The best 5 coffee grinders, all tested by our expert

Making great coffee is all about getting your priorities right. Freshly roasted coffee beans are a perfect start, but unless you’re feeding them into the best coffee grinder for your preferred type of brewing, then you’re quite literally crushing their potential.

The grind is by far the most important step in the coffee making process. Start out with one of the best grinders on your worktop and you’re guaranteed to get the most from your pick of the best coffee machine too.

As a dedicated drinker of coffee in all its forms, I’ve spent the past couple of weeks testing a handful of grinders suitable for everything from marvellous moka pots to fantastic filter coffee and espresso.

They’ve gone head to head (to head) on my kitchen worktop, and I’ve used a couple of bags of freshly roasted coffee beans from Craft House Coffee and Clifton Coffee to put them to the test across both espresso and filter brews. Here’s what I discovered.

Who tested these coffee grinders?

The quick list

Get to the best coffee grinders as quickly as you need your morning caffeine fix with this condensed list.

The best coffee grinder for budding baristas

The K6 pairs a high quality 48mm set of burrs with a wonderfully sturdy, aluminium design, and a nice big handle with a large, comfy wooden grip. It feels far more upmarket than cheaper models. Pop off the plastic lid and the grind chamber has a 35 gram capacity, while the rotary dial offers a vast range of adjustability. The top section spins around to adjust the grind, and this provides over 200 clicks of adjustment, allowing you to dial in anything from the finest Turkish coffee grind (~20 clicks) to extra coarse grinds for cafetiere brewing (~150 clicks).

The K6’s 35 gram capacity is ample for espresso, where you’ll rarely want more than 20 grams a shot, but you’ll need to grind two batches for a full jug of filter coffee or large cafetiere. For espresso grinds, it takes just over 30 seconds to grind 18 grams of coffee, but you can grind double that at a coarser setting in under a minute. You can even use an electric drill to do the grinding for you if you’re feeling lazy.

Put in the effort, and this grinder delivers everything from gorgeously full-bodied filter coffee to unctuously rich espresso. Whether it’s on camping holidays or the comfort of your own kitchen, it’s a true do-it-all grinder.

Best coffee grinder for pour-over

One big appeal of this second generation Fellow grinder – aside from the excellent grind quality – is the Ode’s unique looks. Available in black and white, it’s shorter and deeper than most grinders, with a unique squared off profile and a huge, oversized dial on the front. That dial gives you 31 levels of grind size adjustment, ranging from fine enough for Aeropress through to coarser pour-over, filter coffee machine, cafetiere and cold brew grinds. Sadly, espresso is a no-no – the Ode doesn’t go fine enough. More fine adjustment would be appreciated, too; we hope Fellow moves to a stepless design for Gen 3.

The bean hopper has a mere 100g capacity, but it’s not really intended for storage – there’s no airtight lid, for starters. Instead, it’s designed for a single dosing approach, where you weigh the beans you need for each brew and pour them in. The hopper’s angled edges ensure that no beans get left behind, and flicking the little silver lever helps loosen any ground coffee which gets stuck. You will need to give the chute a brush reasonably regularly, though – fine coffee grounds still tend to get stuck after a few uses.

The grind quality from the 64mm burrs is superb. There was just a smidgen more variation in grind size than the Aarke, but they were neck and neck – and there was little between them in the taste tests. The Ode Gen 2 produced wonderfully fragrant, floral brews from Clifton Coffee’s Ethiopian Werka Wuri beans. Crucially, though, it’s the user-friendly design which takes it from good to great.

Best coffee grinder for espresso purists

To operate this grinder all you need to do is push the portafilter into the PL72’s metal jaws – or ‘fork’ – and it starts grinding. Another shove, and it stops.

The bright OLED display allows you to program timed grind settings for both single and double shots, and this can be adjusted from 2 to 20 seconds. Alternatively, you can press and hold the single button on top to grind manually – you can hold the button for as long as you want.

There’s a supremely wide range of grind adjustment, with the big clicky dial ranging from espresso fine all the way through to cold brew coarse, but the non-removable metal portafilter fork makes it awkward to use for anything other than espresso – it’s hard to get a grounds container under the spout.

Grind quality is good. Unsurprisingly, it’s optimised for espresso more so than filter – I had great results using it alongside the Lelit Anna PL41TEM manual espresso machine I have in for testing. It’ll makes a pleasingly full bodied filter brew, too, but as its burrs produce a larger percentage of small and large particles for each grind, the more focused grind size of the Fellow and Aarke grinders produced a more refined, fragrant cup.

