The Best Coffee Grinders to Elevate Your Morning Cup to Barista Quality

If you ask coffee professionals where you should spend your money to improve your coffee making quickly, a lot of them will tell you: Get the best coffee grinder you can. Why? At the most basic level, good coffee is fresh coffee, and that means using fresh coffee beans. If you’ve been using pre-ground coffee for any brewing method, it’s almost certainly stale, whether you realize it or not. Coffee starts to oxidize as soon as it’s ground, which diminishes the flavor.Keeping whole beans, particularly in avacuum sealed container, and grinding them immediately before use will up the quality of your morning cup immediately.

The only coffee grinders we consider worth adding to a home coffee setup are burr grinders. Unlike the electric coffee grinders with whirring blades that violently chop coffee beans into an uneven mess, burr grinders crush beans to a uniform consistency between two ceramic or metal pieces (the burrs). A blade grinder is more like a little blender. You don’t want to put your coffee beans in a blender.

Good burr grinders also give you very precise control of the size of your coffee grounds. That’s important because while you need something fine, powdery and perfectly even for espresso, you need a grind that’s downright chunky for French press. And if you’re using adrip coffee makeror apour-over rig, you need something in between.

While you could spend thousands on acommercial-grade coffee grinder, these days burr grinders are available in a wide range of price points and designs. So if you’re looking to upgrade your brewing kit a bit, you don’t have to spend a mint. Read on for our top picks under $350. And for more about what we looked for in a coffee grinder and which ones we think you should avoid, scroll further down.

Table of contents

The best coffee grinder overall
The best coffee grinder for beginners
Another good general purpose coffee grinder
Another good espresso grinder
Best budget coffee grinder
Best manual coffee grinder
What’s the difference between burr grinders, blade grinders, and manual grinders?
Grind by time vs. grind by weight
How we tested
What we looked for
Other grinders we tested
The takeaway

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这是我们等待的时刻we ground our first beans on the Fellow Ode—Fellow’s higher end burr grinder. The Ode is wonderful and we recommend it almost without reservation (more on that below), but it couldn’t grind fine enough to make espresso. The Opus fixed that issue. It has 41 grind settings on the main outer ring, plus an inner adjustment ring you can access by taking off the hopper that allows more micro adjustments. That makes it versatile enough for the vast majority of home baristas. It covers pretty much every brewing style, including espresso and cold brew. (If you are hardcore about espresso, you can get a stepless grinder that does not have a fixed number of settings, like theEureka we cover below. But in order to make that worth the extra money you will likely have to be interested in spending a lot more time making your coffee than you do drinking your coffee.)

On the espresso front, the Opus also has the smartest design for moving grounds to a portafilter basket of any grinder we’ve used that doesn’t grind directly into the basket. A plastic insert is molded to fit either a 58-mm portafilter or a 54-mm portafilter. After grinding coffee into the catch with the insert, place the portafilter upside down on top of the insert, then simply flip it over. The process is incredibly clean and little to no coffee is lost along the way. Plus, because the insert is really just a narrow bowl, you can use the Opus for multiple brewing methods without having to change equipment. Some other grinders, like our previous top espresso grinder from KitchenAid, require you to insert and remove a plastic piece to switch from grinding for a portafilter to grinding for anything else.

最后,其他的新磨床之际,多劳r price than its Ode grinder (and a much lower price than a lot of the coffee grinders you’ll find recommended). Much of the difference in cost between the Ode and the Opus is down to the materials. While the body of the Ode is made mostly of metal, the Opus is much lighter and mostly plastic. Also, importantly, the Opus uses 40-mm conical burrs and the Ode uses 64-mm flat burrs. Flat burrs can produce a more consistent grind and are more common in very high-end grinders. However, as we noted with the number of settings, coffee lovers who just want to make a good cup of coffee but don’t care to investigate the uniformity of their grounds down to the micron, are not likely to notice a difference. So the value you get from the Opus is very high. The noise level is also incredibly low. This was the quietest electric grinder we tested.

