best travel coffee grinder uk

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The 10 Best Coffee Grinders for Travel in 2023 [Espresso, French Press, Pour Over & More]

Amar Hussain

Senior Content Contributor

769 Published Articles

Countries Visited: 63 U.S. States Visited: 9

Keri Stooksbury

Editor-in-Chief

31 Published Articles 3100 Edited Articles

Countries Visited: 45 U.S. States Visited: 28

Do I Need a Coffee Grinder?

Burr grinders vs. blade grinders, things to consider with a coffee grinder, 1. ceramic burrs for a better blend, 2. adjustable burrs for precision grinding, 3. quiet manual grinds for great coffee on the go, 4. instant results after each grind rotation, 5. stainless steel perfection for perfect coffee, 6. a tiny grinder that creates big flavors, 7. big brand quality in compact proportions, 8. the iconic skerton in travel size, 9. easy grinding on the move, 10. grind your coffee anytime,  anywhere, final thoughts.

We may be compensated when you click on product links, such as credit cards, from one or more of our advertising partners. Terms apply to the offers below. See our Advertising Policy for more about our partners, how we make money, and our rating methodology. Opinions and recommendations are ours alone.

If you consider yourself to be a true coffee connoisseur, chances are you won’t want to run the risk of being served up a sub-standard coffee, no matter where you are headed. Thankfully, you are not alone, and in a world where coffee is everything, a travel coffee grinder could be precisely what you are looking for.

A coffee grinder helps you to get the very best out of the most humble of beans. It will change the taste and aroma of the blend and drastically enhance your overall coffee-drinking experience forever.

As well as helping you to feel like the king of your very own coffee kingdom, investing in a travel coffee grinder also means that:

Your Coffee Will Taste Better

Freshly ground coffee tastes so much better than regular old instant coffee. This is in part because beans can better keep all of their essential oils and other chemical constituents intact when they are freshly ground, giving them a fuller flavor and richer aroma.

Instant coffee loses many of these important compounds during the process of drying and freezing, meaning the flavor can diminish during the brewing process. In fact, by the time your jar of instant coffee has been on a supermarket shelf for a few months, it has already started to become stale.

Your Blend Will Be of a Better Quality All-around

The manufacturers of instant coffee often start by using cheaper and lower quality beans, such as the ever-popular Robusta bean, which can taste more bitter than some of the aromatic blends used to brew fresh coffee. When you grind your own, you have complete control over the bean you choose to use , meaning you can easily blend your best-ever beverage.

You Can Fine-tune Your Coffee Making Skills Over Time

Never mind begging your barista for an extra shot of the superstrong stuff to kickstart your day — brew your best coffee wherever and whenever you want. As you become more and more proficient at grinding and get to know which beans taste best, you can tweak every blend to suit your individual taste requirements.

You will also learn how to control the coffee extraction process and find ways to pull out those deeper notes and when to pour the perfect cup of coffee before those bitter tannins start to kick in.

Hot Tip:  Looking for the perfect companion for your new travel grinder? Check out our post on the best portable travel coffee makers and the best travel mugs .

Once you decide to improve your coffee-drinking experience, you will soon discover a diverse world of flavors and different ways to make your favorite drink taste rich and smooth, just as it should.

You can choose from either a burr grinder or a blade grinder to make your perfect blend, and both will do a pretty good job of making the best cup of coffee you have ever tasted.

Before you decide which to buy, here is a quick guide to the pros and cons of both:

Burr Grinders

A burr grinder has 2 sets of abrasive surfaces — known as “burrs” — that are used to grind the coffee. Teeny, tiny bits of coffee get stuck in between the burrs, and the smaller the distance between them, the finer the grind.

While burr grinders can be more expensive to buy, they do pretty much guarantee a more uniform grind, giving you a richer, fuller flavor in every cup.

Bottom Line: Real coffee connoisseurs swear by the burr grinder for a more sophisticated taste and aroma.

Blade Grinders

A blade grinder has a central blade that is similar to a food blender. The rotating blades slice up the beans into grounds, offering a somewhat crude but effective cutting process. This process can also create dust that can make your coffee taste a little bitter.

While a blade grinder will give you coffee that is a step up from that pre-ground instant stuff, a burr grinder enables you to get all the best bits of the bean.

Before you commit to a new coffee grinder for your next adventure, consider the following:

Size and Weight

When you are out on the road, size does matter. Your travel coffee grinder will need to be small enough to fit into your bag or suitcase, and light enough to never weigh you down . The shape is also important as narrow and compact grinders are much easier to shoehorn into tight spaces than curvy-looking hourglass models.

It is also worth noting that despite their small stature, their moving components and sturdy build can make them a little on the heavy side.

Bottom Line: Before you commit, gauge the size and weight to make sure it is portable before you get swept away by a grinder’s good looks and swanky glass and metal design.

Material and Durability

Fancy-looking coffee grinders may look awesome in the kitchen but could be a potential disaster when tucked away inside your luggage. When you are buying a coffee grinder to take on your travels with you, it needs to be strong and durable and made from materials that will last the distance.

Stainless steel grinders are a good bet , provided that they are not super heavy. BPA-free plastic grinders are also an excellent choice for taking away with you, provided that they do not contain glass pieces to make them look pretty.

Manual vs. Electric

Electric coffee grinders are a useful addition to your state-of-the-art kitchen, but they may not be of much help to you when you are on vacation. When it comes to life on the open road, manual or rechargeable grinders are what you will need.

Rechargeable grinders come complete with a small cable and a rechargeable battery. They are lightweight, hold their charge pretty efficiently, and can be plugged into a USB phone charger or similar. Good old-fashioned manual grinders will let you create brilliant beans, even out in the wilds, and are powered by elbow grease alone.

Noise and Speed

The sound of your grinder working away can be reassuring to some, as they know something good is coming, or an annoyance to others, as they can be a little on the noisy side.

A manual grinder will usually be quieter than an all-singing-all-dancing electronic one , but at the same time, manual appliances are more likely to bounce around on your countertop or makeshift work surface.

The speed at which you get your brew will depend very much on the type of grinder you go for. Blade grinders have 1 continual blender that goes quite fast, giving them a slight advantage over manual burr grinders, but in general, a great cup of coffee should only take between 2 to 3 minutes to grind to perfection.

Grind Options

French pressed, finely ground, or coarse — the way you grind can make a massive difference in the way your coffee looks, tastes, and smells. Most grinders will offer adjustable settings so you can grind it just the way you like it.

Bottom Line: Some grinders are designed purely with 1 type of grind in mind, like the French presses, for example, while others will give you a whole host of grind-type options.

The 10 Best Coffee Grinders for Travel

Because not all coffee grinders are made equal, here is our guide to some of the very best out there:

JavaPresse Conical Burr Mill

Made from brushed stainless steel metal, this great-looking and incredibly portable coffee grinder offers over 18 click settings to ensure that you have complete control over the coarseness of your coffee beans. The crank handle is smooth and quiet, and it is so easy to use that you will always be able to grind on the go.

Complete with the JavaPresse-patented ceramic combo burrs, this extremely high-quality conical burr mill is designed to last up to 5 times as long as regular stainless steel grinders.

Perfect for plane journeys, long drives, and even camping trips, this little grinder is energy efficient and quiet as a mouse, while still being able to grind your beans to perfection, wherever you may be.

What We Like

• Quiet to grind and doesn’t require a power source

What We Don’t Like

• No indicator to identify the different grind settings

1Zpresso JX Manual Coffee Grinder

Designed to offer an even grind, every time, this burr coffee grinder is perfect for smooth blends on the go. Adjustable with over 40 click settings , you’re able to grind to the exact level of coarseness that you are looking for. Choose from the French press and cold brew, pour-over, or even Turkish blends for excellent coffee both at home and away.

Being cordless and completely portable, you can take this anywhere with you, and it is perfect for grinding fresh, delicious, whole-bean coffee that tastes and smells so much better than a regular instant cup of joe.

The estimated life of this grinder is 300 kilograms of general use, and it comes with a 1-year warranty for peace of mind.

• Grind settings are numbered
• Doesn’t include any instructions

Silva Manual Coffee Grinder

For precise brewing, even on the move, this travel manual coffee grinder comes complete with a built-in adjustable grind selector to help you find your perfect level of coarseness from 18 click settings. Small, completely compact, and with no need for a battery , this is a great grinder for anyone who wants coffee on their next camping trip, long-haul journey, or trip outdoors.

Made with high-grade stainless steel and ceramic combo burrs, the components are built to last, are rust-proof, and are strong enough to withstand the general wear and tear of travel. Manually operated, this little beauty is much quieter than using an electric grinder.

Just right for anyone looking to blend their own French press, espresso, Turkish, cold brew, Chemex, Keurig K-Cup, percolator, or AeroPress coffee, this is an affordable and effortlessly cool travel coffee grinder.

• It’s small and portable
• Can take a while to grind your coffee

KONA Manual Coffee Grinder

Offering over 18 click settings to ensure you always have absolute control over your perfect brew, this  KONA Manual Coffee Grinder  is a great choice for even greater coffee on the go. Control the precision of your pour-over, drip, cold brew, French press, percolator, or espresso just by stowing this incredibly compact and easy-to-use grinder with you on your next adventure.

Without the need for batteries or power cables, you can be free to brew your ground coffee beans when you go camping, take a long journey, or have just a weekend away.

With a clear, glass jar to capture your ground beans, you can instantly see the results after each grind rotation, and when you’re done, the ergonomically-designed handle detaches for easy and compact storage.

• Has 18 grind settings for varying coarseness
• The clear glass bottom can be easily broken when traveling

Bretani Manual Coffee Grinder

This inexpensive, portable coffee grinder has a brushed finish stainless steel body and ceramic burrs for highly durable coffee grinding. It also comes with a velvet travel bag to keep it safe from scratches in transit and a handy grinder cleaning brush.

Whether you are camping or backpacking, this compact grinder is up to 90% quieter than an electric grinder, so you enjoy your coffee without disturbing those around you.

Each grinder includes a chart with popular grind settings, and you can use the built-in adjustable grind selector to fine-tune to the right level of coarseness.

• Comes with a bag for easy storage
• The plastic handle on the grinding arm can sometimes break

Hario Ceramic Coffee Mill “Mini-Slim Plus”

This compact portable coffee grinder is small in stature but big on taste. The new and improved design offers a unique, reinforced hexagonal adapter that allows for an increased grind consistency and reduces wear and tear on the coffee mill.

Easy to adjust to find the right grind coarseness to suit your tastes, you can choose from coarse ground French press to supersmooth Turkish blends and everything in between with this little grinder.

The small, lightweight, and incredibly slim design makes this a good choice for making great-tasting coffee on the go, and it works well for long journeys, camping trips, and even at work or away from home. It can be used to make up to 2 delicious cups of coffee, and it can also be stored without the handle, making it even easier to stow away on the go.

• Made of sturdy materials for travel
• Can be some inconsistencies in the grind

Porlex Mini Stainless Steel Coffee Grinder

The Porlex coffee grinder remains one of the most popular portable coffee grinders on the market. This latest edition comes complete with a new shape handle connector to prevent wear and slippage, and perfectly circular ceramic burrs that ensure consistent grinds, whatever the setting.

The stainless steel outer casing is incredibly easy to clean, sturdy, and resilient , making it perfect for use on the road. The new and improved handle is designed to produce supersmooth grinds, and the grinder is adjusted by twisting the locking nut on the bottom to find the perfect grind setting.

Packaged with a rubber sleeve for easy storage in transit, this is a great little coffee grinder to take with you on your next camping trip, vacation, or business trip.

• Great value coffee grinder
• Grind adjustment nut often requires tightening

Hario Ceramic Coffee Mill – “Skerton”

The iconic “Skerton” grinder from Hario continues to be another of the most popular grinders on the market. Offering the ultimate taste experience for lovers of fresh coffee, you can make great grinds, even on the go.

High-quality ceramic burrs offer superior durability over traditional steel ones, and the adjustable grind size makes it super easy to find the precise grind for your perfect blend. The well-built design, with a robust glass chamber and ergonomic grips, makes this little grinder strong enough to take the knocks of travel while being compact enough to stow in your luggage.

Affordable and easy to use, the Skerton is a great grinder for anyone who loves good coffee. The powerful ceramic burrs won’t overheat your grounds no matter how long you grind, and the large capacity means anyone can find a way to make great coffee using this little grinder.

• Parts are easy to clean
• The handle can come loose when using

Cordless USB Rechargeable Coffee Grinder

Perfect for making great coffee on the go, this electric coffee grinder is cordless for when there’s no electricity and is USB-chargeable for up to 3 hours of grinding on a full charge. The handy battery indicator will ensure that you’ll never be caught out, and with a USB connection, you can charge up your coffee grinder using your laptop, power bank , or even your car .

Although not as small as most manual grinders, it’s still compact and sturdy enough to pop in your luggage, and there are no power cords that need tucking away.

The food-grade, stainless steel blade is powered by a low-noise motor, meaning you won’t wake your fellow travelers until their boiling hot coffee is ready. For lovers of a French press, pour-over, or espresso, this portable coffee grinder comes with recommended grinding times to achieve your desired coarseness.

• Holds its charge very well
• No adjustable grind settings

DmofwHi USB Rechargeable Cordless  Coffee Grinder

This portable little coffee grinder is perfect for a camping trip, at the office, or just for quick use at home without the need to be plugged in. Measuring just 3.5 x 3.5 x 7.48 inches, it’s small enough to take on your travels, and the USB rechargeable battery allows you to whip it out whenever you’re in the mood for a cup of coffee.

With a one-touch operation, you can grind your beans how you need them simply by altering the duration from 10 to 15 seconds. If you’re an early bird, you don’t need to worry about waking up your fellow campers as the low-noise motor makes for quieter grinding.

It comes with a removable grinding bowl that can hold over 5 ounces of coffee to make around 12 cups. Cleaning after use is a breeze by rinsing out the stainless steel bowl or using the brush that comes with this grinder.

• Easy to clean
•  Could hold its charge for longer

The ability to grind great coffee on the go should be a priority for any true coffee connoisseur. Never be at the mercy of your barista ever again with a travel grinder that lets you blend the perfect brew wherever you may be — as well as fit easily into your carry-on or checked bag !

Burr grinders have the edge over their blade-heavy counterparts, and a truly travel-friendly grinder is one that makes very little noise, can be operated without the need for pesky electricity, and offers you complete control over your grind power.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are manual coffee grinders good.

Many coffee experts believe that manual coffee grinders have the edge over their electric counterparts. This is because you can control your grind speed easier, which means that you create far less heat during the grinding process. Manual coffee grinders also tend to make far less noise.

What is the difference between a burr grinder and blade grinder?

Burr grinders are considered better, yet are slightly more expensive than blade grinders. Blade grinders work similarly to a food processor with blades that chop or slice up the beans. This can lead to dust being created during the grinding process and create a bitter coffee.

Burr grinders on the other hand use burrs which are abrasive surfaces that the coffee is ground between. Burr grinders give a more uniform grind , and the best coffee grinders will have up to 18 different grind settings.

Is a coffee grinder worth it?

Some might argue that a coffee grinder is the most important piece of equipment for making great coffee. A coffee grinder means that you can make better-tasting coffee and get the best out of each bean. A coffee grinder will also allow you greater control of how your coffee is ground, meaning you can refine your coffee to your specific tastes.

Are manual coffee grinders better than electric?

Manual coffee grinders are usually small and portable, so they are perfect for grinding coffee on your travels. Although they require some elbow grease, they can be significantly cheaper than purchasing an electric grinder and often provide the same results.

What is the best hand coffee grinder?

The iconic “Skerton” grinder from Hario continues to be one of the most popular grinders on the market. Offering the ultimate taste experience for lovers of fresh coffee, you can make great grinds even on the go.

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About Amar Hussain

Amar is an avid traveler and tester of products. He has spent the last 13 years traveling all 7 continents and has put the products to the test on each of them. He has contributed to publications including Forbes, the Huffington Post, and more.

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10 Best Coffee Grinders in the UK in 2024: Reviews & Top Picks

Getting the right coffee grinder can make the difference between a decent cup of coffee and a great cup that is aromatic and offers all the flavours that the bean boasts. Typically, burr grinders give the best and most consistent grinding results, but they cost more than blade grinders, which do a decent job on a budget. And then there are manual grinders, which require quite a bit of effort to ensure consistently good results but can be used when camping or in other situations where there is no power. They also give a sense of manual satisfaction that some home baristas love.

Below, you can find reviews of 10 of the best coffee grinders in the UK including manual and electrical, bur, and blade grinders to cover all budgets and all preferences and help you enjoy the best cup of coffee.

• A Quick Comparison of Our Favourites in 2024

The 10 Best Coffee Grinders in the UK

• 1. TwoMeow Coffee Grinder – Best Overall

The TwoMeow Coffee Grinder is a reasonably priced electric blade grinder. It allows you to add a reasonable amount of coffee and then set the grinder to operate for between 0–30 seconds, offering any grind from coarse to fine espresso. The timer is not only convenient because it means that you don’t have to hold the button down, but it means that once you achieve the grind consistency you want. You can get the same results next time by grinding for the same time. The results aren’t perfectly consistent, but they are close.

TwoMeow says that the extra distance between the grinder blade and the coffee beans means that they undergo a thorough grind while still maintaining the aroma and full flavour of the beans.

It claims to be a quiet grinder that can grind enough for up to 10 cups of coffee at a time, and the grinder cup is easily removed and is dishwasher safe. While blade grinders don’t offer the same consistency and regularity as burr grinders, the TwoMeow is a cost-effective electric option with a decent capacity and a good range of grind times, making it the best available coffee grinder in the UK.

• Grind timer is convenient and helps ensure more consistent results
• Cup can be removed and is dishwasher safe
• Can be used as a general all-purpose grinder
• Doesn’t grind as consistently uniform as a burr grinder
• 2. Maison & White Manual Coffee Grinder – Best Value

Although electric grinders tend to be quicker, easier, and provide more consistent results, it is difficult to deny that manual grinders do offer a certain sense of satisfaction, and they make you feel more involved in the coffee-making process. They also work with no power, which makes them a useful tool for camping, hiking, or anywhere else where there might not be access to electricity. They’re also quieter.

The Maison & White Manual Coffee Bean Grinder is an inexpensive manual grinder that uses a crank handle. It can be set to different coarseness levels in much the same way that you set the coarseness on a pepper grinder, and it will hold approximately 50 grams of coffee in the feeder with about five times the capacity in the bottom container. If you are hoping for espresso fine ground coffee, though, you should be prepared to crank the handle for some time.

With its really low cost, decent durability, and its ease of use, the Maison & White Manual Coffee Bean Grinder is the best coffee grinder in the UK for the money and is ideal for its mobility and convenience. However, if you regularly grind your own coffee, it may prove too much hassle to manually grind coffee.

• Manual grinder doesn’t need power
• Quieter than electric grinders
• Takes a lot of grinding if you want a fine or espresso-level ground coffee
• 3. Sage Smart Grinder Pro Coffee Grinder – Premium Choice

The Sage Smart Grinder Pro Coffee Grinder is a serious coffee grinder with a serious price tag. It is a conical burr grinder, which has 60 different grind settings and allows you to control the time of the grind in 0.2-second increments and determine the amount of ground coffee you want. You can even choose between shots or cups, depending on whether you’re preparing espresso or brewed coffee.

It uses a conical burr grinder, which ensures an even grind and provides consistently good results every time you have coffee delivered, and it can be delivered to your choice of a paper filter, airtight container, or portafilter. The Smart Grinder has an LCD screen that displays all of your chosen settings, and there is a dial and two buttons to control the grinder on the front, as well as another dial on the side.

The Sage Smart Grinder Pro Coffee Grinder is an expensive grinder, and it does take up nearly as much room as some smaller coffee machines. But with some experimentation, it allows you to achieve exactly the coarseness of ground coffee you want and in the quantity you require. Plus, it provides consistently good results without damaging the coffee beans too much.

• Multiple settings enable you to customise your ground coffee how you want it
• Electrical settings and conical burr ensure consistent results
• 540-gram hopper capacity means it holds a lot of beans
• Very expensive
• Takes up quite a lot of room
• 4. De’Longhi Coffee Grinder KG79

The De’Longhi Coffee Grinder KG79 is sold as a burr grinder, although it doesn’t really use true burrs to grind instead of using burr wheels. These wheels do offer a slightly more even grind than a blade grinder, but still not as good as a true burr. Nevertheless, the De’Longhi Coffee Grinder KG79 is decently priced, has 17 grind settings and 12 dose settings, and it has a 120-gram hopper capacity and can grind the full 120 grams in one go, which provides roughly enough grounds for 12 cups of coffee, depending on your preferences.

The grinder does claim to be able to grind to an espresso coarseness, but you won’t enjoy full flavour extraction from the resulting grounds.

This is a decent option for those that don’t want to splash out on a proper burr grinder, but it isn’t the best option for the espresso aficionado, and it does tend to produce some really fine powder even when you choose the coarsest setting. This can cause problems clogging up your coffee filter.

• Decent price for an electric grinder
• Can grind up to 12 cups of coffee in one go
• 17 grind and 12 dose settings offer good control of coffee output
• Produces a fine powder, even at coarse settings, that can clog up filters
• Not a true burr grinder and doesn’t produce the same quality results as one
• 5. Sage Dose Control Pro Grinder

The Sage Dose Control Pro Grinder is a conical burr grinder that lets you set the fineness of the ground and uses a conical burr design to ensure that you can grind to a decent fineness for the best espresso flavour.

You can control the dose level, although this is done using the timer, rather than by weight. It can take some getting used to, and if you use different beans and different settings, you will find that you need to alter the timer settings to ensure that you get the desired dose. It is a little inconvenient if you do make different coffees, as it can take some getting used to. It’s especially odd considering the name of this machine is the Dose Control Grinder Pro. The Sage is also quite expensive, but you are paying for a proper burr grinder, so that is to be expected. There are also some problems with the impeller, which pushes the grinds away from the burr, starting to shed plastic when it gets worn down.

• Conical burr ensures the beans don’t get too hot when grinding
• Can grind fine enough to make good espresso
• Dose and fineness can be controlled
• Expensive for an entry-level burr grinder
• Some problems with the plastic impeller breaking over time
• 6. Melitta Grinder Calibra

The Melitta Grinder Calibra is an entry-level conical burr grinder that is cheaper than most other conical burrs and only a little more expensive than some of the blade machines. With that said, it doesn’t quite achieve the same fine ground espresso that the more expensive grinders can produce. The hopper capacity is 375 grams, and perhaps the most notable feature of this machine is that it has scales on the base that can be used to weigh the amount of coffee you grind. The scales aren’t super accurate, though, and if you use a portafilter rather than an airtight or other container placed on the base, the Calibra obviously won’t be able to weigh the amount of coffee.

The Calibra is a good choice for brewed and pour-over coffee drinkers, but like all but seemingly the most expensive, it will struggle to produce a fine enough ground coffee for espresso filters.

• Weighing scales on the base
• Cheap for a burr grinder
• LCD display makes it easy to track what you’re doing
• Finest setting still not fine enough for espresso
• Scales are useless if you use a portafilter
• 7. Duronic Electric Blade Coffee Grinder

The Duronic Electric Blade Coffee Grinder is an electric blade grinder with a 250-watt motor. You can place up to 75 grams of beans in the machine and then operate it by pushing the top down until it is ground to the coarseness you want. This manual technique means that it can be difficult to consistently achieve the results you want while the blade operation, even with the reasonable 250-watt motor, will not be able to grind beans fine enough to make espresso.

Ground coffee is collected in a stainless-steel bowl. Plastic bowls can become electrostatically charged which means that they cling on to some of the ground coffee, but this isn’t a problem with a stainless-steel one like is found in the Duronic.

The Duronic is a good price, and it is suitable for those that like precise control over how long they grind beans, but it isn’t the best option for espresso drinkers or if you want to ensure the same uniform results every grind.

• Decent price for a grinder
• 250-watt motor is reasonably powerful
• Stainless-steel bowl doesn’t hold on to your coffee grounds
• Won’t make espresso-fine grounds
• Manual operation means it’s difficult to get consistently similar results
• 8. Gaggia MD15 Coffee Grinder

The Gaggia MD15 Coffee Grinder is another entry-level conical burr grinder, so it does a better job of grinding beans than blade grinders but can still struggle with grinding really fine espresso. It has 15 grinding options, including an espresso setting which produces decent coffee in a machine with a pressurised basket.

It also has a 300-gram hopper and a timer that enables you to grind the right amount of coffee for your brew. The Gaggia is an attractive coffee grinder, and it does a good job for certain espresso machines, pour-over, and brewed coffee, all at a decent price. It’s also quieter than blade machines.

• Conical burr grinds beans well for all but the finest espresso
• 15 grinding options to get the right setting for you
• Good price for a conical burr
• Struggles with really fine espresso grounds
• 9. Cuisinart Burr Mill

The Cuisinart Burr Mill is a conical burr grinder with an entry-level price tag. It is a fairly basic grinder, but while that means that it might be lacking LCD screens and additional features of more expensive grinders, it also makes it easy to operate and keeps the cost down.

Like most affordable burr grinders, it struggles to produce espresso grounds that are fine enough for use in a non-pressurised portafilter but produces good coffee grounds for any other style of machine. It has a 250-gram hopper and, as well as 18 grinding settings, it also allows you to choose between 4–18 cups worth of grounds. The chamber and container can be easily removed and put in the dishwasher, too, but it is a noisy grinder and tends to cause quite a mess during use, however.

• Affordable burr grinder
• Easy to operate
• Hopper and container are dishwasher safe
• Makes a lot of mess during use
• Not good for fine espresso grounds
• 10. Barista & Co Core Electric All Coffee Grinder

The Barista & Co. Core Electric All Coffee Grinder is a conical burr grinder that is on the upper end of the entry-level price tag for this type. Although early models of this grinder struggled to get espresso fine enough for a single-walled espresso filter, the company claims that newer models will grind finer, and it should work with all espresso machines.

This machine uses smaller grinders than most other models, giving a more consistent grind uniformity. It does have a plastic container, though, which will grab hold of ground coffee and refuse to relinquish the last few dregs. The timer, which offers 10-second increments, could do with some more settings, though, because holding down the button for smaller time slots than every 10 seconds is inconvenient.

The Barista & Co. Core Electric All Coffee Grinder is a reasonable conical burr grinder at a reasonable price, but it does have a few cons.

• Company says that new models of the machine will grind even finer beans
• Smaller conical burrs provide more particular uniformity
• Ground coffee sticks to the plastic coffee holder
• Coffee tends to spill
• Would benefit from more time increments

Buyer’s Guide: Selecting the Best Coffee Grinder in the UK

If you’re looking at buying a coffee grinder, chances are that you already own a coffee machine and are either replacing an existing grinder or are looking for ways to get more flavour and enjoyment from your favourite hot drink. Good coffee beans ground in a good coffee grinder can produce a much better-tasting coffee than pre-ground, and grinding beans for every cup or every couple of cups of coffee ensures that they are fresh when you use them.

• Benefits of Using a Coffee Grinder

There are plenty of ground coffee options available to the consumer, so why bother buying and using a separate grinder?

• As soon as coffee is opened, it starts to oxidise, losing some of its flavour to the air. Although beans will go stale, it takes a lot longer, and with a grinder, you will know how long the coffee has been ground. Not only does coffee lose its primary taste, once exposed to air, but it loses the extra flavour characters and oils.
• You can control the fineness or coarseness of the coffee and you can alter it according to the beans and according to the type of coffee you want to drink. Pre-ground options tend to be limited to fine, medium, or coarse grind, whereas some coffee machines have a virtually limitless number of grind settings.
• As well as losing its flavour to the air, coffee can also take on the flavour of other things in the kitchen. This can be prevented, to an extent, by storing ground coffee in an airtight container, but some contamination is still not unusual. Grinding beans fresh for every cup helps negate this problem.
• Types of Coffee Grinders

There are various types of grinders on the market, and the ideal type for you will depend on the type of coffee you prefer and the results you seek. The most common types are:

• Electric Blade Grinders: Electric blade grinders have a rotating blade inside the container. As the beans are hit by the blade, they are cut and smashed into smaller pieces. These are inexpensive and are usually very easy to operate, but they can’t produce a fine enough grind consistently enough to produce the best espresso. Blades can heat up, especially when attempting to cut down to a fine particle size, and this can change the flavour of the coffee. These are best for cafetieres and brewed coffee.
• Grinding Wheel Grinders: A grinding wheel grinder, or flat burr grinder, is, literally speaking, a type of burr grinder. It uses a disc-shaped burr, rather than a conical one, however, and this type of design tends to suffer the same problems as the blade grinder. It can’t produce a consistently fine espresso grind, despite costing more than good blade grinders. Again, these are best for medium to coarse ground coffees such as coffee made in a French press.
• Conical Burr Grinders: The conical burr grinder uses a similar gear technique to grinding wheel grinders but the burrs, or gears, are conically shaped. They don’t heat or scorch the beans during grinding, can produce a finer and more consistent powder for espressos, and may be able to grind larger volumes of coffee. Conical burr grinders are a good choice for single-walled basket espresso machines and are usually the most expensive type of coffee grinder.
• Manual Grinders: A manual grinder has a crank handle that you have to turn manually rather than being electric powered. They typically use a conical burr and are a budget-friendly way of getting burr-ground espresso powder without having to pay hundreds of pounds for an expensive electric machine. But they do require some effort on your part and can usually grind enough for one or two espressos. These are best for espresso machines, those on a budget that still want good coffee, and where electricity isn’t available.
• What to Look For

As well as choosing the type of grinder, there are other features to consider when buying.

Grind Settings

Grinders offer some way to control the coarseness of the grind and most offer a range between fine, which is suitable for espresso machines, and coarse, which is typically used in French presses. Be aware that unless it is a conical burr grinder, the espresso setting is likely meant for double-walled filter espresso machines and not the traditional style of single-walled filters.

Dose Control

Whether you’re making a morning espresso or filling the pour-over machine with enough coffee for the whole family, you will ideally want to be able to grind enough coffee in one go. Some of the smaller grinders, especially manual ones, can only grind enough for one or two shots of espresso or cups of brewed coffee. Others can grind enough for up to ten cups. Some have cup-based settings while others let you alter the amount of time that the grinder grinds for, ultimately making it a manual dose control.

If you enjoy the journey of making the perfect cup of coffee for yourself, you may enjoy a manual machine or, at least, one with a lot of different time or dosing settings.

Hopper Capacity

The hopper is the section of the coffee grinder where the unground beans are placed. Some hoppers can be used to store the beans and should be UV protected to ensure the beans don’t degrade while waiting to be used. Capacity can range from enough beans for one or two espressos to several hundred grams, which is enough to hold even the largest bag of coffee beans.

• How to Store Coffee Beans

Whether you are storing ground coffee that you have ground yourself or the beans you will be grinding down later, keep them in an airtight container to prevent oxidation or further dehydration. Store the container in a dark, cool place and do not sit it in direct sunlight. Although many people store their coffee in the fridge, this increases the likelihood of the coffee becoming contaminated with the smells and flavours of other ingredients. It is also more likely to get damp and be ruined.

It is surprising the difference that having your own coffee grinder can make. No matter how good the quality of your pre-ground coffee is, grinding your own beans always means fresher coffee. This means that your coffee will retain more flavour, have a deeper aroma, and will stay fresh for longer, too. But there are many different grinders on the market. Hopefully, our reviews of the best coffee grinders in the UK, and the guide to buying one, have helped you find the ideal model for your coffee-making journey.

We found the TwoMeow to be the best overall grinder. It is a blade grinder, so isn’t suitable for fine espresso, but it is affordable and does a good job on all other grounds. The Maison & White Manual Coffee Grinder is not only the cheapest on our list, but it is even a conical burr grinder. It is also a manual grinder, though, which is beneficial for portability and cost but means some effort to use it.

See Also:   10 Best Travel Mugs in the UK: Reviews & Top Picks

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Best coffee grinder 2023: Our favourite manual and automatic grinders

• Danielle Amato
• Gareth Thomas

Take your next step towards coffee nirvana by grinding your own beans

Finding the best coffee grinder for your artisan beans can be a bit of a revelation. Much as we like the convenience of pods or the ease of using pre-ground coffee, nothing beats freshly-ground beans when it comes to a great-tasting cup. The best coffee grinders bring out all the right flavors and aromas in your coffee beans and are easy to use too.

While some ground coffee can be very good, once it’s roasted and ground it inevitably goes stale, the oil in the beans evaporating as the coffee is packed and stored. Vacuum-packing helps preserve the taste and aroma, but pre-ground coffee will never match the smell and flavour of coffee you grind, minutes before brewing, for yourself.

You get a richer, stronger-flavoured brew that reflects the subtle differences between different origins, blends and roasts. Moreover, you can control the grind, enabling you to mill coarse grinds for a filter machine or press, or finer grinds for an espresso machine or stove-top espresso maker.

While it’s a bit more effort than just scooping grounds out of a tin or bag, grinding beans doesn’t have to be a hassle; our recommended coffee grinders give you great, predictable results in minutes – and once you’ve tried the grind, you won’t go back.

READ NEXT: Our favourite kitchen knives

Best coffee grinder: At a glance

• Best manual handheld grinder: Hario Skerton Pro | Buy now
• Best budget automatic grinder: Krups Expert GVX231 | Buy now
• Best grinder for versatility: Sage Dose Control Pro | Buy now
• Best grinder for precision: Baratza Sette 270 | Buy now
• Best grinder for cold brew: Cuisinart DBM8U Burr Mill | Buy now
• A sleek and stylish electric burr grinder: Barista & Co Core | Buy now

How to choose the best coffee grinder for you

What should i look for in a coffee grinder.

Some automatic grinders are pretty simple: you add beans to a hopper, set the coarseness of the grind and hit a button. Others, however, will have a dial for setting how many cups you want to make, or smart, digital controls that allow you to select number of cups, strength or dosage per-cup, and the size of the grind, before dispensing the freshly-ground coffee into the filter or espresso machine handle of your choice.

More expensive grinders will give you finer control over the grind, higher capacities and sometimes larger burrs, which are supposed to produce even less heat than normal burrs, minimising the impact of the milling process on the taste of the final coffee.

If you’re grinding for espresso and want to get the best possible quality and consistency from your coffee, then it goes without saying that opting for a budget grinder is not going to be your best option. Even many good burr grinders are not designed to grind coffee fine enough for a manual espresso machine, so look out particularly for ones that are. After all, if you’ve invested in a decent coffee machine, then it makes sense to do the same for your grinder.

However, as always with such things, you have to balance the costs against your desire for ultimate flavour and – frankly – whether you’ll be able to tell the difference on the average day. While well-heeled connoisseurs can afford to spend big, most of us have to be a little more realistic.

How much do I need to spend?

Automatic burr grinders begin at around £35 and the prices rise up beyond £500 to £900 for the most deluxe models. At the top of the range, you’re paying for style, consistency, excellent build quality and smart grinding features, but if you just want a great-tasting coffee you don’t have to pay anywhere near so much.

If budget is your absolute top priority, you might choose to opt for a blade grinder, and we’ve made it a point to include one in our roundup below. However, if you care about the consistency and quality of your coffee, and particularly if you’re already spending a lot of money on the beans themselves, you should ultimately choose a burr grinder for the best result.

READ NEXT: Best coffee machine accessories

What other features should I look for?

Some automatic grinders are pretty simple: you add beans to a hopper, set the coarseness of the grind and hit a button. Others, however, will have a dial for setting how many cups you want to make or smart, digital controls that allow you to select number of cups, strength or dosage per-cup and the size of the grind, before dispensing the freshly-ground coffee into the filter or espresso machine handle of your choice.

As always with such things, you have to balance the costs against your desire for ultimate flavour and – frankly – whether you’ll be able to tell the difference on the average day. While well-heeled connoisseurs can afford to spend big, most of us have to be a little more realistic.

How we test coffee grinders

To test coffee grinders, we start with a large bag of good quality, freshly roasted coffee beans. We then take the time to adjust each grinder’s grind settings to suit a variety of different brewing methods. Whether we’re after a coarse grind for cafetieres, a medium grind for filter coffee, or a fine grind for manual espresso, we look to see if a grinder can produce the kind of consistency which is essential for great-tasting coffee. We also take into account ease of use and cleaning, hopper capacity and any other extra features such as preset dosage sizes or portafilter attachments.

READ NEXT: The best coffee machines to buy

The best coffee grinders to buy

1. hario skerton pro coffee grinder: the best manual handheld coffee grinder.

The obvious downside to this is that you’ll need to grind your coffee by hand, which can either be a frustratingly arduous task or a great wrist workout to accompany your morning routine, depending on how you look at it.

Either way, the Hario Skerton Pro is perhaps the best hand grinder around. Although it’s compact, the hopper can hold up to 60g of coffee beans, which the ceramic burrs grind into the glass container beneath. The grind container can then be unscrewed and even sealed with the included lid.

Compared to the Skerton Plus that we previously featured in our roundup, the Pro offers improved grind adjustment (this is done by tightening or loosening the nut underneath the spring-loaded burrs themselves), as well as a thicker handle and an anti-slip rubber grip for ease of grinding. And at under £50, it’s an affordable alternative to some of the many electric grinders available. Although, if you wanted something cheaper, there’s a slimmer version of the Skerton currently available for £25 .

