Coffee

Barazata Encore. It’s a bit expensive but lasts and works quite well.

There are a few things to note: burr vs blade. You do not want a blade, because as others have said, the key to the grind is consistency of granules. Coffee ground too fine tends to over-extract, be bitter, and even clog equipment. Coffee ground too coarsely will under-extract, taste kinda earthy & "bleh", and it's a waste of bean.

The two best electric burr models on the budget side of things, AFAIK, is the the Capresso Infinity & the Baratza Encore.

The Capresso Infinity is the cheapest quality burr grinder you can get; it is gentle & slow grinding. Very consistent. Unit size is small, which is nice.

The Baratza Encore is SUCH a capable grinder. Very well known. It's got a nice "heft" to it, so it stays put while grinding. I had a very oily bean that I sent through the Encore, so much that it choked & stopped up. I carefully cleaned it all out & it works just fine. What a champion!! Unlike the Capresso Infinity, it can crank out a more than acceptable espresso-level fine grind.

Between capability & reliability, the Baratza Encore wins my endorsement. If you don't care about espresso & you just want a good machine without spending all the money, then & only then would I recommend Capresso Infinity.

Depends on what you're looking for. Do you want drip? Espresso? French press? Manual ? Electric? What's your budget?

For cheap/low quality electric grinders, most of them are blade grinders: they chop up the beans in very rough sizes, take forever, sound like they're gonna explode and make terrible coffee. Don't bother, they're shit.

Burr grinders come in 2 main "cutting technologies", conical and flat. Conicals are mostly found on manual grinders, entry level electrics and some medium to high end ones. Flats are much more common on the medium to high end range because they tend to need much more torque and therefore powerful motors. As for the differences between the topologies, it mostly comes down to particle size distribution and the effects it has. Conicals tend to emphasize texture (think thick, syrupy espresso), flats tend to emphasize clarity (flavors tend to be more easily to discern). But they exist in a continuum and burr shape alone is definitely not the only factor.

As for actual recommendations, take a look at James Hoffman's and Lance Hedrick's channels on youtube, they have a lot of incredible advice on all kinds of grinders, among other coffee equipment. Be warned though, it's a very deep rabbit hole :D

My main grinder is a DF64/G-Iota (~400€), and is an absolute workhorse. It's a mid-range grinder that can be very easily modded to rival grinders more than twice its price, takes standard 64mm flat burrs and can be upgraded with super expensive SSP burrs. I love it. I think the current generation corrected many flaws I had to mod out of mine.

My travel grinder is a conical manual 1-ZPresso J-Max (~150€) that's so quick it can grind at espresso range at almost 1g/s, with excellent results.

I was looking for a grinder a while back and wanted a burr grinder but wasn’t looking to break the bank. I was recommended, and ultimately bought, a Timemore C2.

It’s been great! I tend to grind a couple weeks worth at a time and it’s not tiring to use at all. It washes up easy and you can adjust the grind based on application. I go more coarse in the summer when grinding for cold brew for my wife.

I’m not in the coffee scene much so I don’t know their reputation, as always ymmv.

Hoffmann has a few explanations and comparisons videos - like https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=bgjvLQu5NlE

What is your budget?

If you don't have much money to spend then the Timemore C2 is often available for around $50. Around $100 there are the Kingrinder K0 and Timemore C3. Getting into the $150 are the Kingrinder K6 and some grinders from 1Zpresso.

If you have to have electric then don't buy anything cheaper than a Baratza Encore.

Manual grinders aren't bad, unless you go for the cheap ones. For example, my Comandante grinder has a steel conical burr, but most of the cheaper ones come with ceramic. The thing is, the thing's sharp, I could actually cut myself if I wasn't careful during cleaning, opposed to the ceramic burrs that are pretty blunt (from what I've heard, never had one). That makes grinding coffee a breeze (maybe 20-30secs for ~13grams for a cup of coffee), even on finer settings, also it introduces less dust, as it doesn't crush the beans but cuts them into fine bits. There are many models of manual grinders that come with great burrs, some of are of the Chinese make if price is an issue (1zpresso for example).

Flat burrs are an electric grinder thing. The mechanics of grinding with those is a little different than with conical ones, but the result is pretty much the same. Electric grinders can come with both conical or flat burrs. I've got an absolute overkill of a grinder meant for commercial use, bought used for around $300. The thing is a beast, takes less than 5secs for ~20g of coffee. I wouldn't suggest you get one (Mazzer Super Jolly FYI), just because of its size, but anything with that kind of build quality is likely gonna last you a literal lifetime. There are some more reasonably sized consumer electric grinders though, I heard Wilfa Svart is decent, some other might be fine as well.

You'll hear a lot of people talk about baratza models. They are great at grinding and are fairly low cost.

You will have significant issues with static electricity and every time you use it you will make an enormous mess. I have had limited success with water spraying which is generally considered to minimize the impact. You'll be sweeping the floor, using a wet cloth on your countertop, washing out the bin, and using a brush and cloth to clean out the machine. I have found the only way to clean out the chute where grinds exit is to use percussive maintenance, otherwise you have grinds just hanging out in the guts of the machine which are statically charged, just waiting for you to pick it up for next use.

After a while I decided I didn't think a $150++ grinder that needed so much attention and care for regular use was worth it and instead order my beans pre-ground every 1.5-2 weeks from a local roaster at a minimal price premium. I figure let them deal with the mess while I get fresh coffee far more often. My prep time and cleanup is next to nothing thanks to this.

