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    January 17, 2023 14 min read

    Best Coffee Grinders Review

    Do you like the idea of fresh ground coffee in the morning? The alluring aroma and taste of freshly ground coffee.

    Maybe you drink instant coffee or even pre-ground from the supermarket. If you want to reach the next level then you’re going to want your coffee to taste as fresh as possible - which means you’ll need a coffee grinder. The difference freshly-ground coffee makes will astonish you. Your morning coffee will have never tasted so good

    We cover all things coffee grinders in this article. We’ll look at which is the best coffee grinder for you and our top picks for your favourite brew method.

    No matter what your budget, we will suggest some great options for all budgets. Or maybe you want to just start out small and upgrade later. That's a really good strategy too.

    So before we get into the list of coffee grinders we've selected we thought it would be helpful to explain a few fundamentals and go through the different types of coffee grinders that are available.

    The Best Coffee Grinders Of 2023

    Coffee Grinder Buying Guide

    WHAT IS A COFFEE GRINDER?

    If you are an instant coffee drinker or even a pre-ground coffee drinker you would have experienced the fresh coffee smell when you opened a new pack. But you will also notice that within a few days the smell has dwindled or gone altogether.

    A coffee grinder will allow you to use whole coffee beans. Whole coffee beans have their flavour locked in, allowing you to enjoy that great coffee aroma and taste for longer.

    Once you grind coffee it starts to oxidate. It loses taste and smell almost instantly. So being able to grind fresh each morning is really the secret to amazing-tasting coffee.

    Having your own coffee grinder means you will only ever need to grind enough coffee beans to make your next brew.

    People often ask us what is the one tip we can give to make their coffee better. Our reply is always the same. Get a grinder. By having a coffee grinder you can buy whole beans and grind fresh for each brew you make. Having a coffee grinder is definitely the best step you can take in your coffee journey.

    WHAT TYPES OF COFFEE GRINDERS ARE THERE?

    There are several different types of coffee grinders. What is best will come down to your budget and what you need to grind the coffee for. What is your preferred way of making coffee? Do you brew espresso, refillable pods, Moka pot, filter machine, manual brew method?

    There's a lot to discuss and think about so let's get started!

    Hand Crank Manual Coffee Grinder

    This is a completely manual way to grind coffee. You will place your required amount of beans into the top chamber of the hand coffee grinder. In the middle will be a set of grinding burrs that the coffee will pass through as you turn the handle.

    The ground coffee will then accumulate in the bottom chamber. The hand grinder will allow a small range of adjustment so you can change the size of the coffee particles depending on your brew method.

    The grinding burrs in hand coffee grinders will be typically ceramic or steel. Both are great as they stay sharp for a very long time. So you will get many years of enjoyment out of your chosen hand grinder.

    Once you have finished using your hand coffee grinder so you can just put it away in a cupboard.

    Another advantage is you can take it with you! Whether you’re travelling with the family or for work your coffee grinder can always be with you to deliver you a fresh morning brew.

    Electric Coffee Grinder

     

    Electric coffee grinders are, as the name suggests, run by electricity rather than muscle.

    Simply put your coffee beans into the top chamber or hopper, then turn it on and 20-30 seconds later you have fresh ground coffee.

    The electric coffee grinder will have steel burrs that typically sit above an electric motor. After going through the burrs the freshly ground coffee will slide out the chute into a container - ready to brew.

    The electric coffee grinder will usually sit on your kitchen counter, plugged into power and ready for action at the press of a button.

    Ways to grind your coffee

    There are two types of burrs or ways of grinding your fresh whole bean coffee. One is definitely better than the other so you will want to read on and find out which to look for and which one to avoid.

    Blade Coffee Grinders

    A blade coffee grinder has typically two little blades or knives that spin really fast. They are essentially cutting the beans into little splinters.

    Blades are typically found in cheaper electric grinders. They look and sound like a blender. They are very loud!

    To make great coffee we want our whole coffee beans to be crushed not sliced. Crushed coffee beans give more surface area for water to contact and that means more taste and flavour in our brew.