Key specs – Type: Hand coffee grinder; Burrs: Ceramic; Controls: Adjustable grind; Capacity: 60g; Dimensions (LWH): 10.4 x 9.9 x 20.6cm

Hario MMCS-2B Skerton PRO Coffee Mill | Large Adjustable Hand Coffee Grinder With Ceramic Burrs, Transparent & Black

2. lavazza coffee grinder: best manual grinder for easy adjustment.

This sleek and slim hand grinder from Lavazza can’t hold quite as many beans as the Hario Skerton featured above (we managed to comfortably fit about 18g into the small hopper), but it’s a neat little tool for your kitchen, with one notable advantage over the Skerton: its ease of adjustment.

On the Lavazza griner, you can switch between six grind size levels via a simple dial. This process is remarkably easier than with the Skerton, which requires you to unscrew the handle and loosen/tighten a screw in order to change the grind size. Thanks to its preset grind levels, it’s also easier to judge how fine or coarse you’re grinding (although the Skerton does perhaps allow for more minute adjustments to be made).

Beyond this, the two grinders are similar, with a glass container that can be unscrewed from the grinder itself. However, here the handle is attached to a lid, which will need to be slotted on top of the hopper. This prevents any bean fragments from escaping mid-grind. It’s pretty secure, but it’s important to take care when grinding (this means keeping it upright in your hands, unless you want coffee beans all over the floor).

At £59, it’s certainly not the cheapest manual coffee grinder, and the Hario Skerton fairly trumps it on bean capacity for less than this. But, if you’re after a neat, compact hand grinder that can be easily adjusted to suit your grind preferences, this is a great option.

Key specs – Type: Hand coffee grinder; Burrs: TBC; Controls: Adjustable grind dial; Capacity: Around 18g; Dimensions (HWD): 20 x 12 x 12cm

Buy now from Lavazza

3. Krups Expert GVX231 Burr Coffee Grinder: The best budget automatic grinder

The Krups Expert Burr Coffee Grinder is about as affordable as a decent burr grinder gets. It’s compact, quick and very easy to use, with one dial selecting between 17 levels of grind and another allowing you to grind enough beans for between two and twelve cups. The good-sized hopper has an airtight lid and the grounds emerge into a plastic container at the bottom. Afterward, the upper burr can be removed for easy cleaning.

The Krups doesn’t suffer from the problem of many budget grinders – an inability to deliver a fine espresso grind – but it struggles at the other end, with some users complaining that they can’t get a coarse grind. Still, if you want great, fresh espresso on a limited budget, you won’t get better than this.

Key specs – Type: Automatic coffee grinder; Burrs: Stainless steel; Controls: 17-position grind, 1 to 12 cups; Capacity: 225g; Dimensions (WDH): 125 x 160 x 260mm

Krups GVX231 Expert Burr Grinder, Black/Silver

Also consider: krups everyday coffee and spice mill.

As we’ve already touched on, a blade grinder isn’t a good option if you’re after a consistent grind. What’s more, they produce more heat than burr grinders, which can risk ruining your coffee before you start brewing it. However, they’re an acceptable budget buy if you want something to grind your supermarket beans and your budget just won’t stretch to even the most affordable of burr grinders.

The Everyday Coffee and Spice Mill from Krups is easy to use: a button on the lid is held down for the length of time you want to grind for. The longer you hold it down, the finer the grind, though we ultimately recommend using it for a coarser filter grind, rather than espresso. And, as the name suggests, you can use it for spices too (we found it was great for cardamom seeds). Bear in mind, though, that it’s not the easiest thing to clean, as you aren’t able to remove the blades (and, for obvious reasons, you can’t submerge it in water).

Buy now from Amazon

4. Sage Dose Control Pro: The best grinder for versatility

Want more control over your coffee? The Sage Dose Control Pro is the way to go. This one gives you 60 grind settings, from a coarse French press to an ultra-fine espresso. Just twist the hopper to change the setting, dial in the grind time then press to go.

Sage claims that the high-torque motor and heavy burrs give you a lot of grinding power with less heat, delivering a great, consistent grind direct to your porta filter, with two sizes of cradle provided to hold it in place. It’s easy to use and clean, and whether you want coarse or fine grinds, the Dose Control Pro serves them up. It’s a versatile coffee-drinker’s dream machine, incredibly good value and the best-bang-per-buck coffee grinder we’ve used.

Key specs – Type: Automatic coffee grinder; Burrs: Stainless steel conical; Controls: 60 position grind, grind time; Capacity: 340g; Dimensions (WDH): 200 x 160 x 340mm

Sage BCG600SIL the Dose Control Pro Grinder, 130 W – Silver

5. baratza sette 270: the best coffee grinder for precision.

Baratza makes some of the best grinders in the business, but the Sette 270 hits the sweet spot between price and performance. It uses what Baratza calls a revolutionary grinding technology, where the stainless-steel cone burr grinds against a fixed ring burr, with coffee passing through vertically into a filter handle or bin.

It’s a sleek looking machine, albeit a very noisy one, but it’s fast, easy-to-use and delivers nearly flawless, uniform grounds. Plus, if you’re obsessed with getting an accurate dosage, the Baratza always gets it right to within 0.5g. It’s a fairly pricey grinder and not for everyone, but a it’s real coffee connoisseur’s machine.

Key specs – Type: Automatic coffee grinder; Burrs: Stainless-steel cone and ring; Controls: 30 position macro grind, 9 position micro adjust, three-button timer, LCD display; Capacity: 275g; Dimensions (WDH): 130 x 240 x 400mm

Baratza CD Electric Coffee Grinder with Steel Quern Sette 270, Silver

6. barista & co. core electric grinder: a sleek and stylish electric burr grinder.

This slim and attractive electric burr grinder from Barista & Co. has an impressive 40 grind settings and produces a consistent grind for both basic espresso (settings 0-5) and filter coffee (around 25). It’s also very easy to use and maintain. The grinder itself can be detached from the main body for cleaning and a small cleaning brush is provided – though for prolonged use, we’d suggest investing in your own . What’s more, the removable bean hopper has a shutoff opening, which allows you to weigh out your beans in the hopper before attaching it to the machine without any spillage.

During testing, we did notice a couple of issues. One is that the grind size dial would sometimes shift slightly during finer grinding, though this didn’t appear to affect the end result. Another is that the optional portafilter attachment, while a very nice touch, proved messier than it was worth. Barista & Co. admits that the Core is not an espresso specific grinder. So espresso aficionados after the finest of grinds may want to splash out on a more precise machine (such as the Baratza above).

However, for the features it offers, £110 is not a bad price. The Core is a slim, good-looking and easy-to-operate electric burr grinder, It’s not quite a budget option, but not something that’ll break the bank either.

Key specs – Type: Automatic coffee grinder; Burrs: Stainless steel; Controls: 40-position grind, grind by manual on/off button or by 10 second increments (up to 50 seconds); Capacity: Approx 240g; Dimensions (WDH): 119 x 230 x 345mm

Barista & Co Core Electric All Coffee Grinder, Perfect for Office and Home, 40 Settings Coarse to Fine Grind

7. cuisinart dbm8u burr mill: the best coffee grinder for cold brew.

If a summer filled with the satisfying kick of caffeine, minus the hot water, has left you a firm cold brew fan, you’ll need a workhorse of a grinder to help with your habit. Great cold brew demands a coarse grind for an easier filtration, sweetness and a less bitter flavour overall, so fine grounds (which can also be heated during the extra grinding) are out.

Fortunately, this is what the durable Cuisinart Burr Mill excels at, churning out a consistently even coarse grind with its plates, which is also ideal for a percolator, French press or cafetière. As well as 18 grind settings, four to 18 cup selector and auto shut-off when it’s done, all its removable parts are dishwasher-safe so making delicious cold brew comes with minimal clean-up. There’s also a reassuring five-year guarantee.

Where it does less well is the finer espresso, so you might want to investigate buying a pricier machine if your morning isn’t complete with a perfect shot. But for full, flavoursome coffee that’s as refreshing as an ice pop, this grinder is good to go.

Key specs – Type: Automatic coffee grinder; Burrs: Stainless steel; Controls: 18 position grind; Capacity: 250g; Dimensions (WDH): 150 x 160 x 280mm

Buy now from AO

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Best Coffee Grinders

We all want the best cup of coffee we can get, don’t we? I mean, that’s pretty obvious for most people, but I’d hazard a guess that it’s even more appropriate for people that have just started reading an article entitled ‘Best Coffee Grinders’. You’ve already acknowledged the fact that in order to get the perfect cup, grinders may have a role – and that’s why you’re here.

So let me tell you now – you’re on to something. A wise man once told me “it doesn’t matter how much you spend on your machine – your coffee is only ever going to be as good as your grinder”. Now this is an overused phrase, but that advice was genuinely life-changing for me, and it is so often overlooked.

Without wanting to get too bogged down in the detail, basically if you grind your own beans, your coffee will be fresher – the longer ground coffee is left open to the air, the more flavour and aroma is lost. Also, you have more control over your drink – the size and consistency of your grains to suit your taste.

For me, there’s also something incredibly satisfying about the process as well – it’s almost therapeutic. From the second I measure out the beans, it’s a moment of calm at the start of a busy day. A few minutes of peaceful control before I open Pandora’s Laptop to start my work.

Unfortunately, deciding that you need a coffee grinder is only half the battle. As with most things to do with coffee, there is an awful lot of choice out there, and it’s very difficult to know what is best for you. Which is where we come in.

What Type Of Coffee Grinder Is Right For You?

You have a couple of decisions to make to begin with when it comes to choosing your coffee grinder. Firstly Burr or Blade? Here’s a quick guide to help you:

Burr Grinders: Grinds the coffee between two ‘burred’ plates – one stationary, one spinning. The biggest advantage of these is that you get a uniform size to your grains, which makes for a better taste. They also give you more control over how fine your grains are, so you can modify it according to your taste, or what you are using to make your coffee in. You pay a premium for these though.

Blade Grinders: Grinds the beans with a rotating blade. The nature of the ‘chopping’ blade means you don’t always get the same uniformed size and control that you get from a burr grinder, but the cost of these is much lower.

You also need to decide between Manual and Electric – manual being much cheaper, with less that can go wrong, but obviously require more effort on your part. With an electric model, you just plug in and off you go.

Our Best Coffee Grinders

So with those decisions buzzing around your head, let’s look at some options. Below we have selected the nine best coffee grinders on the UK market to help you decide on the best one for your coffee needs:

Cuisinart Burr Mill Coffee Grinder

Melitta molino coffee grinder, krups coffee mill , melitta calibra grinder, mlmlant manual turkish coffee grinder, de’longhi kg79 coffee grinder, james martin zx595 by wahl (mini grinder), hario mini mill plus, shardor electric coffee grinder.

Perfect for: All your grinding needs!

Quite simply, this offers you everything you will need from a coffee grinder. With 18 grind settings, you can get the exact sized grains to suit your equipment and taste. You can set it to how many cups you are grinding for as well, from 4-18 (which equates to about 2-10 large mugs if you prefer), which helps you get the right strength for your coffee.

Aesthetically, the stainless steel finish and conventional design form a look that would look at home on any kitchen counter – a quiet sophistication that blurs the line between modern and conventional.

It is also incredibly easy to use – simply adjust your settings and hit start, and with the airtight bean hopper you can set it all up the night before without losing any freshness – perfect for blurry-eyed early mornings!

For ease of use and versatility, this machine has it all. While it can be quite noisy, the results you get are more than worth it. It’s one of the best grinders on the market.

Check Latest Price Of The Cuisinart Coffee Grinder

Perfect for: Users that want a burr grinder on a budget.

Next up, we have another burr machine, this one a slightly cheaper option from coffee innovators Melitta.

First impressions are good – the little flashes of colour work well against the stainless steel and black, and the large, friendly settings dial create a pleasant appearance. A welcome addition to any kitchen counter.

Crucially though, the functionality is good too. With 17 grind size settings, you can create the perfect sized grains for whatever you are working with (from 1-3 for a fine espresso, all the way to 12-17 for a larger french press). You get consistent results every time.

Once again, the simplicity of the design is what appeals to us. All the major compartments come away, making filling, emptying and cleaning a walk in the park. The dial is so simple a toddler could use it (probably best not to give them a cup afterwards though…)

One thing we did find is that it can be quite fiddly to reassemble after you have cleaned it – once you work out exactly how it all fits together though, this is not a problem, and considering the lower price compared to others on the market, this does not put us off at all.

Check Latest Price Of The Melitta Molino Coffee Grinder

Perfect for: People making their first foray into grinding their own beans.

The genius of the Krups Coffee Mill is in its simplicity. Compact shape, one speed, one button, two blades. It’s just a matter of loading your beans and then you’re away. You have full control over the size of the grind – the longer you press the button, the finer the grains (we found that a ‘pulse’ action works the best). The result is a well ground bean to your taste.

The sleek, oval design not only looks stylish, but the shape means that the beans move around much more, meaning the twin blades get to work much more efficiently. In just 25 seconds, you can have your beans ground down to the perfect size for an espresso, and much less for a larger, coarse grind.

It’s slightly smaller than some alternative options, but with a 15 cup capacity it is more than capable of satisfying domestic use. It will fit nicely on a worktop, but also would fit nicely into a cupboard if kitchen ‘real estate’ is at a premium!

It’s easy to clean (a quick wipe with a cloth will do it), easy to use, easy to store and looks great. Coming in at a price much lower than many of its competitors, this one of the best value grinders on the market.

Check Latest Price Of The Krups Coffee Mill

Perfect for: The coffee perfectionist with a big budget

From first glance, you immediately recognise that this is a cut above most other grinders. The digital display of the integrated scales completes the look of a product that is really bringing the coffee shop into your kitchen.

With a whopping 39 grind settings, this piece of kit is really for the coffee aficionado that is looking for their perfect cup of coffee, and wanting to spend the time and money to get it just right . It’s so simple to adjust as well, with just a twist of the bean container.

The scales are great too, with the display showing how many cups your beans will make (you can set it to display grams with a bit of tinkering). Again, this is ideal for someone who wants consistency in their coffee making.

Is it completely necessary?

But it’s this type of feature that really completes a luxury item, which this surely is.

All the compartments are removable for cleaning, and are dishwasher safe as well. The shiny finish, while looking fantastic, can show up fingerprints, so be warned that it might take regular wiping to keep it looking so darned attractive.

This all comes at a premium, of course, with this being one of the more expensive grinders available. In this instance though, you absolutely get what you pay for.

Check Latest Price Of The Melitta CALIBRA Grinder

Perfect for: Traditional coffee aficionados, that enjoy their coffee even more after some physical exertion.

Our first manual grinder on the list is this sleek MLMLANT offering.

With 18-click settings for grain size, this manual burr grinder is as versatile as many of its electrical counterparts, and because it is you that is doing the grinding, it offers you complete control over its performance. The ceramic plates won’t heat up during use, so you don’t lose any flavour during the process.

You can get a complete grind in under two minutes, which is obviously much slower than an electrical, but a much more authentic experience. And let’s be honest, if you’re contemplating a manual grinder, speed is not at the forefront of your mind.

The biggest advantage is, arguably, its biggest flaw – at just 17cm in height (slightly bigger than a smartphone), this is much smaller than most other grinders. While this offers a capacity of enough beans for just four cups, it does mean that it is incredibly handy for transporting – whether it’s for a camping trip, a holiday, or just to take into the office.

Made out of stainless steel, this doesn’t only look great, it’s also incredibly durable – perfect for just throwing in a bag on your way out of the door. This is a grinder that is built to last, and comes at a price that will fit most budgets.

Check Latest Price Of The MLMLANT Coffee Grinder

This simple, no frills burr grinder from De’Longhi is a great option for people that just want better coffee.

To look at, this is little more than a black box. While it won’t get much in the way of gushing praise from guests, it also won’t look out of place in any kitchen. To be honest though, this grinder is much more interested in getting the job done than looking pretty.

It offers you everything you could need – with a pretty standard 17 grind settings, you can get grains for whatever equipment that you’re using   – you can produce a delightful crema for your espressos. It also gives you capacity for up to 12 cups of coffee, which will satisfy the needs of most kitchens.

The neat Auto-Stop function is a wonderful addition. You simply set the dial to the number of cups you are making and it will automatically stop when your grains are ready. Leaving you to get on with making your breakfast, or simply just stare into space while you come to terms with the daunting reality of being awake. Once you get used to this feature, you’ll get fantastic results.

As you would expect, this is easy to clean (a quick wipe down with a pastry brush will do day-to-day) and its compact design makes it easy to store.

Check Latest Price Of The DE'LONGHI KG79

Perfect for: People who want to test the waters of grinding beans before spending big

The next blade grinder comes from celebrity chef James Martin, and it’s a very handy little gadget for people making their first steps into grinding coffee.

First of all, we love the ‘bullet’ design. It looks great on the counter, but also it’s light and compact, so easily stored away when not in use.

The function that separates it from many of the other grinders on the market is the ‘pulse’ option on the main button. This not only gives you a bit more control over how fine you grind the beans, but it also helps to ‘agitate’ the grains, meaning you get a more uniform size.

It is important to point out that this is designed, and marketed, as a multi-use grinder – with more emphasis placed on its ability to handle herbs and spices as well as coffee beans, as you might expect given Martin’s endorsement. Don’t let this put you off though – it is more than adequate when it comes to coffee beans.

The lid can be a little bit fiddly to get off (but this eases with use), but as a budget option for a coffee grinder, this is a wonderful option.

Check Latest Price Of The James Martin ZX595 By Wahl

Perfect for: The coffee enthusiast that is often away from home

Another burr hand grinder now – this one is an excellent, compact offering from Hario.

With a 24g capacity, this will grind you enough coffee for a couple of cups, and with easily changed settings using the reinforced hexagonal adapter, you have complete control over the size of your grains.

At just over 17cm tall, and crucially no glass, the portability of the grinder is one of its major selling points. For those that love their freshly ground coffee, but often find themselves away from home, this is an essential! It also doesn’t take up too much room in the kitchen, as opposed to the bulkier electric options.

We found that it takes roughly the time it takes to boil the kettle to get the right sized grains for a cafetière – obviously longer than an electric, but not so long that it impacts the start of your day.

Obviously, you won’t get an electric burr grinder in this sort of price range, so if you wanted to see the difference between a burr and a blade, this is a really great option – and you can always keep it in the cupboard for your next trip away, even if you don’t use it every day.

Check Latest Price Of The Hario Mini Mill PLUS

Perfect for: Users that want a simple, well made blade grinder

You know what you’re going to get from this from the first glance – with no buttons and a sleek design, it’s the simplicity of this grinder that really jumps out at you. Load the beans in the top and press down on the lid – it couldn’t be easier.

On top of that, you have the removable compartments that make cleaning straightforward, as well as coming with a 2-in-1 spoon and brush tool, which makes measuring your beans, and the quick wipe down after use, stress-free.

It can grind enough beans for about 4 cups (2 mugs) of coffee, so this is most suited to small kitchens, but its size also means it doesn’t take up much counter space, and it is easily stored away in cupboards. With a 1m power cable, you have flexibility of where this device lives, rather than being tethered right next to the sockets.

The blade design is efficient with 24,000 rotations per minute, and they even provide a handy guide to help you determine how long you should grind to achieve your desired sized grains.

This is priced in the mid-range for blade grinders, but it feels like a top-end product – it’s incredibly well made and sturdy, so definitely one to consider if you are looking down the blade route.

Check Latest Price Of The Shardor Electric Coffee Grinder

Grind Settings Quick Guide

A quick word on grind settings, and why they are so important to your coffee.

Basically, the surface area, and therefore size of your coffee, impacts the extraction rate – the finer your grains, the larger the surface area and the faster the extraction, which gives you a stronger coffee. Too fine though, and you can get over-extracted, bitter coffee.

What type of coffee, and how you are making it, will dictate how fine you want your grains. As a rough guide, Turkish coffees and espressos require finer grains, filter coffees work best with a medium sized grain while a French press would be best utilised with a more coarse grind.

Our best advice would be to follow this rough guide, and then experiment. The beauty of the grinders we have mentioned above is that you can discover the exact sized grain that suits you the best – and the trial and error involved in discovering this is all part of the fun. Take your time over drinking your coffee and really enjoy it – even make notes if you want to, to get it absolutely perfect.

Which Grinder Should You Buy?

So, with all that in mind, which grinder is the best? Well, I’m afraid the rest is up to you – but we are confident that whatever you are looking for in a coffee grinder, you will find it in the list above.

Once you have decided on a budget, and what it is you want out of a grinder, it should be quite straightforward. A burr grinder will always give you the most control over your grains, but they won’t fit every budget – you will be able to pick up a blade grinder for less money, and they are more versatile, but you won’t get the complete experience of grinding your beans. Perhaps you want to try a manual grinder to really get that traditional feel to your coffee making process?

The one thing we can say with real confidence is that whichever grinder you go for, if you pick from the list above, you will have a top quality grinder at your disposal, and be well on your way to enjoying the best coffee you can make in your home. Enjoy!

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Best coffee grinders of 2023 tried and tested

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The year is 2023 and we’re still spending an awful lot of time queueing up at coffee shops waiting for our daily caffeine fix. Instead of making daily trips to visit your favourite barista, there’s a better option available: grinding your own coffee.

If you’re not convinced by the time-saving element, do it for the smug conversations that follow as you sip on your own, freshly-brewed cup. “Oh this?” you say, airily, “just a new blend I discovered recently.”

Monday mornings suddenly become a little brighter and those much-needed coffee breaks step up a notch. A coffee grinder doesn’t seem like an essential purchase until you’ve tried one. Warning: you’re about to become a (proudly) fussy coffee drinker.

Manual or electric?

Which is more satisfying: the feeling of achievement that comes from drinking your own, hand-ground beans? Or the smooth success that comes from enjoying a bean-to-cup process that takes mere seconds?

If you lean towards the former, you’ll probably prefer a manual coffee grinder. Bonus: these are almost always cheaper, smaller and more straightforward to use. They give you the opportunity to grind your coffee exactly how you like it - smooth or coarse. The not-so-good points: they use up valuable time and energy (but think of the muscles you’ll build up).

If you’re looking for a more technical coffee grinder, choose an electric one. These come with a higher range of settings and features that’ll grind your coffee exactly how you like - without having to do more than press a button. As you might expect, these grinders are almost always more expensive and take up more precious kitchen cupboard space.

Types of electric coffee grinder

You’ll see the words “burr” and “blade” pop up frequently when browsing the best coffee grinders. Both fall under the “electric” umbrella. Burr grinders use two revolving abrasive surfaces to grind your coffee beans while blade grinders use a blender-like process with a propeller-like blade.

Burr grinders are generally thought to be the better of the two, thanks to the uniform process in which the beans are ground. Burr machines also offer more flexibility when it comes to the coarse or fineness of your beans.

Best coffee grinders at a glance

• Best for overall performance : Niche Zero Coffee Grinder , £499.99, Niche Coffee
• Best for a sleek and stylish design : Smeg CGF01 Coffee Grinder , £219, Fenwick
• Best for consistent grinds : Barista & Co Core All Grind , £117.82, Amazon
• Best for beginners : Baratza Encore Coffee Grinder , £179.95, Amazon
• Best for specific settings for coffee pros : Sage The Smart Grinder Pro , £169, Harrods
• Best for espresso lovers : Eureka Mignon Specialita Coffee Grinder , £486.40, Amazon
• Best for a versatile grind adjustment system : Comandante C40 MK3 Nitro Blade Coffee Grinder , £235, Amazon
• Best for a grinder on the go : Timemore Go Portable Electric Battery Coffee Grinder , £144.95, Amazon
• Best for a budget friendly manual option : Henry Charles Manual Coffee Grinder , £22.99, Amazon
• Best for a large capacity : Hario Ceramic Coffee Mill Skerton Plus Hand Grinder , £30.99, Amazon

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Niche Zero Coffee Grinder

Best for : overall performance

The Niche Zero Coffee Grinder is expensive. No one’s denying that. But once you’ve looked past the price tag, you’ll find a barista-standard coffee grinder that cuts straight to the point.

Everything about this single dosing coffee grinder is top quality, from its premium 63mm conical burrs to its virtually non-existent grind retention, which comes from its patented straight through design. This machine actually came about as the result of an IndieGogo campaign and, if there’s one bad thing we can say about it, it’s that it’s almost always sold out.

The Niche Zero’s ability to squeeze flavour out of every single coffee bean is almost unparalleled and its minimal design makes it a versatile choice. It’s incredibly quiet, easy to use and offers speed and quality comparable to commercial grinders.

Smeg CGF01 Coffee Grinder

Best for : a sleek and stylish design

The Smeg CGF01 Coffee Grinder is so stylish you’ll almost definitely want to carve out a prominent home for it in your kitchen. Sleek and minimalistic, it’s a game changer in the world of home-ground beans that delivers a powerful punch in mere moments.

Beautifully designed with premium functionality to match, Smeg’s CGF01 comes with plenty of grinding options and can tackle 350 grams of fresh beans at once. It gets bonus points for being super quiet: meaning you can brew to your heart’s content, even if it’s early morning and everyone else in the house is still fast asleep.

Simple and intuitive, if you’re looking to streamline your coffee drinking, this is how to do it.

Barista & Co Core All Grind

Best for : consistent grinds

French Press lovers, listen up: Barista & Co’s Core All Grind features burr blades that guarantee consistent grinds between 400 and 1000 microns. For those not familiar with the technical terms, that’s some of the finest coffee around.

A grinder designed by coffee lovers and for coffee lovers, it brings together all of the necessary familiar features with a few added extras to make life just that tiny bit simpler. Its bean storage holder is UV protected, ensuring suitably temperate beans at all times. It grinds in automatic 10 second increments and also has a manual option if you want to be really specific. It has 40 settings, is easy to clean and is widely loved by baristas. Need we say more?

Baratza Encore Coffee Grinder

Best for : beginners

If you’d consider yourself a coffee geek, you’re probably already familiar with the Baratza brand. If you haven’t, it’s time to be introduced to the Baratza Encore Coffee Grinder: a great beginner grinder that performs way above its pay grade.

This impressively quiet grinder is proof that slow and steady wins the race, keeping at a consistent 550 RPM, which ensures a smooth feed of beans and a consistent grinding. It doesn’t come with bells and whistles - hence its beginner status - but it does feature all the essentials. Namely a thermal overload cutout that recognises jams, an easy-clean design, durable gears made from 15 per cent glass-filled thermoplastic and a timeless design.

It’s especially great for Aeropress or French Press coffee.

Sage The Smart Grinder Pro

Best for : specific settings for coffee pros

Sage’s The Smart Grinder Pro is great if you like to dip your toe into various different coffee styles. Its LCD display takes things one step further when it comes to ease of use and 60 unique settings lets you play around with a new style each morning.

The conical burr grinder maximises the potential of whatever beans you’re using, helping to bring out individual flavour notes without sacrificing time or capacity.

Taking specificity to the next level, The Smart Grinder Pro works in 0.2 second increments and lets you grind directly into the portafilter, airtight container, gold tone filter basket or a paper filter.

Eureka Mignon Specialita Coffee Grinder

Best for : espresso lovers

Eureka Mignon’s Specialita Coffee Grinder looks a little more futuristic than your average grinder and comes with fancy features to match. For a start, it’s almost completely silent. Then, there’s its intuitive touch screen, its 55mm flat hardened steel blades and its innately precise grinding methods.

The best coffee grinder for espresso lovers, it’s designed for those who know exactly what they’re looking for. Its futuristic top half comes accompanied with a sturdy, matte black bottom half. Looking for something a little more cheerful? It also comes in vibrant yellow.

There’s a good reason this grinder is such a firm favourite year after year.

Comandante C40 MK3 Nitro Blade Coffee Grinder

Best for : a versatile grind adjustment system

It’s not really too farfetched to call the Comandante C40 MK3 Nitro Blade Coffee Grinder a masterpiece. Looking a little like a work of art and delivering coffee that would put even your favourite barista to shame, it’s one of the most famous coffee grinders around and for a very good reason.

Ergonomic design goes hand in hand with slick grind quality, thanks to its stepped grind adjustment system. That system means you’ll easily grind beans to your liking: smooth enough for Turkish coffee or coarse enough for French Press. The C40 is the renovated version of the original Comandante grinder and comes with an entirely new burr design. Its new Nitro burrs work quickly and seamlessly, especially if you’re on the hunt for an espresso.

Timemore Go Portable Electric Battery Coffee Grinder

Best for : a grinder on the go

Wave goodbye to hectic mornings pouring boiling coffee down your throat as you rush out the door: Timemore’s Go Portable Electric Battery Coffee Grinder is designed to, literally, give you more time.

The portable nature of this coffee grinder means a caffeine hit is literally always only mere seconds away. If you’ve ever wanted to be that cheerful person sipping coffee on the tube, now’s your chance.

The Timemore Go Portable is designed to be small and compact while squeezing a lot into a small space. It’s also electric, unlike many portable grinders, which means you can save your energy for drinking coffee rather than grinding it.

There’s space for up to four servings of coffee in one grinder and, with its stainless steel conical burr and high-precision body, it delivers smooth, velvety soft beans.

Henry Charles Manual Coffee Grinder

Best for : a budget friendly manual option

Henry Charles Manual Coffee Grinder is one of the most budget-friendly grinders around but still manages to hold its own against its higher-priced competitors. At just over £20, it’s an unmissable buy if you’re someone who’s trying to cut back on a Pret or Starbucks habit but still needs that daily coffee fix.

Some of that cheaper price tag comes from the fact that you need to do the leg work yourself to make the coffee here, but that just adds to the satisfaction when you’re done. A stainless steel finish and a smooth, sleek design ensures this coffee grinder looks perfectly at home on your desk or counter top, while its cotton travel bag stops it getting scratched en route.

Hario Ceramic Coffee Mill Skerton Plus Hand Grinder

Best for : a large capacity

The Hario Skerton Plus is the definition of quality and quantity. It’s one of the larger hand coffee grinders around, which means double the work to produce a full batch but also double the achievement when you’re pouring it out. That also means not having to start from scratch if you’re making coffee for multiple people.

The Hario Skerton Plus uses ceramic burrs without preheating the coffee beans, which means all the flavour without anything lost in the heating process. This durable machine is easy to grasp and comes with a silicon base, ensuring none of your hard work goes to waste while you’re grinding. The glass bowl above has a 100g capacity - perfect for speedy cups without too much waiting around.

If you’re serious about coffee, it’s worth investing in a premium quality machine to deliver the goods every morning. Niche’s Zero Coffee Grinder is speedy, compact, aesthetically pleasing and all-round delicious on a consistent basis. It’s the best option available for barista-approved ground coffee and is definitely worth the hunt to source one for yourself.

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The Best Coffee Grinder

By Rachel Wharton and Liz Clayton

If you want to make better coffee at home, the most important tool you can buy isn’t an expensive brewer or fancy filters, but a good burr grinder. No matter how you choose to make your coffee, even the best beans won’t be as delicious if they aren’t ground consistently. We’ve been testing grinders (and using our picks daily) since 2015, and we’ve found that the no-frills Baratza Encore delivers high-quality, ultra-consistent grinding. It is also easy to maintain, clean, repair, and even customize, all for a fair price.

Everything we recommend

Baratza Encore

The best coffee grinder.

This all-around workhorse grinder produces the consistent grind required to brew delicious coffee, and it doesn’t cost a fortune.

Buying Options

Upgrade pick.

Baratza Virtuoso+

Slightly better grind, more features.

For a steeper price, the Virtuoso+ has everything we like about the Encore in terms of reliability and consistent grind size, plus a few improved features.

Budget pick

OXO Brew Conical Burr Coffee Grinder

A good-enough grinder.

This compact grinder is easy to use and has a wider range than most budget grinders, but it’s a bit less consistent than our top picks and less repairable.

Timemore Chestnut C2 Manual Coffee Grinder

Portable, consistent, and easy to use (albeit more labor-intensive).

For those who want an affordable yet high-quality portable hand grinder, the Timemore Chestnut C2 is the best in its class for speed, ease of grinding, and consistency.

The Baratza Encore grinds coffee more evenly, and on a wider range of settings, than any other machine we’ve tested at its price level—and many that cost more. It’s a time-tested, reliable, straightforward tool that takes up a modest square of counter space. It’s easy to clean and maintain, and an investment you can rely on morning after morning.

This grinder should be great for anyone who makes drip coffee or uses other methods that require beans ground at medium-fine to coarse settings (like pour-over, Chemex, AeroPress, or French press). It won’t produce the tiny adjustments in fine grinds that thrill serious espresso enthusiasts , but its output is consistent enough to create a decent shot. The Encore is our only pick (besides the hand grinder ) that doesn’t have a timer or some automated way to measure out beans, but we’ve found it’s easy enough to measure your beans before you add them to the hopper—and many coffee aficionados already do that. Plus, Baratza also makes a smaller 60-gram hopper , which lets you use its top lid to measure out beans, streamlining that process.

The Baratza Virtuoso+ is a great grinder with a burr set that’s a little faster and more consistent than the Encore’s, and it offers a slightly broader range for both fine and coarse grounds. Unlike the Encore, this grinder has a precise, 60-second digital timer that allows you to grind a set amount of beans from the hopper—meaning you don’t have to measure them each time you make coffee. (You can also add hopper extenders , which would allow your Virtuoso+ to store a whole bag of beans.) The Virtuoso+ also has a light for the bin, so you can easily see how much you’ve ground. Even so, this model is not significantly better at grinding than the Encore. You’re paying for incremental improvements that may be important if coffee is a blossoming passion or hobby for you.

The OXO Brew Conical Burr Coffee Grinder is the best we’ve tried in its price range of about $100. (We’ve found that any electric grinder below that price represents a significant step down in terms of grind consistency and durability.) The Encore offers a more consistent, versatile grind and a long-term maintenance and repair program, but the OXO hits the sweet spot in terms of price, grind quality, and ease of use.

If you wanted to fill up the OXO with a bag of beans and just hit a button every morning, you could: It has a 12-ounce hopper and a timer ranging from zero to 30 seconds that lets you automate how much to grind. It’s also easier to clean than the Baratza, as the hopper comes with a shutoff valve so that it can be easily removed with the beans still inside, and the top burr has a little handle that lets you twist out the top half. If you drink mostly drip or French press coffee, the OXO’s relatively even grind, wide range of settings, and more-convenient features make it a good alternative to the pricier Baratza Encore.

If you have a modest budget, a very small kitchen, or a desire for a more portable or off-the-grid burr coffee grinder, we’ve found the Chestnut C2 Manual Coffee Grinder to be the best option under $100. The C2 is the lowest-cost grinder from coffee gear company Timemore , whose manual grinders are well-regarded among coffee experts. To sell the C2 at a lower price, Timemore uses durable, high-quality plastic in the interior shaft rather than the metal in its higher-end models, and gave it a slightly less complex burr and crank arm, which is still easily removable for storage or travel. The C2 has an impressively smooth and speedy grinding action, and is sturdy and well-built. Some options come with a pebbly aluminum surface that’s easy to grip.

Like the electric models in this guide, the C2 is not designed for espresso making, and because it is much smaller than an electric grinder, it can make only enough grounds for a cup or two of coffee at a time. But it only takes a couple of minutes—even cranking slowly—to grind through that, and it is easy to refill.

The research

Why you should trust us, who this is for, how we picked, how we tested, our pick: baratza encore, upgrade pick: baratza virtuoso+, budget pick: oxo brew conical burr coffee grinder, also great: timemore chestnut c2 manual coffee grinder, burr grinders vs. blade grinders, conical vs. flat burr grinders: what’s the difference, grinder care and maintenance, other good coffee grinders, the competition.

Wirecutter senior staff writer Rachel Wharton has decades of experience in breaking down complicated culinary subjects for readers, as well as a good grasp of sensory analysis and coffee-brewing principles. The research and reporting in this version of the guide builds on the work of Cale Guthrie Weissman (who wrote the previous versions of this guide and spent months researching and testing grinders) and coffee writer Liz Clayton.

For even more in-depth expertise, we worked with or spoke to a range of experts , like the folks who ran the New York City training center of Counter Culture Coffee , the founder of the professional education program at Coffee Project NY , and the product manager who evaluates grinders for a large American coffee equipment distributor.

This guide is based on many years of hands-on testing and research, beginning in 2015.

And perhaps most important, we understand that for many people switching from a small, cheap blade grinder (which you can stash in the kitchen cupboard between uses) to a $100 or $200 device that is messier and louder and demands permanent counter space is a big deal. Coffee is a particularly beloved topic at Wirecutter, and many of our staff buy and use these picks daily, and provide detailed feedback. We know how these grinders operate in real-world conditions, and whether they truly improve your daily coffee drinking existence or get in the way of it.

If you’re reading this guide, you’re interested in making better coffee at home, or buying a grinder for someone who is. You may have already read that the most important component of your coffee making setup is a quality burr grinder, one that will grind beans evenly —no matter how coarse or fine you want your grounds. The reason is that unevenly ground beans yield muddy cups of coffee with unpleasant sour or bitter notes—or both.

When you grind coffee beans, coffee writer and researcher Scott Rao told us, “There are going to be dusty little particles we call ‘fines,’ and there are going to be some larger particles we call ‘boulders,’ and a whole bunch of particles in the middle that are going to be the size you want.”

Even the best burr grinders will produce some fines and boulders, but good grinders will yield a lot fewer of them, and the ones at the right size will be more consistently shaped, too. And that makes for better coffee. The short explanation, said Rao, is that fines will brew too quickly and thus too long, giving you the bitter, astringent, tannic flavors of over-extracted coffee . Boulders brew too slowly and thus not long enough, giving you the weak, or even sour, flavors of under-extracted coffee.