It's all about convenience vs "perceived quality". I don't perceive the quality of freshly ground beans every day to be worth it vs avoiding all that mess, wasted table space and stuck with just one blend for weeks and weeks or very stale beans.

If you absolutely love the hour morning ritual of prepping and cleaning your coffee implements then i'm sure it's quite therapeutic. I just have other priorities.

The grinding mechanism is important, because what you're looking for is consistency: the grounds should optimally be the same granularity. Flat burr grinders ensure this. I have a less expensive KitchenAid burr grinder that works just fine; they don't mave the model I have, anymore, but this seems like the current iteration.

I bought this a few years ago:

OXO Brew Conical Burr Coffee Grinder https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07CSKGLMM

Would not recommend. Within a year the oil from the beans would gum up the works on the grinder and we'd be getting inconsistencies in the grind, less output than expected and eventually nothing coming out.

Ended up buying this:

CUISINART Coffee Grinder, Electric Burr One-Touch Automatic Grinder with18-Position Grind Selector, Stainless Steel, DBM-8P1 https://a.co/d/2iznxaE

Pretty happy with it so far

Edit: I'd also add that they do make electric Burr grinders with scales. If I were to choose again, I'd get one. The advantage there is you set how much you want in grams, ounces, whatever.. it grinds until it hits that amount. It beats what is the common thing.. setting to some arbitrary number, usually "cups", which just sets a timer for the grinder. Over time, a grinder will grind less and less as it needs to be cleaned so you end up with inconsistent amounts over time and you'll be wondering why your Coffee is weaker than it used to be ;)

After my weeks of research and reading reviews, I determined that the Encore ESP is the best value due to the finer adjustments for dialing in the grind size for espresso. However, I am in the states and not sure how much this costs where you are.

I make espresso maybe twice a year, and really wanted a single grinder that does fine grinding for the few times I need it.

The standard encore should be fine as well, but I don't have experience with it. Don't forget your spritzer for wetting the beans before grinding. Also, the encore is not zero retention so you should figure out a way to get those last few grinds out, I picked up the bellow attachment for the hopper, but I think there are other solutions.

Good luck and remember, you'll be with whatever grinder you choose for a while (unless it breaks) so imagine your future coffee usage as well.

I like my: CUISINART Coffee Grinder, Electric Burr One-Touch Automatic Grinder with18-Position Grind Selector, Stainless Steel, DBM-8P1 Going on year 4 now!

I picked up a 1zpresso jx-pro a couple years ago for around $80 new. I don't know if that's something you would consider to be "too expensive" but it works quite well. Grinding 15g of beans takes seconds and seems to produce consistent grinds.

If you enjoy the process of manual grinding, I really enjoy my 1Zpresso JX Pro. It's a little pricey, but is a joy to use - it's manual but still only takes 30s for a fine grind. I wouldn't use it for espresso, as it doesn't get quite that fine, but it's good for anything else.

You want to get a burr grinder, they're a lot better than blade grinders, but a bit more expensive. I started off with the Barazza Encore, it's a bit loud compared to others and it retains a bit of ground coffee (a few good smacks in the top after you've turned it off loosens it up) but in general it's a great entry level burr grinder. Be aware that it, or a lot of entry level burr grinders, don't have enough power to grind down to espresso level. I had to replace my Encore with a DF64 in order to make espresso.

Not sure what your budget is, but I've been happy with this one.

I had one of these that lasted over 4 years before the motor or gears started rattling while it was grinding. It still worked, but was super noisy, and grinding beans isn't that quiet to start with. I ordered another one and it's had a few little improvements since I bought the first one, although nothing major. Equally happy with the new one.

I'm mainly using it for grinding beans for a french press. Your mileage may vary for other uses but, if I remember correctly, reviews for other uses seemed OK.

Attempting to ask similar question:

I do cold brew but haven't found a grinder that give a consistent grind that's coarse enough.

My current method is to grind as coarse as I can, and then run through a fine mesh sieve. Even then, I end up with a good amount of grounds making it through the mesh container I use for soaking.

Is there a go-to grinder people like for cold brewing?

The cheapest electric grinder you should get is Baratza Encore. That's pretty much it. Options open if you double your price budget (which is a huge ask and.not reasonable for many, don't worry)

The cheapest hand grinders you should get (unless you really have no budget) are the 1zpresso Q2 (single cups of coffee) or a Timemore C3 for pourovers. They are at least the quality of the baratza encore if not slightly better without modifications to the baratza. It literally takes me 30 seconds to grind through 16g of beans. It is night and day from those cheap shitty amazon grinder and also affordable.

Just don't buy from amazon. Amazon sucks, in unethical, puts smaller companies out of business not because it is better, but because it uses its immense wealth to directly copy products but make them worse and sell them at a large loss while losing a ton of money until the smaller company folds then jack up their prices. They also fund illegal Union busting, barely pay even a fraction of their taxes, and use their software side of the company to lock in people and other companies. Not to mention their workers' rights and OSHA safety violations of which are many. They are just untouchable because they have a Disney-tier legal division.

I got the Cuisinart Burr Mill. I use it with the oxo 9 cup. I like that it has a hopper and I can set how much coffee I want to grind and how coarse the grind should be. Push the start button and it's done in about 20 seconds.

Super easy, I love it.