Prices are accurate at the time of publication.
- Whether you're making espresso, French press, or drip coffee, a good coffee grinder is key.
- Baratza's Encore is best for most because it has 40 different settings and offers good consistency.
- Read about how we test kitchen products at Insider Reviews.
Whether you brew your coffee with a French press, pour-over setup, or espresso maker, the key to getting the perfect cup lies in the quality and consistency of the grounds. In other words, you need a top-notch coffee grinder.
There are two basic types of coffee grinders on the market: burr and blade. Burr grinders are pricier, but they offer more uniform results, carefully crushing coffee beans between two revolving sharp-edged surfaces, or "burrs," and are the best coffee grinder you can get because you can adjust the space between those burrs to determine the size of the grounds.
Blade grinders, on the other hand, work similarly to blenders, pulverizing coffee beans with a propeller-like blade attached to a motor. Long story short, they don't offer the same consistency or control as burr grinders, but they're significantly more affordable and can be used to make a decent pot of coffee.
We tested every grinder in this guide for grind-size consistency on multiple settings, measured their noise levels, timed how quickly they turned beans into grounds, evaluated their ease of use, and noted any special features. You can read more about our testing methods here, along with a rundown of which grind size to use for which brewing method.
What is the best coffee maker?
Here are the best coffee grinders in 2021
- Best coffee grinder overall: Baratza Encore Conical Burr Coffee Grinder
- Best budget coffee grinder: OXO Brew Conical Burr Coffee Grinder
- Best upgrade coffee grinder: Baratza Virtuoso+ Conical Burr Coffee Grinder
- Best coffee grinder for espresso: Baratza Sette 270
- Best manual coffee grinder: Hario Skerton Pro
- Best blade coffee grinder: Krups F203 Electric Spice and Coffee Grinder
Owen Burke/Business Insider
The Baratza Encore is a solid entry-level burr grinder that will suit most coffee drinkers' needs, thanks to its wide range of settings, quiet motor, and consistent results.
Pros: Sturdy, nicely weighted, 40 grind settings
Cons: Not ideal for espresso
The Encore won't get you immaculate grounds, but it will reduce the number of boulders and fines (how coffee pros refer to too-large and too-small particles) in each grind. Using Kruve sieves — a set of stacked sifters that separate coffee grounds at your determined grind size from any outliers — we found that the Encore managed between 70 and 80 percent of our target French press grind (600-1100 micrometers), outperforming the other grinders we tested.
However, when we tried a finer grind for espresso (250-500 micrometers), the results were only 50 to 70 percent on-target, with the irregular particles mostly being fines. A too-small grind can lead to over-extraction, which results in a bitter brew. So, while this machine will serve most home coffee brewers very well, we recommend upgrading to the Baratza Sette 270 if you plan on making espresso regularly.
Although many of its competitors feature ceramic burrs, the Encore's is made from stainless steel, making it significantly more durable. That being said, all burrs will eventually require replacement, regardless of material. This machine is also among the quieter burr grinders we tested, registering at 74 decibels, or a little louder than a vacuum at a yard away.
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The OXO Conical Burr Grinder is equipped with a stainless steel conical burr, 15 grind settings, and an attractive finish.
Pros: Stainless steel burr, attractive stainless steel finish
Cons: Only 15 settings, not ideal for espresso, some plastic parts
The quietest of the machines we tested at 70 decibels (a noise level we compare to a vacuum cleaner one yard away), OXO's Conical Burr Grinder is the gadget to buy if you're a French press, drip, or pour-over enthusiast who is ready to trade in their blade grinder for an entry-level burr grinder.
We ended up with a little more than half of our target French press grind size, with lots of fines mixed in, but fared slightly better when we switched to a coarser setting. Our coffee was certainly a step up from the batches made with blade grinders, and if you mainly drink pour-over or drip coffee — in other words, anything that uses a paper filter — the difference in taste between the OXO and more expensive burr grinders is close to negligible.
While we applaud OXO for outfitting this grinder with a stainless steel burr without sacrificing affordability, we found the Baratza Encore's burr to be more robust (it's a leap up in price for a reason). Further, the OXO Conical Burr Grinder has 15 settings to the Encore's 40, and the former's burr is held in place by a plastic cap while the latter's is secured with a stainless steel wingnut. It will also not make espresso grounds.
Otherwise, it's a better investment than any blade grinder we've tested.