另一件事我们需要注意的作品is that it is designed as a single-dose grinder. That means you don’t keep a bag’s worth of coffee beans in the hopper, but instead add beans for each brew. That might sound a little tedious, but we view it as a small trade-off. Because the Opus gets all the ground coffee out during a grind (grinders that hold on to some grinds because they get stuck have what is known as high grind retention) you can get exactly the right amount of coffee by weighing your whole beans before grinding. Weight is really the gold standard measure for high-quality coffee brewing. A single-dose grinder also encourages you to keep your beans sealed between uses, which will keep them fresh longer.

磨床运行在一个计时器,可以设置为30seconds with one push of the grind button, 60 seconds with two pushes, 90 seconds with three pushes, and 120 seconds if you hold it down. Grinding 18 grams of coffee for espresso took less than 30 seconds and it would be nice if the grinder had an auto-off that stopped the grinder when the hopper was empty like the Fellow Ode does. And while the Opus definitely grinds fine enough for espresso we found that we had to have it set to one of the two finest settings. That’s not a huge issue, we just expected it to give us good espresso shots a little further along the dial.

Finally, while we did not see this as a negative, some readers may: You really will have to weigh your coffee beans in order to use the Opus effectively.

Size:8.2 x 5.1 x 10.6 inches
Grind settings:41+
Capacity:Single dose, 110 gram max
Can grind into a portafilter:No

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This was the only grinder we tested (and the only grinder in this price range we have found) with a built-in scale. As a result, it was the most dummy-proof and took the least amount of effort to use. The coffee we made using it was good, though a bit flatter in flavor than either of the Fellow grinders or our previous top pick, Baratza Virtuoso+. However, as we said, weight is really the measure you want to use for coffee whether you’re making espresso or pour-over. Having a built-in scale takes away any trial and error and ensures you have the right amount of ground coffee even if you have no idea what you’re doing otherwise.

Moving the ground coffee from the catch cup to a portafilter or even an Aeropress is a bit of a messy process and really requires a funnel if you don’t want stray coffee grounds all over your counter.

Size:11.1 x 7.3 x 16.4 inches
Grind settings:38
Capacity:16 ounces
Grinds into a portafilter:No

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If Fellow’s Ode came with the espresso capabilities of the Opus, it would be our top pick, hands down. It grinds with pro-grade 64 millimeter flat burrs and leaves no bean behind (we tested several times, putting 30 grams of whole beans in and getting 30 grams of ground beans out each time). The grind on those beans was perfectly consistent at each setting and produced delicious coffee.

This is also, perhaps, the most beautiful grinder on the market today. Sleek, minimalist design that looks great on the countertop is a hallmark of all Fellow’s products (see theirkettlesand newvacuum-sealed coffee canisters) and the Ode is no exception. As a class, coffee grinders tend to look utilitarian, which is not meant as a compliment. Fellow’s grinder looks almost like a modern sculpture.

In its second generation the Ode included some nice changes: A larger hopper that’s now almost as big as the Opus’s 110-gram capacity. That’s good for large amounts of cold brew or a full pot of drip coffee. It’s also cleaner than the original—grinds get directed into the catch cup better (it wasn’t bad before, but now it’s excellent). It does have the auto-shutoff we wished the Opus had, so you don’t need to worry about an empty grinder spinning too long. If you want to save a little money,the first generation Ode is also still available.

It’s just that espresso thing. The Ode was designed deliberately for these types of coffee: Aeropress, pour-over, drip coffee machines, and immersion methods like French press coffee and cold brew. That covers a lot of ground, but it means that it just isn’t appropriate for anyone with anespresso machine, and therefore we can’t give it the top spot.

