The Best Coffee Grinder

Finally, we tested some of our top models for a few hours in a home setting to focus on more real-world conditions (footprint, noise, ease of use, and speed). For many people, making the leap from a small blade grinder you can stash in the kitchen cupboard between uses and a $100-200 device that will demand counter space is no small upgrade. We kept in mind what features would make a grinder more or less desirable to have as a part of one’s regular kitchen counter setup. And to appease the off-the-grid set, we tested two hand grinders as well, timing how long it took to grind enough coffee to make a cup and analyzing the particle-size distribution of the grounds.

When updating our guide in 2018, we were eager to see how OXO's new and more wallet-friendly burr grinder would perform. In a scaled-down version of our 2017 test, we ran the new OXO Brew Conical Burr Grinder up against our top pick, the Baratza Encore, and our previous budget pick, the Capresso Infinity. We measured the consistency of each grinder's particle output using a Kruve sifter, visually compared the grind size, and brewed and tasted loads of coffee.

Our pick

Baratza Encore Conical Burr Coffee Grinder

The best coffee grinder

This all-around workhorse grinder produces the consistent grind required to brew delicious coffee but doesn’t cost a fortune.

$140 from Crate & Barrel

The slim and trim Baratza Encore is lower priced than most of the competition—at about $140 versus about $200 for anything else in its echelon—and it performs as well as or better than any home grinder we tried. While Baratza offers a range of somewhat similar grinders (from the Encore to the Virtuoso to the Vario) at different feature levels and increasing price points, we found the entry-level Encore to be the best grinder with the best features for most people. It grinds beans quickly and evenly, is simple to use and adjust, and is easy enough to clean and maintain that you’ll use it for years to come.

While it’s physically inescapable that even the most consistent burr grinder will produce at least some amount of particles smaller and larger than the target grind size, we found the Encore performed best at grinding evenly. Using the Kruve sieve set to measure the amount of oversized and undersized particles created on a medium grind setting, the Encore hit the target best of all the home grinders we tested. The professional-grade Mahlkönig EK43 yielded a more uniform grind than anything else, but the Encore (along with the Virtuoso+) came closest. As expected, the grinder that produced the most consistent grinds also produced the best-tasting coffee to our panel, results that were also corroborated by Counter Culture’s coffee refractometer. The coffee we brewed with the Baratza Encore had an extraction percentage of 19.53 percent—right on the money, and the best of all the grinders we tested (with the Virtuoso a very near second)—and a TDS measurement of 1.32 on our very first try.

All of this underscores how impressed we were with this grinder for making it supremely easy to produce a great cup of coffee. Absent the bells and whistles of nearly all the competitors we tested—like the built-in scale on the OXO Barista Brain or the precision of the Breville SmartGrinder Pro—the Encore boasts only a modest on/off (actually it’s on/off/on/off) toggle dial on the side and push-down pulse button on the front of the machine. But we don’t see its simplicity as a real drawback. Other machines we tested, like the Breville SmartGrinder Pro, were confusing, with dials and digital settings that were unintuitive or overly detailed (the Breville has 60 different grind settings and a timer that measures fractions of seconds). The Encore, on the other hand, is easy to use and more than sufficient for the average home coffee drinker.

You can adjust the grind size easily on the Encore by turning the hopper to the preferred tick mark (measured in numbered intervals from 0 to 40, 40 being the coarsest) on its base, allowing you to quickly move from setting to setting and remember your preferences—generally a common feature among the grinders we tested except the Krups, whose intervals between grind settings were inconsistently sized. It took us 30 seconds to grind 68 grams of medium-grind coffee appropriate for filter brewing—enough to make several servings, depending on your coffee machine’s interpretation of the word “cup.” This speed fell about in the middle of the other grinders we tested at this setting.