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From ultra-fine espresso grounds to the coarsest settings required for French Press coffee, you can get a quick and consistent grind out of the Virtuoso+ with minimal effort.
Pros: Works for all grind sizes, stainless steel burr, stainless steel finish
Cons: Only one programmable setting, some ground retention within machine, some plastic parts
If you want the best possible grinder for as little investment as possible, the Virtuoso+ is your best bet at the moment. It isn't as immaculate in its performance as its sibling, the Sette 270, but it covers just about every grind size, can usually just barely pull off espresso grounds, and is equally as dependable.
The Virtuoso+ is also what barista trainer Sum Ngai of Coffee Project NY chooses to use at home, citing that it's easy to use, easy to clean, churns out consistent grounds, and offers just enough settings (40 in all) to be viable for any brewing method.
That said, this is a do-it-all package at a reasonable price, and if you take your home coffee seriously, it's a great step toward improving your setup without making a major investment (top quality burr grinders can easily go for four figures).
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Perfect for home espresso brewers, the Baratza Sette 270 handles grinding and dosing as meticulously as a commercial grinder, but on a consumer scale.
Pros: Perfect for espresso, macro and micro grind settings, high speed, user-friendly interface and programming
Cons: Not ideal for coarser grounds, loud
Achieving the perfect espresso grind requires a finely-tuned auger designed for working with precise, minuscule particles. If you're exclusively making espresso, the Baratza Sette 270 is one of the best coffee grinders you can buy.
One of the common issues with coffee grinders is that most will pulverize your beans to dust much smaller than the generally recommended 250-500 micrometers for espresso. This is where the Sette 270 shows what it's made of. While every machine up to this price point left us with at least 10 to 20 percent fine particles, the Sette 270 produced such a negligible amount of fines that not only could we not weigh them, we couldn't scrape enough together to transfer them from the basin to the scale.
This machine is easily programmable, with three timed settings you can adjust down to the one-hundredth of a second, and it fits most if not any portafilter.
Overall, the Sette 270 is an excellent choice if you're serious about espresso, or use a moka pot (which also requires particularly fine grounds), but it might be overkill for less-precise brewing methods. Our top pick, the Baratza Encore, will suit most other coffee-making needs.
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Hario's Skerton Pro manual grinder is a the best option if you're looking for an affordable solution and willing to put a little elbow grease into making your coffee.
Pros: Small, quiet, efficient, consistent
Cons: Takes a surprising amount of time to grind enough coffee for a cup (let alone, say, eight)
One of the best ways to get quality grinds on the cheap is a good manual grinder, and everyone from our coffee reviewers to experts at the Specialty Coffee Association and Coffee Project NY swear by Hario's Skerton Pro, a compact little number that tucks away nicely just about anywhere, and makes scant a sound. (This is also a great choice for folks who don't want to wake up sleeping households early in the morning.)
Coffee grinders tend to be shockingly expensive to most people, which is why coffee experts point budget- or minimalist-minded home coffee brewers to manual coffee grinders. They work almost infinitely better than most machines two, three, and even four times their price, so long as you're grinding for anything but espresso or finely-ground stovetop coffee (a Moka pot or a Turkish/Greek/Arabic coffee pot), this device is plenty precise for a quality brew.
Note: if you are making espresso or Turkish coffee, you'll need something a little more finely tuned, and we can't recommend Comandante's C40 enough (either the MK3, or the newer MK4, if you can find it).
We also like that maintenance is easy; it's seven pieces in all and you can adjust the grind size without taking it apart (as opposed to several other options out there). If you're willing to take on a little workout in the morning, Hario's manual coffee grinders work exceptionally well.
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Krups' F203 blade grinder is powerful, durable, affordable, and features a clear lid so you can monitor the grinding process.
Pros: Simple, small footprint, long-lasting
Cons: Inconsistent and uncontrollable grind
While burr grinders produce far more consistent coffee grounds than blade grinders, there's no getting around the fact that they're significantly more expensive.
In short, blade grinders will break your beans down into grounds and you will be able to make decent coffee — provided your go-to brewing method isn't fussy — but you're probably not going to get top-tier results by using one. If all of that sounds fine, the Krups' will more than suit your needs.
It has a simple on and off button, which you hold down to keep the blade spinning. The longer you hold it, the finer the grind will be.