Size:9.4 x 4.1 x 9.8 inches
Grind settings:31
Capacity:Single dose, 100 gram max.
Grinds into portafilter:No

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KitchenAid’s burr grinder is a dream for grinding espresso, and with a price tag around $200 it’s a bargain by espresso grinding standards. The grinder has 70 settings which makes it versatile across all brewing methods, but the ability to grind directly into the portafilter makes it the best option for espresso drinks. There are other grinders that grind straight into the portafilter in this price range, like theBreville Smart Grinder Pro(which we tested and performed well), but the little bit of extra precision gives the KitchenAid an edge. We should say here that judging purely on its ability to grind, the slightly pricierEureka Mignon Nottedid a better job, but the Eureka is less user-friendly and requires the use of a scale every time. The KitchenAid is another grinder that uses time dosing to good effect. We found the best results for a double shot at 12.9 seconds on setting 64.

If we’re being honest, we don’t love time dosing as much as single dose grinders and certainly not as much dosing with a built-in scale like the Oxo. However, unless you are willing to spend over $500 you’re most likely going to be looking at a time dosing grinder. One annoying thing about this time dosing grinder, though, is that the time setting resets every time it’s unplugged or the power goes out, so you have to recalibrate it if that happens.

Size:5 x 8.25 x 15 inches
Grind settings:70
Capacity:10 ounces
Grinds into a portafilter:Yes

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The Solis Scala Zero is a great little grinder. It comes from the same Swiss company that makes one of the best espresso machines we’ve tested and it outperforms grinders that cost four times as much. It is an entry level burr grinder, which means you give up features like digital timed dosing. However, the timer dial on the Scala is easier to set than our previous budget winner from Oxo. We found that for a double shot of espresso—or single serving of French press or pour-over coffee—the timer should be set to three. The stepped up version of our previous budget winner has 24 grind settings (a previous model had 14 at the same price), which is plenty to accommodate several brewing options. And though you can’t grind directly into a portafilter, the grind box on the Scala is small enough that it’s easy to transfer grinds for whatever brew method you’re using, espresso or otherwise. In fact, the whole grinder is pretty small, so it saves on counter space. With a price point well under $100, Solis produced something that is a real bargain considering the quality coffee you can brew with it.

The numbers on the timer dial don’t seem to correspond to specific times, so setting it is a little more of a guessing game than a more expensive grinder with a digital timer.

Size:5 x 6.75 x 10.5 inches
Grind settings:24
Capacity:10 ounces
Grinds into a portafilter:No

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Like to drink alone? Or to combine your coffee prep with a little cardio? Or do you insist on grinding your own beans while you’re on the road? For you, there are actually several hand grinders that can produce results as good as many electric burr grinders. As evidenced by the 1Zpresso here, they can actually cost as much as an electric grinder. But we were floored by what this hand grinder could do. In just 24 seconds we ground 18 grams of coffee for a cup of Aeropress. And adjusting grind settings was as smooth and easy as any electric grinder (hand grinders can be notorious pains in the butt when it comes to changing the settings). While the 1Zpresso K-Max was the best manual grinder we tried, it wasn’t the only good one. If you want a fuller rundown on which hand grinders are good and which aren’t, you can read ourbest manual coffee grinder review here.

We didn’t like that it was a manual coffee grinder. Manual coffee grinders are less pleasant to use than electric ones. But as manual grinders go, this one really is a 10/10, no notes.

Size:7.5 x 2.4 x 7.7 inches
Grind settings:90
Capacity:40 grams
Grinds into a portafilter:No

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Different coffee brewing methodshave different grind requirements. Unlike the fine powder required for espresso, coffee made in aChemexshould be a medium-large gravel so that water can better pass through the filter. The basic blade grinder, which works like a mini blender orfood processor, can’t produce consistent ground coffee for any brewing method.

A burr grinder, which mills the coffee between two grooved surfaces, is the best choice no matter what your preferred brewing method is. And while some can run into the thousands of dollars, you can get a reliable, high-quality machine for between $200 and $300 (maybe even less in the case of our budget pick) that will last you years and years.

