16 Best Coffee Grinders, Tested and Reviewed (2024)

It is all in the beans. Nothing will enhance your morning espresso like grinding the beans right before you brew. It would not matter whether or not you are rocking a elaborate liquid-cooled-quantum-AI-powered espresso machine or a $25 Mr. Coffee—making the change to complete beans will rework your coffee-drinking expertise. We now have recommendation on the finish of this text on discovering good complete beans (you would possibly need to learn our Best Coffee Subscriptions guide). After you have your beans, it is time to grind ’em up recent every day. These are the very best espresso grinders we have examined.

Make sure you try our different coffee-related shopping for guides, just like the Best Latte and Cappuccino Machines, Best Portable Coffee Makers, Best Espresso Machines, and Best Portable Espresso Makers.

Up to date September 2024: We have added the Baratza Virtuoso+ and Bodum Bistro Electrical Blade Grinder, up to date our evaluate of the Baratza ESP, and checked hyperlinks and costs all through.

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What Is a Conical, Flat, or Blade Grinder?

Our record consists largely of conical-burr grinders. In a conical grinder, espresso beans are crushed and floor between two rings of burrs. They ship a finer, rather more constant grind than you’d get with a conventional blade grinder, even the nicest ones.

Flat-burr grinders are related, however they’re sometimes dearer. In these, the burrs are laid on prime of one another, and the beans go via them as they grind. The grinder motion pushes the grounds out of 1 finish, as an alternative of counting on gravity like a conical-burr grinder, and the beans spend extra time involved with the burrs. This leads to a extra constant grind, however for dwelling brewers, conical-burr grinders are simply pretty much as good—even when they require extra upkeep and don’t end in constant down-to-the-micron-scale grounds.

Blade grinders have a chopping blade that spins round like a meals processor. However blades do not produce even outcomes. A few of your espresso can be high quality powder on the backside, and on the prime you may have bits too massive for even French press. The result’s an inconsistent, unpredictable brew. These grinders are low-cost, and sure, utilizing recent beans in a blade grinder is much better than shopping for floor espresso. (You’ll be able to discover ways to shake the beans to even your grind just a bit. See world barista champion James Hoffmann’s video for some extra blade grinder hacks.)

In case you can afford it, we extremely advocate going with one of many burr grinders we have listed. There is a cause why they price somewhat greater than a funds burr grinder. The equipment in a high-quality burr grinder is a little more difficult, and it is constructed to resist larger put on and tear. In low-cost burr grinders, the burrs will sometimes get blunt from common use, and the flimsier motors might burn out in a matter of months.

PSA: Don’t put pre-ground espresso right into a burr grinder. Logically, it is sensible. It is too coarse, so you set it via once more, proper? No! With a burr grinder, the preground espresso will get caught contained in the burrs, and you will have to do some disassembly to set them to rights once more.