If you’re currently using a subpar grinder—especially a budget, blade-style grinder ­­—our testing shows that by switching to a quality burr grinder, you’ll significantly improve the flavor of your coffee. Make your brew with properly ground beans—as in, beans ground to a consistent shape and size—and you’ll easily detect a difference in aromatics and complexity of flavor, in sweetness and acidity, and even in the coffee’s texture and body. A good grinder can have a tremendous positive effect on your brew, whether you brew mail-order single estate beans with a Hario V60 and a precision scale or use your supermarket’s blend with an automatic drip machine .

The consistency of the grind is so important to Kyle Ramage, a coffee roaster and award-winning barista (who has also worked with a professional grinder manufacturer), that he recommends you just buy coffee ground-to-order from a high-quality source rather than use a blade or bad burr grinder. You might lose some complexity and aromatics with pre-ground coffee, he said, but you won’t get bad, off flavors.

“If you use a really bad grinder at home, you’re not going to get the expression of that coffee even close to what you’d get at the café,” he told us. “Grinding it at the café and bringing it home is still better.” (A grinder at a good local café should be ideal, he says, but not those at a supermarket, since just one batch of chemically flavored coffee beans can flavor a grinder for life.)

A good-quality burr grinder also gives you options. You can bring home one bag of coffee, and then perfectly grind the beans to various sizes for a broad range of brewing devices and styles. Burr grinders can grind coarsely enough for a traditional French press or cold-brew batch, but they can also do a medium grind for drip and a medium-fine grind for pour-over. You can also make finer adjustments in each of these categories, to see exactly which size grind you prefer most for which method. In fact, after many hours of taste-testing, we can’t stress enough how even small variations in grind size can make a huge difference in flavor.

The one thing the grinders in this guide aren’t great for is making espresso. Our picks will grind your coffee fine enough to make a shot with a pressurized machine or a stovetop brewer . But to make the best espresso, you need to pay more for a machine that’s designed to produce the necessary finer, precise grounds, and to allow for small adjustments at the finer end of your grinding range. We have recommendations in our guide to espresso machines and gear , but they’re really only worth the extra $200 to $300 if you’re serious about making espresso at home.

We rated electric burr grinders first and foremost on the quality and consistency of their grind, the number-one thing a good grinder must do well. But there are other features and factors to consider, like how easy the machine is to use and how long it lasts. A good grinder should be simple to operate, maintain, and clean, and it should last for years, with proper maintenance . These and other features are explained in more detail below.

Build quality

The quality of a grinder’s burr set will affect everything from how consistently it grinds to how long it lasts, though ideally you should also be able to replace the burrs when they do wear out. Burr sets—they have two pieces, a top and a bottom, which work a little like teeth—can be made of steel (or sometimes ceramic or plastic, which are not ideal and not currently a part of any machine we considered), and they come in a variety of widths and configurations. Some machines have burrs that are off the shelf, so to speak, while other companies spend the time to design their own, with the hopes that their teeth and grooves more perfectly cut beans into consistent pieces. There are also burr sizes—the wider the burr, the faster it will grind; in this guide, the burrs in most of the best electric machines hover around 40 millimeters in width, while manual burrs are often slightly smaller. Steel burrs, some coated with various other metals, are the most common, and are durable and easy to maintain, and they can be cleaned with a stiff wire brush.

The quality of the machine and the motor is also important. A machine with a smaller or cheaper motor (and often a lower-quality block burr) can add unwanted heat to the beans, and may be at risk of burning out sooner, because it has to work harder to grind. It also has a harder time pulling beans through the burrs. A poorly built machine also grinds less consistently, because the burrs may wobble or slip slightly out of alignment. This shouldn’t be an issue with any of our picks.

Grind settings

Most electric burr grinders have a range of numerical size selections—designed to grind beans anywhere from very fine, for a Moka pot or an espresso machine, to very coarse, for making cold brew or French press coffee.

There are two types of grind settings: stepped and stepless. Most home burr grinders are stepped—you pick a preset number on a dial. With a stepless grinder, there are numbers, but you can also select any point in between those numbers, which means you can tinker endlessly with the size of your grinds. For obsessive coffee drinkers, this is great. But with a stepless grinder, if you change the grind setting at all (for example, if you like to switch between coffee-brewing methods), it’s not easy to repeat the optimal settings for your daily brews. For this guide, we decided the ideal grinder is a stepped model with plenty of range and clear markings between each step, so that it’s easy to go back to your favorite setting.

All grinders include starter guides to grind size in their manuals. But a few offer easy visual clues on the machines themselves as to where on the dial the starting points for various brew methods fall. These clues can be helpful at first (a “medium” or “drip” grind setting is rarely halfway between the finest and the coarsest grind), but they’re not essential. Your grinder’s definition of an ideal Chemex or French press grind may not match up with your own, and even grinders from the same maker vary slightly. As we already mentioned, even small variations in grind size make a big difference : Be sure to experiment with your grinder to find the best-tasting setting, instead of taking the grinder’s recommendations as gospel.

Repairs and maintenance

With proper maintenance, a good grinder should last you many years. To maintain your grinder, it’s essential to be able to easily clean inside the burr chamber. This is especially true if you have a taste for oilier, darker-roast, or even flavored coffees. Those beans leave more of a residue, which you need to remove occasionally (every few weeks, for oily beans) for peak flavor and grinder performance. In our tests we looked for machines that had easily removable parts—particularly around the burr set—to allow for regular cleaning and, if necessary, replacement. (With normal use, a good set of burrs could last for a decade before needing to be replaced.)

We chose grinders with easily accessible, transparent customer service in the United States. Being able to replace all kinds of parts—such as the entire burr set (not just the top), the bins, and even the motor—is also a plus.

After years of testing grinders, we’ve learned that a good electric grinder currently costs at least $100. Even our budget pick doesn’t dip below that price, except during occasional sales. We know that it still may be a tough sell for those who don’t consider themselves major coffee geeks, but we think spending more is well worth it for most coffee drinkers—whether that worth is measured in more cups made at home, fewer dead grinders sent to the landfill, or just added daily pleasure from making your own delicious coffee.

If price is an issue, you can also look online for a used Baratza grinder. Because Baratza grinders are so durable and repairable, used ones are a pretty safe bet, and you may be able to find a good deal (we’ve seen refurbished Encores going for around $100). You might also consider our manual hand grinder pick .

If you don't want to spend at least $100 for an electric grinder or use a manual grinder, you might also consider getting your coffee ground-to-order from your local roaster or café. As we mentioned previously , barista Kyle Ramage says that you’re better off getting your coffee pre-ground with an excellent burr grinder than using a blade grinder or even a cheaper burr grinder every day. You lose a little complexity, he notes, but you don’t get the bad, off-flavors that come with an inconsistent grind.

Dosage measurements

Some grinders come with features that allow you to easily grind the same amount of coffee—known as the dose—each time, so you don’t have to measure the beans before or after you grind them. (This means you could just store your beans in the grinder’s hopper, even though most experts don’t recommend it , as they’re more exposed to light and air.)

Some machines do this with a timer, so you can set them to grind for, say, 15 or 30 seconds, yielding about the same amount of ground coffee each time, especially if you’re always using the same kind of beans. Some timers are analog, and some are digital, measuring by the tenth of a second, for even greater accuracy. Still other grinders have seemingly fancier methods of measuring preset dosage amounts; these allow you to choose how many cups you’re grinding for or program your own presets. And some grinders come with an integrated scale, so you can weigh out the beans before you grind them.

Machines without these timers, scales, or presets require you to measure the beans yourself. Although it’s nice not to have to take that extra step, it’s also not a huge inconvenience to do so, and many people who invest in a daily coffee routine are already doing this. The most precise way to measure coffee is to weigh it because beans are not all the same shape, size, or density. (If you need a scale, we recommend the American Weigh Scales LB-3000 .) Dosage measurement usually adds $100 or more to a machine and has varying degrees of precision or usefulness. It also adds an extra potential point of failure to your grinder.

Every electric burr grinder will create some static or mess, and that’s normal. (If this is your number one issue, you might consider a manual grinder ; they’re less messy and also easier to use over a sink or a trash can.) This can vary depending on a number of external factors: a room’s humidity, the type and age of the coffee you’re grinding, the grind setting, whether your machine has a flat or conical burr , and even what kind of surface your grinder sits on. Dry environments produce more static, and lighter roasts produce more chaff than darker, oily ones do.

Some grinders do make claims about using special types of glass, magnets or metal to reduce static electricity. (For those who have an ongoing problem with static cling, prevailing wisdom says to wait a few minutes before removing the grounds chamber from the grinder, allowing the dust to settle, as it were.) And some grinders seem to be noticeably messier than others. Their burrs constantly drop grounds—no matter how hard you work to clean the machine. Or it’s hard to get the chaff and fine particles out of the bin or drawer that collects the coffee grounds.

What about hand grinders?

The top-ranked manual grinders, those with the broadest range, best design and most precision, are still more expensive than our budget pick, but there are now at least a few options at the lower end that produce excellent results.

Manual grinders are also great for travel, as a backup if you don’t have electricity, or if you are trying to be extra quiet in the morning. (No motor means no noise! We’ve found them to be less messy in our testing, too.) And they’re a great option for people who have a small, already-cluttered kitchen or those who generally make only a cup or two at a time. With that in mind, for this guide we wanted to recommend a good-quality manual grinder that a) cost less than our electric grinder budget pick, b) was small enough to carry in a purse or backpack, and c) was also comfortable enough, and good enough, to use as your everyday grinder for various brew methods.

Still, for the vast majority of households, manual grinders are probably too small or impractical for everyday use. It’s not impossible to wake up and grind your own beans every morning before work (one of this guide’s writers, Rachel Wharton, uses a manual grinder herself), but it’s important to know that it takes a little more time (and elbow grease) than you would need using an electric grinder, especially if you are making a big pot of coffee. And if you have any issues with upper body mobility, they’re simply not a good option.

With a manual hand grinder, features are also minimal: You can grind only about 18 to 35 grams at a time. And with most of the hand grinders we tested, you adjust the size of the grind by turning a knob connected to the burr set, which opens or tightens it as you click. While more expensive manual grinders usually have numbers on this knob, lower cost manual grinders usually require that you take note of your selected settings, usually something like 14 clicks past zero for a medium grind or 18 clicks above zero for a French press grind. (This sounds complicated at first, but it is not very hard to master, especially if you’re the only one using it every day.)

We began our tests with a visual evaluation of grounds from each machine to check a grinder’s range and to look at grind shape and consistency. For each machine, we considered the following: Are there obvious large coffee particles (boulders) and small particles (fines)? How fine does the grinder really go? And how well does it handle a coarse grind (something that’s usually inconsistent in lesser-quality machines)? For each machine, we ground coffee at the finest setting, the coarsest setting, and at the recommended setting for a medium grind.

To find the right grind setting on each machine for a taste test, and to test for grind-size consistency, we used the Kruve coffee sifter and guide . The sifter works by separating boulders and fines into separate compartments; grounds at the ideal size are left in between. With each grinder, we used the Kruve tools to calibrate a medium-fine grind for drip coffee, and later to visually quantify which machines had the most grounds in the target range. With better machines, you should see fewer fines and boulders and more grounds that are in your target range.

Once we separated boulders and fines, we were able to see how many of those boulders were extra-large or odd-shaped, which can also affect the way coffee tastes. (Kyle Ramage said he worries more about there being too many boulders than too many fines, partly because fines are inevitable as brittle beans are jostled or ground, and partly because he thinks boulders are what really muddy the flavor of the coffee.)

Then we twice brewed coffee from each grinder on an 8-cup Bonavita Connoisseur brewer, a previous pick in our guide to coffee makers that’s known to make great-tasting drip coffee. For all of the above tests, we used the same medium-roasted coffee: the Fast Forward blend from Counter Culture.

We also did further testing with La Colombe’s darker Phocea roast (which is no longer available) and the lightly roasted, natural sun-dried Jabanto beans from Counter Culture, to see how our recommended machines handled a range of beans. (This is especially important for some low-cost manual grinders, as certain roasts can be noticeably hard to crank through.)

During the grinding process, we timed how fast each grinder was at different settings, as well as how easy each was to use and clean. We also paid attention to ancillary issues such as whether the machines were especially large (could they fit under upper cabinets?) or noisy (all electric ones are, but some are more elegant about it than others). And we looked at whether they were especially slow or fast or made a bigger mess than others. We also kept an eye out for potential durability issues, weaknesses in workmanship, and excessive messiness.

In original tests of the Baratza and OXO grinders in 2017, we also had access to professionally trained palates and a suite of brewing and analytical equipment at the Counter Culture Coffee lab in New York City. There, we used a refractometer to measure the extraction percentage (essentially, how much coffee you get from the coffee grounds) and total dissolved solids (TDS), based on the light refracted by the particles within the coffee. These measurements told us how much of the coffee was dissolved into the water, and thus how successful the extraction of the grinds was. (A well-extracted cup of coffee should measure between 18% to 22% extraction on a refractometer.)

Because we were able to at the time, we also compared the grinds from a professional-grade Mahlkönig EK43 grinder ($3,150 at the time of writing), a model frequently found in specialty cafés. We visually evaluated the EK43’s grinds, and we used the Kruve sifters to see which home machine could best replicate the EK43’s consistency. We also ground coffee with a simple Krups blade grinder to see what the opposite end of the spectrum looked like.

Equally important, the Counter Culture team taught us that no professional tool was as accurate as a trained palate when it comes to determining over- and under-extraction. The last step was to have their professionally trained team taste the coffee made with each grinder.

Year after year in our taste tests, the trim Baratza Encore performs as well as or better than any other home grinder, and it’s priced lower than other machines of a comparable quality. Most reviewers like to refer to the Encore as Baratza’s entry-level grinder, but we think that’s selling it short. It’s the most affordable grinder Baratza sells, but it’s also a workhorse, and it could easily be the only grinder you’ll ever need. The Encore grinds beans quickly and evenly for every application, apart from advanced espresso making, and it’s simple to use and adjust. It’s also easy to clean, maintain , and repair, which means it could last for decades.

Although even the most consistent burr grinder will produce at least some particles that are smaller and larger than you’d like, we found that the Encore performed incredibly well at grinding evenly. When we used a Kruve sifter set to measure the amount of oversize and undersize particles created on a medium grind setting, the two Baratza machines (the Encore and the Virtuoso+, our upgrade pick) were the best in their price ranges at hitting the target. In our original coffee lab trials, only the professional-grade Mahlkönig EK43 yielded a more uniform grind than Baratza’s machines.

As expected, the grinders that produced the most consistent grinds also produced the best-tasting coffee, both in our own hands-on testing and with our 2017 professional tasting panel. These results were corroborated by Counter Culture’s coffee refractometer. In our previous tests, the coffee brewed with the Baratza Encore had the best extraction percentage of all grinders we examined—19.53%, right in the middle of the ideal range of 18% to 22%. (The Virtuoso+ came in a very close second.)

When the Encore was on a medium setting, it took us about 35 to 40 seconds to grind 68 grams of medium-grind coffee appropriate for filter brewing—in other words, it took less than a minute to grind enough for a pot of coffee, on a par with other grinders we tested.

The Encore also fell in the medium range for noise: It wasn’t significantly quieter or louder than most other grinders we’ve tested, but it did have a more pleasant sound, as opposed to a high whine or an ugly chug. In the past, it was just a little louder than the OXO, our budget pick. Baratza had told us they made improvements to the gearbox to bring the noise level in newer machines down, so we tested the most current version of the Encore side by side with the old version using the CDC-approved NIOSH Sound Level Meter app for the iPhone. We found that the newest version is quieter than the old version by a few decibels when both are running empty, but also that the pitch of the motor is now even lower, and even more pleasant-sounding.

We also tested the most current version of the Encore against the most current version of the OXO using the NIOSH app. We learned that the Encore is now slightly quieter than the OXO when the machines are running empty (by about 5 decibels), but slightly louder than the OXO (by about 2 decibels) when the two machines are actively processing beans. But the sound of the Encore is still more pleasant to our ears by far, even a bit louder.

The Encore doesn’t have the bells and whistles of a lot of other machines—it doesn’t have a scale, a timer, or any other dials other than a push-down pulse button and an on/off switch. But we found this made it supremely easy to produce a great cup of coffee. To adjust grind size, you turn the hopper to the preferred tick mark on the base (measured in numbered intervals from 0 to 40, with 40 being the coarsest), so you can quickly move from setting to setting and remember your preferences. In contrast with many entry-level machines, the Encore and the Virtuoso+ tend to have a broader grinding range, which is desirable—you want as broad a range as possible, especially if you regularly use different brewing methods. The Encore’s range is more than sufficient for the average home coffee drinker and the budding enthusiast.

Most other machines we tested—like the Breville , the KitchenAid , and the Cuisinart CBM-20 —offer more features. But they were confusing to use and took longer to calibrate, with dials and digital settings that were unintuitive, inaccurate or overly detailed for most users. For example, the Breville has 60 grind settings and a timer that measures fractions of seconds; the KitchenAid lets you set the number of cups and type of brewing method, which is confusing if you don’t fully understand your coffee machine’s interpretation of the word cup . What’s more, if you want to adjust your approach to make a better cup of coffee, you have to play around with multiple variables that can actually mask the changes you’re making.

Baratza has a great reputation among customers and coffee professionals for durability and customer service. Almost every part of the Baratza grinder is repairable or replaceable , which is rare among grinders designed for home use, and the company has detailed video guides for many fixes.

If your machine does break after the warranty’s up, and MacGyver isn’t your middle name, you can still send the Encore to the company for repairs, which amounts to cleaning, recalibration, testing, and replacing all worn or broken parts except for burrs (though if you want a new burr, you can request it and pay extra). To request a repair, you have to fill out a customer support form . Baratza will send you a shipping label, and give you a quote once they’ve given your machine a once-over. Shipping both ways is free, and according to Baratza, repairs typically take three to five business days.

The Encore—like all Baratza grinders—is covered by a limited one-year warranty, provided that you keep up regular maintenance and cleaning and don’t use the machine to grind rocks. To clean or even repair the machine, you just twist off the hopper and remove the top burr. And when it’s time to replace the burr set (which the manufacturer recommends after you grind 500 to 1,000 pounds of coffee), you can easily order the parts from Baratza’s website .

In recent years, Baratza has also tried to make the Encore even more user-friendly: The company modernized the body shape, and it now sells a single-dose hopper that lets you use the lid to measure out beans with a scale. Or you can add $10 extenders to the hopper so it holds more beans. You can even upgrade to the slightly better burr set in the Virtuoso+ for just $35 at the time of writing.

Ultimately, none of the coffee veterans we spoke with were very surprised that Baratza’s Encore and Virtuoso+ (our current upgrade pick ) grinders came out on top over and over again. Baratza is a coffee grinder company—this is the only thing it does, unlike the majority of other companies whose electric grinders we tested.

How the Baratza Encore has held up

Lesley Stockton, Wirecutter senior staff writer, has had her Encore for 10 years and uses it to brew both espresso and drip coffee. She had to replace the plastic holder on the upper burr but says it was a “relatively cheap and easy fix.” She also told us, “The Encore isn’t quite as fast as the Virtuoso+ that the Wirecutter staff uses in our office kitchen, but having the means to make delicious coffee at home is the most important thing for me, and the Encore definitely delivers that!”

Wirecutter writer James Austin has had his Encore for about five years, and even though he didn’t clean it for more than a year (we don’t recommend this!), he said it still handles “both small daily grinds for my Chemex and really big grinds for when I make a big batch of cold brew” without issue.

Meanwhile, senior staff writer Dave Gershgorn has owned his Encore for four years, and it’s still going strong—and he bought his used.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

The Encore doesn’t allow for a timed grind like the Baratza Virtuoso+. This means you have to measure the beans before or after grinding in some way—with a scale, a scoop, by eye, or your own preferred method. But considering that many of us do that when we make coffee anyway (and this is considered the most precise way to make coffee), we don’t consider this to be a big deal. A timer would also allow you to turn on the machine and walk away, knowing the machine would stop at a certain point; this is convenient but not essential, since grinding enough coffee for a full pot usually takes less than a minute.

Like many machines, the Encore also takes a long time to grind on a very fine, espresso-like setting. But we don’t recommend this machine for serious espresso makers, because its range on the fine end just isn’t nuanced enough to allow you to really refine a shot, and it wasn’t designed for espresso grinding. (Baratza now sells the Encore ESP , which is designed for espresso––it has more settings for fine grinding, and its gearbox is specifically designed for the slower grinding speeds espresso requires. We haven't tested it yet, but hope to soon.)

The hopper has no closure at the bottom. So if you store your beans in the hopper, and then want to remove those beans for any reason (to, say, switch to decaf beans or a different roast), you’ll have to invert the entire grinder over a bowl to empty it out, or just grind through what’s left. (Some coffee grinders, like those from OXO, Smeg, and Zwilling, allow you to adjust the hopper before removing it so that you can move it with the beans inside.) If you don’t usually store beans in the hopper or if you always use the same kind of beans, this isn’t a big deal.

You will have to put the burrs and a rubber gasket in place before you use the machine for the first time, as well as take them back out to clean the machine when that time comes . But this task is not terribly difficult, especially once you’ve learned how to do it. The Encore can also be messy—both the Encore and the Virtuoso+ throw off more chaff and stray grounds than our budget pick, the OXO Brew Conical Burr Grinder . Some people suggest workarounds, like gently slapping the hopper’s lid before you remove the bin or even better, placing the machine on a tray. But no method of making coffee is completely mess-free, so this isn’t a dealbreaker.

We also feel duty bound to address the fact that the Encore is not one of the most cutting edge in terms of external design, which is a bit of a bummer. Most of us like the things that live on our counter to look great, and it’s hard to pass up a grinder in a cool pastel color or sleek shape for the humble rectangle and triangle of the Baratza. But we’d rather you have a machine that can make you better tasting coffee for up to a decade instead of one that’s mere eye candy.

If you’re willing to pay more, the Baratza Virtuoso+ is similar to the Encore in shape and size, yet it has a faster, slightly different burr set, a digital timer, and a heavier, mostly metal base, which gives it a higher-end look and feel. It also has a light that lets you clearly see the level of grounds in the bin, which is a nice addition, especially if you grind a lot of beans at once.

The Virtuoso+ has a slightly broader grind-size range, can grind a little finer, and has fewer small particles at most grind sizes. These are small enough differences that many coffee drinkers may not notice them. But the added digital timer is accurate to a tenth of a second, and it saves the time you’ve set it to—so you can grind the same amount of coffee each morning with almost no effort or measuring. You can also set the Virtuoso+ to grind a lot of coffee, and then walk away from the machine, knowing it will stop on its own—very useful for anyone who’s a morning multitasker.

Like with the Encore, you can also add a single-dose hopper that lets you use the lid to measure out beans with a scale or add $10 extenders to the hopper so that it can store a whole bag of beans (the hopper that comes with the grinder holds about 8 ounces, or half a pound/225 grams).

Still, we think this model is worth the extra investment only for more-serious coffee lovers, or those who think the timer will improve their day-to-day experience. And we’d still recommend the Virtuoso+ rather than other grinders with similar time-saving features for around the same price—the others we tested couldn’t beat the grind consistency, breadth, and ease of use of either Baratza.

The timer on the Virtuoso+ does make the grinder a little less straightforward to use than the Encore, especially if you’re not using the timer to grind the same amount every day. Unlike the Encore, the Virtuoso+ doesn’t have a simple on/off button that you can just hold down to grind manually. Instead, you have to hold down the timer dial button for three seconds to activate the Pulse Mode; to deactivate the Pulse Mode, you spin the dial.

The dial is also a little finicky. It’s designed to increase the timer by whole seconds when you spin it clockwise and to decrease the timer by one-tenth of a second when you spin it counterclockwise. If you spin the timer dial too fast, it will jump around, which can be frustrating. If you pause in the middle of grinding—by hitting the dial button—the dial stays stuck wherever you paused it. You have to either start and stop the machine again manually or wait 30 seconds for it to switch back to the set time, at which point you can adjust accordingly again.

Like all of Baratza’s grinders, almost every part of the machine is repairable or replaceable , which is rare among grinders designed for home use. Just like the Encore, the Virtuoso+ comes with a limited one-year warranty. And beyond that, you can still send the machine back to Baratza for repairs (to request a repair, you have to fill out a customer support form ). To clean or even repair the machine yourself, you just twist off the hopper and remove the top burr.

For those willing to trade a little consistency and longevity for convenience—or those who simply don’t want to spend more than $100—we recommend the OXO Brew Conical Burr Coffee Grinder . Though it doesn’t grind as well as the Baratza Encore or the Virtuoso+ in terms of range or consistency, the OXO is a very capable grinder with very good grind quality and a simple, intuitive design. It’s a great machine for an average person’s daily pot of drip or French press coffee. It also comes with many nice features that can make grinding coffee to order more convenient, like a timer and an extra-large hopper that holds a whole 12-ounce bag of coffee and is easily removable even when filled with beans.

The OXO’s burr sets are also slightly faster (grinding 10 grams more than the Encore in 15 seconds) and just a little bit quieter than those of the Baratza machines when grinding through beans—though the motor sound is a little higher and whinier. While these variations in speed and sound don’t make a huge difference in our testing, they might be very important in your own household.

Grind consistency at medium grind settings was close to—but not on a par with—that of our top picks, especially at the high and low end of its range. The OXO’s coarsest grind was the least consistent and full of boulders. And the machine wasn’t able to grind quite as fine as that of our top picks. That this grinder did well with consistency in our medium-grind tests didn’t surprise coffee expert Kyle Ramage, who told us that OXO had been working to improve and refine its coffee-related equipment in recent years.

Unlike those on many coffee grinders, the markers on this machine are easy to use—the timer times (more or less) in actual seconds marked, and the grind setting markers offer a wide span of small, easy-to-read increments, making tiny adjustments uncomplicated.

The OXO Brew’s grinds canister is also a huge improvement over the one on OXO’s more expensive grinder with an integrated scale , which we quickly disqualified for spraying coffee all over the counter. The OXO Brew’s canister sits snugly below the exit chute, neatly catching all of the grounds, and the shape makes it super-easy to pour fresh-ground coffee into your filter.

OXO also says it uses a steel grounds container that bumps up against a grounded steel tab to help reduce static buildup of the coffee grinds, which is an issue with most coffee grinders. As an OXO representative explained it, the steel tab is connected to the grounding component of the power cord: “This provides a direct path for the static electricity stored in the grounds to dissipate.” We found this didn’t completely eliminate static or mess, though in our long term testing, the OXO was noticeably tidier than the Baratza Encore. (Anecdotally, we’ve noticed that electric grinders that perform the best in our consistency tests are often on the messier side—though we’re not yet sure if that’s a real pattern, or why that would be the case.)

The OXO grinder comes with a two-year warranty, during which time OXO will repair or replace your machine. OXO sells a replacement top burr , but unlike Baratza, does not sell any other parts for repairing your machine.

We also realize that for a budget grinder, the OXO still isn’t all that cheap. It doesn’t offer an enormous cost savings over the Baratza Encore, which still outperformed it. But if you’re looking for a balance between coffee-making convenience, grind quality, and price, this is your best bet. With cheaper machines, which often cut costs by including cheaper burr sets, the grind is often so uneven that the difference is visible to the naked eye. Cheaper models are also often lightweight, with flimsy construction. (As coffee expert Kyle Ramage told us, with burr grinders, you really get what you pay for.) For many ordinary coffee drinkers, the OXO was consistent enough to rival our top picks. This grinder also feels significantly more durable than any other machine in its price range, aside from the Capresso, which the OXO outperformed.

From our testing, we’ve learned that this machine can clog if you grind dark and oily roasted beans, and especially if you don’t regularly clean the burrs or its chute. (In 2022, the company told us that they revamped the chute to streamline their production process. For what it is worth, we ran several pounds of dark roast, oily beans through the newest iteration of the grinder in August, when heat and humidity were at their peak, and never once had a clogging issue.) Most experts really recommend fully cleaning your grinder —that’s taking it apart and brushing off the burrs and the inside of the chute–every two weeks if you grind oily beans. If you own or buy the OXO and prefer a dark roast, we strongly recommend incorporating frequent burr and chute cleaning into your regimen—especially if you’re having trouble with beans making their way through your machine, and extra especially if you live in a humid climate.

Oilier roasts can also stick in the hopper of the OXO and may require a push to get them started, or constant monitoring to keep them going. From our testing, this issue seems to be even worse with lower priced machines, which tend to have less powerful motors and burr sets.

How the OXO has held up

Senior editor Marguerite Preston used the OXO grinder at home for about two years before switching to the Baratza Encore. (She switched because she found a Baratza for free on the street, but otherwise, she would have happily continued using the OXO.) She had only one issue with the OXO, after grinding a lot of oily beans on a very hot and humid day, and after a year of use. “The OXO totally clogged up on me, to the point where it couldn’t grind anything,” she said, but she fixed the problem by taking out the burr and cleaning it and the clogged chute with a stiff brush.

Alejandra Matos, a former deputy audience director with Wirecutter, also had many issues with her chute and grinder clogging after using darker-roasted, oily beans. The clogging occurred despite regular cleanings, and sometimes she found the beans would get stuck in the hopper, too. “The problem is so regular that I now recognize the sound of when the grinder is on but not grinding beans,” she said, “I have to constantly give it a shake, and even that doesn’t work at times.” Since her grinder was still within its two-year warranty when this happened, she called OXO, and the company offered to send a new machine, and she also switched to a lighter roast.

If you’re looking for a reasonably priced, high-quality and portable hand grinder, we recommend the Timemore Chestnut C2 Manual Coffee Grinder . It was by far the easiest to use of all the manual grinders we tested in this price range, easily beating the Porlex Mini , a small manual grinder that many coffee lovers already travel with. For about the same price, the C2 is easier to use and has a better burr and a more stable design – it also makes better-tasting coffee.

The C2 is a tube-shaped grinder, only slightly wider and taller than the Porlex Mini—it’s 5 ¾ inches tall and weighs 1 pound. The pebbled texture of the model we tested also make this grinder easy to grip. (You can find the C2 in steel, cream, and  smooth matte white .)

The C2 did well in our grind consistency tests, because it uses a custom-designed steel conical burr, rather than the ceramic burrs common in the Porlex and many other lower-cost manual grinders. Like the Porlex, the C2 has a handle that pops off in a second, making it easy to pack.

An even bigger draw is this manual grinder’s ultra-smooth grinding action. With most coffees, the C2’s handle spins with almost no resistance, making this model almost a pleasure to use, after trying the other manual grinders. To grind about 25 to 30 grams of coffee—the max that fits in the hopper at one time—it took us between 1 and 2 minutes.

Timemore has been making high-end manual grinders for several years, which have earned strong reviews from coffee experts. With the C2, their budget grinder, the company purposefully sought to bring the price well under $100. It did this by using PCTG plastic, rather than steel, in some of the interior pieces that hold the burr mechanism together, by skipping some of the higher-end finishes, and by using a burr set that is less complex than their high end models. The C2 is made of a thick, sturdy aluminum alloy metal, rather than the glass or plastic of many other low-cost manual machines, and it includes a one-year warranty.

There are many reasons we don’t recommend a hand grinder as an everyday tool for everybody. But there are times when a good, under $100 manual grinder is just the thing: when you aren’t preparing very much coffee every day, when you’re traveling to a coffee-shop-free location, or when you’re on a road trip or spending a few days in the great outdoors, or when you have a small kitchen or lack a lot of outlets on your countertops. (They also are quiet, and much less messy, which might be important factors for many people.)

With the C2, the grind adjustment dial has only dots, not numbers. With most hand grinders, you adjust the size of the grind by turning a knob inside the grinder that is connected to the top or bottom of the burr set. More expensive manual grinders usually have numbers on this knob, just like an electric grinder. With dots, you just have to take note of your selected settings—how many dots past zero is the setting you want. (Grinders make an audible click when you hit a dot, so technically this is more like how many clicks past zero.) Since this is common with grinders in this price range, we don’t consider it a dealbreaker, and in our experience it is not that hard to use—if you take notes about which settings work best. And if you’re just making the same kind of coffee every day, you’ll rarely need to adjust it.

There is also a slightly larger size of the C2—the C2 Max —that is an inch taller than the C2 and holds about 5 grams more beans. (It might not sound like much, but given that the average serving of coffee is 10 grams, the C2 Max might give you three cups at a time, instead of two and a half.) The C2 Max is usually about $20 to $40 more than the C2. In testing, we found we still prefer using the C2 and just refilling it if needed, because it was easier to hold. If you have larger hands, the C2 Max might be perfect for you.

There’s also a newer C2 Fold , which is slightly more expensive because it has a retractable handle. (It folds down to lay flush with the body of the grinder.) For those who want to travel with the C2, the folding handle may or may not be a better option–-it weighs a little more than the original handle, which is just as easy to take off and just place beside the grinder body in your bag. But for daily use, it is worth considering. It looks nicer, and with the handle folded down, the C2 is easier to fit between items on your countertop or in a drawer—and is a lot harder to knock over accidentally.

Timemore also makes the newer C3 , which has the same body with a new burr set that it says is better designed, and based on the one in its higher-end models. The C3 usually costs at least $20 more, and also comes in a Max size and has an option with a foldable handle. Today, the price of the C2 models are lower than they were when we originally recommended them in 2021, making them an even better choice for someone who wanted a very good burr grinder for less than $100. That’s one reason we’d still recommend the C2, as long as it’s available. The C3 seems to grind just a bit more smoothly and quickly, but the base also weighs nearly 1.8 ounces (50 grams) more than the C2’s, which isn’t ideal if you also intended to use this as a portable grinder. It also has slightly larger settings, as in the space between the adjustments is just a teeny bit larger—for most aficionados, the smaller those spaces, the better.

How the Timemore C2 has held up

Unlike blade grinders, which randomly blitz coffee beans into smaller and smaller pieces, burr grinders cut coffee beans between a set of two grooved burrs, the same way flour is milled. The space between the two burrs determines the final size of the coffee grounds, so the grounds end up being a much more consistent size than anything buzzed in a blade grinder.

More importantly, blade grinders have literally no way to set the grind size for a drip pot over a French press, unlike an electric grinder. You usually end up with a lot of fine powder, some bigger chunks, and (hopefully) some grounds that are the desired size.

Over years of testing, we’ve consistently found that even the casual coffee drinker notices the difference in taste between poorly ground and properly ground coffee. And we’ve heard the same thing from Wirecutter staffers who’ve made the switch to a burr grinder. Yes, good burr grinders cost significantly more than a standard $20 blade grinder, but for those who enjoy coffee, the flavor difference makes the upgrade worth it.

By the way, if you own a blade grinder and are curious about the difference more evenly ground coffee could make—but you’re not ready to spend $100 on a burr grinder—you could also try these tips (video) from YouTube coffee expert James Hoffmann on how to get better results from your blade grinder. Or, you could try getting your coffee ground-to-order from a high-quality cafe.

But what if I still want to use a blade grinder?

We know that some people will stand by their blade grinders and dismiss burr grinders as being pretentious or a waste of money. Though some experts may tell them they’re wrong, we believe that if someone likes the coffee they make with a blade grinder, they don’t need to change things.

That said, if you want to buy a blade grinder, there are a few things to consider. While we haven’t conducted hands-on testing of blade grinders (though we hope to one day!) we know that there are differences in blade shape, size, and sharpness at various price points, so think twice before you just buy the absolute cheapest version you find. You can also choose a traditional barrel grinder or one with a removable cup that lets you wash the blade and the grinds cup. If you ever use your blade grinder to grind spices, the removable cup might be the way to go: Ground spices leave behind aromatic oils that are hard to just wipe away.

Burr sets in a good grinder are either flat or conical: Flat burr sets consist of two flat, ring-shaped burrs lined with grooves that break up the beans as the burrs press together. Conical burrs are more of a V shape, with the center burr fitting into the outer burr, both of them also lined with sharp-edged grooves that cut up the beans as they press together.

These two types of burrs work in slightly different ways, and you’ll find plenty of experts arguing that one type is slightly better than the other for various reasons, from speed to minimizing heat retention. But the main takeaway from our testing is that both types yield extremely consistent results. Until recently, most home grinders used conical burrs. Flat sets were found mainly in commercial machines (flat burr sets often cost more and tend to collect coffee between their burrs; the coffee then drops all over, which is something that’s easier to overlook in a café). But this is beginning to change.

There is also a cheaper kind of flat burr that is better described as a disc or block burr. This is the kind of burr used in the electric burr grinders that sell for way less than $100. These burr grinders cost less in part because their burr sets aren’t as good as a conical or flat set (video) . The rings of these burr sets are lined with knobby protrusions that look more like teeth than sharpened grooves, and they act like teeth, too, chewing and breaking beans instead of cutting them. The result: inconsistent grounds, more fines, and a muddier cup of coffee.

“We call those masticating burrs,” coffee expert Kyle Ramage told us. “In the burr world or coffee world, we kind of ignore those, because they are crazy cheap and not worth having.”

Disc or block burrs are often found in machines with cheaper motors, because the teeth can help break apart the beans with less power (video) . They’re also often found in machines that you can’t open to inspect the burr set. With electric burr grinders, said Ramage, there simply aren’t many shortcuts: “Almost every single time you go up in price, you go up in quality.”