    So you can see where we’re going with our recommendation here. Don't buy a blade grinder! It's a blender in disguise! It's noisy, dusty and does a really bad job of grinding our lovely coffee beans.

    Ok, so now that’s clear, let's move on to what you do want to buy.

    Conical or Flat Burrs Grinders

    These types of coffee grinders will have two large burrs that will first crush and then grind your coffee into perfect-sized particles ready for you to brew your favourite morning coffee.

    Whether you chose conical or flat burrs will come down to your budget.

    Flat burr coffee grinders tend to be more expensive and larger than conical burrs grinders. So for most coffee drinkers, a conical coffee grinder will be the one to choose. 

    Conical burrs are faster than flat burrs but may not offer the accuracy and uniformness of flat burrs. But if you are brewing anything other than espresso through a prosumer espresso machine, you won't notice the difference.

    You definitely want to be buying a conical or flat burr grinder. Whether that is a hand coffee grinder or electric coffee grinder. At Coffee Hit we only sell great quality hand and electric grinders that offer excellent value and meet our criteria set out above.

    So let's get into our list…

    Best Cheap Coffee Grinder for under £50

    When we say cheap coffee grinder, we’re not referring to quality, only to price when compared to other coffee grinders. This coffee grinder is a really affordable and a great way to transition from instant or pre-ground to whole bean coffee

    At £49.99 the Rhino Coffee Gear Hand Grinder is a quality, conical ceramic burr hand grinder for those on a budget or who just want to test the water. It is our choice for Best Cheap Coffee Grinder for Under £50

    The grinder has an all stainless steel casing. The outer part of the grinder has three parts:

    The top lid. Once you take this off you can pour your whole coffee beans into the top chamber of the grinder.

    The middle chamber.This is where your whole coffee beans go in preparation for being crushed into delicious ground coffee.

    The bottom chamber.This is where the coffee, once ground, will go ready for you to pour into your favourite coffee brewing device.

    The burrs are made of quality ceramic and will stay sharp for many years to come. They are held tight on the chamber which gives a great uniform coffee grind - impressive for the price point.

    What we love the most:

      • Fits snuggly into your hand.
      • Has a non-slip ring to keep steady whilst turning the handle
      • Can slip into your case to go anywhere

     

     

    Best Budget Electric Coffee Grinder

    When looking for an electric coffee grinder you will want to look for something that has a small footprint and delivers great quality and a decent price.

     The Baratza Encore Coffee Grinder at £179 is our biggest selling electric grinder. It has everything you want from an electric grinder, delivering great quality fresh coffee every time.

     With its small footprint, reliable motor and steel conical burrs it delivers consistent results every time. You can grind for any brew method you may wish to choose. To adjust the grind size it's a simple mechanism of turning the hopper left or right and there's a handy dial on the body so you remember your favourite setting.

    What we love the most:

    • Small footprint
    • Conical burrs
    • Ease to change the grind setting

    Best All-Round Coffee Grinder

    If you like to make coffee in different ways - be it espresso in the morning, filter brew at lunch and a Moka pot in the evening, you will want a coffee grinder that effortlessly does all these at a high level for you.

    The Baratza Sette 30 does the job amazingly well. It will perform great for espresso on any espresso machine you have. High precision conical burrs deliver consistent results each time.

    The other great feature is that has zero retention of ground coffee. The Baratza Sette 30 uses a different motor mechanism from other electric grinders. The outer burrs spin and the inner burrs are stationary.

    This has two amazing benefits. The coffee grinds really fast and passes straight through the burrs into the coffee catch bin. There is no chute for the coffee to accumulate in.

    Another feature of the Baratzs Sette 30 Coffee Grinder is the arms that can be moved to accommodate your espresso machine handle or move out to grind into the coffee catch bin for any non-espresso method.

    At £329 the Baratza Sette 30 is one of the best all-round coffee grinders and is our top pick for the best all-round coffee grinder.

    What we love the most:

    • Can grind for any brew style
    • Innovative outer burr motor
    • Quick and speed of grinding

     

    Best Performance Hand Grinder

    The Comandante Hand Grinder is the ultimate in hand grinders. With a price starting from £219 it's certainly an investment - even more than our Best Budget Electric Grinder - but what it offers in performance is up there with electric grinders priced over £1,000.  