The design does have its issues. There’s a tendency for stray beans to get left behind on the hopper’s flat bottom, and the grinder also produces a huge amount of static, which means that finely ground coffee gets stuck to your portafilter and all over the machine’s lower surfaces. It’s irritating. And messy, too.

At this price, the Lelit has a lot of strong competition from established favourites such as Baratza and Eureka. It’s a decent enough choice for espresso-only enthusiasts – especially if you find it at a discount – but it’s a lot of money to spend on an espresso only grinder. If you’d prefer a do-it-all grinder that can shift effortlessly from filter to cafetiere and back to espresso, then something like the Sage Smart Grinder Pro at number 5 on this list or, my usual go-to, Baratza’s superb Vario W+ (£419.95 at Amazon) are far more suited to flitting back and forth.

Best coffee grinder for style points

The grind quality with this choice from Aarke is excellent. Espresso is off the table as the Aarke doesn’t grind finely enough, but the 60 clicks of adjustment cater for everything from moka pot to cold brew. In my testing, the Aarke produced very similar brews to the Ode Gen 2, which is no mean feat – it eked out a wonderful darjeeling-like crispness from Clifton Coffee’s Werka Wuri filter coffee roast.

The 250g hopper is sealed with a glass, rubber-sealed lid, and a handy guide to the suggested grind size is printed on top. To adjust the grind size, the whole top of the Aarke spins around with reassuringly solid clicks. This makes it easy to dial in wonderfully balanced filter and cafetiere brews, and also to remember preferred grind sizes for different bean types. The lack of fine adjustment feels like a missed opportunity, though – a stepless adjustment would provide better fine tuning possibilities.

You can also select from automatic or manual grind amounts. Set the dial to manual mode, and it’ll keep grinding until the hopper is empty, or until you click the large silver lever a second time. Set the dial between 2 and 10 cups, and it’ll grind a set amount for a filter coffee brew. This is time-based, though, so it’ll vary depending on the hardness of your beans – you’re better off using scales and doing it manually.

The design is gorgeous, but quirky. It’s the noisiest grinder in the group, and the powerful motor vibrates enough to rotate the grinder around just a tiny bit. Also, a handful of beans tended to get stuck on the plastic lip at the bottom of the hopper, and the chute gets clogged with coffee, too, so you’ll want to keep the supplied brush close to hand.

Best do-it-all grinder

Sage’s Smart Grinder Pro is an upgraded version of the cheaper Dose Control Pro model. You get a friendlier and more informative LCD display, a more powerful 165W motor and finer time-based grind settings for more precise adjustments. The hopper is a more capacious 450g versus the 340g on the Dose Control Pro, too. For budding coffee enthusiasts, it’s a good do-it-all grinder.

Unlike some of the other grinders here, the Smart Grinder Pro is designed for all kinds of brewing. You get a nice, sturdy-feeling container for grinding larger batches suitable for filter coffee or cafetiere use, and this has a rubber lid so that you can seal it to retain freshness if you grind a little too much. You also get two sets of plastic jaws in the box for grinding straight into an espresso portafilter: one set for 50-54mm portafilters and the other, 58mm portafilters. Shove the grinder in and the grind starts; another shove, and it stops.

The backlit screen and simple controls make all the difference for beginners. The LCD screen gives a nice clear indication of the grinding ranges for different brew types, tells you the current present grinding setting – there are 60 to choose from – and makes it easy to adjust the preset grind time and various settings.

The 40mm conical burrs do a decent job with everything from fine espresso to coarse cafetiere grinds, but they’re more at home with finer espresso type grinds. With filter brews, the Sage tastes a bit muddy and indistinct when compared to the Fellow or Aarke grinders here. The motor noise is a bit irritating, too, but it’s not vastly louder than the other grinders here, just higher in pitch.

And if you’re wondering, yes: it’s outperformed for espresso by the £100 KINGrinder K6. Still, it’s worth paying for the convenience and versatility of the design – and, unless you fancy an arm workout with every shot of espresso, the Sage Smart Grinder Pro is by far the easier option.

How I tested these coffee grinders

For this article, I’ve tested all of the grinders side by side on my kitchen worktop for several weeks.