Regularly cleaning your grinder —not just brushing away coffee but taking out the top burr and gently brushing both sides—can help prevent clogs and maintain the machine’s overall performance. It can also keep your coffee from picking up any off tastes from residual oils or coffee grounds. Kaleena Teoh, a co-founder of Coffee Project NY , taught us that cleaning the drawer is easier if you have a clean rag that is barely damp on one side and bone dry on the other. You wipe the particles away with the barely damp side then use the dry side to fully remove the moisture.

How often does “regularly” mean? In a video , Baratza suggests cleaning your grinder about once a month if you’re grinding oily beans, noting that you can go longer if your beans are a lighter roast. Several Wirecutter staffers who own and use Baratza grinders at home report cleaning at less frequent intervals—say, every two to three months or every six months—without any noticeable ill effects on their machine’s performance—you just don’t want to let it go for years, because coffee oils will go rancid or stale, and those aromas are nearly impossible to get rid of.

In between deep cleanings, most experts recommend running some Grindz cleaning tablets through your machine about once a month, or when you are switching from one type of bean to another. Although this can’t fully replace a thorough manual cleaning, it can be a quick way to refresh your grinder and remove some of the coffee oil buildup. These tablets are made of grain composites and can leave some dusty residue, which may not fully dissipate on the first one or two grinds after use. Urnex, the company that makes Grindz, claims that its tablets are food-safe and gluten-free, so it’s not the end of the world if you get a few flecks in your cup of Joe, and we’ve had a particle or two in our coffees and lived. (Most experts would tell you to just grind about ¼ cup (30 grams) of beans after you use Grindz and throw them away.) But if you have celiac disease or other specific grain sensitivities, we recommend calling the company for a more detailed breakdown of ingredients.

If you’re looking for another more-affordable model: The Capresso Infinity was our budget pick before the OXO Brew Conical Burr Coffee Grinder came along, and it is a fine choice for around $100 (though it used to cost less).  The Infinity did well in our tests, but it’s better at grinding coffee into very fine particles than into coarse ones. And we found its usability to be a bit arbitrary; the numbers on its timer switch indicate the number of cups you want to brew, rather than seconds (this is impractical since the amount of coffee ground in a set period depends on how coarse the grind is, and different brewing methods require different amounts of ground coffee per cup). This grinder has a heavier base than the OXO, as well as a pretty small countertop profile, which may appeal to some. But ultimately, we found the OXO to have a better range, as well as a better set of extra features, like an accurate timer and a removable hopper.

If you need a budget option that’s compact: The Bodum Bistro electric burr grinder is an attractive and inexpensive little machine, often on sale for less than $100. It has a small footprint, a range of color options, and a nice design that matches the look and feel of other Bodum equipment. Its steel conical burr did well in our grind tests, and the grinder was fun to use (though it doesn’t quite have the range or the consistency of the OXO, and the Bistro is an even lighter machine). You can replace some of its components, including the outer burr. It is likely too lightweight for heavy users. But given that some color options are often marked down, this grinder could be a solid budget pick for certain people.

If you’re a filter method enthusiast willing to spend a bit more: You might be interested in the Eureka Mignon Filtro Coffee Grinder . It’s a flat burr machine designed for pour-overs, drip, French press, and other brew methods that use a filter. The Mignon is not a machine for someone who’s just getting into coffee or who makes only a giant pot of coffee for their office each morning. But it might be worth the price (around $200 at this writing) for someone who thinks about drawdown time and owns both a Chemex and a Hario V60 . The Mignon produces extremely consistent grinds (and great-tasting coffee) very quickly, creating almost no mess. It is heavier, larger, and louder than every machine we tested (though it has a satisfying purr), and it has a stepless dial with unlimited options for grind size. This requires you to take note of where on the dial you land (it’s marked 1 to 5 only) so you know how to go back to that setting. (It also has a funny box-shaped body and hopper, which is either interestingly modern or ugly, depending on your point of view.) This grinder would likely also be harder to repair or service than the Baratza Virtuoso+ , since it’s imported from Italy.

If you want to experiment with the hottest pour-over gear: If you follow coffee, then you know that the hottest thing to hit the home-brewing scene in the last few years is the Fellow Ode Brew Grinder . We’ve tested the original Ode, and the Ode Gen 2, which we’d recommend over the original, as it has a wider range of grind sizes. The Ode Gen 2(sold for about $345 at the time of writing) is beautiful—from its custom packaging and handsome, pencil-shaped burr brush to the machine itself. It is ultracompact, and has a superfast flat burr and one large, smooth dial for changing the grind size. This grinder looks fantastic, but is it worth the money? The answer is yes, but only if countertop aesthetics are important to you and your main brew method is a pour-over (or something similar). That's the particular range of grinds the Ode is designed for. Kaleena Teoh, a co-founder of Coffee Project NY , uses it in her shop for pour-overs, and they also sell the machines. (There is a burr upgrade that gets you even more consistency and a broader range of grinds for pour-overs for about $185 more, but that’s really for Ode super fans or those heavily invested in pour-over tinkering.)

For everyone else, the Ode is probably not worth the cost. Like the Mignon, it can produce great-tasting drip, French press, and cold brew coffee, but its hopper won’t hold enough coffee to make coffee for more than two people at a time, and it has an even smaller range of grind sizes, especially on the finer half of the dial. Plus, it doesn’t have a timer or other convenience features. This grinder also has many design issues that should be improved, given that design is part of its appeal. The top is somewhat thin and easy to drop, and the on/off button is so low to the ground it’s easy to hit while cleaning your counters. Inside the grounds bin, there are built-in metal wings. These wings make measuring and pouring beans into the hopper easy. But they also make it really hard to actually pour the grinds into your coffee maker, and they make the bin hard to clean. Using this grinder in general was noticeably messy, with grinds falling out of the burrs every time we touched the machine, even after we tried to knock them out with a knocker included for that purpose—though this gets better the more you use the machine.

Michael Hession, Wirecutter’s head of photo and video, has been using this machine since 2021 and has grown to prefer it to his Baratza Virtuoso+ for pour-overs. He says "It’s just much faster and more pleasant to listen to than the Baratzas. I also like the heavy build of it. It definitely has a limited range, which could be a dealbreaker if you’re experimenting with many different methods, but for my own situation it’s just fine. I have heard some coffee people say it doesn’t grind fine enough even for some light roast pour-overs, but I haven’t experienced that at all.”

If you want an affordable hand grinder that fits inside your AeroPress brewer: The Porlex Mini manual grinder was our top pick for a hand grinder before the Timemore Chestnut C2 came along. The Porlex has a smooth hand-cranking action, a sturdy, stainless steel body, and a ceramic burr. Perhaps most important for many readers who love to camp or travel: It has a built-in rubber band for storing the handle, fits perfectly inside the chamber of an AeroPress brewer, and costs less than $100.

$101 to $300

The Fellow Opus Conical Burr Grinder is supposed to be a “do-it-all” grinder for everything from espresso to drip, built with a similar look and feel to Fellow’s widely admired Ode. It does make great-tasting coffee and has a good quality conical burr—though that is slightly smaller in size than the one in our top pick. But it’s just not as easy to use or as likely to last as long as our top pick, and it costs more. Its sleek design has many of the same real-world usability issues as the Fellow Ode : You can’t put more than a few cups worth of beans in the hopper, the on/off button is low, and the grinds cup is messy. The settings adjustment wheel, while cute in black and blue, is much harder to use than the one on our pick—you have to lift off the top to see what you’re doing, then hold down the machine to keep it steady. It does have some extra settings designed particularly for espresso, which is nice if you like to switch up your style, but tinkering with them requires removing both the lid and the hopper.

The Zwilling Enfinigy Coffee Grinder (which comes in black or silver) actually produces a fairly consistent grind in the medium range that most casual coffee drinkers would need for drip or French press, but this machine felt flimsy and lightweight for its price point ($140 at the time of writing). It didn’t grind as well as the cheaper OXO, and our tests revealed it has a similar but slightly smaller burr set—it often struggled to get beans from the hopper through the machine unless you slapped it on the sides and top. This was even worse with a dark roast. It also got (and stayed) noticeably hot while grinding, and once shut down on its own while we were grinding several cups worth of coffee at a time.

The OXO Brew Conical Burr Grinder with Integrated Scale looks great on the counter, is able to grind by weight, and has a simple and friendly interface—check out that much-hyped backlit dial! But it has a slightly different design than the lower-cost OXO machine we recommend . And this one disqualified itself almost immediately by spewing seemingly endless coffee chaff all over the countertop every time we used it, thanks to a gap between the chute and the opening of the grounds container. What a mess.

The Cuisinart Deluxe Grind CBM-20 at first seemed promising—if rather large—but its lightweight feel and unintuitive interface quickly became off-putting. Its grind size tended to be coarse, and we found the measurements to be inconsistent. Finally, the upper burr’s handle snapped off in our hands when we tried to remove it for routine maintenance.

We tested the Breville Smart Grinder Pro , intrigued by its encyclopedic list of options and features. But the abundance of settings (timed dosing down to 0.2-second increments, and nearly 60 grind sizes) and complicated digital interface made this grinder difficult to use. It took forever for us to dial in. And perhaps more importantly, our tests produced over-extracted batches each time, which means there are likely too many small particles in the results.

Like the Breville, the KitchenAid Burr Coffee Grinder also came with a vast list of options, boasting 70 different settings. Also like the Breville, those options made this grinder more confusing to use and dial in what you want: You set the brewing method on a slider; then there is a digital interface where you can tinker with a numerical grind size, the number of cups you want to make, and the time to grind. The grind consistency was good (not as good as with the Encore , but not that far behind the OXO). One big flaw is that the plastic used in the bin and hopper feels cheap and has an unattractive gloss (though this grinder does come in a range of colors, which is nice). At 15 inches tall, it’s also the largest machine we tested—and one of the messier ones.

$300 to $500

The Smeg CGF01 coffee grinder felt like a tank on our counter, which was reassuring, as usually heavy machines indicate an attention to build quality that results in better coffee. But it had a visibly inconsistent grind at fine, medium, and coarse settings, including lots of the odd-shaped, large pieces that experts told us are the worst offenders when it comes to bad flavors. (This was after seasoning the machine with more than a pound of coffee, to account for inconsistencies in brand new machines.) We wanted to love this grinder, given how many lovely colors it comes in and how handsome it was, but can’t currently recommend it given its lackluster performance and high price, which was $330 at the time of writing. That’s even more than the two specialized pour-over grinders we’d recommend only for those who consider themselves true enthusiasts. Its burr set also looks remarkably similar to the one in the OXO, which is a third of the price and easily outperforms the Smeg.

We also considered upper-level Baratza models, like its Sette grinder. But we ultimately decided the price tag and feature sets were well above what most people need. We think they’re best for those who are interested in making espresso, and we’ve covered some of them in our guide to espresso machines .

Manual grinders

For great manual machines under $100 that you might still be able to use every day, we considered the Handground Precision Manual Coffee Grinder , which has an intriguing design: Shaped like an oversize hourglass with a side-mounted crank arm and a numbered slider for changing grind size, it’s made to sit on the countertop. But the grinder is much larger than it appears in photos and doesn’t seem like it matches up to its promise. The grinder wobbles a bit on the table, and it’s hard to hold and to crank (especially with your left hand). And this model is so large it isn’t even that portable.

The Hario Skerton Pro was also promising, since it was designed to counter the flaws in the original Hario Skerton grinders (which required you to take apart the machine to adjust the grind size and also had issues with wobbling burrs, especially with coarser grind sizes). The Skerton Pro grinder was quickly disqualified because the nonslip rubber bottom came off the glass bin far too easily, and our grind selector slipped out of place on more than one occasion. We also easily dismissed the tiny Hario Mini Mill , which simply takes too long to grind a cup of coffee. Both of these grinders also have ceramic burr sets, which don’t perform as well as metal ones.

This article was edited by Marilyn Ong and Marguerite Preston.

Ryan Felbinger, product manager, Prima Coffee Equipment , July 5, 2022

Anita Tam, owner, Slow Pour Supply , June 28, 2022

Kaleena Teoh, co-founder and director of education, Coffee Project New York , June 13, 2022

Kyle Ramage, United States Barista Champion , phone interviews, September 1, 2017 and December 17, 2020

Emma Wartzman, 13 of the Very Best Coffee Grinders , New York Magazine , September 19, 2022

Owen Burke, The 6 Best Coffee Grinders , Business Insider , March 22, 2022

A Beginners Guide to Coffee Grinders , Whole Latte Love , March 23, 2020

Does Burr Shape Matter? | Flat vs Conical vs Block (video) , Seattle Coffee Gear , June 16, 2017

Scott Rao, author , phone interview, September 1, 2017, and email interview, February 18, 2021

Oliver Strand, The Daily Grind , The New York Times Style Magazine , April 30, 2012

Meet your guides

Rachel Wharton

Rachel Wharton is a senior staff writer at Wirecutter covering ovens, stoves, fridges and other essential kitchen appliances. She has more than 15 years of experience reporting on food issues and a master's degree in food studies, and has helped write more than a dozen books on that topic (including her own, American Food: A Not-So-Serious History ). One of her first real gigs was reviewing kitchen gadgets in less than 50 words for the New York Daily News.

Liz Clayton

Further reading

The Best Coffee Makers

by Wirecutter Staff

We think the easiest way to make good coffee is with the Bonavita Enthusiast 8-Cup Coffee Brewer . We also have picks for a budget option, an espresso machine, and more.

How to Clean Your Coffee Maker

by Joanne Chen

Cleaning your coffee maker regularly and thoroughly will help the machine last longer and make the coffee taste better.

The Best Cheap Coffee Maker

by Ever Meister and Justin Vassallo

Of all the coffee makers under $100 that we’ve tested, the Ninja CE251 makes the best-tasting coffee, and it is easy to use.

The Best Drip Coffee Maker

by Marguerite Preston and Kathleen Squires

We’ve been testing coffee makers since 2014, and we think the Bonavita Enthusiast 8-Cup Drip Coffee Brewer offers the best combination of convenient features and delicious coffee.

To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then   View saved stories .

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The Best Coffee Grinders

If you buy something using links in our stories, we may earn a commission. This helps support our journalism. Learn more . Please also consider subscribing to WIRED

Best Overall (and Quietest) Fellow Opus Conical Burr Grinder Read more

Best Budget Grinder Oxo Conical Burr Grinder Read more

Best Upgrade Eureka Mignon Notte Read more

Runner-Up Baratza Encore Burr Grinder Read more

It's all in the beans. Nothing will improve your morning coffee like grinding the beans right before you brew . It doesn't matter whether you're rocking a fancy liquid-cooled-quantum-AI-powered espresso machine or a $20 Mr. Coffee —making the switch to whole beans will transform your coffee-drinking experience. We have advice at the end of this article on finding good whole beans, and you might want to read our Best Coffee Bean Subscription Services guide . Once you have your beans, it's time to grind ’em up fresh each day. These are the best coffee grinders we've tested.

Be sure to check out our coffee buying guides, like the Best Latte and Cappuccino Machines , Best Portable Coffee Makers , Best Espresso Machines , and Best Portable Espresso Makers .

Updated October 2023: We added the DmofwHi Wireless Grinder and Breville Barista Express.

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Our list consists mostly of conical-burr grinders . In a conical grinder, coffee beans are crushed and ground between two rings of burrs. They deliver a finer, much more consistent grind than you’d get with a traditional blade grinder, even the nicest ones.

Flat-burr grinders are similar, but they’re typically more expensive. In these, the burrs are laid on top of each other, and the beans pass through them as they grind. The grinder action pushes the grounds out of one end, instead of relying on gravity like a conical-burr grinder, and the beans spend more time in contact with the burrs. This results in a more consistent grind, but for home brewers, conical-burr grinders are just as good—even if they require more maintenance and don’t result in consistent-down-to-the-micron-scale grounds.

Blade grinders have a chopping blade that spins around like a food processor. But blades don't produce even results. Some of your coffee will be fine powder at the bottom, and at the top you'll have bits too large for even French press. The result is an inconsistent, unpredictable brew. These grinders are cheap, and yes, using fresh beans in a blade grinder is far better than buying ground coffee. (You can learn how to shake the beans to even your grind just a little. See world barista champion James Hoffmann's video for some more blade grinder hacks .)

If you can afford it, we highly recommend going with one of the burr grinders we've listed. There's a reason why they cost a little more than a budget burr grinder. The machinery in a high-quality burr grinder is a bit more complicated, and it's built to withstand greater wear and tear. In cheap burr grinders, the burrs will typically get blunt from regular use, and the flimsier motors may burn out with regular use in a matter of months.

PSA: Do not put preground coffee into a burr grinder . Logically, it makes sense. It's too coarse, so you put it through again, right? No! With a burr grinder, the preground coffee gets stuck inside the burrs, and you''ll have to do some disassembly to set them to rights again.

Best Overall (and Quietest)

I had mixed feelings about the Opus ( 9/10, WIRED Recommends ) when I first set it up. It's lighter than some of the other offerings in this guide, and there's more plastic in the build than I usually like. Then I turned it on. The grounds it produced at its finest setting were like double-zero flour. They were super-fine, and under a macro lens, they were remarkably consistent. That's the performance I saw with every grade of coarseness it offers—remarkable consistency.

There's another feature that's easy to overlook: it's quiet. I've tested dozens of burr grinders over the years, and this one was so hushed I almost thought it was broken. That might not seem like an important detail for a coffee grinder, but burr grinders are loud, and if you're the first one to get up in the morning, you're basically hitting an alarm clock for the whole house. The Opus grinds quietly and cleanly and can meet your needs no matter what kind of coffee you're grinding. And it's less than $200.

Best Budget Grinder

Oxo's Brew grinder has a good balance of features, usefulness, and a relatively low price among the electric grinders we've used. It's a conical-burr grinder, so it gives you the precision for most types of brewing. There are 15 settings, covering every brewing scenario from finely ground espresso to coarse-ground that’s perfect for a French press. Its slim, narrow profile doesn't hog counter space—though it is 16 inches tall and might be a tight fit under the cabinets. (Remember, you need some clearance to take the lid off and pour in beans.) It's not silent by any means, but it's not too loud, and it grinds quickly.

We've used this grinder daily for more than a year, and it's held up well. If you've never had a burr grinder and want to see what all the fuss is about without breaking the bank, this is where you should start. But be careful, you will end up drinking more coffee because it tastes so good when it's burr-ground. Avoid the equally popular Cuisinart burr grinder ($60) . Members of our reviews team have purchased and tested this Cuisinart model at least three times because of its low price. It was loud, the grind wasn't as even, and the motor gave out on all of our units (which we purchased years apart) after a month or two.

Eric Ravenscraft

Julian Chokkattu

Best Upgrade

Hand-built in Florence, Italy, the Eureka Mignon Notte is the best grinder we've ever tested. It's built from top to bottom with longevity in mind. You can disassemble it to service its robust inner machinery, clean the burrs, and troubleshoot any issues. Moreover, the chassis is built like a tank, and unlike most grinders, it's made almost entirely of steel. Servicing a heavy-duty machine like a burr grinder encased in flimsy plastic can be a huge pain—and sometimes impossible without breaking something.

Burr grinders will always run into problems. They break up oily beans into fine powders, so there's going to be some buildup, somewhere. The Mignon Notte is one of the first burr grinders that I feel confident might actually outlast me. Plus, it grinds coffee to perfection in a matter of seconds, no matter how fine or coarse you want it, and it costs hundreds less than most flat-burr grinders.

There’s a good reason the Baratza Encore’s been unchanged on the market for over a decade. While coffee culture can often seem elitist and uninviting, this conical-burr grinder is more accessible and less expensive than most quality grinders. It's simple to operate and doesn't hog counter space. (It's about 14 inches tall, so check the specs against your kitchen.)

The Baratza Encore is also easily cleanable and repairable. No tools are required to remove the hopper or outer ring of the burr grinder, and replacement parts are easy to obtain . Plus, there’s a one-year limited warranty. The Encore has a bigger, beefier cousin, the Encore Vario-W , but for most people, the Encore is a much better pick. The Vario-W does include a scale and it has flat burrs, but at over $500, it doesn't do much to justify that price.

Best Blade Grinder

A burr grinder will get you noticeably tastier coffee, but there's nothing wrong with a plain old blade grinder. If you're just grinding coffee for a drip machine, French press, or pour-over, a blade grinder will do just fine in most cases. My personal favorite has been this KitchenAid that I picked up on Amazon a few years back. It's sturdy, and it has a little removable cup so you don't have to invert the whole grinder over your coffee machine to empty out the grounds. Most importantly, it gets the job done. Add in fresh, locally roasted beans and you'll be in for a killer cup of coffee.  Pro tip: If you pulse it instead of holding it down for one long grind, you'll get a more consistent grind, and you won't end up with as many nearly whole beans floating at the top of your coffee filter. A more consistent grind equals more flavor in your cup.

Best for Pour-Over and Drip Coffee

The Ode Brew Grinder only grinds coffee coarse enough for pour-over, drip, or French press brewing, but it's a great grinder. Its flat burrs produce a super consistent grind that really elevates a good pour-over. It's also nice to look at and is built from solid metal, like a tank. The Ode thoroughly, speedily, and relatively quietly grinds your coffee beans. We recommend it if you’re looking to raise your coffee game at home but aren't interested in making espresso.

For a Super-Fine Grind

The Baratza Encore ESP ( 9/10 WIRED Recommends ) grinder is a little different from the standard Encore. The ESP costs a bit more, but it has a good reason for that: It offers more granular adjustments at the finer end of the scale, meaning you can really fine-tune your espresso grind. It has 40 grind settings, 20 micro settings which will produce super-fine espresso grounds, and 20 macro settings which will produce coarser grounds suitable for pour-over or drip.

On top of that, you can also remove the hopper and outer ring of the grinder without any tools, which makes cleaning and servicing the machine pretty easy.

Great for Filter Coffee

The Wilfa Uniform grinder ( 9/10, WIRED Recommends ) isn't the kind of device that's built for espresso, but it will provide consistent grounds for almost all other types of coffee. Because it's a flat burr grinder, it's going to give you noticeably uniform grounds. Each and every ground comes out with almost exactly the same shape. That level of consistency is great for at-home coffee because it ensures each cup you brew is going to be as rich and flavorful as possible. It also boasts an auto-stop feature, so it'll stop grinding when it runs out of beans to grind.

Easy to Clean

We have killed quite a few burr grinders in our day. They can be hard to keep clean and hard to maintain, plus most of the ones you’ll find under $80 aren’t going to live long no matter how well you look after them. The motors burn out, the burrs get worn down, and coffee dust builds up in places you can’t get to—it's a hard life.

The Breville Smart Grinder Pro is one of the best I’ve used. It has all kinds of helpful features, like a grind timer and adjustable dose control, plus attachments that let you settle a portafilter right under the spout where the grounds come out. The standout feature for me is its cleanability. You can easily disassemble the hopper, get access to the burrs, and pull out the spill tray under the spout—it’s amazing for keeping a burr grinder in working order.

★ Alternative: The KitchenAid Burr Grinder ($200) is stylish and also easy to clean. The burrs are just a  bit  more accessible thanks to their placement directly beneath the hopper. It also features precise dose control and a dial controlling the consistency of the grind (with helpful guidelines for different kinds of coffee preparation). Plus, you can swap the little container that catches the grounds with a holder for a portafilter—which makes it super easy to grind exactly how much you need and not a single bean more.

Best Grinder With a Scale

Making great coffee is all about starting with fresh roasted beans, getting them to just the right grind, and adding hot water. Making great coffee consistently is all about measuring your variables, and adjusting one at a time. One key variable is the weight of grounds you use, 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. You can use a kitchen scale to weigh your beans, but this is a nice way to streamline your morning ritual, especially if counter space is at a premium. Be warned though, it does have a tendency to cast off a few grounds here or there when you open the little grounds container, so make sure you sweep your counter regularly.

Best Hand Grinder

WIRED senior reviewer Scott Gilbertson prefers to hand-grind his coffee, and he's tried half a dozen manual grinders. The Skerton Pro is far and away his favorite. It's fast, taking less than two minutes to grind out the half cup of fine grounds for my moka pot—and the burr design produces a consistent, fine grind. Note that we said “fine.” This is not the best choice for French press brewing, because the Skerton Pro is just not consistent enough at coarse grinds.

On the downside, the silicone grip constantly falls off. (Scott threw his away, as it didn't do much anyway.) On the upside, the threads on the grinder portion are standard, so if anything happens to the glass jar you can just use a regular Ball mason jar.

Best for Traveling

This smaller Hario is the first hand grinder that senior reviewer Scott Gilbertson ever used. It's perfect for a shot of espresso or even a small moka pot. It doesn't grind as fast as the Skerton, but it's much lighter and safer to throw in your bag when you travel, thanks to the plastic construction. There's also the slightly larger and more expensive Mini Slim Pro . Grind-wise, the Mini Slim is about the same, but he doesn't like it as much, because you can't see how much coffee you've ground.

A Sturdy Grinder

VSSL started life making ultra-durable camping tools—waterproof canisters with flashlights, compasses, first aid kits, and more. Recently the company took that same design—a slender tube made of aircraft-grade aluminum—and turned it into the Java, a portable coffee grinder rugged enough to survive the zombie apocalypse or a bumpy ride to your favorite campsite.

Senior reviewer Scott Gilbertson loves everything about the Java. It's incredibly well-made, yet (relatively) lightweight. The handle is clever. It folds out and provides a lot of leverage while you grind, and you can use it as a hook to hang the Java up when you're done. The setup produces a nice even grind, covering the full spectrum of brew possibilities, from French-press coarse to espresso-fine. At roughly 14 ounces, you wouldn't bring it backpacking, but it's great for grinding fresh beans while camping. The Java isn't cheap, but if you do a lot of camping and want a grinder that's going to last a lifetime, this one fits the bill.

A Wireless Grinder

I was on the fence about this grinder. I'd seen it all over TikTok, but it wasn't until two different outdoorsy friends mentioned it that I decided to give it a shot. The name is a bit of a mouthful, but the DmofwHi grinder is honestly a solid little blade grinder. It'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. Your mileage will depend on how long you grind for and how much coffee you're grinding, but that's about what I got when I was using it while living out of hotels for a while. Since it's a blade grinder, you're not going to be getting espresso-quality beans out of this little thing, but for a regular drip machine, pour-over, Turkish coffee, or cowboy coffee, it's a great little companion to have on the road.

This illustrates its other selling point: Since it's rechargeable and wireless, you can take it wherever you want. It's less hard on your hands than a manual grinder, so it's a nice option for anyone who doesn't have the patience or strength to hand-crank their own coffee beans.

The Best Built-In Grinder

When you're shopping for a grinder, you'll inevitably come up against a timeless dilemma: Do you buy a grinder, or a coffee machine with a grinder? After years of testing coffee gear, I still don't have a good answer for most people. On the one hand, having them separate makes it easier to repair or replace either one should the need arise. But on the other hand, having a built-in coffee grinder is just so damned convenient, especially if you don't already have a nice coffee machine you really like.

If you're in the market for a new espresso machine and a new grinder, the Breville Barista Express is definitely our top pick. It includes a powerful conical burr grinder with 16 grind settings and automatic dose control. This means you're only ever one button press away from fresh-ground espresso. Read our Best Espresso Machines guide for more recommendations.

A Place to Store Your Beans

It's easy to overlook bean storage, especially if you go through coffee pretty quickly. But during months of testing, I can say definitively that a vacuum container preserves the delicate flavors of locally roasted coffee much longer than the bag they came in does. The Atmos Vacuum Container from Fellow is my hands-down favorite, and every single bag of coffee I get goes right into one as soon as I bring it home from the store. By using a twist-action pump on the lid to vacate the container of any air, the Atmos effectively puts your beans into stasis. Without air, there are fewer passive chemical reactions going on that break down those roasty toasty flavors before you can get to them.

A Scale for Weighing Your Beans

OK. I'll admit it. I was one of those people who was vehemently against weighing out my beans for each cup. I thought it was bougie and unnecessary—until I tried it. I bought the Ozeri food scale for weighing out baking ingredients, and one day I used it for coffee and really enjoyed the results. By weighing out exactly how many grams of whole coffee beans I'm going to use, I can achieve a level of consistency that's hard to beat. A scale is a must-have if you're trying to troubleshoot or explore the differences you experience in your coffee from cup to cup.

Whether you're using a drip brewer, an espresso machine, or a pour-over setup, weighing out your beans before you grind them is a wonderful way to ensure you're only grinding exactly what you need (which reduces waste). It's been especially helpful in my home, which drinks a lot of standard and decaf coffee. My partner is sensitive to caffeine, so we like to make sure there aren't any caffeinated beans left in the grinder before grinding her decaf. Weighing the beans for each cup (or pot if you're using a drip brewer) makes it super easy to control which beans are going into which cup. Plus, I guarantee you'll find more uses for this food scale than you ever expected.

Buy Fresh Beans (You Won't Regret It)

Whole beans will always taste fresher than preground, but the fresher they actually are, the more delicious they may taste. We suggest visiting your local coffee roaster. Just Google “coffee roasters near me” and I guarantee you’ll find something nearby. Your local grocery store probably even stocks locally roasted beans.

Look for bags of whole beans with dates printed on them. (That’s when they were roasted, and you’ll usually only find those on local brands.) If you don't have any coffee roasters in your area, you can order some quality beans online. If you're unsure which variety of coffee to get, check our Best Subscription Coffee Services guide . These services send you new beans to try every few weeks.

Matt Jancer

Louryn Strampe

Lauren Goode

Medea Giordano

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8 best portable coffee makers for the perfect brew while camping

For a barista-quality cup of joe while travelling, you need one of these compact gadgets , article bookmarked.

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There’s no better way to welcome a crisp morning at the campsite than with a cup of hot, barista-quality coffee .  

Thanks to the recent intersection between the hipster and hiking cultures, you can forget mediocre mugs of instant and cold strolls to the cafe. There are plenty of pocket-sized, artisanal coffee makers on the market that you can use to brew from your sleeping bag.  

We tested these coffee makers on camping trips, day hikes and windswept surf trips. We also discovered a useful crossover: many of these little coffee-makers are desk-sized and keep your drink warm for hours, meaning you can maintain a steady supply of caffeine when working from home, without having to pop to the kitchen to microwave your mug.

The kind of coffee maker you need depends on what kind of coffee you like – there are really portable options out there for every style of brew. If you like a long, even cup of coffee, pick a “drip” brewer or a french press (also known as a cafetiere).  

If you need a short jolt of coffee to get going, try one of the portable espresso makers – you can always lengthen these with hot water to make an Americano.  

Related stories

If you’re a gourmet, you’ll love the Hario V60 and the travel version of the famous Aeropress. These made such smooth, flavourful cups of coffee that we started using them at home, too.

You will need to be able to boil water to use with these coffee makers, although with some systems, the kettle is integrated, so you can pop the whole thing on the stove. Most make a single shot or cup of coffee at a time, unless we’ve specified otherwise, but many also come in larger models.

How we tested

We looked for portability and durability first – so glass and ceramic were out, as was anything that took up too much room in our backpack. We also preferred options that didn’t need paper filters, because those can be fiddly to pack – although we made some exceptions. Overall, we looked for the best-tasting cups of coffee across a range of brew methods, with a variety of beans and roasts.

The best portable coffee makers for 2022 are:

• Best overall – Aeropress go: £28, Blackbagcoffeeco.co.uk
• Best durable design – BruTrek ovrlndr press: £42, Outside.co.uk
• Best for espresso – Wacaco nanopresso: £59.90, Wacaco.com
• Best for camping – Sea to Summit x-brew coffee dripper: £15, Seatosummit.co.uk
• Best for a camping stove – Bialetti moka express: From £24, Johnlewis.com
• Best for backpackers and cyclists – MSR windburner coffee press kit: £24.03, Amazon.co.uk
• Best for beautiful design – GSI mini espresso set one cup: £37.95, Absolute-snow.co.uk
• Best for a coffee-shop filter – Hario V60 coffee dripper: £8.89, Amazon.co.uk

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Aeropress go

• Best : Overall
• Capacity : 227g
• Coffee maker type : Vacuum coffee pot
• Size : 9.9cm x 9.9cm x 13.5cm

The portable coffee-maker of choice for many coffee experts just got even more portable. Aeropress makes some of the smoothest, best extracted coffee we’ve tried, and this slightly smaller travel version is no different. Packing down into its own plastic mug, it’s a brilliantly compact device. It also comes with some upgrades on the classic model – we found it had a slightly smoother plunge, for example. It comes with paper filters, but we prefer reusable metal ones when we’re on the go – Aeropress doesn’t have an official one yet, but they’re easy to find online.

BruTrek ovrlndr press

• Best : Durable design
• Capacity : 709g
• Coffee maker type : French press
• Size : 4.5cm x 2.1cm x 1.55cm

This is the most rugged, adventure-ready coffee maker we tested. It’s essentially a tall cafetiere, made from steel, with an integrated mug. Thanks to the vacuum insulated wall, it kept our coffee warm for at least an hour. It’s incredibly neat and simple: add coffee (coarse ground) and water, stir, then pop on the lid – which integrates the press – and push down. The mesh press sits snug against the wall, so the grounds stay firmly at the bottom of the cylinder while you drink. It’s very durable and easy to clean – simply unscrew the bottom compartment and throw away the grounds. It’s on the heavier side but makes two generous cups at a time.

Wacaco nanopresso

• Best : For espresso
• Capacity : 8g
• Coffee maker type : Espresso machine
• Size : 5.6cm x 7.1cm x 6.3cm

This is a handheld espresso maker that extracts with more pressure than most machines and is the perfect camping companion if you like your coffee short and strong. It works best with ground, shop-bought espresso coffee and takes very little time and effort to brew: fill the small water tank with hot water, pack in the coffee, and squeeze. It’s not quite barista-quality espresso, but if you consider the fact that it will fit in your pocket or the side pocket of your backpack, it’s a very fine substitute. 

Please note the price shown excludes VAT.

Sea to Summit x-brew coffee dripper

• Best : For camping
• Capacity : 480g
• Coffee maker type : Dripper
• Size : ‎10.1cm x 10.1cm x 8.8cm

This is our favourite of Sea to Summit’s clever range of collapsible camping cooking equipment. The flexible, cooking-grade silicone pour-over-style coffee filter collapses to the size of a small coaster, making it the ultimate coffee maker for ultralight camping or hiking trips. We found a finer grind made the best coffee – water seems to flow straight through coarse-ground coffee – and you need roughly the same proportions of coffee to water that you would use for any drip system. It’s easy to clean and fits on any mug.

Bialetti moka express

• Best : For a camping stove
• Capacity : 60g
• Coffee maker type : Moka pot
• Size : 3.2cm x 5.5cm x 5.1cm

A tiny, one-person version of the classic Italian stovetop coffee maker. A moka pot is ideal if you camp with a gas stove because you can leave it gently bubbling away while you pack up camp. It’s designed to make espresso, so it’s best suited to people who like a short coffee – although you can easily top up your shot with hot water to make an Americano. The espresso it makes – a shot at a time – is exquisite, as good as you would make at home, and well worth the little bit of space it takes up in your pack. Producing a tiny version of Italy’s coolest coffee maker at breakfast will also win you major style points.

MSR windburner coffee press kit

• Best : For backpackers and bikers
• Capacity : 1,000g
• Size : 13.9cm x 13.9cm x 3.3cm

This spectacularly fast, neat coffee system only works with MSR’s windburner stove – it’s basically a lightweight press that fits inside the windburner pot – but paired up, they make the most reliable and dependable cup of coffee you can get on the road. It will light in even the worst weather thanks to the burner being very well shielded, and, because the pot sits snug on top, the water boils fast, even at altitude. The coffee is smooth and works best with a course ground. Everything packs down into the windburner’s pot, making it ideal for backpackers and bikers. If you’re an adventurer and coffee is a survival essential, this little press is the best you can get.

GSI mini espresso set one cup

• Best : For beautiful design
• Capacity : 70g
• Coffee maker type : Stovetop
• Size : 9.1cm x 7.62cm x 14.9cm

A beautiful little espresso system that works a bit like the moka pot. The base sits comfortably on a small gas stove, and the coffee bubbles up the longer spout to drip into the double-walled cup provided. It looks amazing and the coffee is excellent. The whole system packs down into a small case that’s just slightly bigger than a sunglasses pouch. It only makes one shot at a time, but it brews very quickly. It’s the perfect, lightweight treat for a camper – it’s also available as a larger, four-cup model if you’re heading out with a group, or just require a lot of caffeine before summiting.

Hario V60 coffee dripper

• Best : For a coffee-shop filter
• Capacity : 400g
• Coffee maker type : Pour over
• Size : 11cm x 8.9cm x 10.6cm

Hario makes the wildly popular ceramic V60 drippers you see deployed at artisan coffee shops, and we’re happy to report this lightweight, plastic version works just as well. Brewing with this is an art, but it is one you can replicate at the campsite: make sure you use V60 filters , and let your boiled water cool a little before pouring it, which should be done as slowly and precisely as possible, in circles over medium-coarse grounds. The lightweight plastic dripper in the single-cup size is very small, and even though it’s a slightly odd shape we found that we could fit it easily into our backpack pocket.

The verdict: Camping coffee makers

The Aeropress go takes one of the best handheld coffee makers on the market and makes it pocket-sized, which is hard to beat. Our espresso-loving reviewers were also blown away by Wacaco’s nanopresso handheld pump .