    What makes it so great? The high precision carbon steel burrs they call Nitro Blade. Years of research went into the design of the burrs. And they are simply the best conical burrs we have seen, on any grinder.

    You can grind for espresso through to French press with ease and precision.

    Made from the finest quality materials in Germany, the engineering in the Comandante Grinderis like nothing else.

    Once it is in your hand and you start turning the crank it's effortless and a joy to use.

    So don't think that buying a hand grinder is a compromise - with this grinder you're certainly not. In fact, it will match any electric grinder available today.

    What we love most:

    • Performance from a hand grinder
    • Precision burrs
    • Compact design

     

    The Best Premium Coffee Grinder i.e. the Boss Grinder

    If you want to get a coffee grinder that is the best in every way then the Baratza 270Wi is your coffee grinder.

    This grinder is packed with features that simply aren't available in other home coffee grinders. 

    Its biggest feature is the ability to grind by weight. With your whole beans in the hopper, you have 3 preset weights. At the touch of a button, the Baratza Sette 270Wi will grind your coffee to that set weight. So for example you like 17.5g of ground coffee for your double espresso, the grinder will deliver this straight into your espresso machine handle.

    It also features a Wi processor. The Wi processor accounts for any bumps or spikes on the load cell and ignores them.

    It also learns. If you set the grinder to grind 20g but it only delivered 19.6g, the Wi will self adjust and on the next grind will grind a little longer. After 2-3 grinds it will know how long to run to produce exactly 20g. Impressive.

    If the weight is a little under the Wi recognises this and will enter BURST mode. This allows you to hit the Start button and the grinder will grind for 0.1 seconds. Multiple presses will get you to exactly the weight you wanted.

    There simply is no other grinder available with all the features. Coupled with Baratza grinding experience you have our pick for the Best Premium Coffee Grinder. Priced at £649 the Bartza Sette 270Wi will transform your coffee experience.

    What we love the most:

    • Grind by weight
    • Learning AI
    • Precision and quality

     

    Hardest-Wearing Coffee Grinder

    If you prefer solid steel, well-engineered products that will last forever, then our pick for Hardest-Wearing Coffee Grinder, theBaratza Forte is definitely for you.

    With its all stainless steel case, it can take many knocks and bumps.

    What is unique about the Forte is it has flat ceramic burrs. Flat burrs are great for espresso. Allowing you to really dial in the perfect grind size for your type of coffee beans or equipment.

    It really is a commercial grinder in a compact, well-engineered body. And it gives amazing quality for your brew method.

    It features a touch screen interface to interact with the grinder, allowing you to grind by weight or time.

    All steel levers feature Macro and Micro adjustments to refine your grind.

    The burrs are calibrated on every Baratza Forte grinder at the factory so you can grind perfect straight out of the box. You also get a special calibration tool should you need to re-calibrate. That really is a special feature not available on other grinders.

    What we love the most:

    • Hard steel case
    • Touch screen interface
    • Macro and micro-adjustment arms for super precision.

     

    Get coffee grinder tips from Baratza

     

    Best Compact Travel Grinder

    If you love taking your coffee gear with you, whether it's while you’re travelling, for work or visiting the in-laws (who have terrible coffee!) you need a small, strong coffee grinder that you can use anywhere.

    The Rhino Small Hand Coffee Grinder is our pick. At £39.99 it gives you the flexibility of travel at a great price.

    The ceramic grinding burrs are housed in a stainless steel case.

    The chambers will hold enough coffee for one brew, around 24g of coffee beans. Small and compact, it fits into your hand with ease and can be thrown into any bag without even realising you're carrying a coffee grinder.

    If your preferred way of making coffee is AeroPress then this grinder was designed with you in mind. The grinder comes with an AeroPress adapter. This allows you to remove the bottom chamber of the grinder and grind straight into your AeroPress.

    Then, once you're done, the grinder slips neatly in the top chamber of your AeroPress, therefore saving even more space when on the road.

