If you ask most coffee experts, they will tell you that even the best coffee machine is practically useless if you don’t have good coffee. grinder—some will tell you that this is actually the most vital piece of coffee equipment you can buy. The best coffee grinder, for both coffee and espresso, is a burr grinder. Unlike budget-friendly grinders that cut the beans with pointed, spinning blades, a burr grinder crushes the beans by spinning them on an abrasive surface, resulting in a more even grind and, ultimately, a much better cup of coffee.
Baristas know that a quality grinder can make the difference between a good cup of coffee and a great cup of coffee (just say no to pre-ground beans). But since a burr grinder can cost a few hundred dollars, we asked the experts to recommend electric grinders that are worth the money. Here’s what they recommend and why.
Best Coffee Grinder Ever: Fellow Opus
With 41 grind settings (plus the ability to make micro-adjustments), the Opus will make finely ground espresso, coarsely ground icy brew, and everything in between. It’s packed with thoughtful features like a magnetic grounds container that slides into place when you’re ready to grind, and a smaller “dosing cup” for basic, hassle-free transfer of grounds from one espresso to the portafilter.
Rather than storing a ton of coffee beans in a hopper, Fellow grinders are designed to grind single doses, which encourages you to store your beans in an airtight container between uses (oxygen is the sworn enemy of coffee beans). This is also an added bonus if you live in a household where one person likes a gloomy roast espresso and the other prefers a lithe roast for pour-overs. You can custom grind in one of these sleek, high-quality machines and everyone will be ecstatic.
Size: 8.2″ x 5.1″ x 10.6″ | Grind settings: 41+ | Capacity: 110 grams | Burr type: Conical | Dose type: Single dose
Best Coffee Grinder for Everything But Espresso: Fellow Ode Gen 2
If you’re a coffee lover looking for a cafe-quality burr grinder that also looks great on your countertop, Bon Appétit Test Kitchen Director Chris Maroko enthusiastically recommends the Fellow Ode Gen2 burr grinder. It won the Specialty Coffee Association’s Best Recent Product award in 2021, and it’s compact, basic to operate, even for beginners (just turn the dial to your desired grind and press a button), and relatively still. “It’s a really amazing product, and I’ve had a lot of them,” Maroko says.
Morocco uses this model at home and claims that it “does a better job than most grinders at trapping any dirt and loose chaff (fans of lithe roast coffees know what I mean).” The Ode Gen 2’s cafe-quality stainless steel flat burrs will assist you make the highest quality coffee at home, whether you’re using it for pour, Coffee from a piston coffee makeror yours drip coffee maker.
The only real downside to the Ode Gen 2 grinder (apart from its $345 price tag at the time of publication) is that while it has 31 different grind settings, the flat steel burrs don’t grind fine enough for espresso. If you’re looking for the closest thing you can get to an Ode, Fellow recommends the Aeropress from their Prismo Overlay.
Size: Dimensions: 9.4″ x 4.1″ x 9.8″ | Grind settings: 31 | Capacity: 100 grams | Burr type: Flat | Dose type: Single dose