Cook up a storm with our guide to the best camping stoves for grilling sausages, toasting marshmallows and making hot drinks

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Best coffee grinders: burr coffee grinders for delicious brews

Pick the best coffee grinder to get the perfect brew for your beans. With top picks from Sage, Smeg, Barista and Co, and De'Longhi

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Buying the best coffee grinder for your kitchen will ensure that you get an endless supply of rich and fragrant coffee grounds to keep your filter (or portafilter) topped up. Every coffee bean demands a different optimum grind, so buying a burr coffee grinder will ensure that you always have the perfect cup of coffee, no matter the bean. The best coffee machine is only as good as the beans you put in it, and you will find that the fresher the grind, the more enjoyable the brew.

Another perk of investing in the best coffee grinder is the long-term savings. While there is an up-front cost involved, it is far less expensive to buy coffee beans than ground coffee, so you will find that you save money in the long run when you pick up one of our manual or burr grinders.

Best coffee grinders

Why you can trust Ideal Home Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about how we test .

1. Smeg CGF01 Coffee Grinder

Specifications, reasons to buy, reasons to avoid.

For those who want to splash out on a top-notch coffee grinder, this Smeg model is a great option. With its signature, 50s retro design and quality build, it certainly makes an eye-catching addition to any kitchen.  Set-up is easy by simply pouring the beans into the hopper at the top and 

slide over the chrome level to the setting you need - from fine, medium and coarse. Then set your preferred setting using the dial before pressing the Start button. The grinder immediately gets to work, producing aromatic, ground coffee straight into the container in seconds. This can also be sealed to keep its freshness for future use. 

The main feature here is the 30 grinding levels that you can choose from at just a twist of the dial. While this may seem a bit much, true coffee fans will enjoy experimenting with the different types of brews. As to be expected, the Smeg coffee grinder performs exceptionally well, and you can really taste the rich and flavoursome coffee.

Compared to other grinders, it has a large capacity, which is ideal for endless cups. Just make sure you have enough counter space! It also has an expensive price tag, so if you’re not likely to use all the features, this may not be practical. However, if fresh-tasting coffee is your forte, this is a great investment. 

Ideal Home’s rating: 5 out of 5 stars

2. Melitta Molino Coffee Grinder

Melitta is well-known for making top quality coffee grinders, and if you’re after an affordable burr grinder, this model is the perfect choice. It has a simple yet stylish design that is compact to fit any space. 

The convenient 17 different grinding settings ranges from extra fine right up to very course. So you have more than enough options to suit your coffee moods. 

More so, if you’re after simplicity, this grinder is very easy to use. Simply pour the beans in the container above, use the rotary dial to set your grinding level before using the push button to start the process. For a compact grinder, it performs well, producing consistent results with each setting. In fact, it excels in grinding very fine coffee which is perfect for cold brew or French press fans. In addition, it is quiet, which is always a bonus!

The plastic container to collect your coffee is removable and easy to clean. However, the plastic seems light and not as durable as other grinders. The only thing that lets it down is it can leave behind a mess of coffee dust all over the countertop after use, so just bear in mind. 

But overall, it’s a great, little coffee grinder with a decent choice of grinding levels at an affordable price. 

Ideal Home’s rating: 4 out of 5 stars

3. Le’Xpress Stainless Steel Traditional Coffee Grinder

If you fancy a more traditional, hand-powered coffee grinder (and don’t mind the elbow grease!), this manual grinder is ideal. Not only does it look the part with its stylish, stainless steel and wood trim design but it also does a cracking job. It only has three grinding levels – fine, medium, coarse, which is sufficient if you have those preferences.

It’s simple to operate by turning the crank arm clockwise to grind your coffee beans, at your own convenience. It has a handy, clip-top canister underneath to collect your ground coffee, which also has a silicone bung to retain the freshness. What’s more, you can use it to also grind hazelnuts, spices or any other ingredients for your recipes.

More suitable for a small household, the Le’Xpress coffee grinder is simple to use, attractive and most of all, gives you the satisfaction of grinding your own beans!

4. Barista & Co. Core Electric Grinder

If you’re after chic and sleek, this filter and brew coffee grinder fits the bill. Fairly new on the market, this top quality coffee grinder could give the more established brands a run for their money. With its modern, slimline design in black, it looks great for compact spaces. 

Easy to use, simply fill the hopper with your beans and adjust your grind size at just a twist. Best of all, the grinder comes with a generous 40 settings to achieve that perfect aromatic blend. By selecting either the plus or minus button, you can choose your grind time from 1—50 seconds or default, before pressing the button to start grinding your coffee. The results produce a consistent grind size, particularly for cold brew and espresso flavours. 

It also comes with handy accessories such as portafilter attachment, measure scoop and cleaning brush. What’s more, the parts are all removable and easy to clean. 

Overall, this Barista & Co grinder is an impressive, sleek grinder that performs well and easy to maintain. Bear in mind, it’s not a specific espresso grinder, so if you’re a fan then this may not be ideal. However, it has a wide range of levels that will give you your money’s worth.

Ideal Home’s rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

5. Sage The Smart Grinder Pro 

Coffee connoisseurs who know their bean will appreciate this Smart coffee grinder by Sage. Designed with high-tech features, it comes with a ‘dosing IQ’ of 60 (yes 60!) programmable grinding settings to get the most out of your bean. Ranging from ‘coarser’ to ‘finer’, you’ll find the perfect espresso for everyone’s tastes. 

The LED blue-backlit display is stylish and user-friendly. You can easily select your program, grind size and time. What’s more, you can select the number of shots or cups you need at just a press of a button. It also has a start/pause/cancel in one button. 

It’s large bean hopper can hold up to 450g capacity, perfect for large households who love their coffees! The bonus is, you can also grind directly into a portafilter, airtight container, or paper filter of your choice. 

Bear in mind, it is a lot more expensive than entry-level burr grinders. However, it’s a superb, smart coffee grinder that literally does all the work so you won’t have to!

6. De'Longhi Coffee Grinder

The sleek and blocky design of the De'Longhi Coffee Grinder will list happily in the corner of your kitchen, next to the finest coffee machine. It has a dial at the front which allows you to choose the amount of cups you're grinding for, and a dial at the side to choose your ideal coarseness.

Some have complained that the finest setting is not as fine as shop-bought coffee grounds, but the ideal coffee grind will depend on the specific bean.

We like the large capacity, both up top and to hold the grounds. It makes enough for 12 cups in one go, so whether you are making filter coffee or a few cups at once, it's a good choice.

Why do I need the best coffee grinder?

If you love the aromatic taste of coffee beans, then you’ll need a great coffee grinder. This will give you more precise control over how you prefer your coffee, and retain the freshness and flavour. The blunted edges on coffee grinders are much more reliable than those of food processors or blenders which won’t be ideal.

How much should I spend on a coffee grinder?

How much you spend all depends on how much coffee you regularly grind. Most good burr grinders start from around £35, while top of the range models can go up to £900. However, these will have more advanced grinding features, excellent results and quality design. 

How to buy a coffee grinder

There are three main types of coffee grinder available. Blade grinders have blunt edges and operates like a food processor. These are usually smaller and compact in size. Burr grinders are the more popular as they give even and precise grinding results. They work just like a pepper mill as the coffee beans are ground by passing through two metal objects. Burr grinders usually have a number of grinding settings to choose from, larger in size, noisy and more expensive. If you enjoy grinding by hand, manual grinders are smaller and inexpensive. Again, these work like a pepper mill by grinding beans between two burrs. 

What features to look out for?

Depending on your coffee needs, It’s worthwhile checking out what features you need before purchasing. The number of grinding settings determines how many brew styles you’ll use. Less than 30 is sufficient if you’ll only use standard brews like French press or pour over. Capacity of the hopper will determine your cup quantity, and the speed will affect the time it takes to grind your coffee.

What are the grind sizes for different types of coffee?

Typically, these are the best grind levels for your favourite coffee:

• Very fine – Turkish coffee and espresso
• Fine – Espresso
• Medium fine – Light espresso
• Medium – Light pour over/drip coffee
• Coarse – French press
• Very coarse – Cold brew

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13 Best Manual Coffee Grinders / Hand Grinders in the UK

If you love freshly brewed coffee, and you want to brew the best coffee you can at home, you need either a manual coffee grinder or an electric burr coffee grinder . This isn't an optional piece of equipment for the home Barista, it's just as essential as the coffee brewer or machine itself.

I'd even go so far as to say that, if you're not going to grind your own coffee beans, there's little point in trying to brew speciality coffee at home. This is definitely true with Espresso, in my humble opinion.

There's just no way you can get decent results with Espresso with pre-ground coffee unless you're incredibly lucky and the pre-ground coffee you buy happens to be ground to the perfect grind for your machine, and there's a slim chance of that.

Yes, some domestic espresso machines come with pressured portafilters, which are designed to make it easier to use pre-ground coffee, but still – regardless of how you're brewing your coffee, you're going to get the best overall experience by grinding your coffee beans freshly.

Also, it's important to understand that pressurized portafilters are shipped with entry-level espresso machines simply because they're so much easier to use. They're not necessarily going to provide the best-tasting espresso. 

I tested this in the video below (before I was introduced to something called a shaver) with the exact same coffee, one bag of whole beans and another bag of the exact same coffee beans pre-ground (both from Blue Coffee Box ), and as you'll see if you watch the video, I could tell the difference.

Anyway, if you're reading this, you're probably trying to decide which is the best manual coffee grinder for you, you're probably not planning on using pre-ground coffee.

While we're talking about taste, it's important to also point out that the quality and the freshness of the coffee beans really matters. It amazes me when I hear from people who have spent large sums of money replacing equipment to try to get better coffee but haven't thought to just buy better quality, more freshly roasted coffee beans.

The Best Cup of Coffee Starts With The Best Coffee Beans!

The best coffee machine in the world won't produce decent coffee unless you feed it with decent coffee beans.

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Why Manual Coffee Grinders?

I don't use manual coffee grinders much these days, purely because I suffer from RSI in both wrists. Typing, playing drums, playing guitar, and making rude gestures at other motorists on the way to the studio, all take their toll.

But if you don't suffer from problems with your wrists, there are a few reasons that a manual hand coffee grinder may be perfect for you.

Manual coffee grinders start at around £10-20. Electric coffee grinders start quite a bit higher than this. 

By the way, if you see that there are electric coffee grinders for a similar price, or maybe £20-£30, these are not coffee grinders. 

These things have blades. Blades don't grind, they chop, slice, and obliterate. This isn't what we want to do to coffee beans if we want nice tasting coffee.

For more on electric burr grinders:

Best Electric Coffee Grinders Review

Portability.

Good luck trying to take an electric grinder hiking ;-).

Another reason for having a manual grinder is that they're obviously a lot more portable than powered grinders, and you can grind anywhere, with no electricity required, which makes them the obvious choice for grinding coffee off-grid.

For camping trips, hiking, cycling, fishing, days out on the beach, and so on, all you need is a manual grinder and a source of hot water, and you have the luxury of being able to freshly brew lovely coffee via an equally portable brewer, such as Aeropress , and Nanopresso , etc.

For another portable brewer see my review of the Wacaco Picopresso:

Shot Quality. 

As well as more bang for your buck in terms of the quality you can get at the same price point for hand coffee grinders vs powered grinders, there are many home Baristas who consider electric grinders to be a case of compromising quality for convenience. 

This is partially down to the level of quality you can get with manual vs electric, i.e. you're not investing in a motor and other components, you're investing 100% in the mechanics of the grinder, meaning you should be getting better burrs and other mechanical components.

It's also partly down to grinding speed and the coffee beans not being heated by excessive grinding speed, which is something that the more expensive electric grinders have features to combat, such as being geared down.

Best coffee beans for espresso

Noise, or lack of. 

If you're an early riser, or I should say, if you're an earlier riser than the people you live with – grinding with an electric burr grinder first thing in the morning might not make you very popular. Grinding coffee with a hand coffee grinder is a much quieter affair, and is unlikely to wake anyone up. 

Unless you drop your manual coffee grinder on your bare foot and scream very rude words at the top of your lungs. I've never done that, I did once wake up with my hand over my face though, screamed, and pushed it away with the other hand… 😉

I'm starting with the budget manual coffee grinders

There will be some folk reading this, more serious home baristas, who have no interest in the very cheapest manual coffee grinders.

If this includes you, just scroll down a bit and you'll get to the premium home barista manual burr coffee grinders. 

A quick note about cost. 

Just keep in mind that when you spend more on a manual coffee grinder, you're usually paying for better coffee, quicker coffee, and a more enjoyable experience. 

If you want a cheap manual coffee grinder for occasional use and mainly for coarse grinding for cafetiere for example, no problem. 

Best home espresso machines review

The first grinder in this post will probably be fine for you if this is the case, and this is probably why it's the best selling manual coffee grinder on Amazon, as so many people just want a cheap grinder for occasional use. 

If you're wanting to grind finer though, and especially if you want to grind for espresso or even finer for Turkish then you may want to consider investing a bit more, especially if you're going to be using this grinder regularly.

If it's only occasional use, and particularly if you're grinding fairly coarse, going for a cheaper grinder might make more sense. 

Why should you grind your own coffee? Watch this:

Manual Coffee Grinder with Adjustable Coarseness 

Check Price - Amazon

This is one of the best selling manual coffee grinders on Amazon UK, and it's easy to see why.

I have no idea how they've managed to make a burr grinder this cheap, but they have, and it sells like hotcakes. That's a really weird saying. Why would you want to buy a hot cake? Anyway, I digress.

Size & Weight:

8.64  x 18 cm. 530g

Beans Capacity:

Approx 50g and the glass jar will hold approx 100g of ground coffee.

My Observations

There have been a couple of sellers selling a slightly different version of this, I'm not sure if it's the exact same grinder, but whatever the case, it's clearly an “echo” of the famous Hario Skerton plus, which I'll talk about shortly – but given the reviews, it does seem to be a good copy, sorry, I mean “echo” ;-).

If you're grinding for Cafetiere, drip, or even Aeropress since these days people are tending to grind quite a bit coarser for Aeropress, a grinder like this should be fine. 

If you're wanting to grind much finer, for example for espresso, I can tell you from experience that unless you start messing around with hacks/mods, you won't be able to get fine enough or dial in precisely enough, with a grinder like this.

To be honest, I don't know how they can possibly make this grinder so cheap, but they do, so if you were looking for a very low cost grinder, this may be for you.

It's also worth pointing out here that my friends at Shop Coffee in Cambridge, sell a similar manual grinder, for this and others, see:

Manual Coffee Grinders at Shop Coffee

 Stainless Steel Manual Coffee Grinder 

This is a very inexpensive manual hand coffee grinder. It's very popular, as you can see by the huge number of Amazon reviews and answered questions.

17.5 x 4.8cm. 281.23 Grams

This is a very cheap manual grinder, and while it has masses of reviews, many of them very positive as you can see by the high overall score, I think you do need to be realistic with your expectations if you're buying a grinder at this kind of price point.

It's unlikely you're going to get a manual grinder of this design much cheaper than this, and for the money, I think it's fine, but just keep in mind that with a small manual grinder like this with small burrs, it will take longer to grind your coffee.  

Also, keep in mind that the finer you're grinding, the longer it'll take, so if you're going to be using a manual grinder to grind coffee as finely as is possible, you may be spending quite a bit of time grinding, especially with one of the cheapest manual grinders like this, with smaller burrs.

If you're grinding more coarse for things like AeroPress, filter, or cafetiere, then you may be OK – but if you're considering manually grinding for espresso, keep in mind that a little grinder like this is likely to take upwards of 3-5 minutes to grind enough for a double shot, depending on dose and how fine you need to grind for your machine and the particular bean.

If I were you, I'd consider just investing a bit more cash into a grinder and going for one of the other grinders you'll find in this post, which starts at only £7 more than this one. 

If you're looking for a portable grinder, and you're not looking at spending any more than the region of £20-£30 (and there really are benefits to be had by sinking a bit more cash into a manual grinder by the way, you're not just paying for style or branding) my personal recommendation would be the Hario Mini Mill Slim Plus , which you'll find a bit further down this post.

Want to know which coffee is best for your cafetiere, have a read of this post:

Best coffee of cafetiere review How to store coffee correctly

Hario Skerton Plus

Check Price - Amazon Check Price - Shop Coffee

Check Price - Best Coffee Check Price - Clumsy Goat

This is probably one of the most famous hand coffee grinders, it's been around a long time and is generally well regarded among the speciality coffee community, as a great manual coffee grinder for the money.

I have this grinder, it was my first ever coffee grinder.

I still have it, and it still works absolutely fine even though I abused it by attaching a cordless drill to the top of it to turn it into an electric grinder, as I was getting fed up with grinding coffee beans manually ;-).

40.6 x 27.9 x 33 cm

Around 50g (but the glass jar will fit around 100g of ground coffee)

With this grinder, these observations are from use combined with research, as I actually have this hand grinder, this was the first manual coffee grinder I ever bought.

The first thing to say is that I think it's very well built and high quality for the low cost, and it grinds well for the money.

I used this for a range of different brew processes before I got my Sage Smart Grinder Pro , including for Espresso – OK I wasn't able to perfectly dial in, but it was fine as a starting point.

The instructions were in Japanese, and there were no English instructions, which I remember finding a bit odd, but I don't tend to RTFM anyway, a quick look on YouTube provided me with all the info required. 

As it comes, out of the box, Skerton is great for a fairly wide range of grind sizes, but if you're really into your cafetiere brewing you may want to look at the modifications you can make to this grinder to allow you to achieve a more consistent grind size at a coarser setting, such as the blue horse upgrade kit . 

The grind size adjustments are big, it's not great for fine-tuning. As I said, I did initially use this for espresso, but I couldn't really dial in – in my opinion, you'll be OK with this grinder if you're using pressurized baskets, if you're using traditional baskets, though, you'd be better off with a grinder which will go finer and which has the ability to more finely tune the grind size.

There's a mod you can do for this, though, which is to swap out the adjustment cog for an m8 nut in order to make it stepless. 

There are no points of reference either when it comes to grind settings, but you can mod this too by simply drawing a line on the shaft and the adjustment cog.

Also, you could cut a marker down the nut at the zero position, if you mod it for stepless, and put a series of numbers around the shaft, to give you some points of reference when it comes to grinding again after taking it apart to clean or dialing in for a different brew method.

The glass grinds pot is great, and really sturdy, it's unlikely you'll break it even by dropping it, and it comes with a lid too so it doubles as coffee storage. 

By the way, the drill mod is really straightforward if you want to use the Skerton as an electric grinder on the budget of a manual grinder, see the video below, but I wouldn't recommend you use the high-speed setting he does in the video. 

I used this hack mainly to save my wrists, as I'm prone to RSI with both of my wrists. I didn't go mad on the speed like this guy does in the video, because I'd be concerned it would wreck the burrs and also produce a poor grind, as this grinder isn't made to grind this quickly.

I'd actually recommend leaving the handle on when modding it with the drill mod so you can keep an eye on how fast you're going.

On the whole, I think the Hario Skerton is probably one of the best low cost manual grinders, but you'll probably want to mod it if you're using it for espresso, especially if you want to use it with standard baskets. 

I think with a bit of time watching good old YouTube & a bit of tinkering, the Hario Skerton is a great manual grinder for the cash, and is capable of far more than it was probably initially designed for.

Hario Mini Mill Slim Plus

Another grinder from Japanese coffee equipment manufacturer Hario, the Mini Mill Slim Plus is a popular pairing with Aeropress, due to its more compact stature and lighter weight than its larger sibling the Hario Skerton. 

40.6 x 27.9 x 33 cm. 567g

This grinder is similar to its bigger sibling the Hario Skerton, but a bit smaller and lighter.

It does appear to have one main advantage over the Skerton, though, as well as portability, which is the ease of adjusting grind size, and the ease of getting back to a particular grind. So if you're wanting to brew for various brew methods, this might be a good choice for you.

The mini mill has spring loaded burrs, which gives it a slight edge over the Skerton, especially at more coarse grind settings. The Hario Skerton Pro has spring loaded burrs too and looks cool, but it's a few quid more.

Remember, though, no grinder will fix the error of using poor quality coffee beans – and now here's another totally shameless plug for my own coffee :-).

Use discount code CBNC25 for 25% off your first order at Coffeeworks

Tiamo Hand Grinder Slim

Check Price - Shop Coffee Check Price - Clumsy Goat

Approx 18 × 7.5 × 11 cm. 350g.

25g grinding capacity, 60g capacity in the storage container.

My Observations:

Clearly a similar-looking manual grinder to the Hario Mini Mill Plus, above, but at a considerably lower price, I'd be interested in this little grinder if I were looking for a manual grinder on a budget.

Generally speaking, I think you get what you pay for. The Mini Mill Plus is about a tenner more, but it does weigh quite a bit more which does give the impression that the build quality is likely to be more robust with the Hario.

If you're on a very tight budget, though, or if you don't want to spend much on a manual grinder as you're only going to be using it for a few days on a trip for example, and you don't know when you'll be using it again, then I can understand the idea of spending as little as you can. Personally, I've got into the habit over the years of not buying the cheapest option, regardless of what it is that I'm buying. 

If I'm looking for a particular product, and I can see there are well-established brands that have paid a fortune to develop that brand, and buying the branded product means paying a higher price as I'm also paying for their advertising costs, I'll look at less expensive brands too – but I've come to realize over the years that sometimes saving a few quid doesn't always make sense and that the old saying “buy right or buy twice” is actually really good advice.

This is also why I like buying from Amazon though, if I do buy something and quickly realize I've made a blunder, it's so easy to return it and correct that mistake!

Normcore Hand Coffee Grinder

17 x 5 cm. 450 Grams

Stainless steel 38mm burrs

This is actually a really nice looking hand grinder, and it's one of a few relatively low-cost hand grinders (more to come below) which appear to be based on (at least when it comes to looks) the very popular (and not so inexpensive…) Comandante hand grinders. 

It has 38mm steel burrs, the same size burrs as you'll get in the likes of the Sage Smart Grinder Pro, and the same size as some other popular hand grinders including the Made by Knock Aergrind, and just 1mm smaller than the burrs found in the Comandante grinders.

I really like the look of the wooden knob, that's probably more comfortable than using some of the hand grinders with small plastic knobs. 

I also really like the look of the little travel case this grinder neatly slots into. For the cost, this isn't a bad shout at all in my humble opinion.

If you like this kind of Comandante style design of hand grinder, holster your debit card for now, as there are a couple more for just a few quid extra a bit further on in this best hand grinders post that has, even more, going for them, for not all that much more cash.

Timemore Chestnut C2 Manual Coffee Grinder

Click here to see other available colours

Check Price - Amazon Check Price - Clumsy Goat

16 x 5.2 cm. 430  Grams

This is another one of the relatively low cost coffee grinders which appear to be based on the Comandante, at least in design, but this one has a very good reputation, particularly for being a fast manual grinder, for low cost manual grinder.

38mm steel burrs again, 5g more single grind capacity than the Normcore.

The manufacturer claims that they've minimised fines and improved grind uniformity with burr blades (or teeth) in 55-58HRC hardness in 5-axis CNC machining. Also, they've made grinding easier  & smoother with the bearings fitted.

I've got this grinder, I think it's a heck of a lot of grinder for the money, and it's the grinder I'd usually recommend for someone wanting to spend as little as possible but who wants to grind for espresso. There are 38mm manual burr grinders that I think are overall better quality, including the Made by Knock Aergrind, below, but if you're looking in the under £100 area, I think the C2 is difficult to beat.

Porlex Mini II Hand Grinder

The Porlex Mini is a very popular grinder, especially among coffee loving nomads, or just Aeropress owners who like to brew coffee when they're out & about.

The mini actually fits inside the Aeropress, meaning you can pack it that way, which comes in handy for space saving when you're out and about with it (although it's not the only manual grinder with this feature). 

15 x 9.2 x 5.4 cm. 310 Grams

The Porlex Mini is a really popular grinder among Aeropress users, it's been around quite some time, and although I've never had one, my opinion of these grinders, based purely on reputation, is that they're well built and long lasting grinders for the price, and that the newer version is made to last longer, being made to avoid an issue which could happen after a while with the original version – rounding off of the handle mount. 

Porlex Tall II Hand Coffee Grinder

The bigger sibling of the Porlex mini II, the tall is capable of grinding 30g in one go vs 20g with the mini.

 19.5 x 8.6 x 5.3 cm. 400 Grams

There's not a great deal to say about the Porlex mini vs the Porlex tall, other than the tall is taller 😉 and that it can grind more in one go.

The grind capacity of the mini is 20g vs 30g for the tall. The tall is the same diameter as the mini, so it will still fit in the Aeropress, but it's 5.5cm taller. 

1Zpresso Q2

13.86cm x 4.6cm. 385g

420-grade stainless steel, 38mm.

The Q2, as its bigger brother the JX series that I'll talk about shortly, is a very smart looking hand grinder! 

With stainless burrs, and an Aluminium alloy body, we're getting into some good quality materials with this grinder, and again a similar design at least visually to the Comandante .

This grinder has 30 grind adjustments, and a dual bearing shaft, and is designed to be very quickly & simply taken apart for cleaning.

If you're fairly serious about your coffee, but not quite serious enough to spend over double the cost on the aforementioned Comandante grinder, I do think the Q2 and the JX (coming up shortly) are grinders that you should consider. 

Clumsy Goat

There's a coffee roaster just up the road from me in Lancashire called Clumsy Goat, who have some VERY good deals on some of the best espresso machines & grinders. Including Sage, La Pavoni, Rancilio, Fracino, Eureka, Gaggia, La Marzocco & More.

Some of the deals they have would set my "too good to be true" alarm bells ringing if I didn't know Clumsy Goat & know that they're legit.

Check Them Out

Made by Knock aergrind

Check Price - Made by Knock

This is another grinder very popular paired with the Aeropress as with the Porlex Mini. 

The aergrind by Knock, invented by Peter Kilpatrick, was launched via a very successful Kickstarter campaign in March 2017 and has had a lot of praise by users.

Knock started off with their hugely popular grinder, Hausgrind, and then brought out a portable hand grinder called the Feldgrind, which is also very popular.

Peter then decided a better, more portable hand grinder was required to pair with Aeropress, and aergrind was born. 

13.6cm  x 4.6cm. 330g

38mm titanium nitrided conical burrs

I've got this grinder (the first version, and the latest version), as I said earlier I don't use manual grinders much, definitely not because I'm lazy, honest guv, but I've struggled with my wrists for years.

I'm a drummer, as I mentioned earlier, and I play guitar (badly), I type a lot, obviously, and I used to do kickboxing too, I think it all got a bit too much for my wrists. They're not too bad these days but I do have to watch it, I feel the RSI starting to flare up again occasionally. 

So I don't use manual grinders a lot, but I've had the initial version for a couple of years, and I recently bought the latest version too.

They're made in Scotland, and they're very well built, using premium components, and the latest version still has the stuff that I think was responsible for this grinder being such a hit, but it has some really nice improvements, the most notable of which is the Italmill titanium coated burrs, they've also improved stability by doubling the length of the axle bearing, and they've made the crank arm slightly more substantial.

There's zero plastic on/in the new version, too. There's a really nice quality walnut crank knob, magnetic snap on lid with an aluminium dial, and the grounds container is screw on.

Made By Knock are also really well regarded when it comes to their support, you don't have to do much googling to find people saying really nice things about them when it comes to needing to get support & so on. 

I've got the updated version in front of me as I'm typing, and I have to say it's a really nice looking grinder, there's nothing at all “cheap” about it. I know it's not a sub £100 grinder, but I think it's a heck of a lot of grinder for the money. The first version has done a lot of mileage, in my Son's van.

My Son is a pro barista, he's into pourover, and he converted a van into a camper van that he's been driving about, often into to the sticks, climbing big hills & all sorts, which isn't my cup of tea (not a fan of heights), but anyway, he loves it, and the first version has ground quite a lot of coffee over the past couple of years, and it still looks brand new.

It's clearly a very well made manual grinder. It's fairly quick, it's one of the nicer manual grinders to use in terms of how it feels in the hand when grinding, and it's easy to dial in the grind. It'll go more than fine enough for espresso too, I've managed to choke a Sage Bambino Plus with it with traditional baskets, so that's a very fine grind.

I think if you're looking for a portable hand grinder for use with the Aeropress (the handle slips off and fits in the rubber sleeve) I think the Aergrind is a great choice for the money, you could save a few quid on a slightly cheaper hand grinder, but I think over the years you'll probably get way more long term value for money with this very well built grinder than you probably would with a lot of the slightly cheaper options.

Aeropress Review

The 1Zpresso J has replaced the IZpresso JX

18.5cm x 5.7cm. 850g

304-Grade Stainless steel, 48mm.

This is the smaller of two manual grinders in this range, the J. The JX Pro is below, and that one is worth looking at particularly if you're looking for a manual grinder for espresso.

With 48mm steel burrs, this is a serious hand grinder. This is the same size burrs as the OE Lido, a very highly regarded and much more expensive manual grinder.

As its slightly smaller brother the Q2, it's made from decent materials, stainless steel, Aluminium alloy & wooden handle – and with the handle design & the big burrs, this is going to grind coffee quite a bit quicker than a lot of the other manual grinders discussed on this page. 

Just have a read through some of the Amazon reviews, including the one from an engineer who has owned five other manual grinders. This guy rates this as the best manual grinder by far, and refers to effortless and fast grinding. 

Most of the other Amazon reviews are along similar lines, mainly praise for the build quality and for how easy and fast to grind it is. 

If you do a bit of research about this grinder – or don't bother, as I've already done it for you 🙂 – you'll generally end up with the impression that this is a heck of a lot of manual coffee grinder for the price, given that it's just over half the price of the Comandante C40. 

Dave Corby's review of this grinder, below, is well worth a watch. He's reviewed this one, and the pro version, and if you're not familiar with Dave Corby, he's an expert on coffee grinders and espresso machines, manufacturers consult with him when they're developing stuff, and rely on his expertise to tell them how to make their products work better, so this is a guy whose opinion is worth listening to.

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For a limited time, they've offered a very nice 25% discount code for coffeeblog readers!

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1Zpresso JX-PRO

18cm x 5.7cm. 780g

So this is the “pro” version of the JX, above. The Pro is a bit taller, 18cm tall vs 15.8 tall – and the grind adjustment on the Pro is on the top vs the JX with the adjustment underneath.

The main difference, though, is that the pro has double the grind adjustments, meaning that it basically has half step adjustments allowing you to adjust the grind more. 

The JX has grind adjustments at 25 microns per click, while it's 12.5 per click for the Pro, so this will just allow you to finely tune more when dialing in. If you're looking for a manual grinder for pourover, for example, you're possibly not going to be as interested in this finer adjustment.

This is a meaty grinder, as Dave Corbey puts it in his YouTube review. At 780g, you wouldn't want to drop it on your foot! ;-). 

Best Manual Coffee Grinders in the UK – Conclusion

So there we have it, what I believe to be the best manual coffee grinders right now, from the very cheapest up to some of the best premium or “prosumer” manual coffee grinders.

There are a couple of other grinders that I'd like to include here. 

One of them is the Comandante C40. I make references to this grinder, but I'm not including it at the moment as it seems to be very scarcely available in the UK just now, and the only listing I can find for it on Amazon appears to be a UK seller trying to charge over double the RRP. 

Another is the Orphan Espresso Lido grinders. As with the Comandante, these grinders are very popular among the more serious home baristas.

But I can't find anyone in the UK with stock, and I don't want to annoy people by telling them about this great grinder that they can't get from anywhere. 

If this changes with either or both of the above, I'll add these grinders to this post in the future.

Before I sign off though, I'll just answer a few common questions about manual coffee grinders.

How to make coffee taste better

How do you adjust manual coffee grinders?

This will depend on the particular grinder, they'll all have some form of adjustment, whether that's just an adjustment nut or wheel & whether there are numbered adjustments will depend on which grinder you've got. What you'll need to do first is find your zero position, in other words, find the point at which the burrs are as close together as they'll possibly go. If your grinder has markings from fine to coarse, in the form of sized dots or numbers, you'll know this immediately – if not you'll just have to do some experimenting to figure out where the zero point is.

The video below shows you how to adjust the Made By Knock aergrind, and this will also show you how to adjust their other manual grinders:

This video will show you how to adjust the 1Z Presso JX & JX Pro

What is the best manual grinder? 

Hopefully, by this point, you've got a much better idea of which manual grinder might be the best for you, but best is a subjective thing – there isn't a “best” as such. 

I actually think that when people are searching for something this way, generically searching for what is the best <whatever>, it shows that they're probably not at a point where they fully understand exactly what it is they're looking for. For example, let's say you're looking to buy a car – would you search for the best car? I don't think you would, because you probably know enough about cars and what you want from them to allow you to search for far more specific things.

If you're searching for the best portable manual coffee grinder for Aeropress for example, that to me says you really know what you're looking for – and that's a quite simple question to answer, the made by Knock Aergrind above or the Porlex Mini II are generally regarded as among the best portable hand grinders for Aeropress.

If you're searching for the best manual coffee grinder for espresso, again this is a much more detailed question so it's easier to answer. When it comes to espresso what I'd be looking at is the size of the burrs (the larger the burr size means the less time you'll be grinding for, as finer espresso grinding takes longer), the number of grind settings (to allow you to more finely tune the grind, which is more important for espresso), and I'd be looking for video reviews from people who're showing the grinder being used for espresso, like the video above showing Dave Corbey pulling a shot he's really surprised by, with the 1ZPresso JX Pro . 

If what you're really after is the best cheap manual coffee grinder, meaning that you're just looking at the best bang for your buck, then the first few grinders I discuss above may be exactly what you're after, but I would recommend that you figure out first, exactly what you need from the grinder as well as affordability.

For example, if you're wanting the cheapest option possible but you're wanting a super fine grind, fast grinding (so bigger burrs), and fine tuning, you may be expecting too much from a hand grinder at the money you're looking at spending, so you may need to attack the piggy bank.

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How to clean a manual coffee grinder?

In my humble opinion, as long as you don't use anything wet – like water, which is usually fairly wet… you can't really go wrong. With some manual grinders, it's just a case of taking them to their most coarse setting and giving the burrs a brush, although with most you can take them apart easily and give the burrs a really good clean – just make sure you keep a note of how it goes back together and make sure you don't lose any bits!

I did this with one of my electric coffee grinders, recently – mainly because I'm a complete pillock. I took my Niche Zero apart to clean it, took the burrs out,  and then I tipped it upside down into the compost and slapped it on the backside, to knock as many of the bits out before I continued cleaning it. I forgot I'd done that, and then spent about an hour scratching my head & wondering what had happened to the springs, which were now in the very early stages of biodegrading ;-). Don't worry, I retrieved them.

The one no-no is water, please don't dunk your coffee grinder in water or put it in the dishwasher. If you have a Google for your brand or a similar brand, you'll find loads of videos on YouTube showing you how to disassemble, clean, and reassemble manual coffee grinders, like this one on the Timemore C2:

How long does it take to grind using a manual coffee grinder?

How long is a piece of string? Ha! ;-). The answer to that, by the way, is half its length times two. Joking apart, this will depend, mainly on how much coffee you want to grind, how fine or coarse you want to grind it, and the size of the burrs.

Grinding coarse for espresso or large batch filter brewing, for example, will take the least amount of time per gram, while grinding fine for espresso will take a lot longer. Dave Corbey shares in his video review of the 1ZPresso JX Pro that it took him about 30 seconds to grind 17 grams for a double shot of espresso. It took me just over a minute to grind 18g using the Made by Knock Aergrind for espresso. How long it'll take with other grinders will depend on the size of the burrs, how much you're grinding, and how finely you're grinding.

How long do manual grinders last for?

Much longer than electric coffee grinders! One of the great things about manual coffee grinders is that they're very simple, there's very little in the way of complex parts that may break at any time. With electric grinders, there's so much more that can go wrong with them, issues with the electrics, issues with the motor, issues with the gearing & so on – and this isn't the case at all with good old fashioned manual grinders. 

In fact, although I've said a couple of times that I don't tend to use manual grinders – I have loads of them ;-), I actually have a bit of a collection of older manual grinders, they date back to the 1940s, and 50s, and 60s, and most of them still work…

OK, this isn't to say those hand grinders you buy now are made to last quite this long, but actually, in some cases, I think they'll possibly last even longer, as a lot of the original manual grinders were made with wooden housings, that tend to be the weakest link, and many of the most popular manual grinders these days are made from metal or hard-wearing plastic.

You may think that all burrs will wear, regardless of whether they're hand-powered or electric powered, and that's true, the burrs in manual hand grinders will wear over time – but they're likely to wear much less than burrs in electric machines, as they're put under a lot less stress when they're hand powered. 

The hand power vs electric power is one of the main reasons manual grinders will last so long, not just because it's easier on the burrs, but it's easier on everything. When something breaks in an electric grinder, it's usually because something happens thanks to the power of the motor.

For example, an under roasted bean or a pebble, or a random piece of copper (which caused a bit of a mess in one of my grinders a while back, no idea where that came from!) can jam the burrs, and the power of the motor will force them to keep going, leading to something having to give – often it's a weak cog that gives, which is actually put in to act similar to a fuse so that this inexpensive part breaks instead of something which would be more costly to replace. 

When you're manually grinding, if something like this happens, you're unlikely to have the power to break the grinder, and as you're always single dosing with manual grinders (obviously they don't have hoppers) you're far more likely to notice a foreign object in your hand as you're loading it into the grinder anyway.

