I just tested one of the most famous budget coffee grinders — and it lives up to its hype

The Baratza Encore ESP is the newest model of the famous budget coffee grinder, aptly named Baratza Encore. The ESP is purportedly better for espresso, with the ability to grind finer (more on that later) than the original.

So that’s the main difference: the ESP has a wider range of grind consistency, making it a more versatile product. So is it one of the best coffee grinders? If you’re on a budget, then, yes, 100%. It won’t impress coffee snobs by any means, but the Encore ESP is a perfect first grinder.

The grind isn’t as uniform as other grinders I’ve used, but I’ll let you decide if that’s a dealbreaker. Find out the full story in this Baratza Encore ESP coffee grinder review.

Baratza Encore ESP review: Cheat sheet

• Who is it for? It’s perfect for a first time home grinder
• What does it do well? It’s super easy to use and there’s absolutely no learning curve
• What does it cost? $199 / £159
• What are its weaknesses? The grind isn’t as uniform and consistent as other grinders I’ve used

Baratza Encore ESP: Specs

Baratza Encore ESP review: Price & availability

The Baratza Encore ESP coffee grinder is $199 from Amazon U.S. and £159 from Amazon U.K.. It comes in black or white; I tested the black version, and I would recommend that colorway over white. Grinding coffee isn’t exactly a tidy pastime, and I worry how quickly white would age.

This is a pretty great price for an electric burr grinder. Our best grinder is the KitchenAid Burr Grinder, which is $179. At the other end of the spectrum (but by no means the most expensive grinder on the market) is the $649 Eureka Mignon Specialita.

I’m actually not a massive fan of the Eureka — I think you can get a grinder just as good for a fraction of the price. I’ve just tested the $277 Comandante C40 MK4, which is a hand-crank grinder I actually adored. If you’re a real coffee nerd, I’d recommend the C40.

Baratza Encore ESP review: Design

Given that it’s a budget-friendly grinder, the Baratza Encore ESP doesn’t have the all-metal construction you might find on higher-priced grinders like the Varia VS3 ($299).

The ABS plastic exterior doesn’t have to be a con, though. It makes the grinder pretty hardy while being relatively lightweight. Inside there’s a 40mm steel burr, which you can completely remove for no-sweat cleaning.

I was able to get the burr out, clean it, and put it back in without checking the user manual once. I’m not advising you to do as I do, but it’s a relief that you don’t have to get allan keys or screwdrivers out to do this.

Coming to the outside of the machine, there’s a switch on the right side and a button on front to start/stop grinding. I found myself using the switch over the button as I like the feeling of something tactile.

While the machine doesn’t have the raw, undiluted cool points of something like the $1,600+ Acaia Orbit or the $277 Comandante C40 MK4, it does what it says on the tin: grinds.

Baratza Encore ESP review: Grind adjustment

To adjust the grind, you simply move the hopper to the left or right, depending on which grind setting you’re after. ‘0’ is finest, and ‘40’ is coarsest. I noticed incremental differences between 0-20, but once I hit 21, the difference was instantly visible.

You can visually see exactly what grind size the Encore ESP is currently set to, so it will be super easy to change between bean types and brewing methods. No counting clicks or wasting coffee to test the current grind; much easier than the Eureka Mignon Specialita.

The Encore ESP uses 40mm steel alloy burrs, so not as durable as Comandante’s proprietary martensitic (high nitrogen) stainless steel burrs. As I’ll go into fully in the ‘Performance’ section, I struggled to get a super fine grind even on 0 and 1.

If you’re one of the very few with a Turkish coffee setup or you like your espresso suuuuper tiny, this might be a skip.

Baratza Encore ESP review: Performance

To properly evaluate the Baratza Encore ESP ESP grinder, I evaluated it against: ease of use, static & clumping, uniformity, and retention.

Ease of use

The Baratza Encore ESP would be a perfect beginner grinder. It’s as easy to use as one of the most basic espresso machines, like the Breville Bambino Plus. There’s no fiddling with burrs and invisible dials; you simply move the hopper to the side to dial your grind.

I mastered the basics of the Encore ESP within minutes. Simply add beans, set grind, and go. It’s as easy as that. I would recommend this as the perfect first coffee grinder. No faff, no sweat.

The Baratza Encore ESP ground a full hopper (150g) in 1 minute and 6 seconds with a max volume of 82dB — not too shabby considering its RPM is pretty low, at 550RPM. However, a low RPM isn’t necessarily a bad thing — it means it can operate quietly, for starters.