    What we love the most:

    • Its small size
    • AeroPress adapter
    • Performance at this price 

    Most Environmentally-Friendly Coffee Grinder

    If you want a coffee grinder that can do everything but doesn't run on electricity and does away with wires, motors, cables and waste, then our pick for the Most Environmentally-Friendly Coffee Grinder, the Etzinger ETZ-Man is a worthy choice.

     This is a beast of a hand grinder and nothing like you've ever seen before, trust me!

    It can grind from the finest espresso to coarse French press without blinking. It sits on your kitchen counter like an electric grinder but, instead of motors and electricity to drive the burrs, you use muscle.

    Sound like hard work? It really isn’t at all. Because the engineering is so precise and of the highest quality, it's really effortless. The great advantage of manual grinding is due to the slow turning of the burrs by hand - compared to electric motor - there is no heat transfer from the burrs to your coffee. This preserves your flavour and aroma much better.

    We love this grinder. From its performance to environmental credentials. At £799 the Erztinger ETZ-MAN will give you years of pleasure.

    What we love most:

    • Hand grinding at its finest
    • No wires, cables
    • Precision burrs and quality of the coffee

      

    The Best Looking Coffee Grinder

    So you have a new kitchen and everything looks sleek and modern. Now you want a coffee grinder to match. Our pick for Best looking Coffee Grinder, the Fellow ODE, is exactly what you need.

    Its beautiful design is coupled with great quality coffee grinding. Built for brew grinding, not espresso, it does that job extremely well.

    Housing 64mm flat burrs and 31 grind settings it will handle anything you ask of it.

    Some of the features of the grinder are so well designed you don't even notice them at first. Like the magnetic ground coffee bin. It snaps into place to stay steady while grinding your coffee beans.

    It has a little knocker so you can remove those retained grinds and keep it fresh. On the hopper lid, it features a really handy grind guide. The guide will suggest a setting for all sorts of brew methods.

    What we love the most:

    • Low height, fits under wall-mounted cupboards
    • Quality, flat burrs
    • Looks amazing

     

    How To Clean Your Coffee Grinder

    Coffee grinders after many uses start accumulating ground coffee, oils and smells.

    As always refer to your grinder manual for specific instructions on maintenance.

    But here we will show some solid ways we've used to clean coffee grinders.

    Cleaning Electric Grinders

    Of course, an electric grinder means no water in the grinder. So unplug the grinder just in case. Grab some Cafetto Grinder Cleaning Tabletsthat you can order from us. Throw a cap full into your hopper and grind through. The tablets will pull any stuck ground coffee you may in your burrs and the burr chamber

    Next, take the hopper off, take the ground coffee bin out and clean them in warm soapy water. Leave to dry.

    Then remove the outer burr and grab the vacuum cleaner to suck all remaining coffee grounds and Cafetto cleaning tablet residue.

    Put your grinder back together and your grinder is fresh and ready to go.

    Cleaning Manual Coffee Grinders

    Take the bottom chamber or jar off the hand grinder and then unscrew the nut holding the inner burr in place. After this, you should be able to remove both burrs. If they are ceramic then you wash them in warm soapy water along with the rest of the grinder. Leave to dry before reassembly.

    If your hand grinder has steel burrs then we suggest using the same method as the electric grinder cleaning guide.

    COFFEE GRINDER BENEFITS

    Whichever coffee grinder you choose, here we list the benefits:

    • Taste - Your coffee will 100% taste better, this we guarantee
    • Aroma - The smell from freshly ground coffee is like no other. Not instant or pre-ground can get near freshly ground coffee
    • Coffee will last longer - Whole bean coffee holds its flavour and aroma longer than coffee that's been pre-ground
    • Drink More Coffee - We all know coffee is good for you, when coffee tastes this good you will want more than one cup of coffee.
    • Coffee Discovery - In whole bean coffee there is a lot more choice available. Try out some local micro-roasters and see what they offer. Enjoy the journey!
    • Impress friends and family - With your coffee tasting better than ever, friends and family will be stopping by for no reason other than to have a coffee.

    If you want to discuss further which coffee grinder is best for you just drop us an email, jump on a chat, give us a call or book an appointment for our showroom for a one-to-one demonstration.

     Find out more about coffee Grinders.