Why do some manual grinders cost so much more than others?

When you're trying to choose a manual coffee grinder , you may be confused as to how there can be such a massive difference between the cheapest and the most expensive grinders, and the simple answer to that is, that you get what you pay for.

Again, I think this question comes from a bit of a lack of knowledge or understanding of a particular product, and that's not a put down of any sort.

Let's use cars again as an analogy. Most of us are fully aware of the fact that there is a huge price range when it comes to cars, so most of us wouldn't be surprised to find that you can buy a brand new car for under ten grand, or you could buy one for twenty grand, thirty grand, even a couple of hundred grand if you like.

But when it comes to more specialized products, we're often just not well versed enough with those products to understand why some cost so much more than others. I've had a similar thing recently with video and audio equipment for my YouTube studio.

Nearly all of the gear I've purchased over the past year or so while doing my best to improve the quality of my videos has given me a similar headache in that there's usually a massive price range, and I don't understand enough about that stuff to know why I might want to spend three or four times the cost on one product vs another.

I think we all appreciate that there is a range of choice of materials, and this will impact on the price. You'll notice that the cheapest grinders above are made with the cheapest materials, so that's one thing – and when it comes to the main body of the grinder, this doesn't really impact the performance. What you can't see or feel, though, is the burrs – and burr quality will make a difference, and these can vary in cost, hugely.

This is the same with electric grinders, some of the more costly electric grinders have burr sets which cost more at wholesale than some of the cheaper electric grinders cost at retail, so this gives an indication as to the huge range available when it comes to burr quality. The better the burrs, the better particle uniformity you'll get, mainly, and this will lead to better-tasting coffee. 

The size of the burrs is part of it, bigger burrs tend to cost more, although size isn't everything – I once heard someone say. Bigger burrs means fewer revolutions required, and less time and effort required when manually grinding coffee beans.

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39 thoughts on “ 13 Best Manual Coffee Grinders / Hand Grinders in the UK ”

One of the big advantages of a manual is it’s longevity and therefore sustainability. If you choose made of metal it should be pretty recyclable, unlike electric counterparts. Sustainability is a huge factor in purchasing decisions and I love the idea of investing something that will last me a lifetime, rather than an electronic gadget with most likely fail after a few years. I’ve tried using the grind attachment on my Bamix stick blender (quite old now) but it doesn’t seem to be able to get to the fineness I need. Thanks for the article, useful,

You mention this about the Hario Skerton: > The glass grinds pot is great, and really sturdy, it’s unlikely you’ll break it even by dropping it, and it comes with a lid too so it doubles as coffee storage.

I had two Skertons, one adjusted for moka pot brewing, the other for pour-over. Had, because my wife somehow managed to drop and break the glass jars on both. Tile floors are rather unforgiving. She found an interesting fact online, though – the Skerton uses the same thread as a standard Mason jar. So any Mason (or compatible) jar will work as a replacement grounds receptacle.

The Skerton is a fine little grinder to start with, but I’m looking to upgrade to something which offers better adjustability.

Hi Kev, Having read your reviews of manual grinders I’ve just got the improved Timemore C3 grinder. My first impressions are pretty favourable. It does grind fine enough for espresso but I think on reflection I’d should have gone for the C3ESP because it gives a better range of click settings which could improve dialling in. I’m currently experimenting with a 3D printed adapter plate that gives 30 clicks of adjustment over the bog standard 12 clicks.

Hi David, Interesting, will you please update me when you have done your experimenting! Ta Kev

Thank you. I have bought the UK Knock version . I don’t like espresso, usually far too bitter. The better coffee in the past was made in a conical flask by adding coffee grounds to hot water then allow the grounds to drop. But too messy, so I now use an Aeropress. Best of all was Ethiopian coffee, roast and ground at the table.

Have you seen the paper that recommends a coarser grind for espresso to improve taste, reduce bitterness and increase gross yield? https://www.cell.com/matter/fulltext/S2590-2385(19)30410-2

Hi one things missing from your reviews . . . the resultant flavour. have use a porlex mini for some time, but am aware it does dull the flavour of my freshly roasted Welsh coffe. as did my electric Bodum. decided to check out stainless steel burrs, but you make no comment as to whether their superior for flavour. was spoilt much earlier on, buy an inherited wall-mounted SS hand coffee grinder. the flavour appeared to remain 100% intact. so is it time to get the best SS hand grinder?

regards caroline

Hi Caroline :-). It sounds like you have a decent palate. I don’t get into the taste differences from one grinder to another, or from one burr material to another because taste is subjective, and a lot of people won’t have the palate to be able to detect what I’m referring to, or if they do, taste being so subjective, they won’t necessarily find the same to be true, so I don’t think it would be particularly helpful for me to do that.

I disagree. I can certainly taste the difference between teas stored in cardboard and glass. The first point to understand is: does the burr material have any effect on the resulting coffee taste? Since the surface chemistry of SS and ceramics is so different and the surface of the burr makes the ground’s surface by main force (never mind any heating effect), I would expect there to be some difference. Only when these factors are determined will subjective judgements about better come into play. Your audience is aficionados who are prepared spend £00s on equipment and coffee to improve the flavour, by closely assessing it.

Great article and thanks for all your advice . Recently purchased the Gaggia Classic and keen to use the traditional basket for it.

Been looking at manual grinders for a while, but still undecided! In your experience, which manual grinder gives best results when using the Gaggia Classic for espresso?

Thanks in advance, Gwion

Hi Gwion, Thanks for your message, Have a look at the 1zpresso JX PRO https://amzn.to/3FaudVi or the 1zpresso Jmaxx: https://amzn.to/42HmdH3 These will be the best grinders to go with your Gaggia Classic Cheers Kev

Thanks for the reply. I’m finally going to act on this and purchase one of the grinders you’ve mentioned. Unfortunately Amazon don’t seem to supply them anymore and I’m finding it tricky to source suppliers. I wonder if you can help and advise where to purchase one of these grinders?

Thanks, and sorry for the ridiculously late reply. Kind regards, Gwion

Hi Kev. I was checking out the grinders you reviewed and came across another one with steel burrs that was quite a bit cheaper (about £35 vs £80 for cheapest of the others). If you can blag one to review I’d be interested to read your judgement. It’s called Vevok. https://www.amazon.co.uk/stores/page/7437D68C-BF87-4F66-B96A-D8EA0A1C1A80?ingress=2&visitId=ff028292-1582-4f49-ada5-368db27f2470&ref_=ast_bln Cheers.

Thanks, Paul, I will have a look, Cheers Kev

I own the porlex mini and I truly hate it. Because it does not screw together the handle falls off and the bottom half falls off. So you basically have to hold the two halves together and put the handle back on every couple of seconds. None of the manufacturers make it clear of their grinders lock in place while being used. More annoyingly, neither do any of the reviewers! Considering Timemore options. For me, the fastest grinder that stays together, grinding medium size of the best grinder.

Hi Tristan, there are quite a few manual grinders where the grinds container slides on and off and the handle doesn’t have a secure fit, and manual grinders like this maybe take a bit more of a knack in terms of where you hold them and how you grind. A lot of the latest grinders, including the timemore grinders, have a much more secure connection of the handle, and a screw-on grinds container. I have the Timemore C3 in front of me, you’d have to try very hard to end up with either the handle falling off or the grinds container coming off while grinding. I think you’re right, though, I could improve this post by adding info about the handle connection and grinds container connection in the features list. Cheers Kev

Hi Kev. Thanks for a great rundown. Its been very informative. I’m looking for an espresso grinder that will grow with me and I’m not too fussy about the workflow so long as the quality and consistency of the grounds are good. I’m undecided on which type to move towards, electric or manual. The grinder that has me perplexed is the Rok GrinderGC as its around £190 from Rok directly.

I’d love to know what your thoughts on it are, or better still, possibly a review on your YouTube channel?

Thanks for all the, very, informative reviews and video’s. They’ve been a huge help.

Thanks Raj. Yeah I’m aware of the ROK, I’ve not tried it. This review is interesting for as a user review from someone who has had a month with this machine. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59idBMOXXBc My opinion (and it’s only that as I’ve not used the Rok) is that if you’re looking for a manual grinder at around this price point, the 1Z presso JX pro takes some beating – and the Rok grinder strikes me as being a grinder you’d really only ever be using in one place, it’s not really one you’d launch in your bag and take with you, personally, if I was going for a manual grinder I’d probably choose one that had some ability to be able to use for grinding while out and about. Cheers Kev

Hi, excellent info thank you 👍

After using a blade attachment for many years, I bought small IZpresso about 18 months ago after much research. I’m the only coffee drinker in the household. I have 1/day ☕ and wanted portability.

Using it quickly became part of my morning breakie ritual. I still can’t fault it. The coffee tastes so different to that made via the blade grinder attachment. It’s well made and will last for many years to come.

However, it’s important to realise that it is a hand grinder! Sounds daft? For those who want to grind beans more regularly, an electric machine would probably be more suitable.

My grinder travels away on holiday with me whenever possible…it’s portability is unmatched 😀

I came back here for fun to research the electric models! Bit horrified by the cost of the better ones 💰

Thanks again 😆

Hi, You can get some excellent hand grinders so you don’t necessarily need an electric grinder to create good coffee, I’m glad you enjoyed my post 🙂 Cheers Kev

How would the grind quality and consistency of the 1zpresso JX pro stack up against a machine grind, like the Sage Smart Grinder Pro specifically? They are comparable in terms of price, roughly (155 quid vs 188 quid on Amazon at the moment).

Would a smart grinder pro be worth the money because it has extra programs and features, or would the 1zpresso JX pro give me markedly better results, including espresso (because it hasn’t spent money on electrical components)?

Would be really interested in your thoughts about how much better a similar priced manual grinder could be over an machine one for the same money.

Hi Nat, The 1zpresso JX pro I think stacks up very well against similarly priced electric grinders including the Smart grinder pro, when it comes to performance for espresso. This thread might prove helpful: https://www.reddit.com/r/Coffee/comments/j47ibx/1zpresso_jxpro_vs_breville_smart_grinder_pro_for/ Cheers 🙂

Interesting stuff. My wife wants a coffee machine for Xmas which I thought would be a simple thing to pick. It isn’t. The problem I have is that I KNOW that I will be unhappy with something if I KNOW isn’t capable of making at least passable espresso. Less of an issue for her as she only really drinks cappucinno and it seems that is a lot more forgiving when it comes to the quality of the shot needed. And budget is an issue: I simply don’t want to be forking out £500 for something that we don’t even know we are going to use much. When it comes to grinding: I KNOW I’m going to be doing that because I’m curious. But we are busy and I KNOW my wife won’t do grinding if it is hard work.

So where I get to is:

– Assume second hand isn’t an option for the machine. We buy loads of things second hand, but not gifts. – For her, a pressurised portafilter with pre-ground beans (or beans ground in a cheaper grinder) is probably fine – For me, I’m going to want a standard portafilter and a grinder that can grind fine enough for espresso. – But I don’t want to spend a fortune. And so budget dictates some sort of hybrid: – Get a simple cheap machine with a pressurised portafilter, but which can easily take a standard one too. Currently looking at the De’Longhi EC685 which was £135 last night but has now gone up again – Get a standard portafilter to go with it – likely one of those automated milk frothers- not sure my wife is going to want to use the steam wand. Seemingly £50ish – Get a grinder that can do espresso. As far as I can tell the only electric one which is anywhere near budget is the Sage Dose Control (£130ish). I’d be happy enough with a manual, but I’m struggling to find one that could do the job at a big enough discount to the Sage Dose Control to make it worth it? I’d put a £50 premium on having it automatic, all else being equal.

Any thoughts welcome!

Thanks Nick, This is a very common quandary. You actually have quite a few options, depending on budget & what deals you can find.

Sage Bambino Plus & Dose Control Pro or smart grinder pro. This is a good option in my humble opinion because it comes with both standard baskets and pressured baskets, and it has auto steaming & manual steaming both of which work very well. You can also buy the barista express/pro portafilter if you wanted to have a separate one with the standard basket in, and as this looks different you wouldn’t have to double check each time which was which.

DeLonghi EC685, as you’ve mentioned, also with the grinders I mention above. This is a cheaper option, and for the milk side of things, you can slide the Panarello off, and you can leave it on for your wife – the panarello is very, very easy to use – you can even use it to make fairly decent microfoam as long as you keep it in the cappuccino setting only until the jug is warm to the touch, and then push it up to the hot milk setting.

Other options are the Sage Barista Express or Barista pro, if you can find a good enough deal. Again, in the UK these come with both standard and pressured baskets, and although they don’t do auto milk steaming (the Barista touch does, but that’s quite a bit more money) it’s fairly easy to use these steam wands. It’s not easy to get great results, in terms of super smooth, velvety microfoam, but if she isn’t too fussy about that and doesn’t mind some bigger bubbles in her milk, it’s not difficult.

Re discounts, drop me an email – [email protected]

Sage Barista Express (

Brilliant article thank you. Quick query? If you only drank 100% aribica beans and use a Bialetti pot which manual grinder would you choose? The Normcore, the Aergrind or the IZpresso JX?

Thanks Kerry :-). I’d go IZpresso JX – you’ll be spending less time grinding & you’ll have your coffee quicker :-). I think al these three grinders will do the job fine, but the JX with its bigger 48mm burrs, will do it quicker. cheers

I am fairly new to the more sophisticated pallet of coffee drinkers but have purchased a sage bambino plus to help me improve. I now need a decent accompanying grinder and am getting lost in a hole of manual vs electric. I would have gone for the sage grinder pro but stock issues mean I wont be drinking a coffee until end of September. Do you think its worth waiting or opting for a manual comandante/Feld47?

Really appreciate your help. Lee

Sorry for the delay Lee! Did you make a decision in the meantime? Cheers Kev

Hi Lee Not sure if you ever thought more about the Feld47? Many people may balk at the price (especially since at the time I was using Moka pot and Aeropress), but I had some money to buy something nice so pushed the boat out and went top of the range from Knock. At the time there was the Aergrind and an intermediate model. I am so glad that I did. Some pre purchase concerns such as size/weight and grind time instantly disappeared. It’s a well engineered and build grinder that is going to last a lifetime. The only disadvantage is it’s a bit big/heavy for travelling, so I bought an Aergrind! Putting the context of this Aergrind review vs Femd47 into perspective. The Aergrind is a similarily well engineered/built grinder, but for daily use, the Feld47 is far more impressive. Its little things like extra capacity and hopper diameter, grind speed and interference fit hopper that make the Feld47 stand out. Nearly 2 years later it’s still a joy to use, every time. And now I have moved on to expresso machine the Feld47 is just taking everything in its stride. I’m still at the learning to dial in stage and its infinite stepless adjustment is an absolute boon with trying to juggle grind size and tamp. Kevs comment about Aergrind being able to choke expresso machines due to fine grind side is an eye opener – it makes you wonder how good some of the other machines are when ability to choke a machine due to grind size is well within the capabilities of the Feld47 and I am sure Aergrind too. Tl;dr even after 2 years, I find the Feld47 an exceptional grinder for daily use. It’s one of those purchases where you initially may have thought it silly, but will spend the rest of your life pleased that you did. Hth

I see in your videos you’ve a bunch of classic manual grinders, Kevin. Tried a Spong? Check ’em out…

https://www.home-barista.com/grinders/spong-coffee-mills-grinder-for-23rd-century-t16165.html

Hi Adam, I’ve not tried a Spong, I’ve been meaning to get hold of one for ages, cheers.

I like to brew coffee with a French press but also with a Moka pot. Would the 1Zpresso JX be a good fit for me?

Would appreciate your input greatly,

Hi Kev 🙂 Yes the JX would be fine for Moka pot and French press 🙂 Cheers, Kev

Hi Kev A very thorough and comprehensive review. I’ve been scouring the internet for advice on what burr grinder I should get for me to use at home to grind beans in small quantities to make espresso in my new basic John Lewis espresso machine at home for my husband and I. Consensus seems to be electric – and I must admit I would struggle with the manual ones having seen the effort involved – but all the budget ((under £50) ones seem to have flaws and won’t create coffee fine enough for espresso (Delonghi, Cuisineart, Krups). I’d be very grateful for any advice you can give me please. Kind regards. Jacqui

These are very good coffee grinders, I really appreciate and love my Comandante C40 Nitro Blade. Thanks for such a good review, this is really true, verified!

Thanks for that 🙂 Kev

Thanks Kev for a comprehensive review of hand grinders. I found that thinner body grinders are harder to operate, compared to, say, Comandante, which was such a pleasure to operate. The grip on thicker diameter Comandante was perfect, the grinding was very easy. Thinner grinders required firmer grip, where rotation and resistance varied. Not sure how much this aspect of grinders contributes to the grind size consistency, since there are so many other factors that affect it.

Thanks Vik, yes that’s interesting, I can imagine the thicker grinders such as the Comandante being nicer to handle with them being chunkier in diameter. Cheers, Kev.

Sad to see you have repetitive strain injury. My sister had it and I suggested homeopathic sillica. The problem went away almost instantly. Try it.

Hi Elizabeth, wow – will check that out, thanks! 🙂

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• Electric Appliances

We Tested 16 Coffee Grinders—Here Are the Best Ones

Our top picks include models from Baratza, OXO, and Fellow.

We independently evaluate all recommended products and services. If you click on links we provide, we may receive compensation. Learn more .

Serious Eats / Russell Kilgore

The Winners, at a Glance

The criteria: what to look for in a coffee grinder.

• Do You Need a Burr Grinder?

The Testing

• The Best Coffee Grinder for Coffee Geeks

The Best Coffee Grinder for Most People

The competition.

• Why We're the Experts

Straight to the Point

Our favorite coffee grinders include the  Baratza Encore Conical Burr Grinder  and  OXO Conical Burr Coffee Grinder . The Baratza is a good choice for coffee geeks, while the OXO will suit most coffee drinks just fine with its grind consistency, easily adjustable settings, and sub-$100 price point.

I can't tell you how many times I've heard a coffee pro say that the single biggest upgrade a person can make is to buy a good-quality burr grinder. Less often have I seen other suggestions, like buying a better coffeemaker, learning the ins and outs of brewing, and developing a better sense of one's own coffee bean preferences. But still, it's true: A good coffee grinder makes a whole lot of difference — and central to the debate over burr vs. blade grinders .

For this review, we tested 16 coffee grinders—to find the best one for all kinds of brewing methods, including automatic drip, French press, pour-over, Aeropress, and espresso. Recently, we re-tested all of our favorite coffee grinders as well as new models, going through pounds and pounds of coffee to make sure our top picks were still the best. We've been testing coffee grinders consistently for nearly five years, and have continually gathered editor feedback on our favorite coffee grinders—should any long-term insights arise.

To further understand my findings, I also consulted coffee-making professionals, as well as coffee-drinking civilians. The team at Joe Coffee Company was invaluable in helping me run grinder taste tests and analyses, and conversations with Steve Rhinehart of Acaia (formerly of Prima Coffee Equipment) and Nick Cho of Wrecking Ball Coffee Roasters helped deepen my understanding of this piece of coffee gear and the technical details that underpin its use.

The Best Coffee Grinder for Serious Coffee Geeks

Baratza virtuoso+ conical burr coffee grinder.

Baratza's Virtuoso+ coffee grinder is routinely picked by pros as the home grinder to beat, and for good reason. Its well-made conical burrs produce a wide range of grind sizes, the results are consistent, the machine is solidly built from both metal and plastic, and it's all backed up by good customer service. I don't love taking apart and reassembling the burr set for cleaning, as it isn't intuitive enough, but beyond that, this is the grinder to get for serious home-brewed coffee drinkers looking to maximize control over grind size.

Best For:  Folks who are well-acquainted with concepts like flow rate, brew time, and extraction level; who use scales to measure everything and know their bean-to-water ratio by weight; who prefer light to medium roasts that present more of a bean's inherent flavors; and who usually drink their coffee black.

Alternate Best Coffee Grinder Pick

Breville the smart grinder pro.

Breville's Smart Grinder Pro also performed very well in our tests, and it's worth considering since it costs less than our other top pick, the Baratza Virtuoso. Its grind trends finer than the Virtuoso. Even at its coarsest setting, the results were closer to the medium grind that other machines produced. That potentially makes it less well-suited to making French press and cold brew, but it'll perform well for most other brewing methods and can even function as an entry-level espresso grinder—something few other home coffee grinders can do.

Best For:  The same people who would buy the Virtuoso, but those who are less likely to make press pots or cold brew, and those who may want to casually play with pulling espresso shots.

The Best Budget Coffee Grinder for Coffee Geeks

Baratza encore conical burr coffee grinder.

There's a lot to be said for Baratza's entry-level Encore grinder , which comes in a lighter-weight, all-plastic housing. It packs the same motor as the more expensive Virtuoso, and it includes a slightly less effective burr set that grinds nearly as well as—and slightly more slowly than—the Virtuoso. Also worth knowing is you can upgrade the burr set in the Encore to the one made for the Virtuoso if you do ever end up feeling like the Encore isn't quite cutting it.

Best For: Anyone considering the Virtuoso but who's not quite ready to pay the higher price tag.

OXO Brew Conical Burr Coffee Grinder

Like many of OXO's products, its burr grinder's design is simple and intuitive. Even more importantly, it delivers excellent grind consistency given its price tag. This is about as inexpensive as a burr grinder gets before the grind quality really starts to fall off, making it a good starter grinder for most home-brewed coffee drinkers.

Best For: Any coffee drinker who wants more control and a chance to experiment with grind sizes; who wants to begin to explore some of the more detailed coffee-brewing concepts without a huge cost of entry; who likes a good cup but maybe isn't 100% clear on what terms like TDS (total dissolved solids), acidity, and sweetness mean (at least when discussing a cup of joe).

The Best Super-Budget Burr Grinder

Krups precision coffee grinder.

If the price points of our favorite grinders make them an out-of-the-question proposition, and if you'd like to stop using a blade grinder to chop up your beans (after all, it does kinda suck when your coffee tastes like the cumin you also blitzed in there), you can't beat the price on this Krups model . Its grind is inconsistent, and its build quality leaves a lot to be desired, but you get what you pay for. On the upside, even with the inconsistent grind, you'll still have more control over your grind size than you would using a blade grinder, and for many people, that's all that matters.

Best For:  Coffee drinkers who tend to buy dark roasts and/or drink their coffee with dairy or sugar; those who want to grind whole beans for fresher flavor and are sick of having to do it in the spice grinder.

The Best Coffee Grinder for Pour-over Coffee

Fellow ode gen 2 coffee grinder.

After a lukewarm reception for their first coffee grinder, Fellow re-tooled the anti-static system and overhauled the burr design for the Gen 2 Ode . This version featured some of the most consistent grindings in our testing, great user interface details (like a grind chart under the lid), and virtually no static cling—all in a stylish, small format. 

Best For: People who want the best quality coffee possible and are willing to pay for it. The Ode Gen 2 delivers high-quality grinding and a great user experience that makes it easy to tweak grind settings for pour-over brewing (or any manual brew method).

The Best Manual Coffee Grinder

1zpresso j manual coffee grinder.

We separately tested 11 handheld coffee grinders , but are including our favorite in this review. It was fast, ground top-notch coffee, and was easy to adjust.

Best For: People who want a compact, handheld coffee grinder (particularly those with small kitchens or who are traveling).

The Best Coffee Grinder for Espresso

Baratza encore esp.

While we actually have three favorite espresso grinders , the Bartaza Encore ESP is a budget-friendly choice that will suit most folks just fine. It comes with 20 micro-adjustment settings, a dosing cup, and the same reliability and consistency that makes it so easy for us to recommend Baratza's grinders.

Best For: Those looking for a reasonably priced espresso grinder to go with their espresso machine .

The Best Coffee Grinder with a Built-In Scale

Oxo brew conical burr coffee grinder with integrated scale.

An updated version of one of our favorite longtime coffee grinders, this version of OXO’s burr grinder comes with a built-in scale. You can program it to grind by a set number of grams or choose how many cups you’re looking to brew and the grinder will portion itself automatically (though we think you’re better off doing that math yourself). 

Best For: Anyone who wants convenience and consistency. Also, if you're looking to save on a bit of storage space.

Serious Eats / Liz Clayman

To understand the importance of a good coffee grinder, you need to have a basic understanding of what happens when coffee is made. Generally speaking, when we brew coffee, our goal is to extract a sufficient amount of desirable soluble molecules from the beans while leaving the undesirable ones behind.

If we don't extract enough of what we want from a bean, the resulting coffee will taste "underextracted." Underextracted coffee is not necessarily weak coffee. Rather, it's coffee in which an insufficient amount of the desirable soluble molecules have been pulled out of the beans and dissolved into the water. If you brew a high ratio of coffee beans in water but underextract them, you could end up with coffee that is both strong  and  underextracted, a seemingly contradictory concept. Underextracted coffees tend to taste more sour—and not in a good way.

Overextracted coffees, on the other hand, have pulled too much from the beans, including unpleasant things we don't want in the cup. Those coffees often taste harsh and bitter. And just like the seemingly antithetical possibility of a strong underextracted coffee, you can have a  weak  overextracted coffee, say, by brewing a small amount of coffee relative to the water for too long.

It should go without saying that you can also have weak underextracted coffees, strong overextracted ones, and everything in between.

A grinder is a piece of coffee gear that plays a pivotal role in coffee extraction because it determines the grind size of the coffee. Grind size can affect extraction in two ways. The first is perhaps the most obvious one: Finely ground coffee has far more surface area than coarsely ground coffee, and that increased surface area makes what's in the beans more immediately accessible to the hot water, speeding up the rate of extraction.

The second thing the grind size determines is the flow rate for certain methods of coffee brewing, such as pour-over, which, in turn, affects extraction levels. The smaller the coffee particles, the more slowly water can seep down through them; the larger the coffee particles, the faster. If you imagine two pipes, one of which is packed with sand and one that's packed with marbles, and you poured water through each, the water would pass much more quickly through the marbles than the sand, given all the empty space around them. With coffee, the water traveling more slowly through the finer grounds has more time to extract coffee molecules, while the water racing through a coarsely ground coffee will have less time.

Exactly how coarse or fine to grind coffee depends on a complex set of factors, including the batch size, the brewing method, and the coffee beans themselves. It's a moving target and therefore takes some practice to begin to understand how to use grind size to improve your coffee.

As you are probably starting to see, given how grind size can determine surface area and flow rate, and thus extraction, a grinder that offers a wide range of grind sizes and produces a uniformly sized result at each grind setting is desirable. The idea is that if a grinder produces coffee grounds that have too much variance in size for any given grind setting, results become increasingly difficult to control. A setting that's meant to produce a medium grind but instead gives that medium grind littered with fine powder and too-big chunks, may under- or overextract, or both. At least, that's the theory.

Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik / Jessica Christopher

Exactly  how  uniform coffee grounds need to be is open for debate, and it's something professionals in the coffee industry continue to explore. If we can say one thing with certainty, it's that we want a grinder that helps us produce a cup of coffee that we consider enjoyable and delicious. As Nick Cho of Wrecking Ball Coffee pointed out in a conversation I had with him a few years ago: The challenge is finding agreement about what that means.

Cho told me he'd done a taste test some years before our conversation, and that even coffee professionals were all over the place in terms of their preferences. "No one has to learn to like strawberries," Cho said at the time. "Whereas with coffee or beer, the things that contain bitterness, it’s an acquired taste—so what kind of taste you acquire is everything."

Before diving into my review of coffee grinders, I decided to explore this question a little more deeply.

Do You Really Need a Good Burr Grinder?

My first grinder tests go back a number of years. I wanted to get some data, and my initial results left the question unresolved. In those tests, I pitted one of our favorite blade grinders (technically, it's a spice grinder, but lots of people use them for coffee) against an inexpensive burr grinder (the Cuisinart DBM-8) and a higher-end burr grinder (Breville's Smart Grinder Pro). I used a Clever coffee dripper in those tests, which was a brewer that made it easier to control some key variables. All samples were tasted blind by my colleagues.

In each of those tests, tasters preferred the coffee made by the higher-end grinder more than the other two, and the blade grinder came in last for most people, but we were all surprised to find that the differences weren't particularly striking—certainly not different enough to support the common recommendation that most home-brewed coffee drinkers should pay for a really good burr grinder. Yes, there was a difference, but if we didn't have the benefit of side-by-side tastings, we weren't sure we'd have been able to easily tell them apart.

Fast-forward to this review, when I finally decided to return to this question. I headed over to the Joe Coffee Company Pro Shop, where Christopher Malarick helped me run a new round of tests.

This time we assembled a tasting panel that included two professionals (Malarick and a Joe Coffee colleague) along with four civilian tasters who represented a range of coffee-drinking expertise and preferences.

For this test, we used four different grinders, each representing a different class. A Krups blade spice grinder represented the type of grinder usually frowned upon by professionals; a Krups GX5000 burr grinder , which retails for about $30, represented the absolute cheapest of burr grinder options; the Baratza Virtuoso was our representative high-end home grinder; and a pro-level Mahlkonig EK-43 , which is famed for its consistent grind quality and sells for nearly $3,000, acted as the crème de la crème against which all the other grinders were compared.

Malarick did all the brewing on a Kalita Wave pour-over brewer , which is prized for its consistency, and we tasted all samples blind.

We ran this test two times, using two different roast profiles. The first one was a Joe's blend called The Waverly , which combines Peruvian and Colombian beans with a medium roast profile. The second was a very, very dark Italian roast from Starbucks. The results shed more light on the complexity of how drinkers perceive coffee and how the grinder can affect that perception.

With the medium roasted beans, the tallied results put the grinders more or less in order of quality, with the EK-43 in first place and the blade grinder in last place. But not everyone agreed. One of the pros rated the blade grinder in the middle of the pack, and the other pro, who admitted later he wasn't a huge fan of the Waverly blend, had an inverted list, with the blade grinder his favorite and the EK-43 his least favorite. In light of his opinion on the blend, this starts to make sense: the EK-43 created the truest expression of the coffee, which he didn't love, while the blade grinder produced a less clear expression of the beans, which worked for him—the less he could taste of the coffee's nuances, the better.

Among the civilian tasters, one picked the two cheapest grinders—the blade grinder and budget Krups burr grinder—as his favorites and the coffees from the higher-end grinders as his least favorite. His tasting notes seem to indicate that he wasn't the biggest fan of this coffee either, and so, perhaps like the pro, he valued the grinders that obscured the coffee's full flavor. The remaining civilians ranked the coffees as one might expect, with the better grinders tending to get higher scores.

But things took an interesting twist when we switched to the dark Starbucks roast. Rankings became scattered, with no clear pattern, except that the EK-43 got consistently bad scores. A couple of tasters had a hard time ranking the coffees at all, handing out ties and noting that it was difficult to tell the samples apart. Others did their best to rank the results, but all agreed afterward that the differences were incredibly difficult to notice, even in side-by-side tastings. The oft-maligned blade grinder came out toward the top on a couple of tasting sheets, including in both of the professionals' assessments (they each ranked it the second-best tasting coffee of the bunch).

What does this tell us? Mostly, it tells us that the preferences of the individual taster matter a lot and that the coffee itself has a significant role in determining whether a grinder's uniformity of grind matters much or not. The darker the roast, the less the grinder's quality seems to matter. If anything, the uniformly sized grounds produced by the better grinders seemed to be a bad thing for the dark roast, bringing some of the harsher charred flavors to the fore.

This makes some sense when you consider that the more deeply a coffee is roasted, the more it loses its original flavors and takes on a more generic roasty profile. A dark roast is not unlike oak in wine or hops in beer—it's an equalizer of sorts, erasing some of a bean's natural flavor, covering up flaws, and pushing the product's overall flavor in one very particular direction. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it can lessen the effect that grind uniformity, and therefore the grinder itself, can have.

The lesson here is that coffee drinkers need to know what their preferences are in order to make an informed decision about which grinder to buy.

Do they prefer medium and lighter roasts that try to preserve the original character of the bean? Do they drink the coffee black instead of adding ingredients like milk and sugar, which can mask flavors and soften the harsh edges of darkly roasted beans? Or do they like a dark roast, maybe with a splash of cream or a bit of sweetener? Answers to these questions will determine which burr grinder is right for them or even if a blade grinder will suffice.

Serious Eats / Russell Kilgore / Jessica Christopher

The above taste tests were very helpful in constructing a more complex picture of just how much and when a grinder truly matters. With that information helping to inform us, the next step was to analyze each grinder, looking at both the range of grind sizes each machine offered as well as how uniform the grinds were. We could then see how each grinder related to the others in terms of quality and price and make recommendations.

Test 1: Grind Screening

To determine grind uniformity and range, we ran each grinder at its coarsest, middle, and finest settings and analyzed the results. We used  a Kruve sifter system  to sort and analyze the grinds.

Before running these tests, I called up Steve Rhinehart of Prima Coffee Equipment in Louisville, Kentucky, to get some of his wisdom on grinders. According to Rhinehart, ideal grind sizes fall roughly as follows: 1,000 microns and larger for French press; 600 to 800 microns are the most common sizes for most other home-brewing methods like pour-over; grinds for AeroPress and moka pots often fall in the 400 to 600 micron range; espresso is usually around 300 to 400 microns. Anything ground smaller than that is referred to as "fines" and is considered undesirable, as it will overextract quickly and clog filters.

Those numbers line up with the filter screen sizes Malarick used to separate our samples into groupings, cutting each into three groups: smaller than 400 microns (essentially an espresso grind and fines); between 400 and 1,000 microns (the range most useful for home coffee-making methods); and larger than 1,000 microns, for French press and such.

Since the 400 to 1,000 microns is still quite a large range, we did a visual assessment to see roughly how consistent and how large the grinds seemed to be within that range.

Test 2: Taste Tests

In addition to all of the rounds of taste tests described above, we also ran our finalists through more rigorous tests. This included grinding several varieties of beans from different roasters and brewing coffee dozens of times, and using different brewing methods to get used to the machines to develop a sense of how easy they are to dial in our preferences and otherwise assess real-world results.

Test 3: Design Quality Assessment

Throughout testing, we examined the build quality of each machine, its ease of use , loudness, and other design factors and weighed those in our final decisions of which grinders to recommend.

Test 4: Quick Espresso Test

This review deliberately did not take a close look at espresso . As just about any professional barista will tell you, home grinders at this price point are generally not considered up to par for pulling good espresso shots, largely due to a lack of fine-tuned settings to truly dial a shot in.

Unfortunately, espresso is a more expensive brewing method to get into at home, and grinders that are made for it tend to cost quite a bit more, starting at several hundred dollars and climbing up into the thousands. We've reviewed them separately , for those interested in investing in this type of grinder. (To that end, we did include a top pick from our espresso grinder testing as a top pick in this review, for your convenience.)

Still, after we'd narrowed the field of grinders in this test down to the final set, I thought it'd be fun to at least try them for espresso, and the folks at Joe were kind enough to humor me. We didn't try to pull shots with any but the top performers—the Baratza Virtuoso and the Breville Smart Grinder—starting each at its finest setting just to see what would happen.

What we found is that both of those grinders are capable of grinding fine enough for an espresso shot—the finest settings were, in fact, too fine, clogging the portafilter and preventing the water from flowing through properly.

Malarick was concerned that the Virtuoso didn't have small enough steps between grind settings to allow him to adequately dial in that shot, but the Breville, which leans fine and devotes about a third of its grind settings to espresso-level fineness, stood a better chance. He adjusted the Breville's grind and pulled a second shot with it, getting it closer to his goal. He still wasn't happy with it, but I didn't think it tasted too bad.

Overall, it was clear that none of these grinders could really pass muster with a professional barista for pulling espresso shots, but for a home user who's less concerned with pro-level perfection, the Breville can work. If you want something more, opt for a dedicated espresso grinder .

The Best Coffee Grinders

What we liked: Baratza's Virtuoso+ coffee grinder is consistently recommended by pros for home use, and for good reason. It's well-built, with metal and plastic housing that gives it enough weight to sit solidly on the counter. It's the grinder I've used at home for the past five years, and it's still going strong.

To operate it, you rotate the bean hopper to select one of the 40 grind settings, add the beans to the hopper, and then either use the pulse setting or the 40-second timer.

All of these grinders, the Virtuoso included, like to claim you can grind a set amount of beans based on the timer duration, but I don't recommend doing that. First, different beans grind at different rates depending on their size and density (bean density varies with roast level, among other things), and, second, it's simply not accurate. If you're going to bother trying to take advantage of a higher-quality burr grinder, you don't want to shortchange yourself on something basic by not measuring the beans and water for a proper ratio. Instead, get a good coffee scale and weigh your beans (aim for roughly one gram of coffee to every 16-17 grams of water).

In the grinding tests, the Virtuoso+ showed an impressive level of consistency. On its coarsest setting, it produced huge boulders above the 1,000 micron threshold (bigger than anyone is likely to ever want). Only a very small amount of grinds in the 400 to 1,000 micron range that—to the eye—seemed more on the coarse end of things and so few fines that our scale couldn't register them.

On the finest setting, almost the entire bulk of the grinds landed in the 400 to 1,000 grams range and looked like it leaned on the finer end of that spectrum. It also produced the largest amount of under-400 micron particles (a mere 1.2 grams out of 20 grams total, but still more than any of the others), marking the Virtuoso+ as the grinder capable of producing the finest grinds of the pack. This fits with our espresso test, where the Virtuoso's finest grind clogged the portafilter on the espresso machine.

