Baratza - Encore

If you just want one, get a decent coffee burr that can do fine & coarse. Might cost more but you won't hate your first latte or espresso. If I had to pick: Baratza Encore or Breville Smart Grinder Pro.

I'm just getting started as well - only been using my Encore for about 13 years now.

Another vote. We use it daily for the past 2 years. Got it for $100 from Crate & Barrel on sale.

$100 for Baratza at C&B sure was a deal and I am glad you grabbed one for the same. High five!! Costco did bring in a coffee grinder, but I never saw one in person here in YEG.

I was a hard-core French Press user for many years and got a Baratza Encore. I now use an AeroPress but using it in a French Press style. The Encore continues to serve me very well and would recommend as a good "bang for the buck" option.

I jumped from a cheap $40 grinder to the Encore. It went against my nature to buy such an "expensive" appliance just for coffee. Totally worth it.

Honestly? Baratza encore is easily your best choice that's not a hand grinder

Baratza is the answer. I've had mine for over 20 years. I recently contacted the company to buy the little rubber feet that deteriorated on the bottom and they sent me the feet, some extra other parts, stickers and postcards. Years ago I contacted them to buy a few other normal wear and tear parts and they sent those free too. Buddy at work has one, they've sent him new circuit boards and gearboxes for free. Outstanding product and customer service you just don't find anymore.

I jumped from a cheap $40 grinder to the Encore. It went against my nature to buy such an "expensive" appliance just for coffee. Totally worth it.

You're welcome. I think there are a lot of great alternative suggestions in other comments, but I do want to throw in my two cents in about one issue, which is the possibility of upgrading your current Virtuoso to the M2 burrs. I used the Virtuoso+ with M2s for many years (maybe 5?) as my primary grinder, and the original Encore before that - more than a decade combined between the two grinders. I did not find the M2 burrs to be a significant upgrade. I think both the original Encore burrs and the M2s are good for batch brew, and pretty bad for pourover at any roast level. I was always fighting between grinding coarser than I wanted, or grinding as fine as I wanted but dealing with the possibility of clogged filters/inconsistent brews. I brew medium to medium-dark for my wife's pourover every morning, and both of us think her coffee got better when I started using the Ode.

I bought a Baratza Encore grinder because I read many reviews and recommendations that said it's a good grinder for the price (around US$150). I've had it for about two years. I like it. I am not a hardcore fanatic about making coffee. I buy good beans. I use my Baratza. I use my Moka Pot. I like the results.

Save up for a baratza encore esp. Mine is the old baratza encore. Had it for 3 years now and it still makes good coffee. Cheap na lang ngayon parang 14k ata. Bought it from amazon for 8k php back then, bnew.

depends on volume (how much are you grinding every day) and budget. Pretty decent manual burr grinders can be had for 30-40CAD, pretty nice Japanese made porlex ceramic burr manual grinder is about 100CAD. These are good enough to grind upto 20-30gms of beans a day before you get bored and tired. Then comes the rabbit hole of home barista use powered grinders. A good espresso grade grinder can be a few hundred dollars. The Baratza encore, Eureka specialita etc come under this category. Then comes the commercial grinders like a bunn commercial grinder that can be had used for less than a grand used on fb marketplace / restaurant supply stores that can grind upto a kilo in a minute.

The Aeromatic app is very well designed. The encore is a decent grinder, and quite loud. I think the 1zpresso X or K series are much better, but they are hand powered.

I've had the Encore for years and love it. For pourovers, drip, etc. when the motor stopped working, I emailed Barratza and they sent me a new motor with instructions to replace it. It's a workhorse and a great grinder. I tried using it for espresso and gave up after a few days. It just doesn't grind fine enough. I read up on budget grinders, looked at old posts here, and ended up getting the Shardor 64. For the money, it's been great for me.

Gonna just say, go with the Baratza Encore. Cheaping out on anything that needs a big motor is going to cost more in the long run, especially because the Baratza can be completely disassembled at home and replacement parts are readily available. It truly is a buy for life machine. Coffee grinders and blenders are buy for life items, imo. Paying more once is going to be cheaper than paying less twice.