It took about 30 seconds to produce a somewhat coarse French press grind that landed us on the safer side of not being left with too many fines. If your go-to brewing method involves a paper filter, it's even easier to get away with using a blade grinder: the paper filter will catch the fine particulate so that it doesn't end up as sludge (but know that you'll still end up with over-extraction and bitterness).
Blade grinders can last an incredibly long time with zero upkeep — some friends and family members have had this exact model for over 20 years — and, if you ever decide to upgrade to a burr grinder, you can still use your blade grinder to grind spices (burr grinders, on the other hand, are single-purpose machines).
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What else we recommend:
Comandante C40 (MK3 and the newer MK4): A favorite of Lance Hedrick of Onyx Coffee Labs, several Brewer's Cup champions, Comandante's manual grinders, as we mentioned above, are exceptional. They're pricy, but they offer a wider range of consistency than $500 and $600 machines that we've tested. Often, when we struggle to get grounds fine enough with a machine, we will turn to the Comandante, and while that's rare, it speaks volumes. This is the best coffee grinder for someone who really wants to hone their craft, as well as anyone that wants to be able to make the best coffee available to humanity on the go, or while devoting little kitchen counter space. The only reason it's not a top pick is that, at $400, it's far too expensive for most budgets and interests.
What we don't recommend:
Bodum Bistro Electric Grinder: This machine works well enough, and the borosilicate grounds catcher is far more durable than many of its competitors' plastic versions, but there weren't enough settings for this one to make the cut.
Breville Smart Grinder Pro: This is a good grinder by any measure. It puts out fairly even grounds, it has multiple fittings to accommodate espresso portafilters of different sizes, and its interface is user-friendly. However, we found that the Baratza Virtuoso+ produced more consistent grounds, especially when it came to espresso.
Chefman Electric Burr Mill: For the price, this is an impressive machine. There are some problems with static and consistency, and the ceramic (as opposed to stainless steel) burr isn't ideal, but compare it a blade grinder, and it's worth the extra $15 to $20.
Rancilio Rocky: This is a highly capable, professional-grade grinder, and while we wholly recommend it, we think the smaller, similarly equipped Baratza Sette 270 is a better, more kitchen counter-friendly option for most folks.
Dylan Ettinger/Business Insider
In testing coffee grinders, I applied several years of tireless personal and professional research on my quest to achieve the perfect espresso pour and all the necessary and auxiliary accouterments that accompany and assist the art of espresso making. We also consulted the more distinguished expertise of Sum Ngai (co-founder of the SCAA-accredited Coffee Project New York), Brooklyn Roasting Company founder Jim Munson), and Home-Barista.com founder and editor Dan Kehn.
Consistency: The most important factor when determining the quality of each coffee grinder was consistency. We used the brand-recommended settings for French press coffee and espresso on each grinder, as well as our own settings, based on expert input, personal experience, and guidelines set forth by The Craft and Science of Coffee. We then measured the grounds with a set of Kruve sifters — a series of stacked screens that separate coffee grounds at your determined grind size from any outliers — to see how many fine particles and boulders were left behind after each grind.
Once we achieved the best yield of a target size (measured in micrometers), we repeated the process to make sure it wasn't a fluke. In the case of espresso, the aim was 250-500 micrometers. For French press grounds, we shot for between 600 and 1100 micrometers. Keep in mind, though, that these are just general suggestions, and we were testing for uniformity of particles above all; taste-wise, you may have your own grind size preference.
Settings: We recorded the number of settings on every machine, and tested to see how each grinder performed on several of those settings, noting accuracy, consistency, and speed. Espresso is the most demanding grind size, and you'll need a machine with stainless steel burrs and at least 40 settings. Generally, we found that the brands' recommended settings were often off-target, so we included our own additional suggestions for each machine.
Programming: We noted whether or not you could program your own settings, and tested this function on each machine that offered it, docking points for grinders that made the process overly complicated.
Espresso compatibility: While the ability to produce consistent, uniform grounds in the 250-500 micrometer range is the most essential coffee grinder requirement for making espresso, it's not the only factor we considered. Having a portafilter holder and a programmable interface also streamline the espresso brewing process, and we made sure to note machines with these features.
Noise: We measured noise levels with a decibel meter, but ultimately this didn't factor too much into our final rankings. Some of the best burr grinders also happened to be the noisiest, but it's an inconvenience we can live with for quality coffee.
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