Manual burr grinders use the same grinding mechanism as electric ones, but operate with the crank of a handle. These are handy for the occasional coffee drinker who makes small batches, like a single cup of pour-over. It’s also useful to have on hand for travel if you want to brew decent coffee in a hotel room or the office and forgo reliance on the bad drip machine or bad-for-the-environmentcoffee pods.

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Grinders of the quality we recommend generally dose, that is, measure, coffee in one of two ways: by time or by weight. But even if you’re grinding by time, the goal is to get a specific weight of ground coffee beans (just to get it without using a scale). Different people use different ratios, but the hard-core coffee geeks atBlue Bottlerecommend 30 grams of coffee for 350 grams of water for pour-over, or about one gram of coffee for every 12 grams of water (it’s actually 1:11.6, but we’ll round up). There are a number of coffee grinders with built-in scales that are very convenient, but they are typically much more expensive—Oxo’s is the only one we recommend that’s under $300.

However, you can still get consistent results from a grinder that doses by time. Just do a test grind on the desired setting, weigh the results, and calculate what to set the timer to (make sure to weigh the final results to make sure your math works out). To estimate consistency with each of the time dosing grinders we tested, we ground for four seconds, multiplied to get an estimate for a full brew, and then cross-checked to see how close the grinder came. If you don’t have one, you will need to get ascaleto effectively use a coffee grinder that doses by time, but frankly, you should have a scale anyway to measure your water (also to measure ingredients for baking).This scale from Escaliis a workhorse and a bargain to boot. If you want a professional scale, look to the brandAcaia

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Upon unboxing the grinders, we made note of their build quality, size, ease of assembly, and features. We then processed 30 grams of coffee beans in each machine at three different settings—coarse grind size and medium/fine grind size, and fine grind for espresso—and closely inspected the results from each for consistency. We made exceptions to this process for grinders that did not claim they could be used for all brew methods, like the Fellow Ode or the Eureka Mignon Notte. Finally, we used beans from each to brew coffee—French press,pour-over, and espresso for most grinders, Aeropress for manual grinders. We then tasted the brews and evaluated them in terms of flavor, balance, and bitterness.

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不用说,一个75美元的咖啡研磨机ill likely be less substantial than a $750 one, but because these machines are likely to get a daily workout, it pays to seek one out that feels built to last, even at the budget end of the spectrum. During setup and testing, we paid attention to the weight of the coffee grinders, their sturdiness on the counter, and the apparent durability of the components. We also considered how easy they were to set up and if their controls were intuitive to use. We don’t mind skimming an instruction manual, but we didn't want to put in hours of study before brewing our first cup.

One of the advantages of grinding your own beans is a greater choice of brewing styles, so we looked for machines that offered a wide array of grinding options, from superfine to coarse.

For example, is the hopper for the beans large and easy to pour into? Does it come with a container to collect the grinds? Or attachments that allow you to grind directly into a portafilter (translation: that handled basket you use to pull an espresso) or cone filter? Is there a built-in scale or timer?

Coffee grinders are never going to be whisper-quiet, but no one wants to be assaulted with unnecessary noise first thing in the morning. Same goes for clean up: some flyaway grinds are a fact of life, but having to break out the dustbuster is a deal-breaker.

No matter if you’re going for a fine grind or a coarse one, having a machine that delivers consistent results will make the difference between a properly balanced cup of coffee and a poor one. After processing each machine on multiple settings, we poured the grinds into shallow bowls and examined them for irregular particles.

After processing, we considered how neatly and easily the grinds could be transferred from the grind catcher to a brewing container, and whether it was simple to access the burrs for occasional maintenance and cleaning.

Finally, we asked the million-dollar question: After grinding fresh beans and brewing them according to identical methods, did the model producegoodcoffee?

