, price-wise. If you do have the budget, even though, and if you’re pairing with a high-end espresso coffee machine such as the La Marzocco Linea Mini, and you want a single doser, have a look at the Ceado E37SD.

Features:

Size & Weight: 21.2 cm wide x 30.9 cm deep x 37 cm tall. 13.2 Kg
Hopper Capacity: 50g
Burrs: Flat 83mm Titanium Coated 
Grind Settings: Stepless worm dial plus fast alter Macro adjustment
Dosing: Single dose 
Motor power: 400W
RPM: 1400
Special features: Very quiet, super fine adjustment. Looks like a Dalek.

My Observations

OK so as I’ve said, we’ve taken a big jump in cost price, and we’re talking some serious grinder here, with 83mm flat burrs, super fine worm dial adjustment, and really smart macro adjustment.

While this isn’t a grinder for the masses, as most us literally can’t afford to spend this sort of money on a grinder, it’s an exceptionally high-end single doser coffee grinder for those who can afford such an investment, and who can justify such a spend to their better half!

If you’ve ever watched Doctor Who, you’ll probably agree that you’d half expect the grinding noise to be a constant repetition of “Exterminate…” but no, it doesn’t do that, and simply the grinding is incredibly quiet. 

This is a big, heavy-weight coffee grinder, and if you do end up buying this grinding machine actually keep in mind that as with some bigger commercial grinders, it will take a little bit of breaking in, so don’t be too concerned if you seem to be getting inconsistent results initially. Once broken in, though, this grinder is known for incredible quality grinding. 

I’ve heard that there is a little bit of popcorning with this grinding machine, and I’m uncertain if this is an out of date opinion and they’ve updated the grinding machine since then, nevertheless this is among the potential slight pitfalls of taking the hopper off a coffee grinder, putting bellows on there and calling it a single doser. As Niche discovered with their first version, popcorning occurs simply because the last few beans have no beans above them to feed them into the burrs, so they tend to bounce around a little. 

While I doubt that this will make a huge difference to cup quality, I do find it surprising that spending this sort of money on a home grinder, doesn’t buy you perfection – and I’d have thought that the cost of fixing this (a bit plastic plate would do it) would be negligible. Again, I may be talking rubbish, as they may have already fixed this slight issue.

Among the key features of this grinding machine is the combination of micro and macro adjustment with a worm dial, which I think is a extremely clever feature. Worm dials give you the extremely finest adjustments, however they’re only in fact suitable for utilizing one brew method, you wouldn’t want to change from espresso to cafetiere and back again with a worm dial. 

So what they’ve done is devised a way to just disengage the worm dial and make macro adjustments of the grinding wheel as you would with the Niche Zero, and then re-engage the worm dial, really smart!

25 Perfect Coffee Grinders – Conclusion

OK, so that’s all of the grinders I decided to include in this rundown of the perfect coffee grinders in the UK at the time of writing. I realize that I made a big jump between the Forte and the E37SD, nevertheless as I’ve pointed out I’ve basically done this to show you how much choice there is when you get higher up in budget.

I could have included the majority of more higher-priced grinders, but I’m sure you don’t want to spend the time it would take you to read the report on lockdown parties at no.10 basically reading a article about the perfect coffee grinders ;-). You may argue that would be a more entertaining read, though, and you’re probably right. 

Anyway, if you do want to see a number of other options for coffee grinders at a much wider price range than I’ve covered here, check out the full range at Shop Coffee:

All Coffee Grinders @ Shop Coffee

Home Coffee Grinders @ Shop Coffee

Kev’s Best Coffee Grinders What the FAQ

So I’m literally going to answer a few of the a lot of extensively asked questions here, in the hope that I can help to steer my fellow coffee botherers towards ending up with the excellent coffee grinder for their requirements. 

What are the best coffee grinders?

If you’re looking for specific grinders, then I’ve given numerous options, above, but I think this question relates to the types of coffee grinders. If that’s the case, then the perfect coffee grinders are burr coffee grinders, not the cheapest blade grinders (which are still better than pre-ground in numerous cases), not the really cheap “grinding wheel” grinders (which are better than blade grinders, in my simple opinion) nevertheless grinders that utilize either flat or conical burrs with sharp teeth.

What are the best brands of coffee grinders?

This is a little bit of a subjective thing, however some of the greatest names in coffee grinders are, Sage (known as Breville outside of the UK), Baratza (who’re now owned by Breville) & Eureka (who primarily make commercial coffee grinders).

Niche are really well known for the Zero, yeah they basically make the one mill, but they have sold a lot of them over the past few years. Wilfa is a well-known coffee grinder brand particularly at the entry-level, and for manual brew methods. 

Then when we talk about the commercial grinders that are often used by home baristas, there are the majority of brands including Mazzer, Mahlkonig, Victoria Arduino, Anfim, Ditting, Cunill… there are most. 

Should I buy a single doser grinding machine?

This depends, in truth, on you. Single doser grinders are really popular, mainly thanks to Niche – yes there were a number of home baristas who were modding the Mazzer Mini and other grinders prior to the NZ being created, to make them doserless and single doser grinders, nevertheless I think the huge success of the Niche Zero is the main reason that single dosing is now such a popular practice. 

In short, if you have a good or improving palate, and you’re dialing in each shot – or working hard with each manual brew to get the great cup, then single dosing is a good idea to help you to improve effects. 

If, on the other hand, you don’t weigh your coffee, you don’t have a clue what I’m going on about re dialing in, and you just want to make coffee and don’t see yourself as a home barista by any stretch of the imagination, then going for a single doser may be a pointless workout. Utilizing a more traditional grinding machine with a hopper will probably be fine for you, though I would suggest you don’t store coffee in the hopper.

Quite than filling the hopper, try storing your coffee in an airtight container and just sticking in the hopper what you think you’re going to utilize that day. If you’re not happy with the impacts you’re getting from utilizing a more regular coffee mill and loading the hopper, then utilizing a single doser is certainly a way to move towards upping your home coffee game.

What is the perfect coffee mill for espresso?

As I’ve explained a few times within this post, it depends on whether you’re utilizing standard, traditional baskets, or dual walled, pressurized baskets. If you’re utilizing pressured baskets, then a number of of the entry-level burr grinders I’ve pointed out will be fine. If you’re utilizing basic baskets, although, you need an espresso capable coffee mill. 

Espresso capable grinders have both the ability to grind finer than standard burr grinders and have  finer adjustment to allow you to make small adjustments to the grind size, in order to allow you to dial in, which really means to wonderful the espresso coffee extraction. 

If you’ve not yet got your espresso machine, by the way – you might find these posts helpful: 

Perfect Espresso coffee Machines Best Home Barista Espresso Setup

Life is like a box of chocolates, so join my Brew Time list, subscribe to my YouTube Channel, become an accredited coffee botherer (Patreon supporter), try my coffee at The Coffeeworks (work with discount code coffeebotherers), follow me on Twitter & Instagram, follow the coffeeblog FaceBook page, and that’s all I have to say about that. 

This article first of all appeared at Coffee Blog – The UK Specialty Coffee Blog – For Lovers of REAL Coffee!