With the hopper removed, it’s easy to twist the top burr out of the Encore for easy cleaning and maintenance. And when the time comes to replace the burr set (which the manufacturer recommends after 500-1,000 pounds of coffee), it’s easy to order the part from Baratza’s website. A limited one-year warranty is available for this and all Baratza grinders, provided you keep up regular maintenance and cleaning and don’t use the machine to grind rocks or something. Beyond that, Baratza has a great reputation for durability, repairability, and customer service. One Wirecutter staffer told us he used his Baratza Virtuoso (which is very similar in build to the Encore) at home for nine years without issue. And when it did recently need some repairs, he was able to order the parts and do it himself easily by following Baratza’s detailed video guides. (You can read more about his experience in the long-term testing notes on that grinder, below.) If your machine does break out of warranty, and MacGyver isn’t exactly your middle name, you can send the Encore to Baratza for repairs (which come with their own, six-month warranty) for $45 at the time of writing.

Ultimately, the fact that both Baratza’s Encore and Virtuoso+ (our current upgrade pick) came out on top was not a huge surprise to any of the coffee veterans we chatted with. Unlike the other companies whose electric grinders we tested, Baratza is the only outfit to specialize exclusively in coffee grinders. “At home, I think a lot of people just look to brands they know, and the problem with that is those people don’t make coffee equipment, that’s not their thing,” says Ramage. Baratza, it appears, continues to do something right.

Long-term testing notes

Wirecutter senior staff writer Lesley Stockton has had the Encore for five years, frequently adjusting the grind to brew either espresso or drip coffee, and she says it’s still “going strong.” Although she’s had to replace the upper burr housing once, she noted that it’s a relatively cheap and easy fix. While the Encore isn’t as fast as our upgrade pick, the Virtuoso+, it doesn’t bother her: “Having the means to make delicious coffee at home is the most important thing for me and the Encore definitely delivers that!" she said.

The Encore takes a long time to grind on a very fine, espresso-like setting. But for most people brewing traditional filter coffee at home without the rigorous demands of espresso, this will not be a concern.

The Encore is also the simplest machine we tested; it lacks special features. In particular, there’s no way to close the bottom of the hopper that funnels whole beans down through the burrs. So in order to change out coffees while beans are still in the hopper, you have to invert the entire machine over a bowl to empty it out—if you simply remove the hopper, beans will pour out the bottom and all over the counter. But that’s something the Encore has in common with almost every grinder we tested (except the OXO Barista Brain), so we don’t see it as a dealbreaker.

The Encore only has an on/off switch, so it doesn’t allow for a timed grind (which the Baratza Virtuoso does). A timer would allow you to turn on the machine and walk away knowing you were grinding the right amount, which is convenient for busy mornings but not essential, since grinding enough coffee for a full pot takes under a minute. It would also be nice if, like some other grinders, the Encore included a built-in scale for measuring how much coffee you grind more precisely. Overall, none of the Encore’s missing features cause enough inconvenience to offset the overall quality and ease-of-use of this workhorse grinder.

Finally, grinding coffee can sometimes be messy. Static builds up, and when you remove the drawer of grounds from the Encore, some dust and chaff will spray onto the counter. This is a result of a combination of factors: the humidity of the room you’re in, the type and age of coffee you’re grinding, the materials used to make the grinder and grounds hopper, the grind setting you’ve selected, and even what kind of surface your grinder sits on. Dry environments produce more static, while lighter roasts produce more chaff than darker, oily ones. Some of our team found the Baratza Virtuoso produced a lot of staticky chaff, but others found the Baratza series of grinders to be relatively inoffensive in this regard. In any case, the Baratza machines were no worse than any other machine we tested, so it’s not a dealbreaker. For those who have an ongoing problem with static and grounds, prevailing wisdom is to simply wait a minute before removing the grounds chamber from the grinder, allowing the dust to settle, as it were.

Upgrade pick

Baratza Virtuoso+

Same quality grind, more features

The Virtuoso+ has everything we like about the Encore in terms of reliability and consistent grind size (plus a few improved features) for a steeper price.

$250 from Williams-Sonoma

If you’re willing to pay more, the Baratza Virtuoso+ is a nearly identical grinder to the Encore, but it has a slightly speedier burr set, a digital timer on the front, and a heavier base that helps the grinder stay in calibration. The Virtuoso+ is an updated version of the now-discontinued Virtuoso, which was our previous upgrade pick. It has some nice new features, but the grind consistency is the same as that of the old Virtuoso and comparable to that of the Encore. So, since you’re paying more for the features rather than the performance, we think this model is worth the investment only for more serious coffee lovers.