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Baratza made a name for itself with coffee-shop-level burr grinders (see theBaratza Forte AP), but its smaller, less expensive grinders can deliver the same quality. The Virtuoso+ is one step up from the entry-level Encore, but that level up makes a world of difference when it comes to using the machine. The Virtuoso+ uses time dosing down to the tenth of a second, which means you’ll need to spend a little bit of time dialing in your preferred settings. We did some of that dialing in: On setting 18, a middle-of-the-road grind that Baratza suggests for an automatic brewer, we got nine grams of coffee in four seconds. This can vary depending on what type of beans you use, but you can use this as a baseline. While not designed specifically for it, we found the Virtuoso+ to be versatile enough to use with an espresso machine (we’d recommend a setting somewhere between a six and a 10), but the design of the grounds container, with sharp edges, allows for easy transfer to a portafilter.

TheZwilling Enfinigy Grinderlooks more heavy-duty than it actually is, but given the reasonable price, it meets expectations just fine. It’s a versatile grinder that made quality cups with all the brew methods we tried—and it was surprisingly easy to grind beans for a good espresso shot (we set the grind to 20 and the timer to 3). Like the Oxo and the Solis, it uses a manual dial for its timed dosing and it performs on par with both of them for all brew methods, although it costs a little more. Aesthetically it’s a choice. It’s got an Art Deco look to it, which may or may not be your thing. You can get a matching set if you pair it with theEnfigy drip coffee maker, which brews to theSpecialty Coffee Association Gold Cup Standard.

Brought to the United States for the first time by New Jersey coffee roaster and importer Lardera, the Norwegian Wilfa Uniform offers the kind of consistent grind and quality build you’d expect from a Scandinavian home product. It ground well for all methods, and could even grind fine enough for Turkish coffee—quite a bit finer than you need for espresso. The two issues with the Wilfa are, the adjustment knob is huge—it’s the entire lid, and it’s a wide lid. Unless you have enormous hands, adjusting the grinder requires holding it down with one hand while cranking with the other. The other is the there were some flyaway grind issues. We got a bit of ground coffee splatter on the counter when we pulled the catch cup out. Still, this is a high-quality, versatile grinder.

TheEureka Mignon Notteis really just an espresso grinder, so we only judged it on that (we guess you could put a bowl under it to catch beans for another brew method, but honestly that seems like a waste). Weighing in at 25 pounds, it’s asolidpiece of equipment. It offers a stepless adjustment of its steel burrs, which almost no other grinder in this price range has. Stepless adjustment is a feature prized on high-end grinders that allows infinite grind adjustments; this allows you to experiment until you get precisely the grind you like. To offer stepless adjustments at a lower price, Eureka made the dosing on the Mignon Notte entirely manual—you hold a button down to turn it on and release that button to turn it off. That means you also need to use a scale every time you brew, which isn’t a total deal-breaker—it is, in fact, the way you brew the best espresso—but it is an extra step. Ultimately, the extra effort required keeps the Mignon Notte from being a top pick here, since we tried to think about what will be most practical for the largest number of coffee drinkers. But if the manual dosing and weighing doesn’t bother you, this will be one of the best espresso grinders for the money.

We so wanted to like theBaratza Sette 30.It’s from the same company as our current top pick, the Virtuoso+. It is clearly made with quality materials, and comes with the capability to grind directly into a portafilter for espresso. Unfortunately it falls short in several respects. First, it was very difficult to dial in for espresso. Ultimately we were satisfied with a shot using setting 14 on the grinder and a time of 5.38 seconds. That setting is around the middle of the grinder settings, which is probably why we were unable to get a satisfactory French press even at the coarsest setting. Truth be told, we couldn’t even get a satisfactory pour-over cup from the Sette 30 (the Sette is designed as an espresso grinder, but we write this just to make that clear). The other problem is that it’s incredibly messy to use when grinding into a portafilter, which would be the best use for it given the fact that it likes to grind extra fine coffee. Grinds spilled out everywhere when using a 54-mm portafilter (the size found on most espresso machines under $1,000) and it’s impossible to use with alarge dosing funnelthat might prevent that. A 58-mm portafilter, typically only available on much more expensive espresso machines, is somewhat less messy, but the only reliable solution to avoid so many flyaway grinds is to uselower profile dosing rings. Taken together there were just too many little problems to recommend it.

