More Excellent Grinders
Conical-burr all rounders:
Baratza Encore for $150: Baratza’s original Encore is the Honda of the conical burr grinder world: easy to maintain, runs great, easy to use, lasts forever, replacement parts easy to find. It’s been on the market largely unchanged for more than a decade. For not much more, the ESP offers beautiful adjustment on espresso settings, so I tend to recommend the added versatility. But the original Encore remains a solid entry-level choice.
Baratza Virtuoso+ for $250: The Virtuoso+ uses the same burr set as the ESP, but is not quite as optimized for espresso. The biggest upgrade against the Encore ESP is a timer. Both have similar rock-solid but compact builds (although the Virtuoso is a little more stylish with its fitted grounds bin), 40 grind settings, and burr grinders for consistent grounds. The Virtuoso’s digital timer, however, is great for those wanting consistent coffee ground dosings each morning. You’ll have to dial in on your grind time versus coffee grounds output, but once you figure that out, you can walk away from the grinder and multitask if you please. —Tyler Shane
OXO Brew Conical Burr Grinder With Scale for $285: Making great coffee consistently is all about measuring your variables, and this Oxo model comes with a built-in scale. Set your grind size, select the weight you want, hit Start, and walk away; it shuts itself off when it’s done. This is a great way to streamline your morning ritual, but the device does spray off a few grounds—and at its price range, we tend to prefer the Fellow Opus or Baratza ESP as an all-rounder.
KitchenAid Burr Grinder for $200: This KitchenAid is stylish and easy to clean, according to former WIRED reviewer Jaina Grey, and the burrs are accessible thanks to their placement directly beneath the hopper. It also features precise dose control, with grind size controlled by a dial. For espresso lovers, one excellent feature is that you can swap the little container that catches the grounds with a holder for a portafilter.
Flat burrs for drip and pour-over:
Wilfa Uniform for $349: This Wilfa has long been on our list as a great flat-burr grinder for pour-overs and drip. It remains such, though the Ode springboarded it as the top pick with its Gen 2 burr update, at about the same price. Like its name suggests, the Wilfa offers a beautifully consistent grind size and will make you a lovely pour-over. That said, it’s a little fussier to adjust and louder than the Ode.
Baratza Vario W+ for $600: The Encore has a bigger, beefier, flat burr cousin, the Baratza Vario-W+ (7/10, WIRED Recommends) with a built-in scale and ridiculously granular adjustment (230 settings!). But like a lot of flat burrs, it struggles on finer grinds, according to WIRED contributor Joe Ray. And static is an issue. With price in play, the Ode Gen 2 comes out on top, but Ray was still a big fan of the Vario.
For travel and camping:
VSSL Java manual grinder for $148: VSSL specializes in ultra-durable camping tools, and applied this same durable construction to this durable campsite-ready hand grinder that WIRED reviewer Scott Gilbertson attests to be rugged enough to survive the zombie apocalypse. The handle folds out to provide a lot of leverage while you grind, and you can use it as a hook to hang the device up when you’re done.
DmofwHi Cordless Grinder for $31: Going camping in the actual woods but don’t feel like working too hard by hand-grinding to get a cup? Here you go. The DmofwHi grinder is a solid little blade grinder that’s wireless and rechargeable (via USB-C), and you can grind enough coffee for about 15 to 18 pots of coffee on a single charge. It’s a blade grinder, don’t expect espresso. But for some roadside drip, Turkish or cowboy? Have fun.
Also Tested
Aarke Flat-Burr Grinder for $370: This pretty, shiny, stainless steel Aarke grinder contains a unique feature when paired with Aarke’s coffee brewer, detecting the water in the brewer’s tank and grinding the appropriate amount of beans. But this feature wasn’t as calibrated as we’d like, and there have been a lot of online reports of grinder jams. I didn’t have the same problem, but at more than $300 for a grinder that hasn’t been long on the market, prudence is often rewarded.
Hario Skerton Pro for $50: The Hario Skerton was the gateway hand grinder for many a coffee nerd, but has since given ground to newer entrants. It’s fast and cheap, but it’ll give you a heck of a workout and isn’t as consistent for coarse grinds, plus the silicone handle has a habit of falling off.
Hario Mini-Slim Plus for $37: This smaller Hario is not as fast as the Skerton, but its plastic construction makes it good to throw in a travel bag—and the low price is another reason you’ll feel safe carting it around.
Cuisinart Burr Grinder for $60: At first, it seems like a good deal. It’s Cuisinart, a known brand, and a conical burr grinder for less than $100! But former WIRED reviewer Jaina Grey found that the low price came with a cost: These things burn out faster than a rock star in the late ’60s.
Bodum Bistro Electric Blade Grinder for $20: This little blade grinder is quite cheap, and the model has served WIRED contributing reviewer Tyler Shane for years. That said, after some inconsistent reports on durability, we favor the KitchenAid as our budget pick.
Breville Smart Grinder Pro for $200: WIRED has recommended this Breville in the past for its accessible burrs that make it easy to clean. But ever since Breville bought Baratza, they’ve slowly been swapping out the grinders in their excellent top-line semi-automatic espresso machines with those excellent Baratza burrs. For a standalone grinder, we give the same advice.