At its middle setting, the Virtuoso's grinds split into two groups, about two-thirds of which were just barely too large to make it through the 1000-micron screen, while the remaining third did, falling into the 400 to 1000 range.

Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik

One other thing worth mentioning about Baratza, in general, is that they have a great reputation for their customer service. Not only are they helpful in resolving any issues that might come up with a machine, but they also sell just about every conceivable replacement part, from the motor and the circuit board to the burrs and rings and gaskets and more, including for discontinued models. This means that a Baratza grinder can be brought back from just about any malady and is unlikely to find its way into the trash for many, many years to come.

If you're serious about your coffee for all brewing methods except espresso, this is the top-of-the-line for home use.

What we didn’t like: My biggest gripe with the Virtuoso+ (and it shares this flaw with the Encore) is that the hopper and conical burrs are not intuitive to assemble and disassemble. Getting it all to fit properly requires stretching a rubber gasket over a ring, setting that ring into its seating on the grinder such that small tabs are oriented properly (though what "properly" is can't easily be deduced without consulting the instruction manual), locking the hopper on top of that, and then rotating it into place. It's not difficult, but if you haven't done it in a while, you will almost definitely have to tinker with it or go find the instructions.

A smaller, second gripe (and one that plagues many grinders): Coffee bean chaff can build up in the chute and then get knocked loose when you're removing the grounds basket, making a mess on your counter. Baratza’s grounds bins are made from anti-static plastic, it just takes 40 seconds of waiting before the static charge dissipates.

• Dimensions: 4.7 x 13.7 x 6 inches
• Weight: 8 pounds
• Burr type: 40-millimeter stainless steel conical burrs
• Number of grind settings: 40
• Warranty: 1-year
• Features: Digital timer and backlit grounds bin

Serious Eats / Jesse Raub

What we liked: Breville's Smart Grinder Pro was the Serious Eats office grinder for years, grinding beans for multiple pots of coffee daily, and it's done that job admirably. While the Baratza machines in this review are all analog, Breville's offers an appealing digital control interface.

A different major kitchenware review site complained about this interface, saying it was difficult to figure out how to use. I have no idea what they're talking about—it couldn't be more clear or easy. A large turn-dial sets the grind level, which is clearly indicated on the screen's grind chart. That chart has some useful labels on it, offering suggestions on which grind setting ranges are best for which brewing methods, a helpful starting point when trying to dial in a grind.

The Breville also has a timer function to control how long the machine runs, and it seems to suggest it's a viable way to measure the beans, but as I wrote above, I don't endorse that method (again: use a scale!). Still, it's functional enough, allowing the machine to run unattended for the duration of the grinding time setting; if the beans are fully ground before the timer is finished, you can push the start button again to stop it.

One of the areas where Breville beats Baratza is in its hopper and burr assembly. Taking the hopper on and off and removing the burrs for cleaning is as simple as twisting a very clearly marked spindle and lifting the upper bur by its handle. Not once did I feel the need to consult the user's manual to successfully accomplish this task.

As for its grind consistency and range, the Breville split evenly between the 1,000+ micron range and the 400 to 1,000-micron range at its coarsest setting, slightly finer than is probably ideal for something like French press (at the very least, one would want the option to go coarser, even if the coarsest setting can work for that method). It produced an immeasurable amount of fines at the coarsest setting.

At the finest setting, the Breville sifted similarly to the Baratza Virtuoso, with almost all of the grinds falling into that middle 400 to 1,000-micron zone. That said, the Breville's output looked to the naked eye to lean on the finer end of that range (though, as noted above, the Virtuoso does produce a small amount of even finer grounds). At its middle setting, the Breville also trended toward the slightly finer grind, with most of the results remaining in that middle 400 to 1,000 range.

As mentioned in the espresso section above, this grinder is probably your best bet if you want to experiment with pulling shots. It even comes with a portafilter holder accessory, so the grounds can be deposited directly into it without a clumsy transfer from the grounds container to portafilter that's bound to spill them all over the place. It should be stressed, though, that not a single professional I spoke to thought it'd be able to make particularly dialed-in results.

If you want a consistent and well-designed grinder that gives some room for espresso-making without breaking the bank, this one is worth considering.

What we didn’t like : Even with impressive grind sifting results, the flavor quality from this grinder wasn’t as high as some of the other winners. While brewed coffee ground with the Breville still offered a lot of sweetness and balance, it lacked the flavor clarity of the Virtuoso+, Ode Gen 2, and even the Encore.

• Dimensions: 8.5 x 6.3 x 15.3 inches
• Weight: 6.4 pounds
• Burr type: Stainless steel conical burrs
• Number of grind settings: 60
• Features: Digital timer

What we liked: I'll keep this one short: the Encore is an excellent choice for anyone who is leaning toward the Virtuoso+ but doesn't want to spend quite that much money. In exchange for the savings, you get the same motor, an all-plastic body that's only slightly lighter than the Virtuoso+, and burrs that are just one step down in quality from the Virtuoso's.

And, frankly, in our testing, the Encore kept pace with the Virtuoso in terms of grind ranges and consistency remarkably well. It's maybe a hair less consistent, but the chances most people will even notice the difference are small.

Even better, if you start with the Encore and later want to upgrade the burrs, it's as simple as swapping them out with the ones that come with the Virtuoso (which, again, you can buy separately, as Baratza sells just about every replacement part you could dream of).

What we didn’t like: This grinder is loud. With a mostly plastic body, the Encore doesn’t absorb sound as well as the Virtuoso+. It also came just under our two top picks for flavor clarity (though, as mentioned above, the burrs can be upgraded).

• Weight: 7 pounds
• Burr type: 40 millimeter stainless steel conical burrs
• Features: Pulse button

What we liked: OXO has entered the coffee game with some serious contenders, and this grinder continues that trend.

Priced at the low end of what a person can hope to pay for a decent burr grinder, this is the one to get if you want to up your coffee game by playing with grind settings but don't want to shell out for our other top picks.

The OXO is also slender and sleek-looking, with an easy-to-read grind-setting dial, a metal grounds container that claims to resist static cling (something all the other grinders suffered from), and an easy-to-remove and easy-to-reinstall hopper and burr assembly for cleaning.

What we didn’t like: In the grind consistency and range analysis, OXO's grinder didn't do as well as our other top picks, but it still held its own. On its coarsest setting, it produced almost comically large boulders, with a smaller fraction of midsize grinds and an immeasurable amount of fines. On its finest setting, it landed mostly in the middle range, with a small but measurable amount of grinds below the 400-micron mark. While it might not be the most precise, it’s still a solid pick for most casual coffee drinkers.

• Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.25 x 12.5 inches
• Weight: 4.5 pounds
• Number of grind settings: 15 (plus micro settings)
• Warranty: 2-year
• Features: UV-blocking tint

What we liked: I'll be honest: This is not a great burr grinder, by any measure. The grinds are inconsistent, online reviews are spotty, and the machine's build leaves a lot to be desired. It frankly doesn't inspire a lot of confidence in terms of longevity. That said, it's as cheap as a burr grinder could ever hope to be, making it a good choice for anyone happy with their blade grinder, except for the fact that they also use it to grind their spices and are sick of their coffee tasting like cumin.

This grinder did beat all the others in one very small area: the designers found a clever place to store the cleaning brush, hiding it in the hopper spindle. Amazingly, none of the other grinders managed to find a place for it, leaving the brush loose, which means it will almost definitely be misplaced.

Grab this one if all the tinkering and dialing-in of coffee-grind sizes I've described in this article sound like your idea of morning hell, but you still want to grind whole beans.

What we didn't like: The burrs in this thing look dinky compared to the higher-quality ones in our other picks, and the ground coffee they produce backs up that assessment: it's not great. Depending on what coffee you drink, though, that may not be a huge problem. As I wrote above, darker roasts tend to do better on a wider range of grinders and suffered less from inconsistent grind profiles. The Krups never made  bad  coffee in our tests (that's not to say it can't make bad coffee, only that even with an inconsistent grind, most coffee drinkers probably won't be bothered by the results).

• Dimensions: 13 x 10 x 6.5 inches
• Weight: 4.24 pounds
• Burr type: Metallic flat burrs
• Number of grind settings: 12 (plus micro settings)
• Features: N/A

What we liked: First off, the design of the Ode grinder is ambitious: It’s built around vertically-oriented flat grinding burrs, like high-end commercial coffee grinders. Flat burrs are harder to precisely align because they have to get much closer than conical burrs, but when done well, they can deliver much more consistent grind results.

When particle testing the Ode Gen 2, we found a negligible amount of fines and boulders, making it one of the most consistent grinders we tested. We could taste the results, too: without excess fines causing bitter or dry flavors, there was a clarity that stood out even amongst our winners. Only the Virtuoso+ delivered the same brewed coffee quality. This makes the Ode Gen 2 an excellent choice for anyone who brews a lot of pour-over coffee and wants to tinker with their grind settings—but we also liked the flavor clarity it provided for other manual brew methods, like French press .

Aside from performance, Fellow packs user-friendly details into every aspect of the grinder. Under the lid is a grind chart to help users ballpark their grind settings, and the adjustment dial itself features easy-to-read icons to show which direction makes the coffee smaller or bigger. The coffee grounds catch-cup features a strong magnet that snaps it into place directly under the grind chute, and inside the cup are volume markings and two metal plates that act as a funnel directing ground coffee into the filter. It’s also the quietest grinder we tested (important for early risers) and has an auto-shutoff when it senses it has completed grinding. And with active anti-static technology (similar to the ionizer in a hair dryer), it left our counters super clean. And with its matte black or white modern design, it looks great, too.

What we didn’t like: First off, it’s expensive: It’s almost $100 more than our top pick, which was already a pricey option. With a grind performance that was on par with the Virtuoso+, the Ode Gen 2 mostly offers usability and aesthetic upgrades. Another downside is that it can jam up easily. We found if the grind cup isn't oriented directly under the chute, the lid closes off the chute and grounds back up into the burrs. To top it off, you can only clean them by disassembling the grind chamber. Luckily, the instructions for disassembling were easy to follow (though mechanically complex), and after making sure the cup was always aligned on the magnet, we didn’t have any other jamming issues.

• Dimensions: 9.4 x 4 x 9.8 inches
• Weight: 10 pounds
• Burr type: Stainless steel flat burrs
• Number of grind settings: 30
• Warranty: 2-year, or 3-year with registration
• Features: Anti-static technology; quiet grind

What we liked: Fast and simple to use, this is a fantastic handheld coffee grinder . For those who make pour-over, especially, it offers a compact grinding solution that takes up barely any storage space. We liked its rubber upper portion, too, which was nicely grippy, and found it easy to adjust the grind settings.

What we didn't like: It's not a workhorse like, say, the Baratza Virtuoso+. If you want to try a variety of brew methods, we still recommend a motorized grinder.

• Dimensions: 7.28 x 2.24 x 6.69 inches
• Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Warranty: 1-year limited
• Features: Foldable handle

What we liked: For many looking to invest in an espresso grinder, the Baratza Encore ESP will be the right choice (and if you want to invest even more, we have our recommendations for that as well). With 40 grind settings and 20 micro-adjustments, this grinder ground coffee that we got excellent shots from. It also comes with a dosing cup. As we said in our espresso grinder testing, "It’s an affordable, no-frills grinder that delivers excellent grind consistency."

What we didn't like: If you're really into espresso and want a grinder with extreme precision, this model might not be enough for you. Instead, check out the Baratza Sette .

• Dimensions: 4.7 x 13.7 x 6.3 inches
• Features: Dosing cup

What we liked: We’ve been fans of the OXO Brew grinder for many years, and it outperforms every grinder at its price point, hands down. This model takes things a step further by integrating a digital scale where the grind cup sits. That means you can program the exact amount of coffee you want in grams, and the grinder will stop automatically, saving you from having to weigh out the coffee yourself. It also has a setting that portions coffee out by the number of cups you select, which defaults to eight grams for every five ounces of water and can be adjusted for strength preference. It’s ideal for people who are used to eyeballing their coffee, adding consistency and convenience to your morning coffee routine. 

What we didn’t like: For one, it’s pricey—you can buy a high-end grinder and scale for the same amount, as long as you don’t mind measuring your coffee manually. The other issue is that built-in scales can be finicky. In our testing, we found that the OXO's scale was often off by two grams. While two grams isn’t a huge difference for larger drip coffee maker batches, it’s definitely enough to throw off a pour-over ratio.

• Dimensions: 11.1 x 7.3 x 16.4 inches
• Burr type: 40-millimeter stainless steel burrs
• Number of grind settings: 38
• Warranty: 2-year warranty
• Features: Built-in scale
• Capresso Infinity Conical Burr Grinder : The Capresso Infinity Conical Burr Grinder is a simple machine that would meet the needs of casual coffee drinkers. However, the range of ground coarseness that it produces is much more narrow than our top picks. At a similar price point, the OXO grinder offers more finesse and control, allowing you to better dial in your grind size depending on your preferred brewing method.
• Fellow Ode Gen 1 Burr Grinder : If judged on aesthetics alone, the stylish Fellow Ode Burr Grinder would take first place. There is one major drawback with this grinder, though: it’s difficult to clean. Most grinders we tested had fairly simple removable burrs for easy cleaning, but cleaning the Fellow requires you to use a screwdriver to remove the faceplate and access the burrs. A couple of Serious Eats editors do own this model and note that it seems to produce more static than other burr grinders, spewing a lot of grounds on the countertop. The updated version of this grinder—the Fellow Ode Gen 2—addresses these issues and is now one of our top picks.
• Zwilling Enfingy Coffee Bean Grinder : When attempting to grind coffee on the finest grind setting, the Zwilling Enfingy Coffee Bean Grinder wouldn’t work. As in, it didn’t grind the coffee—at all. We even tried cleaning this model’s burrs multiple times and grinding two types of beans at different roast levels.
• Cuisinart's DBM-8 Supreme Grind Automatic Burr Mill : This was the first burr grinder I ever owned. Like the budget Krups, it comes with dinky burrs and grinds inconsistently as a result. It's also deafeningly loud and too expensive for the results it produces.
• KitchenAid's KCG0702 Burr Coffee Grinder : This is one of the more handsome grinders we tested; its body appears to be solid metal, and both the bean hopper and grounds container are glass, not plastic. However, it suffered from poor grind consistency, and the glass grounds container does not sit securely in place below the chute; it would be very easy to accidentally knock it off while using the machine and break the glass.
• Ariete-Delonghi Electric Coffee Grinder : This grinder appeared to be of very poor build quality and exhibited subpar performance during our grinding consistency tests.
• Bodum Bistro Burr Coffee Grinder : This grinder performed so-so in the taste tests and its plastic body felt cheap. And even though the Bodum grinder is more expensive, it was outperformed by the OXO Brew grinder in every test.
• Fellow Opus Coffee Grinder : The Fellow Opus claims it can handle both drip and espresso grinds, but in all of our brew tests we found the coffee lacking. The grinder produced a lot of fines (likely helpful for restricting espresso flow), which added bitterness to the cup and prolonged brew times for any auto drip and pour-over coffee we made.

What's the best cheap burr grinder?

Our testing shows that the best affordable burr grinder is the Krups Burr Coffee Grinder . Although not as consistent as some of the other models we tested, its $50 price tag can’t be beaten, and it’s better than a blade grinder.

What's the best coffee grinder for pour-over coffee?

If you want to make the best pour-over coffee , the uniformity of grind coarseness is important. With pour-over, grind size affects both brew time and degree of extraction. Too coarse, and the coffee will be under-extracted and taste weak. Too fine, and it will slow the rate of water flowing through the grounds and cause the coffee to be too strong and bitter. For the highest level of precision when grinding, we recommend the Baratza Virtuoso+ and the Breville Smart Grinder , though this model from OXO will also deliver consistent results at this coarseness (but has fewer grind settings for those looking to really tinker with their brew).

How do you grind coffee for a French press?

When grinding coffee for a French press coffee maker , select a coarse grind setting. As we note in our guide to making French press coffee , "The particles should appear somewhere between coarse salt and steelcut oats."

Do you have to clean a burr grinder?

Yes, you should clean your burr grinder regularly . Over time, fine grinds and oils in the coffee will build up throughout the inside of the grinder. If left unclean, the buildup of residue can spoil and add off flavors to your coffee. I like these tablets for the task .

Why should coffee be ground fresh before brewing?

Coffee beans are full of volatile compounds that contribute to the flavor and aroma of a freshly brewed cup. These compounds degrade over time, especially when exposed to moisture, heat, or air. And grinding coffee pulverizes the beans and increases the overall surface area, causing the coffee to oxidize and degrade much faster. In short: Grind fresh and use the beans right away to maximize freshness and get the best flavor.

Why grind your own coffee beans?

Grinding your own coffee beans ensures you'll have the freshest, most flavorful coffee. Because coffee beans oxidize quickly once ground, store-bought ground coffee will likely taste staler. Plus, different brewing methods require different grind sizes, and having your own coffee grinder allows you to adjust this easily whether you're brewing with an automatic drip machine, French press, or pour-over.

How long should you grind coffee beans for?

If you're weighing out your coffee beans for each go (as you should be), you can turn the grinder on and let it go until it stops or until it sounds like the grinder has finished grinding. We do recommend weighing your coffee beans before and after grinding to ensure you're brewing the correct amount.

Should you moisten or spray coffee beans before grinding?

A few drops of water or a light spritz before grinding can help reduce static while grinding, but too much moisture can cause coffee to clump, clogging the grinder. We don't recommend moistening coffee before grinding because the risks outweigh the benefits. Instead, we suggest letting coffee sit for 30 to 45 seconds after grinding to let the static dissipate before emptying the grounds into your filter.

Can you put ground coffee back in a burr grinder?

If you've ground your coffee and found the setting was off (read: too coarse) for your brewing method, you should not re-run it through a burr grinder. Attempting to grind already-ground coffee will cause the grinder to clog. It's best to just cut your losses and grind some new whole beans.

Why We're the Experts

• For this review, we tested 16 coffee grinders. As new coffee grinders have come on the market, we've continued to test them and update this review. Most recently, we evaluated the Zwilling Enfingy Coffee Bean Grinder and Fellow Ode Gen 2 Coffee Grinder . Our favorite coffee grinders have been used and evaluated, consistently, over a span of five years. We also separately tested espresso grinders .
• Daniel Gritzer is the senior culinary director of Serious Eats and has worked for the site since 2014. He's a previous restaurant cook, has worked on organic farms, and is responsible for many of your favorite recipes on this very site. He's written a lot of equipment-related content for Serious Eats, including reviews of coffee grinders and cast iron skillets .
• Jesse Raub is the commerce writer for Serious Eats and helped to update this article. He's worked for 15 years in the specialty coffee industry. He's our resident coffee expert, having tackled numerous coffee-related stories for the site, including reviews of coffee scales and handheld coffee grinders .
• Dylan Ettinger helped to update this review, testing some newer coffee grinders. Dylan is a contributor with more than a decade of experience working in the specialty coffee industry.
• For this review, we worked with the folks at Joe Coffee Company and interviewed Steve Rhinehart of Acaia (formerly of Prima Coffee Equipment ) and Nick Cho  of  Wrecking Ball Coffee Roasters .
• Serious Eats staffers own almost all of our favorite coffee grinders, using them regularly. This way, we've been able to collect long-term feedback.

Editor's Note

We may have received some of the products in this review as press samples, but they were still evaluated objectively.

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Top 11 Best Manual Coffee Grinders in the UK for 2024

• Cheap Manual Coffee Grinders
• Manual Coffee Grinders UK

James Bellis | Founder, CEO & Coffee Writer.

Trusted by over 20,000 customers, James Bellis has over 10+ years of experience and expertise working as a professional barista & coffee trainer. Balance Coffee is pioneering the healthy coffee movement with its range of health focused speciality coffee products committed to improving wellbeing - all backed by science .

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In today's post, we'll review the UK's top 11  best manual coffee grinders .

The Goal? Whether you're a beginner just getting started with coffee or have some experience up your sleeves, you'll be able to pick the best manual  coffee grinder  to brew sensational coffee every morning. 

I am James Bellis, the founder of  Balance Coffee , with over a decade of experience in the coffee industry.

What does this mean? I've got my hands dirty when it comes to coffee, which means I've been lucky enough to test out the leading coffee equipment on the market too.

You can easily upgrade your coffee game at home by  creating your coffee subscription , where you'll access our  member-only  benefits. It's a wonderful coffee experience for our V.I.P customers who are enjoying a guilt-free morning coffee routine with all the flavour and none of the nasties. 

You don't have to take my word for it. See what our community of subscribers are saying about our speciality  coffee beans  and equipment today.

Now come, let's dive into the top 11  best manual coffee grinders in the UK   list, shall we?

Best Manual Coffee Grinders UK (Expert Selection)

The table below contains some of the best manual coffee grinders that I have personally used in my 10+ years as coffee expert.

Add any of these to your brewing kits and you are sure to brew the best morning cup of coffee.

What are Manual coffee grinders?

A  manual coffee bean grinder  is a tool that grinds roasted coffee beans into a fine or coarse grind that you use for making coffee. This style of coffee grinding requires you to turn a handle, which then turns a burr set. 

The beans fall neatly into the burrs when you add coffee beans to your grinder chute, and once the grinding has taken place, a sealed section beneath the grinder will collect the grounds. 

Many manual coffee grinders today are made from wood, plastic, stainless steel, or aluminium for durability. 

Hand coffee grinding machines   have some advantages over  electric coffee grinders . For example, they do not require power to work, are more portable, quiet, and are usually more affordable. 

How To Decide on the Best Manual Coffee Grinder for You

When choosing a  manual coffee grinder machine , there are a few things you have to consider to make sure you're choosing the right grinder for your needs.  

First, consider how much coffee you drink and whether you'll use the grinder often. You might not need a high-end manual grinder if you're a casual coffee drinker. 

Secondly, consider whether you care about maximising the flavour of your morning cup. If that's you, consider one of the top 5 grinders on our list. Why? 

A quality coffee brew starts with ground coffee with the most uniform coffee particles. The burrs are not sharp enough to evenly grind the coffee if you're using a cheaper model. This creates more bitterness in the cup. 

Grind Settings

Secondly, consider what type of grind you prefer. For example, do you like a finer grind for espresso coffee or a coarser grind for  pour-over coffee  or drip coffee? So, think about the features necessary to your coffee-making routine.  

It's also worth noting that most manual grinders cannot go fine enough for espresso and require a large enough burr with more settings to get to espresso grind. The one exception is the Commandante which can go incredibly fine for a manual grinder.

There are a lot of manual coffee grinders that come with all sorts of features, like different grind settings and attachments. 

Another thing you'll have to look out for is the material the grinder is made from. 

Stainless steel grinders are always better because they last longer than aluminium or plastic - but you have nothing to worry about if this isn't an issue for you. All the grinders come with a basic warranty, so you know you're covered if there's an issue. Just do the research beforehand. 

What To Look For in a Good Manual Coffee Grinder?

Refrain from investing a little money and time in an excellent hand grinder. It would be best if you considered the importance of the grinding process when trying to achieve the best coffee at home.

A good grinder should last a few years, provided you look after it, maintain it and clean it regularly. At most, the burrs will need replacing periodically as a part without having to buy a whole new unit. 

So now it's time to figure out what distinguishes a good grinder from a terrible one. When purchasing, please keep the following in mind:

1.   Size (Or Lack Thereof)

If you want to grind on the go, consider purchasing a sleek design that's lightweight and easy to use and handle.

When it comes to portability, less is more. But if you're not concerned about travelling with your manual grinder, any size will do just fine. If you don't have a travel requirement, the heavier options are better since they are made from higher-quality material, and the burr sets are often higher.

2.   Capacity

It would be best to think about how many cups of coffee you drink on average. If you're a daily coffee drinker, you'll want something with a larger bean capacity.

One of the significant downsides of a manual grinder vs an electric coffee grinder is that you need to spend 2-5 minutes grinding the beans. Only the top 5 more powerful options vastly improve the grinding process.  

On the other hand, if you only need enough grounds for one or two cups at a time, then an average capacity will do. 

Another consideration would be whether or not you want the ability to change between coarser and finer settings. It is essential if you care about the quality of your coffee and want to enjoy  speciality coffee . 

Some grinders are designed to accommodate a range of settings, whereas others have fixed settings for either coarse or fine grinds.

Whatever you choose, ensure that there is some compartment or receptacle where excess grounds can accumulate during use, as this prevents mess while making your freshly brewed coffee.

3.   Quality Of Material  

It would help if you also looked into the quality of the material before buying. Whether you opt for stainless steel, ceramic, or plastic materials, try to get something durable and long-lasting. 

You don't want your device to break down on you after just a few months, do you?  

Manual coffee grinders typically employ burrs to grind the coffee, so even if you choose a grinder from our list, ranging from entry-level, intermediate and expert level, the quality is already rather good.

For more insights, you can check our guide on the  best burr coffee grinders . 

High-grade espresso hand grinders will have more precise grind level increments and burrs composed of higher-quality material. 

Want my honest recommendation? Invest in a grinder with high-quality burrs. This determines the consistency of your grind and the overall quality of flavour produced inside the cup.

4.   Number Of Grind Settings

How many settings do you have on your coffee grinder, and how easy is it to switch between them? To brew the perfect coffee, you'll need a versatile range of grinding to achieve the  best coffee in the UK , rather than merely grinding on one fixed setting.

This is because coffee is a natural product that changes due to temperature fluctuations and the age of the beans. Having the flexibility to tweak your grind is essential if you consider yourself someone who cares about the quality of the coffee you drink.

A poor-quality hand grinder will not grind uniformly, resulting in over or under-extraction of your brew.

No coffee grinder (manual or electric) is built flawlessly. However, a good quality manual grinder can offer superior results.

How Much Will It Take To Get a Manual Coffee Grinder

While some coffee lovers have discovered ways to  grind coffee beans without a grinder , most individuals began their coffee grinding journey with a hand coffee grinder. 

Why? It's a pretty affordable way to kick off your coffee journey. It's also a great  coffee gift  if you want to treat your loved one. 

But how much should you pay for one, and how much should you spend to acquire what you need? 

A  manual coffee grinder machine's price  can range from £30 to £350, sometimes more. The build quality, grind consistency, design and speed vary significantly with the price. 

An excellent entry-level hand grinder can be purchased for £30-£100, while a good intermediate hand grinder will go for around £200. 

This is the most basic unit for a coffee grinder. You could discover something cheaper, but don't spend your time or money on it. The  Hario Prism grinder  and Javapresse grinders are terrific options that fall under this price range.

You'll notice a significant difference over brewing with pre-ground coffee; they're durable enough to last a long time. 

In addition, they have ceramic conical burrs, which function well but create less consistent grinds than stainless steel burrs.

£150- £250 

You can find  top coffee grinders for home  with the superior build quality, consistent grinds, and a better feel in this price range. Some grinders in this price range have stainless steel burrs, but not all of them.

For many coffee lovers, this is a sweet spot for a grinder that is still economical but much better than most entry-level models. The Timemore C2 and the 1Zpresso Q2 are particularly good buys. 

While you can use them for espresso, the adjustment needs to be more accurate to tune your espresso grind like you can with an electric grinder. 

However, the options in this price range are suitable for pour over. If you want to start with something decent but not too expensive, the grinders at this price point are a fantastic choice.

£280- £350 

This is where the fun begins. Depending on your budget, this might be where it ends. These grinders are pricey, but you get value for your money. 

These grinders usually look excellent and are well-built. They can typically perform anything you ask of them, from delicate adjustments for espresso to French press.

These grinders have excellent burrs and are among the best hand grinders available. The Comandante C40 and the Kinu M47 are two outstanding hand grinders in this price range.

We can also say the same for some  commercial manual coffee grinder machines .

Top 11 Best Manual Coffee Grinders For Beginners, Mid-level & Expert Coffee Lovers

If you're new to coffee grinding, or even a seasoned pro, there's a manual coffee grinder that's perfect for you. 

This guide will look at some of the best manual coffee grinders in the UK for 2023. 

1.   The Comandante C40 Nitro Burr Hand Coffee Grinder

Are you sick of wiggly burrs? Inconsistent grind settings? Poor construction? Unwanted emails from your boss? Lol. 

Comandante, a German producer of high-quality grinders, offers the answers. For everything except your overflowing inbox. The  Comandante C40  hand grinders grind capacity is nothing short of astounding. 

This grinder has a stepped grind adjustment mechanism that allows it to grind fine enough for Turkish coffee and espresso. In addition, it is even coarse enough for  French press  meaning it's one of the only manual hand grinders with the full range of grind setting ability.

The Comandante burrs are incredibly sharp and genuinely wobble-proof. The middle shaft of the grinder is mounted on double-axle bearings to keep the burrs in place and your coffee tasting superb.

It is worth noting that Comandante refines their manual grinder burrs more than most rivals. The effort in designing and fine-tuning the burrs to excellence is crucial to having a set of high-quality, long-lasting burrs.

This hand grinder is one of the more compact alternatives, comparable to the Hario Slim Mill and even the Porlex. However, despite their physical similarities, the Comandante outperforms both in grinding capacity.

The Comandante C40 can grind up to 40g of coffee, which yields about 3 cups, depending on your preferences. 

While there are better grinders for someone who constantly grinds enough coffee for 6-8 cups at a time, it is surprisingly substantial, given the grinder's small size.

These unique features make it one of the   best manual coffee grinders in the UK .

• Consistent grinds, from fine to coarse
• A stepped grind adjustment mechanism 
• Premium build quality
• Quiet ~Grinding unlike other manual options
• Smooth gliding grind motion
• Large (40-gram) capacity
• It is heavy than other options built for travel
• The glass grind catcher is fragile

2.   Javapresse Manual Coffee Grinder 

The Javapresse might be the answer if you're seeking one of the  best budget manual coffee grinders in the UK . 

The Javapresse is one of the most popular   manual coffee grinder machines on Amazon   and has also been featured in magazines such as Inc. Entrepreneur, Forbes, and Success. 

It's a compact coffee grinder built with over 18 different click grind settings. Make your choice: Aeropress, French press, or drip. 

You may grind coarse, medium coarse, medium, medium fine, or ultra-fine depending on the number of clicks you turn the knob.

The Javapresse is quite handy, as it is only 7 inches long and weighs less, making it simple to handle and pack for camping or travelling. In addition, the capacity is higher here, resulting in less coffee grinding and more sipping and savouring.

You will receive a superior flavour profile because it is a ceramic burr mill grinder. 

However, it will take longer. If you need to go out the door quickly, the Javapresse may not be the best option for espresso.

Considering the lightweight travel size, the various brews generated several grind settings, and the reasonably easy-to-grind features, it begins to stand out.

You can purchase this grinder and pair it with some of the best  coffee storage containers  in the UK for the perfect coffee experience at home. 

• Multiple adjustable grind settings
• Lightweight and compact
• 15 grind setting option
• Decent capacity and ergonomic handle
• Budget-friendly unit
• Changing grind size is a bit of a hassle

3.   1Zpresso JX Pro Manual Coffee Grinder

If you're looking for the  best espresso manual coffee grinder in the UK ,  then the 1Zpresso JX Pro should be on your top bucket list. 

This is a remarkable manual grinder with the superb build quality and peak performance for its price range, which means it's excellent value for money.

It is also not a grinder that can only grind fine enough for filter baskets because it is also consistent for pour-over, French press, and Moka pot. The 1Zpresso JX Pro gives you plenty of room to fine-tune your shot. 

The grinder is constructed entirely of aluminium alloy. A slightly wider-than-usual hole at the top allows for easy pouring of the coffee beans. Meanwhile, the main body of the grinder incorporates an anti-slip rubber band.

The catch cup of the grinder has a capacity of about 40g of coffee, which is more than most options in the market. 

The 48mm conical steel burrs are a key feature contributing to the 1Zpresso JX Pro capabilities. This large stainless steel burr is uncommon in other manual grinders and sometimes in some electrical ones.

The grind adjustment on the 1Zpresso JX Pro is equally as outstanding as the other features mentioned thus far. It offers over 200 grind sizes, which is ample for manual brewing and enough to allow for delicate adjustments for espresso. 

Yeah, it's one of the  best manual coffee grinders for espresso in the UK , which is why it makes sense to pair this unit with some of the   best espresso coffee beans  in the UK . 

If you clean your burr grinder regularly, it should last for years. A brush included with the JX Pro is adequate for cleaning the burr settings and grounds catcher.

• High-quality build and grind uniformity
• 48mm stainless steel conical burr makes grinding easy
• It offers different grind settings
• Fine adjustment for perfect espresso shots
• More expensive than most manual grinders
• A bit heavy and large

4.   Timemore Chestnut C2 Manual Coffee Grinder 

Do you find it difficult to believe that you can grind coffee grounds for your favourite  French press or pour over  while appearing beautiful even if you have weak little hands?

Then I'd want you to suspend your scepticism for a moment as I introduce you to the Timemore Chestnut manual coffee grinder. 

This device has been designed to be a powerful piece of equipment for your coffee grinding needs. How?

The Timemore is constructed with high-quality materials, such as an aluminium case alongside a stainless steel conical burr. In addition, the milling blades have been sharpened with a greater hardness grade, allowing for quick grinding with little effort on your side.

I also admire how the handle is shaped to provide a secure grip. That, together with the two bearings integrated into the handle grinder mechanism, decreases friction.

The Timemore includes all the settings you need to make course grounds for French press or medium grounds for Aeropress. It also does it correctly.

At 1.5lb and 8 inches long, the Timemore makes coffee grinding at home, the workplace, or while camping a breeze. The size also makes it comfortable to handle.

Nevertheless, this manual grinder has its drawbacks. The Timemore coffee grinder has a restricted 25g capacity, making it unsuitable when you intend to make several cups.  

And, it's also more expensive than other models. But, the raving  reviews on this manual coffee grinder  from coffee lovers show it's worth the price.  

• Excellent for french press
• Offers Adjustable grind settings 
•  easy to rotate and grind
• high-quality material
• Limited to 25g capacity
• A little pricey 

5.   Zassenhaus Santiago Manual Coffee Mill

When grinding beans by hand, you need a sturdy manual grinder that won't break or become unsteady with regular use. 

The strong Beech wood structure, along with the steel mechanism and grinder, is designed to withstand the everyday ritual of grinding coffee.

The stunning mahogany hue and gold finishing touches are gorgeous. In addition, this robust grinder includes a fantastic small box for catching your grinds while you work and a lovely appearance.

The drawer is well-built, so you won't have to worry about coffee splattering everywhere outside the unit. In addition, the range of grinds is quite remarkable. 

With this equipment, you may grind as fine or coarse as you prefer. On the unit is an adjustment knob beneath the handle.

This is separate from the nut that secures the handle. The fineness may be controlled by adjusting the nut. 

With prolonged usage, the burrs might become worn after a while. However, the interior of this machine is made of robust steel, so this shouldn't be an issue.

Overall, this Manual Coffee Mill is an excellent choice for anyone looking for a long-lasting grinder. It has certain drawbacks, but the benefits significantly exceed the drawbacks in this situation. 

This is a good pick if you want a long-lasting,  manual coffee grinder machine for commercial use  that produces outstanding output.

• High-quality stainless steel
• Adjustable grind settings 
• Sleek and elegant design
• Ergonomically designed handle
• Smaller hopper capacity
• The burrs do dull over time, although that's expected with most grinders

6.   Porlex Mini Stainless Steel Grinder

Small manual coffee grinders  are essential for regular travellers who like outstanding coffee. Fortunately, the Porlex Mini Hand Grinder has plenty to offer. 

If you're searching for a lightweight, robust burr grinder that you can carry everywhere, this may be the one.

The  Porlex Mini's grind  consistency is outstanding, especially given its ultra-compact form. Because the spring-loaded burrs almost eliminate wobbling in the ceramic grinding mechanism, fine grinds are as consistent as coarse grinds.

Though the most expensive automated grinders usually include sharp, high-quality burrs, the little formidable Porlex Mini has a set of outstanding ceramic burrs.

The Mini is the smallest hand grinder on the market, being around 5 inches tall and about 2 inches in diameter, making it the size of a soda can. It boasts a sturdy stainless steel body with a rubber grip and a removable handle.

The Porlex Mini has a relatively limited grinding capacity, which should be no surprise. Depending on your preferences, you can only obtain 1-3 cups of coffee, each grind with about 20g at once.

Though some may anticipate a heavy grinder due to its stainless steel body, the Porlex Mini is light. It weighs less than the Hario Slim, which is entirely constructed of plastic, at roughly 224g.

• Good grind consistency 
• Portable and compact size
• Excellent quality ceramic burrs
• Limited to a 20g capacity 
• Stainless steel body
• Very light, ideal for travel

7.   Hario Skerton Pro Ceramic Coffee Mill 

This is an entry-level manual coffee grinder designed for speciality coffee lovers. It does not have a motor or any electronics and is entirely manual.

The Skerton Pro is the next generation of the traditional Hario icon, the Skerton. The build quality is the primary distinction between the original Hario Skerton and the Pro model, with the same grind capacity and ceramic burr set.

It is designed with quality plastics, an ergonomic handle, and long-lasting burrs to increase the grind uniformity. 

The Skerton Pro's hopper is made of heavy-duty plastic in typical Hario design, and the grind hopper is Hario's trademark heat-proof glass. The glass grind catcher also has an airtight lid for storing beans.

Hario has introduced a no-slip silicone grip to the grinder, making it easier to keep firm while you crank the handle. 