Thebudget version of the Oxo Brew Conical Burr Coffee Grinderis an excellent value. In previous iterations of this review it was our top pick for an inexpensive grinder because of the quality and consistency of its grind, which was on par with the much pricier Oxo that comes with an integrated scale. Like the winning Baratza and KitchenAid grinders, this one uses time dosing, but unlike either, the timer isn’t digital, which means you have to eyeball it a bit when setting. But if you’re trying to save money you’ll have to make a compromise somewhere and a manual dial is a minimal one to make. Again, we did a little tinkering to give you a baseline to start dialing in your grind: On “medium,” right in the center of the grind settings, we got nine grams of coffee with a five second grind time. While we prefer the Solis Scala to this Oxo, it’s still a good choice for someone looking to spend $100 or less.

With a sturdy and spiffy-looking stainless-steel housing, touchable dial-in controls, an easy-to-read digital interface, grind options and add-ons galore, there’s just so much to like about theBreville Smart Grinder Pro.Like our KitchenAid pick, this one allows you to grind directly into a portafilter for espresso, but doesn’t come with quite as many grind settings. And while the setup was simple and the instructional manual easy to read, the grinder definitely required more than a cursory glance to get acquainted.

DeLonghi’s performed fine; the grind was consistent, across all brew methods. The adjustment here is a digital interface that sets a number of cups and it was nice to see that it ground consistently 6.0–6.5 grams for every cup across settings. The problems were with the espresso setting. First, the attachment for grinding into a portafilter will really only workwitha DeLonghi espresso machine. A DeLonghi portafilter isjuuuuusta little smaller than the 54-mm portafilters on machines like Breville’s. So other machines’ portafilters won’t fit. You also can’t change the number of shots. You can only grind one.

TheBaratza Encore Conical Burr Grinderis universally adored, with top marks from theWirecutterandCNET, so going into testing, we were prepared to be wowed. It has a manual on-off switch leaving it up to you to supervise the grinder the entire time. It was slow compared to the other machines, and the coarser French Press grind was visibly inconsistent, with too many fine particles.

TheCuisinart Supreme Grind Automatic Burr Millproduced solid results—it’s not in the Fellow category (or the Baratza Virtuoso category for that matter), but it also only costs sixty bucks. It has more grind settings than our Solis budget winner, but measuring the amount of coffee ground is a real issue. It has settings for four cups through 18, but from one grind setting to another the same cup setting would produce dramatically different weight measurements. This would be a fine choice if you use a drip coffee maker and measure your coffee by volume, but probably not for anything else.

TheCapresso Infinity Burr Grinderwas a bit of mess. The coarse grind was inconsistent and the medium/fine grind was too fine. There was also not a consistent way to measure how much coffee you’re grinding.

We admired theBodum Bistro’scompact design and easy-to-use interface but were disappointed by grind’s lack of consistency and its low marks in our blind-tasting and theKrups GVX2, while compact, inexpensive, and pleasant to use, scored the lowest on our blind taste test, yielding a brew that was darker and more bitter than its competitors. Finally, our other manual option from Mueller felt flimsier than the Kona and was much clumsier to fill, adjust, and operate.

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The takeaway

For the overall best coffee grinder for aficionados and regular old java drinkers alike, choose the Fellow Opus. It will do whatever you want it to and look good doing it. If you’ll never pull an espresso shot go with theFellow Ode. If you’re only dipping your toes into the world of good coffee and aren’t ready to plunk down the bills, the much simplerSolis Scalais a reliable entry-level burr grinder, at an even more approachable price.

For a look at all our choices forbest coffee makersread our review here.