The Virtuoso+ is a little better-looking than the Encore, with a cast-zinc body that may complement modern decor better than the simple matte-black Encore. It also has a clear plastic grounds bin that, unlike the Encore’s, is backlit by LED lights, allowing you to easily see how much you’ve ground. The added digital timer is accurate to a tenth of a second and saves the time you’ve set it to; as a result, you can grind the same amount of coffee each morning with almost no effort. But its extra features weren’t enough to convince our team to recommend spending nearly $100 more over the price of the Encore.

If you’re a power user—if you intend to grind a lot of coffee every day and really put your machinery to the test—the sturdier base may make a difference in the long run for you, as you will need to readjust your grind calibration less frequently. The Virtuoso+ weighs about 6.7 pounds, whereas the Encore weighs about 5.5 pounds, giving you the extra 19 ounces that could make all the difference. “The biggest problem with home grinders is there’s enough force created by the beans being ground will shift the alignment,” says coffee writer Scott Rao, noting that professional-grade grinders in coffee shops are notoriously heavy for just that reason. “The fact that you have this plastic housing and a shaft that has a lot of force going on, the shaft will always shift.” Like the Encore, you’ll be using another method of measurement (time or an external scale) to measure your precise coffee dose, as the Virtuoso+ doesn’t grind by weight. But also like the Encore, it’s very cheap and easy to replace the burrs. The Virtuoso+ also comes with a limited one-year warranty, and beyond that, can be sent back to Baratza for repairs for $60 at this writing.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

The dial on the digital timer is designed to increase the timer by whole seconds when you spin it clockwise and to decrease by one-tenth of a second when you spin it counter-clockwise, so it may feel a little finicky to adjust. Spinning the timer dial too fast also causes it to jump around, which could lead to further adjustment difficulties.

If you pause in the middle of grinding (which you can easily do by hitting the dial button), you can’t use the dial to adjust the time—it stays stuck wherever you paused it. You either have to start and stop the machine again manually or wait 30 seconds for it to switch back to the set time, at which point you can adjust accordingly again.

Unlike the old Virtuoso and the Encore, the Virtuoso+ doesn’t have a simple on/off button that you hold down to grind (like the pulse button on a food processor). You either have to operate it on the timer or hold down the dial button for three seconds to activate “pulse” mode and then, when you’re done, spin the dial to deactivate pulse mode.

Long-term testing notes

Wirecutter’s head of photo and video, Michael Hession, has used his Baratza Virtuoso (the now-discontinued but very similar precursor to the Virtuoso+) daily for 10 years. He told us that it’s reliably delivered consistent grounds, but recently he found it seizing up whenever he adjusted to a certain level of fineness. After some sleuthing, he followed Baratza’s YouTube video guides for disassembling the machine and quickly identified the problem. He told us, “Instead of buying a whole new grinder, I was able to order the exact parts I needed—a new chassis and gear box—and repair the unit myself. It took about an hour, and the entire cost was $35 including shipping. The Virtuoso now runs perfectly again. I love that Baratza embraces repairs and provides as much assistance as possible in extending the life of your appliance.”

Budget pick

OXO Brew Conical Burr Grinder

A good-enough grinder

This compact grinder is easy to use and has a wider range than most budget grinders, though it’s a bit less consistent than pricier machines.

$100 from Amazon

$100 from OXO

If you really don’t want to spend more than $100 on a coffee grinder, the OXO Brew Conical Burr Grinder is just the ticket. Usurping our long-running former budget pick, the Capresso Infinity, the OXO is a function-rich, capable grinder with consistent and speedy performance. While it doesn’t grind quite as evenly of finely as the Baratzas, it does come with a wider and more nuanced range of settings than the Capresso. Like the Capresso, the OXO can’t produce a fine enough grind for espresso, but for an average person's daily drip needs, it’s a great machine for the money. And it comes with some nice extra features, like a timer, a removable hopper, and a mechanism to help reduce static build-up as your coffee grinds.