They were paired with a pair of high-end filter coffee machines – the Fellow Aiden and Sage Precision Brewer – and my go-to espresso machine, the Sage Barista Touch Impress. I also used a set of Kruve Sifter sieves to calibrate an identical grind size across the various grinders, and to give a sense of how consistent the quality of grind is from each grinder. Below you can take a look at the different grinders I tested.

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FAQs

Why do I need the best coffee grinder?

If you want the best tasting coffee in your cup, then don’t skimp on your grinder. This is where the magic happens. The best grinders crush coffee beans to a consistent grind size that allows the flavours from the coffee to be extracted evenly, and it’s this that allows you to get the best from any coffee machine, maker or manual brewer. As a very rough rule of thumb, you’ll almost always get better results by spending more on your grinder than your machine.

Why is grind quality so important? If you look at ground coffee, you’ll see that it’s a mixture of different sized particles including big bits, medium-sized bits and dust-like fine particles. The problem is that fine particles brew really quickly, so add a lot of bitterness. Larger pieces brew slowly, so add sourness.

A little variety isn’t a problem at all – in fact, extra fine particles can be beneficial, especially for espresso – but if a grinder creates too many unevenly sized particles, then the sour and bitter flavours overwhelm all the rich, delicate flavours that you want to focus on. The result is a coffee that doesn’t taste of anything interesting at all.

If a grinder is able to minimise how many of the really big and small particles it produces for any given grind size, and do so consistently, then the result will be a better tasting cup with more complex, defined flavours.

How much should I spend on a coffee grinder?

This is the bad news: you won’t get an objectively good grinder for much less than £100. Firstly, you want to avoid blade grinders, as they hack at the coffee and create a horribly uneven grind. I’d recommend avoiding cheap burr grinders, too, if you can afford to. This is because most burr grinders under the £100 mark tend to use ‘false’ burrs. False burrs aren’t as sharp or precise as proper, precisely machined burrs. They’re better than blade grinders, they still struggle to produce an even, balanced grind. And that means you’ll get an equally unbalanced, unpredictable brew.

If you want the best quality coffee on a budget, then buy a good quality hand grinder. For instance, the KINGrinder K6 I recommend here retails for around £100, and it actually has larger burrs than the Sage Smart Grinder Pro which costs twice as much. You’ll need a bit of patience – it takes around a minute to grind a full dose of coffee – but the results are stunning. For espresso, it keeps pace with any of the grinders here up to the £300-400 mark. For filter brews or coarser grinds, it’s not a million miles off of the £300+ filter coffee specialists such as the Fellow Ode Gen 2 or Aarke Flat Burr. If you’re brewing smaller batches of coffee, a high-end hand grinder will show you what you’ve been missing.

How to buy a coffee grinder

The most important thing to check when buying a grinder is to make sure that it suits your preferred type of coffee brewing. Not every coffee grinder can grind coffee fine enough for espresso, and not all espresso grinders are suitable for grinding coarsely enough for filter, pour over or cafetiere brews.

If you love espresso, then you need a grinder that can produce a fine grind. It also needs to provide lots of fine adjustment so that you can dial in the perfect pour. Always check the specifications: if it doesn’t explicitly say it’s capable of grinding for espresso, then it’s a safe assumption that it can’t. If you really want to indulge your inner barista, then look for a grinder with a portafilter fork, so you can grind directly into your portafilter – just like the baristas do in coffee shops.

If you want great filter brews, then you don’t have to be quite so picky. Some models, such as the Aarke Flat Burr, have a raised spout which allows you to grind directly into a filter coffee basket, which can be handy. Others simply grind into a removable container, and sometimes these have lids so you can save any excess grinds for another brew.

If you want a grinder that’s great for both espresso and filter, that’s a little trickier. You want controls that allow you to quickly adjust from a super-fine to a coarse grind, and ideally with numbered settings so you can remember your preferred settings. A model such as Sage’s Smart Grinder Pro (£200), for instance, is a good pick, as it’s designed to work well with both espresso and filter-style brews.

Several of the grinders here have inbuilt timers that allow you grind a set amount of coffee. Some base this purely on time, others allow you to select a number of ‘cups’ and they then grind an appropriate amount of coffee. As these settings are time-based, though, they won’t always grind a consistent weight of coffee. Given that darker and lighter roast coffee beans grind at different rates, and then also grind a little more quickly as they dry out, you’re usually better off weighing what you need. For espresso I’d recommend a set of scales which work to 0.1g precision, but if you just want to check that your larger cafetiere and filter brews are in the right ballpark, a basic set of kitchen scales will do the job.