Static & clumping

I ground 75g of coffee to test the static and clumping. There was minimal clumping, with only one tiny (about 2mm in diameter) clump. This surprised me as there was a decent amount of static, which can lead to clumping; some grounds were stuck to the side of the catch chamber, and I had to dislodge the chute beans with my finger.

Static is an occupational hazard with coffee grinding — there’s no way around it, really. It’s to be expected, but at least the snug catch chamber caught all of the static so there wasn’t that much mess in my kitchen.

Uniformity

Uniformity is a bit of a sore topic for some in the coffee world. Some people are vocal proponents of an inconsistent grind for espresso: they claim an uneven grind makes the final espresso taste better. However, some people vehemently disagree (me being one of them).

I won’t get into that argument here: I’ll just show you this grinder’s uniformity results and you can make your mind up about how that fits in with whatever side of the argument you’re on.

For pour-over, at least, most agree that a consistent grind is mandatory. If you have tiny particles and large particles, the tiny ones will sink and clog the filter and become overprocessed, whereas the larger ones will float and not extract.

To test consistency, I ground my coffee to the below sizes and sifted the results through my Kruve coffee sieves. I’m looking for big jumps: for example 0% on 300μm, but 95% on 500μm. This means the grind is consistent, as the particles of coffee fit through one sized sifter.

As you can see, there were a few big jumps, like the jump from 50% to 99% on the finest grind. Again, there was a kind of big jump between 60%-95% on the second finest. However, there were no massive differences like on the Comandante C40 MK4 (12 clicks was 300μm 1%-500μm 95%, for example).

I’m a little disappointed that the 30 setting sputtered towards coarse: some was fine enough for espresso (500μm), but some was even coarser than French press (1400μm).

Overall, the consistency wasn’t majorly impressive, but if you’re in the school of thought that believes an inconsistent grind is good for espresso, or at least that it won’t entirely ruin your drink, this could be a satisfactory grinder for you.

Retention

Another major indicator of good grinding is retention. If a grinder retains a huge amount of coffee after grinding, not only does you lose the precision of your dial-in, but it can negatively affect the flavor of your next coffee, too, as you will have some older grinds in your puck.

To test retention, I weighed out a specific amount of coffee, ground it, and weighed it again. Between grinds, I cleaned out the burrs and dosing container.

As you can see, there was a little retention until I got to 100g, but once I filled the hopper, the Encore ESP retained a lot of coffee. Even so, this wasn’t as high a percentage as the 18g. As a result, I’d stick to max ~100g capacity to prevent major retention.

A decent amount of coffee gets stuck in the chute, so I’d recommend cleaning this after every single use. This was also a problem on the Eureka Mignon Specialita.

Baratza Encore ESP review: Extra features

Considering this is a budget grinder, I wouldn’t expect it to come with many features. And my expectations have been met here.

However, you can get upgrades — for an extra cost, of course. You can get a separate single-dose hopper and an accent kit to add a splash of color to your grinder.

Baratza Encore ESP review: Storage & maintenance

As you might expect from a grinder, you can buy a huge range of spare and replacement parts on Baratza’s website. This ranges from on/off switches, to screws, to 58mm portafilter dosing cup attachments. I love that you can buy spare parts as this massively increases the lifetime of the grinder. Props to Baratza for doing that.

The grinder’s pretty big, at over 13 inches tall and 6 inches deep. However, this is about average for a grinder; it’s not reached the heights of the Acaia Orbit’s 15.5 inches. If you’ve got the counter space, this is a medium-sized grinder that will do its job and look the part.

As I discussed in the ‘Performance’ section, yes, it gets pretty messy, but I’ve yet to use a grinder that doesn’t make a tip in my kitchen. It’s just another occupational hazard of grinding coffee.

Baratza Encore ESP review: Verdict

For newcomers to espresso or specialty coffee brewing, there’s no doubt in my mind that the Baratza Encore ESP will be the ideal purchase. It’s so easy to use, there’s little to no learning curve, and it does grind good coffee.

All that being said, I don’t think this is a good option for serious specialty coffee nerds. For those people, I’d recommend a hand grinder like the Comandante C40 — there’s just something about the routine and physical exertion that connects you to the process.

However, if you want a cheap (for a grinder), reliable, and easy coffee grinder, the Baratza Encore ESP is the one.