The OXO’s simple, intuitive design and consistent performance both helped put it at the top of our budget ranks. Grind consistency at medium grind settings was nearly on par with our top picks (with its coarsest grind being the least consistent and very, very boulder-filled), but it wasn’t able to grind as finely as our top picks. When we sifted 10 grams of grounds from first the OXO, then Baratza Encore in the Kruve sifter, the OXO yielded about 4.9 grams of coffee ground to the target optimal size, while the Baratza yielded 5.1 grams; the Capresso yielded only 3.8 grams of coffee ground to the target size.

One thing we didn't like about the OXO was its weight: It’s over a pound lighter than the Baratza Encore and two pounds lighter than the sturdy Capresso Infinity. Ideally, a grinder will be hefty enough to reduce vibration (or potential counter-scooting), which can contribute to having to more frequently readjust one’s grind setting as the burrs slowly jostle out of alignment. We’ll keep an eye on this feature in long-term testing, especially as we grind lighter-roast coffees which will be harder work on a machine.

We also realize that $100 isn’t that cheap for a budget grinder. We tried hard to help casual coffee brewers break down the price barrier by looking for a decent, functional burr grinder closer to $50 than $100. But after testing the Krups GX-5000 and the Cuisinart CBM-18N, we can’t recommend anything much cheaper than $100. The OXO doesn’t offer an enormous cost savings over our top pick, the Baratza Encore (which still outperformed it), but if you really can’t bear to break $100, it’s your best bet. It was consistent enough to rival our top picks, while the Krups produced a grind so uneven, the difference was visible to the naked eye before even sifting with a Kruve. The Cuisinart grinder fared slightly better but lived up to our overall first impression of its flimsy construction when the handle for lifting out the burr snapped right off in our hands. The OXO, conversely, feels sturdy (if a little light) and significantly more durable than any other machine in that price range besides the Capresso.

The OXO grinder comes with a two-year warranty, during which time OXO will repair or replace your machine. Unfortunately, unlike Baratza, the company does not sell burr replacements (although the top burr is removable for cleaning), so you’re out of luck if you need new burrs outside of the window of the warranty.

Long-term test notes

Wirecutter updates writer Eleanor Ford uses the OXO Burr Grinder every day. They like the simplicity of the timer and the grind adjustment, and appreciate that the hopper is big enough to fit a standard sized bag of coffee. They even convinced their mom to get one: “My mother says it's become incredibly easy to get a consistent cup with her coffee maker since switching over from a blade grinder.”

Wirecutter senior editor Marguerite Preston, who has been using the OXO grinder at home, added the caveat, “After about a year of use, the OXO totally clogged up on me, to the point where it couldn’t grind anything. However, it did so only after my husband ground a large quantity of relatively oily beans in our sweltering kitchen on the hottest, most humid day of the summer. I was able to fix the clog by removing the top burr, and using a small, stiff brush (like a straw cleaner) to clean off the burrs and clear out all the impacted grounds from the chute where they pour out. Since then, I haven’t had an issue, so I’m treating it as a good reminder that all coffee grinders need to be cleaned every so often. Other than that, I’ve been totally happy with this grinder.”

Also great

Porlex Mini Stainless Steel Coffee Grinder

Portable and consistent, but labor-intensive

For those insistent on a hand grinder, the Porlex Mini was best in its class for speed, portability, and ease of grinding.

$64 from Amazon

For those in the market for a truly portable hand grinder for travel—or a nice forearm workout—we recommend the Porlex Mini. The two models we looked at, the Hario Mini-Mill and the Porlex Mini, both feature high-quality ceramic burrs, but the latter came out way ahead.

With a smaller profile, the Porlex is easier to hold. The hand-cranking action is faster and smoother, and beans appear to drop down at a more rapid rate than in the bulkier lucite Hario. The Porlex is also made of stainless steel, meaning it won’t crack when dropped like the Hario. And if that all wasn’t enough to vouch for it, traveling and camping brewers will love how it fits perfectly inside the chamber of an AeroPress brewer for compact packing.