Burr, Blade or Hand-Cranked? The Best Coffee Grinder for Home

A common piece of advice from coffee people is to buy the grinder before the machine. Ground coffee goes stale faster than whole beans, and a grinder that makes even particles lets water pull flavor out evenly. Whether it is café de olla on a Sunday, a pot after a long dinner, or a shot of espresso before work, fresh, even grounds make more difference than most brewers do.

This guide covers nine burr grinders for home kitchens, seven electric and two hand-cranked, from Baratza, OXO, Fellow, Breville, Capresso, 1Zpresso and Timemore. For each we list the burrs, the number of grind settings, the hopper and whether the maker says it grinds fine enough for espresso. Where a figure is not published, we say “Not stated” rather than guess.

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Quick verdict: which coffee grinder to buy

The five standouts are compared in the table below, one for each kind of coffee drinker. All nine grinders are reviewed in full after it.

Five coffee grinders side by side

Burrs, settings and espresso range for our five standout picks, as each maker or Amazon listing gives them.

Product images from Amazon. Burr and setting figures are as each maker or listing states them; “espresso” means the maker says the grinder reaches an espresso grind.

Our picks for the best coffee grinder

These nine grinders cover the ways people make coffee at home: drip machines, pour-over, French press, cold brew and espresso. Some suit one method well; a few cover them all. Each pick says who it suits, lists the specifications that matter, and gives one honest reason to skip it.

How to choose a coffee grinder

Five things decide which grinder suits you. Start with how you brew; the rest follows.

1. Burr or blade

Every pick here is a burr grinder, which crushes beans between two ridged surfaces set a fixed distance apart. America’s Test Kitchen explains that burr grinders “can repeatedly produce evenly ground coffee beans,” while blade grinders “produce more fines than the average burr grinder,” and fines can make coffee taste bitter. ATK also reports that most of its coffee experts could not tell burr- and blade-ground coffee apart in a taste test, so the burr advantage is mainly consistency and control.

A blade grinder still has a place in a Mexican kitchen: grinding spices. A small one such as the KRUPS 3-ounce blade grinder makes quick work of toasted cumin, cloves or dried chiles for a mole or adobo. Keep it for spices and do not share it with coffee; see the best Mexican spices for what to grind, or a mortar and pestle if you prefer to grind by hand.

2. How you brew

Drip, pour-over and French press need a medium to coarse grind and forgive small differences. Espresso needs a fine grind and very small adjustments. If espresso is in your future, buy a grinder with fine steps at that end, such as the Encore ESP, Breville or Opus 2.

3. Electric or manual

Electric grinders are fast and handle a full pot easily. Hand grinders are quiet, portable and often precise for the money, but they take a minute or more of cranking per cup and suit one or two people best.

4. Hopper and dosing

Big hoppers (the OXO’s 12 ounces, the Breville’s 18) suit households that grind for a pot every day. Small single-dose grinders like the Opus 2 suit people who weigh each brew. A timer repeats a dose; a kitchen scale is still the most accurate way to measure beans.

5. Cleaning and parts

Oils and fine grounds build up in every grinder. Tool-free burr access (Encore ESP, Opus 2, 1Zpresso) makes cleaning easier, and Baratza’s sale of spare parts means a worn piece can be replaced instead of the whole machine.

How we picked these nine grinders

We started from what a kitchen needs from a grinder: an even grind, a range that matches how people actually brew, and a machine that is easy to live with. We read America’s Test Kitchen’s burr grinder review and took specifications from each Amazon listing, noting where retailer pages fill a gap. Every pick was in stock on Amazon when we checked, and we searched the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission’s recall database for each electric grinder’s brand and found no recall of these models. ATK’s upgrade pick, the Baratza Sette 270, was not available on Amazon when we checked, so it is not here. We passed over grinders from sellers with no identifiable maker and blade grinders sold as coffee grinders. We have not ground coffee with these grinders for this guide; where we describe how one performs, we say whose findings those are.

Grinding for café de olla and Mexican coffee

Café de olla is simmered rather than dripped: coffee, piloncillo and canela steep together in a clay pot and are strained into cups. That calls for a medium-coarse grind, closer to French press than drip, so the grounds settle and strain out cleanly. Grind just before you add it to the pot. Our guide to the best piloncillo covers the sugar side.

For a drip machine, grind medium, about the texture of coarse sand, and adjust from there: finer if the coffee tastes thin or sour, coarser if it tastes bitter. A burr grinder makes those small changes possible. If you also make Mexican hot chocolate on cold mornings, note that tablets of chocolate are best broken up by hand or melted, not sent through a coffee grinder.

Coffee grinder questions, answered

What is the best coffee grinder for home use?

For most homes, the Baratza Encore ESP. It handles everything from espresso to French press, ATK found it consistent, and Baratza sells replacement parts. If you only brew drip, the OXO Brew Conical Burr Grinder costs less.

What coffee grinder does America’s Test Kitchen recommend?

ATK names the Baratza Encore ESP its winner and the Baratza Sette 270 its upgrade, and recommends the Fellow Opus and Breville Smart Grinder Pro. It recommends the Capresso Infinity with reservations about mess.

Is a burr grinder worth it over a blade grinder?

If you want the same cup every morning, yes. Burr grinders make more even grounds and let you choose a grind size; blade grinders leave it to how long you hold the button. For spices, a blade grinder is fine.

Which coffee grinder brands are best?

Baratza, Breville and Fellow make the electric grinders ATK recommends. 1Zpresso and Timemore are well-known hand grinder makers. Look for a brand that publishes its burr size and sells parts.

Can one grinder do espresso and drip?

Yes, if it has fine steps at the espresso end. The Encore ESP, Breville Smart Grinder Pro, Fellow Opus 2 and 1Zpresso K-Ultra all say they cover both.

How fine should I grind for a drip coffee maker?

Medium, roughly like coarse sand. Start in the middle of your grinder’s range and adjust a step or two at a time by taste.

Our final pick for fresh grounds

Buy the Baratza Encore ESP if you want one grinder that handles every brew method and stays consistent. Choose the OXO for drip coffee on a budget, the Breville Smart Grinder Pro for timed espresso doses, and the 1Zpresso K-Ultra or Timemore C3S if you would rather grind by hand. Pair any of them with a decent drip coffee maker or espresso machine, weigh your beans, and the cup will improve more than a new brewer alone would manage.

More coffee gear we’ve covered: coffee makers, espresso machines, single-serve coffee makers, French presses, pour-over drippers, cold brew makers, milk frothers, coffee mugs, espresso grinders, travel mugs.

Brewing mostly French press? See our guide to the best coffee grinders for French press.

On a budget? See our guide to the best budget coffee grinders.

Prefer to grind by hand? See our picks for the best hand coffee grinders.

Matching the grinder to your brewer? See the best burr grinders for drip coffee and the best conical burr grinders for pour-over.

Want flat burrs at home? See our guide to the best home flat burr grinders.

Related guide: Best ceramic burr coffee grinder.

Related guide: Coffee grinder alternative.

And if you would rather have someone else make breakfast this weekend, see the menu or call to order.