Baratza Encore Electric Burr Coffee Grinder

Product Information

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. So what you end up with is 20 very fine adjustments for espresso and 20 much bigger adjustments for manual brew methods.

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.

The electronic speed controller is adjustable from 405 to 495 RPM in the event that specific user conditions require modification of the speed. 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. 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.

Lots of directions for different brewers (either online or with the included manual) will actually specify grind sizes for the Baratza Encore. 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.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. Our team are always happy to help and are very knowledgeable with our range of products, and so will definitely be able to clarify any queries you may have. My background is in journalism, and today I'm also a licensed Q Grader under the Coffee Quality Institute.