In addition, the Skerton Pro's 100g hopper makes it simple to grind up to 4+ cups of coffee or batch brews, which is why it's one of the  best coffee makers for camping . 

This grinder is ideal for travel because it is simple to disassemble and pack. Its vast capacity makes it surprisingly lightweight, and the handle can be removed and stored separately.

Just because you're looking for a budget-friendly approach to great coffee doesn't mean you have to compromise quality.

While the Hario Skerton Pro needs a bit of elbow grease and has some irregularity in the coarser grinds, it still produces high-quality grinds for a wide range of brew options.

• Well-built and sturdy
• 100g hopper capacity 
• Easy to use and maintain
• High-quality ceramic burrs
• Streamlined design
• The grind size adjustment is a bit complex
• Somewhat large

8.   Akirakoki Manual Coffee Bean Grinder

Not only are your coffee beans in your cup the best part of waking up, but so is the sensation of grinding them yourself.

And we enjoy the Akirakoki because it offers the pleasure of a visually appealing grinding experience. 

Thanks to its high-quality materials and well-thought-out design, it ranks as our finest antique coffee grinder for people wishing to immerse themselves fully.

The Akirakoki, carved from a single piece of wood, is designed for increased sturdiness and endurance and a pleasing aesthetic. The classic handle and slender body will undoubtedly put you in that clean mental state if you want to feel like you're living a simple life.

With all the buzz about ceramic and stainless steel burr grinders, the Akirakoki offers a cast iron burr. Because cast iron does not rust or heat up like steel and does not break easily as ceramic, this manual grinder is worth considering. 

Consider the maximum capacity of 35g of coffee beans while making your purchase decision. The Akirakoki allows you to alter your coffee ground setting, but this has a drawback because of the process involved.

You'll have to do guesswork to determine which setting gives you your desired  work-from-home coffee   brew. 

What the Akirakoki lacks in easily adjustable settings and an inconsistent coffee grinding profile, it attempts to compensate for with a pleasing aesthetic, a high-quality design, and smooth cast iron conical burs.

• It features an aesthetic and quality word design 
• Easy to use 
• The compact design makes it travel friendly 
• Made with conical ceramic burs
• The adjustable setting is a bit complex
• Inconsistent grinding profile

9.   VSSL JAVA Manual Coffee Grinder 

One of the  advantages of manual grinders  over electric grinders is their portability. But it doesn't mean that every hand grinder is up to the rigours of road life. If you want to improve your camp coffee experience, you'll need a grinder designed for the job.

Looking at it, you can tell that VSSL Java is intended for adventurers. The Clip and Flip crank fold in to form a carrying handle that can be fastened to your backpack when not in use. 

The outside shell is made of aluminium to reduce weight, but the inner core is made of stainless steel. It has 50 stepped settings and radial ball bearings for increased consistency.

Given that it is a manual grinder, this tool is straightforward. The cap detaches with a push of a button, and the grind catches and unscrews quickly.

Add fresh coffee beans to the top, adjust the grind dial, switch the handle over, and fix the ergonomic handle grip.

Nevertheless, the VSSL JAVA isn't dishwasher-safe, so you'll have to clean it by hand for a good wash. Fortunately, the grinder requires frequent cleaning only if you're working with oily beans. 

The limited hopper capacity of this grinder, which holds only a single cup, is its main disadvantage. But this might not be a big deal if it's just you and an Aeropress on the road.

• Nicely designed and well built
• Built with high-quality stainless steel burrs
• Sturdy aluminium body
• Smooth, frictionless grinding
• 50 stepped settings 
• It is not dishwasher safe
• Small grinding capacity

10.   Vevok Chef Manual Coffee Grinder

Suppose you want a coffee grinder to offer you a significant transition for the lowest price possible. I think you can look at the Vevok Chef coffee grinder.

This unit from Vevok is one of the   best cheap manual coffee grinders   you can get your hands on in the UK. 

When you realise that everything from the shaft, spring, grinder and even the bearings are constructed of high-grade stainless steel, the quality of this unit is more than impressive.

The leverage you get from this manual grinder is exceptionally smooth, thanks to its wooden handle for a comfortable grip, bearings, and 3-inch steel hand crank.

This Vevok's 5-axis stainless produces more heat than ceramic rivals, but you receive exceptional longevity and reliability in exchange. As a result, the Vevok is a terrific companion for on-the-go trips and camping at roughly 7 inches in length.

While I appreciate the ease of selecting the grind settings you want (twist from 1-6), it may be too basic for the coffee lover who prefers more flexibility in their coffee grounds.

Nevertheless, since this is one of the  best budget manual coffee grinders in the UK  that offers some unique features, there is no reason you shouldn't have one of these  manual coffee grinder machines for your home .  

• Quick and effortless grinding 
• Compact and travel friendly 
• Stainless steel conical burr grinder
• Great value for money 
• Limited adjustable settings 
• Limited hopper capacity 

11.   The 1ZPresso Q2 manual coffee grinder

If you asked most people the best manual coffee grinder you can buy, they would say the 1Zpresso Q2.

This coffee grinder is known for its superb build and quality materials and offers fresh, rich-tasting results that transform non-coffee enthusiasts previously into raving zealots.

The 1ZPresso Q2 is small, portable, and measuring 6 inches long. This manual coffee grinder would make camping trips much more fun.

The 1Zpresso Q2 is constructed of high-quality materials, featuring an easy-to-hold handle and double bearings that make grinding nearly effortless.

This stainless steel conical burr grinder has a sleek design and high-grade materials.

It has numerous adjustable grind settings, which makes it ideal for French press or Aeropress. In addition, it includes a dialer for adjusting the settings to your preference.

One of the few downsides is that the 1ZPresso has a low capacity. So, there are better options than this if you're planning to make coffee for a group. 

• Built with high-quality material 
• Features multiple grind settings 
• The compact size makes it travel friendly
• Double bearing makes grinding effortless
• The 1ZPresso has a limited bean capacity 

Frequently Asked Questions 

Quite a countdown, yeah? Well, you probably have the best manual grinder figured out for your needs.

But if you've yet to make a choice and have a few questions, don't worry. 

In this section, we will try to answer some of those questions the best way we can. 

What is the best Manual coffee grinder for home use?

The Hario Skerton Pro Ceramic Coffee Mill is the best coffee grinder for home use for several reasons. First, unlike other models in its price point, this coffee grinder offers a 100g hopper capacity. It makes it easy to make coffee for the family at go. Secondly, it is easy to use and doesn't compromise on quality. 

What's the best hand grinder? 

The best manual grinder for home isn't necessarily the best hand grinder. That title goes to the Comandante C40 Nitro burr grinder. This coffee grinder is a dream. From its sleek design to its 40g capacity for at least two cups in a go and effortless grinding, what more could you possibly ask for?  

Is hand-grinding coffee better? 

Not necessarily. Manual coffee grinders are a good option for a low budget, low noise and portability. Due to their slower process, which produces less heat, they produce a richer-tasting brew that retains all its natural oils. But there are also drawbacks, like not being the best for espresso. So, it all boils down to personal preferences. 

What is the best manual burr coffee grinder?

The Comandante C40 Nitro coffee grinder is just such a coffee grinder. Not only is it capable of grinding more than enough coffee to brew two cups at once, but it's also both convenient and affordable. In addition, it's fitted with 40mm conical steel burrs that can shred your favourite roasts up to 20% faster than its competitors.

What should I look for in a hand coffee grinder?

When looking for a manual coffee grinder, consider whether you want to opt for a hand crank model or electrically powered one. 

It would help if you also considered how much capacity you want (the number of coffee beans it can grind at once), as well as ease of use and durability. 

And remember the price! The price range between manual coffee grinders can vary greatly, depending on capacity and features.

One of the best-tasting cups of coffee you'll ever drink will be brewed with your manual coffee grinder. It'll be like going from a tube tv (do you remember those?) to a 60-inch LCD flat screen.

You will need to decide whether to fall to your knees and kneel to the quality taste or to kick yourself mercilessly for not getting one of these manual grinders before now.

For the perfect coffee experience at home, you must have the right tools in your arsenal, including plugging into the  best coffee subscription in the UK . 

When you're planning on purchasing a grinder, also take the opportunity to create your subscription with a vetted coffee brand in the UK. 

We hope you've enjoyed reading this detailed guide to the top 11 best manual coffee grinders in the UK, just as we've had a great time curating it. 

Enjoy your morning cup of joe!

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Best Manual Coffee Grinder (Hand Grinder Buying Guide)

• Author: Jovana Durovic
• Edited By: Kashmir Brummel
• Last Updated: December 12, 2023

Fact Checked

• Why Trust Homegrounds?

Jovana Durovic

Jovana is a seasoned coffee researcher with a deep-rooted passion for all things coffee. she comes from a country where people drink  domestic coffee  (what the rest of the world knows as turkish coffee) and where nescafe designates all instant coffees ever made. so, imagine her first encounter with, say, hario v60... yes, it was love at first sight.  today she's a seasoned coffee connoisseur and a huge coffee lover. her favorite brewing methods are the v60 and traditional espresso-making..

As a coffee lover, you know that grinding your coffee beans just before you brew your coffee is the only way you’ll capture the coffee’s full flavour and aroma in your brews. Big electric grinders work well at home, but when you’re on the go, you need something more portable; you need a manual coffee grinder (aka, a coffee mill). We’re going to help you pick the perfect manual grinder for you.

Although these hand grinders seem simple enough, they must be well-engineered if they’re to produce the precise and consistent grind you need. Other considerations include construction materials, size, function, and warranty. Read on to learn more.

Let’s take a look at the good, the bad, and the downright ugly.

At A Glance:

• Our Top Pick: 1Zpresso Q2 Manual Coffee Grinder
• Best value: Hario Ceramic Coffee Mill Skerton
• Best Design Akirakoki Manual Coffee Bean Grinder

What To Consider When Looking for the Best Manual Coffee Grinder?

Don’t skip the temptation to spend a little time and money investing in a better than average hand grinder. You can’t underestimate the importance of the grinding process:

The coffee grinder is a supremely important link in the chain that extends from the coffee cherry to an exquisite espresso

So now it’s time to understand what separates a good grinder from a bad one. Don’t ignore the following when shopping around:

Size (or lack thereof)

If you want to grind on the go, you’ll want to consider buying something that incorporates a sleek, cylindrical shape that makes it easy to store and easy to grip. Less is more when it comes to portability, however, if you’re not concerned with travelling with your hand grinder, something nice and vintage-looking may suit you more.

We talk about portable coffee grinders as being small and compact. This means there’s a limited amount of beans you can crank in one go.

It’s important to be realistic – you want a coffee grinder that has the right capacity for you. If you’re looking to cater coffee for more than 2-3 people, expect to get a good arm workout during the grinding process.

Quality of Material – Will It Last?

We are talking about the burrs here as they go through the most stress. You have 2 options, steel or ceramic, both with its good and bad points ( 1 ). Consider stainless steel burrs if you are travelling as they are durable and easy to clean. One example of a hand grinder with a relatively good stainless steel grinder is the Timemore C2 , the C3 , and the Slim Plus . Ceramic burrs are fine if you plan to keep your grinder at home.

Invest in a grinder that has a good quality burr – this is ultimately what your grind consistency depends on.

Number of Grind Settings

How many settings does your coffee grinder have and how easy is it to change between them? It’s no good to have something that ‘just grinds’ , you’ll need something that grinds to different tastes to make the best coffee. You’ll also want a grinder with functional applications that will produce the same results no matter where you are grinding.

Precision and consistency are key . A s**tty quality hand grinder will not grind consistently, leaving your brew over or under-extracted.

Having said that, no grinder (manual or electric grinders), is absolutely perfect – although, a good quality electric can produce better results. If you want to perfect your grind, you want to consider a coffee sifter. A system of tiered sieves that creates uniformity – which ultimately will enhance your brew.

Related articles:

• For Turkish coffee, you’ll need a super fine grind so look at these special Turkish grinders .
• If you want an electric burr grinder – see the best-rated ones here .
• Grab our free coffee grind chart  to help you achieve the right grounds.
• To take your coffee grinding game to the next level you’ll need a secret weapon: the KRUVE .

Longevity – are the parts replaceable?

Electric grinders come with warranties but manual grinders often don’t. You don’t want to buy something you use a couple of times before it stops producing consistent results or even breaks down!

Well-made products will often offer long-term or lifetime warranty as their products are manufactured with precision and expertise. It’s important to note – how often and how well you clean your coffee grinder ( 2 ) will significantly impact both the longevity of your burr and quality of your coffee.

Having a good grinder will allow you more precision over the grind of your coffee beans – meaning you can have the same great coffee despite the weather, time of day, or if your beans are a few days older.

Now that you know what to look for in a grinder, download this coffee grind chart to use your grinder to its fullest potential.

The 8 Best Manual Coffee Grinders

Instead of the old ‘trial and error’ method of buying something online and finding out for yourself whether it’s great (or it sucks), we’ve done the hard yards for you and reviewed a bunch of the best hand grinders on the market.

For everything else, the grinders below are perfect (you may want to learn how to grind coffee first!)

Here they are:

And below you’ll see more details about the grinders listed in the table above. We’ve done full reviews of each to, so be sure to click through and learn more about any of the options that you are considering.

1. 1Zpresso Q2 Manual Coffee Grinder – Top Pick

The 1Zpresso Q2 perfectly blends style, quality, functionality, and price.

• Hopper capacity: 20g (1-2 coffees per grind)
• Weight: 385g
• Dimensions: 14x 5 x 5 cm
• Burr: Stainless Steel

The 1Zpresso Q2 is the smallest of the 1ZPresso grinders. As well as the reduced size, the 1zpresso also comes with a lower price tag too. Fortunately, however, there have been no sacrifices made to build quality or materials, meaning the Q2 is very much a premium product in a tiny, travel-friendly package.

The premium materials used to make this grinder very easy to use for small batches of coffee. The Q2 would be perfect to take camping or to leave at the office, so you don’t have to concede on freshness while working.

The only real problem the 1Zpresso Q2 presents is the small 20g capacity, which could be lower depending on the types of bean you’re using. You’ll get enough for one brew here, but you’ll have to grind more than once if you’re making coffee for more than one other person at a time.

All-in-all, however, the 1Zpresso Q2’s looks, build quality, ease of use, and price-to-quality ratio make it our Top Pick manual coffee grinder.

2. Zassenhaus Santiago Coffee Mill Grinder – Best for Turkish Coffee

The Zassenhaus is a great buy for the coffee lover who wants a small manual grinder that is as beautiful as it is functional.

• Hopper capacity: 40g (2-3 coffees per grind)
• Weight: 952g
• Dimensions: 14 x 9 x 20 cm
• Burr material: High-grade carbon steel conical burr

The expertly crafted Zassenhaus  coffee grinder has a beautiful mahogany finish and regarded as one of the finest on the market due to its conical burr, 25-year warranty, and high-quality grind capabilities.

It has other colour options too – including a stunning beechwood , and black beechwood finish. It’s smaller than your typical electrical burr-grinder, however it’s a little larger and bulkier than other hand grinders. For its added size comes added style – especially the beautiful mahogany veneer.

Its grind function produces consistent results and has a HUGE number of grind settings due to its grind size dial – meaning you can grind for every brew method, even Turkish and espresso. It’s perfect for espresso. With a guaranteed 25 year warranty, you know that you’re purchasing a high-performance grinder.

3.  Porlex Mini Stainless Steel Grinder – Best For Travelling Light

Made is Osaka, Japan; this coffee grinder is perfect for minimalists and travellers who need something tiny to take with them.

• Weight: 226g
• Dimensions: 15 x 6 x 4.5 cm
• Burr material: Ceramic Conical Burr
• Number of grind settings: 13

Travelling coffee drinkers don’t stop raving about the Porlex Portable Coffee Mill  that is designed to grind accurately and quickly  and is great for those who are travelling or constantly on the go.

What makes this product a great travel companion? For one, the portable easy-to-grip cylindrical shape makes it easy to hike, bike, pack in a suitcase or stash in the car. It fits perfectly into the Aeropress  making the convenience of packing easy, plus it weighs in at only 295 grams.

The solid stainless steel body build makes the Porlex easy to clean and virtually indestructible. The adjustable grinder produces accurate grinds for fine, coarse or grinds in between – and has a neat little dial that will ensure you remember that perfect grind you just produced. It has 13 settings, each defined by a ‘click’ on the burr wheel.

Find the right grind for your brewer, remember the number, and you’re good to make the perfect cup of coffee on the go.

Read our full review of the Porlex mini grinder here.

4. Hario Skerton Pro Ceramic Coffee Mill – Best Value For Money

Best it you are grinding for 3+ coffee’s at once, either at home or while camping.

• Hopper capacity: 100g (4+ coffees per grind)
• Weight: 566g
• Dimensions: 40.5 x 28 x 33 cm
• Burr Material: Ceramic Conical Burr

Ticking all the boxes the Hario Skerton  pro is a lightweight grinder that has a slip-free rubber base, large storage capacity, ceramic burr for extra grind precision and an ergonomic design.

Super easy to disassemble and reassemble with a hopper that can attach to a mason jar or other storage containers. It’s another great manual coffee mill for those on the go, who also like grinding in advance (Let’s be honest, there’s always time for another coffee!).

Easy to use, easy to clean – this grinder will manually blend your coffee beans without sacrificing the taste. It’s designed for those who want a product that will carry through conditions with ease.

Read our full review of the Hario Skerton Pro here.

5.  Akirakoki Manual Coffee Bean Grinder – Best For Design And Desirability

The Akirakoki’s all wood design looks fantastic, and the Cast Iron burr will ensure consistent grinds.

• Hopper capacity: 85g (3-4 coffees per grind)
• Weight: 610g
• Dimensions: 18 x 7 x 7 cm
• Burr: Cast Iron

The Akirakoki is a budget-friendly manual grinder that delivers on both design and functionality. The solid wood body comes from a single piece of wood, meaning it will never crack. Unusually, the Akiraroki has a Cast Iron burr, which means it will never rust and will produce less heat than other materials.

The full package here combines to create a reliable travel grinder that looks fantastic. Pulling this grinder out of your backpack will attract attention every time you start brewing with other travellers around. It’s a good job then that the Akirkoki has an 85g grind capacity , meaning you’ll be able to grind enough coffee for up to three friends at once.

6.  HEIHOX Hand Grinder

Best for travelling when you’re brewing up to 2 coffees. An accurate and easy to use grinder.

• Dimensions: 17.0 x 5.6 cm (17.8 cm handle)
• Weight: 912 grams
• Burr material: Conical ceramic burrs

The HEIHOX hand grinder has a lot going for it, but I bet the first thing you’ll notice is its cool style. Of course, aesthetics aren’t usually a priority when shopping for a grinder, nor should they be. But HEIXOX’s attractive combination of colours and materials showcases the brand’s attention to detail, which extends to the manufacturing quality as well.

The grinder itself is made from food-grade stainless steel and aluminium. This is a great combination that makes it both lightweight and durable . The handle is adorned with a polished wooden knob, giving it an overall sleek and modern look. 

It’s well constructed; all the parts slot together nicely, and it has a solid feel and smooth mechanism.

The hopper capacity is a relatively small 30 grams. So, this is a grinder best suited for brewing a cup or two at a time. Inside, a pair of easy-to-adjust conical ceramic burrs make quick work of whatever beans you throw at them, whether you want a fine or coarse grind. For cleaning, it’s very simple to take apart and put back together, without the need for tools or mechanical skills.

7. Triple Tree Manual Coffee Grinder

Best for home use for manual brewing enthusiasts; especially if you brew 2+ coffees each time

• Dimensions: 20.5 x 9.0 cm
• Weight: 970 grams

Triple Tree’s manual coffee grinder has the classic stout design you’ll see with many hand grinders. And, for a good reason! It’s comfortable to hold while grinding but still compact and portable.

The hopper holds a fairly large 50 grams of beans, so you can probably get a solid 4 cups of coffee in one go. It’s made from silicone, which is comfortable and sturdy to grip. The lower chamber is glass, so you can see what you’re grinding. The stainless steel handle has been lengthened versus older models, which makes it even easier to grind. 

The grinding is done using conical ceramic burrs, which can easily grind from coarse to fine. But if you’re looking to make espresso, you’ll probably want to splurge on a pricier grinder to ensure more consistent grind size.

This grinder has a lot of added value in accessories, a welcome surprise at this price point. Along with a measuring scoop and cleaning brush, it comes with a second glass base and screw-on lid. This is particularly handy for storing preweighed beans if you’re using this grinder for travel.

8. Kalita Mini Coffee Mill

Best for fans of vintage style.

• Dimensions: 11.9 x 10.7 x 17.3 cm
• Weight: 730 grams
• Burr material: Conical cast iron burrs

Japanese brand Kalita is well known for crafting pour over drippers, particularly the world famous Kalita Wave. So it only stands to reason that they know a thing or two about grinding coffee. 

This cute little hand-powered coffee mill has the smallest capacity in their line-up. But it’s just perfect for a cup or two. Plus, it won’t take up much space in your kitchen. It’s well made, with all the parts moving smoothly. No awkward sticking or scratching.

The mill design isn’t as portable as the cylindrical grinders on this list, but the trade-off is its attractive vintage style.  It looks so great sitting on your counter that you won’t want to move it! And the design is more than just pretty; it’s practical. The square wooden base is ultra stable, making grinding a breeze, and the wooden drawer that catches the grounds is static-free.

Unusually, the burrs are cast iron, rather than the more common ceramic or steel. The main advantage to cast iron is its durability. But it’s also rust proof, doesn’t heat up during grinding, and won’t impart any metallic flavours to your coffee.

Related: Another wonderful option for a manual grinder is the Kinu M47 , find out more in our review.

THE VERDICT: Which Hand Mill Grinder Do We Prefer?

While the above are all good options… but… we can’t go past the 1Zpresso Q2 Manual Coffee Grinder !

SEE ON AMAZON

This is the best hand coffee grinder because it does what it is intended to do better than any of the others – grind coffee beans perfectly with your hand!

The incredible price-to-quality ratio and impressive travel-friendly tiny size combine to make it our number one manual hand grinder pick.

What is the best (non-hand) home coffee grinder?

The best home coffee grinder depends on your own preferences at home. If you have the time to consume grinding your own coffee and doesn’t mind a little effort in doing so, affordable hand coffee grinders are suitable for you. Hand coffee grinders are manual grinders which does not break the bank but can produce consistent grinds which on par with electric coffee grinders.  Here’s a list to explore.

Are manual coffee grinders better than electric?

Manual coffee grinders are better than electric when it comes to simplicity, affordability and portability. Manual or hand coffee grinders are very easy to use. Although it requires more effort from the user, the process of grinding your coffee is very simple and the result thereof, depends on the energy exerted along with the grinder setting. You can also consider  the Arco coffee grinder by Goat Story  if you want a 2-in-1 electric manual grinder.

Is it better to grind your own coffee?

Yes, grinding your own coffee preserves its full flavour and aroma. If you are a coffee lover and uses pre-ground coffee, you might have noticed the taste difference of freshly ground coffee versus pre-ground coffee that has been kept for several days in the pantry. If you have a coffee grinder, your coffee beans will maintain its freshness and flavour even after a long period of time. 

Which coffees can you make with manual coffee grinders?

You can make all coffees with manual coffee grinders, but different brewing methods require a different coarseness of grind: 1. Espresso – espresso requires a grinder that can produce a fine grind, as well as offer a good range of micro-adjustments for the consistency. 2. Pour over – most manual grinders are great for pour-over coffee and will produce the medium grind needed for the brew method. 3. French press – many manual grinder can produce the coarse grind for French press, but you will need to check it for consistency. 4. Cold brew – cold brew requires an extra coarse grind, which not many grinders will be able to produce consistently. We suggest these grinders suited for cold brew . 5. Turkish – the fine powder required for Turkish coffee requires a specialized grinder–one that is usually used only for Turkish coffee.

• Pipunic, A. Which material should your grinder burrs be made from? Perfect Daily Grind. Retrieved from https://perfectdailygrind.com/2022/07/which-metal-should-grinder-burrs-be-made-from/
• Home Barista. How often to clean grinder? Retrieved from https://www.home-barista.com/grinders/how-often-to-clean-grinder-t39288.html
• Precision Coffee Grinder: Better Grind, More Flavor by Handground. Retrieved from https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/handground/precision-coffee-grinder-better-grind-more-flavor

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Every article we publish undergoes a stringent fact-checking procedure. To complement our own first hand experience, we draw from reputable sources within the industry, including coffee communities such as the coffee and espresso SubReddits, and a number of specialty coffee forums and private groups.

Our editors cross-reference every claim, statistic, and piece of data with multiple sources to verify its accuracy. We also compare our own experience to community reviews to see if there is anything we may have overlooked. Any discrepancies found are flagged and corrected before the article is published.

This meticulous process ensures that the information you receive from Home Grounds is not only engaging and useful but also trustworthy and reliable. We're committed to helping you 'Brew Better Coffee', and that starts with providing you with the best, most accurate information possible.

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That's where we, at Home Grounds, come in. We're not just some faceless corporation; we're a tight-knit crew of coffee junkies, who live and breathe the art of coffee brewing on a daily basis. We're here to cut through the noise and give you the no-BS lowdown on coffee gear and home brewing, with real reviews from people that have actually used the items they write about.

Our team? We're a bunch of self-confessed coffee nerds, each with our own journey through the specialty coffee industry. From pulling espresso shots in hipster filled cafés, to roasting beans to perfection or tinkering with espresso machines - we've been there, done that.

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The best travel coffee presses for when you really need caffeine

If you're particular about your coffee cup this travel press can be placed on top of  your favourite mug and freshly pressed coffee is filtered directly into it. 

Your cup has to be placed on a sturdy surface and depending on the type of mug used you have to be careful it’s not overfilled, but on the other hand the AeroPress is very simple to use. 

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Presse by Bobble

In three minutes you can have great tasting coffee which stays hot for a long time.

In fact, out of the three travel presses we tested, this one lost the least heat within the hour – 13.2 degrees.

It is very simple to use and the plunger glides down with no issues. The only drawback is the rubber lid which feels a bit flimsy and features three small holes, which results in some leakage if not held upright, which could pose an issue if being used on your daily commute.

Presse by Bobble , £27.99

Bodum travel press

The Bodum travel press was very simple and easy to use, it's also beautifully designed.

We found that the plunger wasn’t too stiff and it pushed down effortlessly, producing great coffee each time we tested.

Over the hour, the cup lost about 15 degrees, which was the most heat lost out of all the three travel presses we tested.

Bodum Travel Press , £15

Mini Presso GR

This is another travel press which filters coffee directly into a mug, however this comes with a handy attached travel cup large enough for a barista style expresso.

To filter the coffee six pumps are needed, then to fill a full cup it took 21 pumps.

The pump itself is quite stiff so both hands are needed to operate, so a sturdy surface for your cup is necessary.

Also, we found the press to be quite fiddly as it comes with a lot of parts to screw on and off. 

Mini Presso GR , £47.99

Espro Coffee Travel Press

This is a beautifully designed travel press that is not only stylish but also produces a good brew.

Yet again, the concept is simple, however the plunger is a little stiffer to push down than others.

Also, the lid is a little difficult to remove if it is over tightened and coffee can gather in the lid, which can result in spillage. 

Espro Coffee Travel Press , £32.50 

Cafflano Klassic

This portable grinder creates freshly ground coffee by grinding down coffee beans using the hand wound mill, hot water is then poured out of the drip kettle into the filter, which drips out fresh coffee straight into the insulated mug.

The process is simple and the idea is innovative. However, the grinder isn’t as smooth at grinding down the beans as expected and it would have been beneficial if there was the addition of a handle to grip onto, as the combination of holding onto the mug and the mill makes for a slight hand ache.

Also, the lid does not screw on the mug, it is just placed on top, and there is no sipping hole which does pose some leakage issues if using it on the go. 

Cafflano Klassic , £79.99

Cafflano Kompact

The Cafflano Kompact is a travel coffee press which can either be placed on a mug and pushed or held and squeezed.

It comes in a handy hard case which makes it very convenient for travelling.

It is very straightforward to use and has been designed with convenience in mind. This works best when the mug is placed on a sturdy surface to avoid any spillages or accidents. 

Cafflano Kompact , £54.99

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Jura’s new J8 Twin combines two coffee machines in one premium bean to cup maker

Jura’s new bean to cup coffee machines gives you more drink options than ever before

Quick Summary

JURA has unveiled its latest premium bean to cup coffee machine, the JURA J8 Twin. Described as two coffee machines in one, the new coffee maker offers endless customisation options, Sweet Foam technology and multiple grinders for different bean varieties.

The JURA J8 Twin is available to buy now for £2,100.

For fans of the original JURA J8, the automatic bean to cup coffee machine has just got a whole lot better. The new JURA J8 Twin is a combination of two coffee machines in one, thanks to its dual adjustable grinders, giving you complete control over your coffee making.

Known for its premium collection of the best bean to cup coffee machines , JURA has added to its popular J line with the new JURA J8 Twin. Similar in style to its predecessor, the JURA J8 Twin doubles up on its design with two bean hoppers and grinders situated at the top of the coffee machine.

With the ability to hold and grind two different bean varieties, the individual P.A.G.3+ conical grinders can be customised by fineness and grind level, so you’re getting the freshest coffee every time. The two types can also be pure or blended together for a unique speciality coffee, plus the grinders have an aroma control function that actively monitors the consistency of the grind.

For those who prefer to let the coffee machine do all the work, the JURA J8 Twin comes with 31 different drink options to choose from. Each drink can be customised by strength and flavour to better suit your palette, all of which can be chosen by the touchscreen display at the front of the machine.

Speaking of the display, the Panorama Coffee Panel (great name!) is easy to navigate, whether you’re a bean to cup beginner or coffee aficionado. From advising you on the right grind and selecting your coffee of choice to cleaning and maintenance, the JURA J8 Twin’s control panel takes you through every step of the process.

For milky beverages like lattes and cappuccinos, the JURA J8 Twin has a milk frother built into its machine which has a Sweet Foam Function. Not only can you adjust the flavour of your coffee, but with its Sweet Foam technology, the JURA J8 Twin can also adjust the sweetness and intensity of your milk foam.

With its many features and functionalities, it’s unsurprising that the JURA J8 Twin is quite a bulky machine. While its black and silver colourway and sleek lines give it an attractive design, it’ll take up a lot of countertop space, but if you’re in the market for a bean to cup coffee machine, it’s a good looking gadget that’ll suit most kitchens.

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The JURA J8 Twin is available to buy now on the JURA website for £2,100.

Beth is Home Editor for T3, looking after style, living and wellness. From the comfiest mattresses to what strange things you can cook in an air fryer, Beth covers sleep, yoga, smart home, coffee machines, grooming tools, fragrances, gardening and much more. If it's something that goes in your house, chances are Beth knows about it and has the latest reviews and recommendations! She's also in the know about the latest deals and discount codes from top brands and retailers.

Having always been passionate about writing, she’s written for websites, newspapers and magazines on a variety of topics, from jewellery and culture, to food and telecoms. You can find her work across numerous sites, including Wedding Ideas Magazine, Health & Wellbeing, The Bristol Post, Fashion & Style Directory, TechRadar, CreativeBloq and more. In her spare time, Beth enjoys running, reading, baking and attempting craft projects that will probably end in disaster!

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The 24 Best Weed Accessories to Showcase Your High Taste for Design

4/20 paraphernalia that proudly displays your good taste.

We are the resistance. We believe essentials like weed grinders or water pipes should be as beautiful as all the home items you spend big on . Thankfully, well-designed weed merchandise from designers and brands that are both beautiful and functional is an option these days. Here, we’ve rounded up 24 best weed accessories for serious stoners and casual smokers alike. From creative weed pipes to novelty rolling papers to smart grinders to even weed subscription boxes , we've tested and recommended something for every kind of cannabis enthusiast. This is the smoking stuff we own in our homes, and we encourage you to level up as well.

Best CBD accessory

Dad grass hemp cbd pre rolled joints 5 pack.

Best Home Decor Ashtray

Houseplant standing ashtray.

Best All in One Smoking Accessory

Houseplant pebble match strike.

Best Table Top Lighter

Edie parker tabletop lighter.

Best Coffee Table Smoking Set

Edie parker home set.

Most Inconspicuous Ashtray

Best Weed Travel Kit

Tulip weekender set.

My Bud Vase The Deangelo Ceramic Bud Vase Set

A Small Designer Ashtray

Ghiaia cashmere caffe' del porto ashtray.

A Not-So-Small Designer Ashtray

Hermès savana dance ashtray.

It's not exactly marijuana, but these pre-rolled joints bring a pop of CBD—and the ease of quick and efficient rolling—to the hangout. They'll get you to a mellow high without you ending up reading the periodic table for 30 minutes. (And to those who are not in-the-know, CBD, like THC, is a compound in cannabis, and it's a godsend for relaxing muscles and easing pain.)

Seth Rogan, the unofficial leader of stoner culture, has fully pivoted into high-design weed home decor. A lot of it is fine, but this standing ashtray is beautiful. A concept straight out of the 50's, but it looks incredible in the 21st century.

Another banger from the Houseplant crew. This thing is a hidden match holder, a match strike, and an ashtray all in one.

I mean, have you ever seen anything more beautiful than this tabletop lighter? It makes the whole sesh feel a lot more luxe.

Edie Parker does that table top lighter with a matching tray—for rolling or ornamenting—and coasters. It gives your home a cohesive, very much not stoner-like look.

An three-piece all-in-one ashtray and storage box. The concrete ashtray sits on a walnut wood storage box and is topped with a walnut wood lid. It's a wonderful piece of smoking design from the great minds over at Vessel.

Need to carry some flower with you on a weekend away? Tulip's little carry kit and no-smell storage keep you from stinking up the car.

Unless you know a ceramicist personally, this is the best looking stash box, bong, and rolling tray combo you'll ever buy.

Picture this: you're on the coast somewhere in Southern Italy. You're eating raw lemons. (They're better over there.) You're soaking up the sun. (Italian sun doesn't hurt your skin.) You're munchies are alleviated by fresh made Spaghetti alla Nerano. That's what this Ghiaia Cashmere ashtray represents.

Or, you can show off your Fuck You Money with an Hermès ashtray.

One of These Days Motel Ashtray

One of These Days is (sorry) one of our favorite Americana menswear brands of the moment. In a more artistic gift shop collection, it recently released this ashtray in a collection of merch from a conceptual motel.

Laundry Day Stainless Steel Ashtray

An industrial ashtray based off the ones you see on cafe tables across the rest of the world. The powder coated orange looks incredible, but the stainless steel is true to the cafe vibe.

Zippo Vintage Vietnam War Snoopy Lighter

Ok reader, this is one of my best eBay secrets, but I'm in a giving mood so strap in for a history lesson. Snoopy—Charlie Brown's beloved beagle—was a cultural symbol during the Vietnam War. People back home, as well as some servicemen, used him as a WWI fighter pilot to criticize our involvement in Vietnam. (Snoopy fighting the Red Baron was seen as a more just war.) But, some servicemen used him as a symbol of the war effort.

Either way, the result is there are a bunch of Snoopy-engraved Zippo lighters floating around in the world. Some are crude—think Snoopy with a thought bubble that just says "Sex." Some are sweet—think Snoopy with a thought bubble that has the name of a serviceman's wife. Some are sad—think Snoopy saying "I wanna go home." They are all incredibly fucking cool and relatively well priced for vintage ephemera.

Some people think it's morbid to own one of these, but history is full of contradictions. Scour eBay , ask your grandfather, or go to a local antique market. One of those three will probably have a vintage Snoopy Zippo.

Firedog Small Smell-Proof Bag

This smell-proof weed container bag is ideal for keeping your one-hitter or small batch safely stowed as you go about your day. Its synthetic leather exterior will blend in nicely with the rest of the contents of your office or gym bag, and it even has a zipper compartment specially designed with lighters in mind. It may be cheap and low-tech, but it works.

Sackville & Co Gilded Grinder

This isn't a grinder you stuff away into a drawer, and it's not one you're going to throw in a go bag either. It's a big boy. It's a grinder that sits on your coffee table or bookshelf and is reserved for your at home sessions. Special!

Sackville & Co Crystal Ball Pipe

Our friends over at Sackville & Co. make a beautiful coffee table pipe. Tough, yet lightweight borosilicate glass makes this pipe functional, but the look is what really sells it.

LEVO Levo II Oil Infuser

Infuse away with the Levo II, a kitchen appliance that streamlines the edible-making process. The Levo II has three settings—dry, activate, and infuse—and its smell-controlled design lets you infuse up to 16 ounces of oil or butter with astronomical ease.

Sackville & Co. Joint Keychain

A keychain to discreetly carry a single joint. No smells. No funny looks from pedestrians. Perfect if you like to keep one on you.

Royce New York Leather Double Cigar Case

If you're rolling up before walking to your smoke spot, please don't put your precious cargo loose in a pocket or plastic bag. You're an adult. A cigar case, like this beautiful leather option from Royce, is the perfect investment. This one has two holders, so you can pack two Big Blunts, or a handful of smaller joints.

Rose Los Angeles Apple Ume Ginger

Blasting off and going to Mars is great, but sometimes... sometimes you just want a little midweek euphoria. That's where you enlist the humble CBD gummy. And no one does CBD gummies better than Rose. Their lineup is full of delicious options, but Apple Ume Ginger is our favorite winter flavor.

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