When I worked in an office I used to use a manual coffee grinder. While fun at first I hope to never, ever have to grind by hand again. I found it became tedious to do so. I'd vote electric. As others said the Encore is a great choice for middle of the road and quality to price ratio. And speaking of ratios, pick one and stick with it (I ended up using the suggested 55g to 1 L of water), with whatever grinder you get brew a pot too bitter (fine grounds) on purpose, then do one too sour (too coarse) so you have those tastes in mind. Now keep dialing finer until you start to taste too much bitter for your liking. You now have the starting point for future bags of coffee. Maybe a bit finer for light coffee, a bit coarser for dark. Or just set it no forget it.

What about making a little sound-reducing housing to keep the grinder in? For a time I lived with some people who were being woken up by me grinding coffee before work in the morning. I ended up moving the grinder (Baratza Encore) out to the garage, but the garage was also under their bedroom, so I wrapped the grinder up in a thick moving blanket, could easily dump coffee in the top and uncover the front to get the holder for the ground coffee out when I was done. Maybe build a little wooden box and add some soundproofing foam or something like that?

They're great! I've had quite a few grinders, currently use a Timemore 064s w/ SSP Lab Sweet burrs. But if I ever had to restart my setup on a budget the encore would easily be my choice and I'd be perfectly happy.

I have the Baratza Encore as well. I use the same grinder position (22) for both French Press and cold brew. I use position 19 for my Aeropress. Very happy with the Encore.

I had a Baratza Encore and recently upgraded to a Fellow Ode Gen2. Ode has great consistency and works great for my AeroPress around the 2.5 mark (1-10, 1 smallest). On course grind for cold brew the Ode has gotten jammed a few times, so I break out my old Encore for chunky grind duties.

The Baratza Encore is a conical burr grinder that does everything from press, to drip, to espresso at a reasonable price.

I had to replace them once with the stock burrs because the holder broke. I think it took maybe 4-5 years before that happened. TBH I didn't think I had a fines problem until I got the sculptor, and even now I'm not 100% sure it's a big deal. It could be that my wife started drinking espresso and so switching between two grind sizes daily was what produced the fines. Overall I highly recommend the encore (and hear great things about the encore ESP).

So I'm gonna go sideways here for a second. Honestly just get a grinder that can do large quantities. Manual burr grinders are a pain and overkill. If you're going to be brewing larger batches, then definitely get an electric grinder. That being said I don't believe you need grinder more than $50 at all. The Oxo may serve you best and they are dozens on FB marketplace (at least in my location.) You just need something that will grind coarse. My recommendation for a quality brew is consistency. Get the same bean every time while learning. Local coffee shops that roast their own beans would be a good bet. I personally get dark roast with chocolate and hazelnut notes. Measure. Measure. Measure. You will be working with ratios and be consistent. I like 200 grams of coffee to 64 oz of water. When serving it's 50/50 coffee to water with a bit of milk. So I would literally write what you do down so you can replicate it. Lastly it's important to note that cold brew tastes better after being in the fridge 24 hours after brewing. Even better after 48 hours. Getting good at ratios and replicating your craft is what will make a great brew. Once you get that down and are able to splurge a bit more with a grinder.. you will then be able to mess around with different coarseness. For now, cheaper grinder and the coarsest setting. Anyone pushing an encore for only cold brew is nuts. I got an encore esp recently because I still want to brew cold brew in large batches AND grind for espresso. That being said if FB marketplace Gods bless you then get one lol

Baratza is great.

That's exactly what I said in my comment. Maybe OP meant something like drip coffee, in that case Encore would be fine.

Don't listen to others. I started espresso with an encore. Worked fine. I did have to adjust dose when I couldn't adjust grind as exact as I wanted. +|- 0.5 grams. Worked fine. Espresso was good enough. 👍🏻 Started with an encore and a gaggia classic. Now onto a df64 with a Bianca.

Nope! But with the encore there is no space between the grinder output and the container. You'd have to add that extra filtering step on your own. TBH I just got used to the fines - some small differences with brew time due to clogged paper and small difference in taste. I guess I have a high tolerance for those variables.

I own a Baratza Encore (electric) grinder for everyday use and also a genetic manual grinder. The two grinders take relatively the same amount of time for my 21g dose. They both have pros and cons. The electric is great for making multiple cups of coffee at a time. Being hands free it saves time for other coffee making tasks. It is also loud and significantly larger. The manual grinder limits you in terms of bean capacity, but for one cup and travel it is great. It is small and quiet. Personally, I own both because I go camping and on roadtrips in my RV where space is limited and I do not want to take my electric grinder. The added bonus with my manual grinder is that it grinds finer than my electric, so it doubles as my espresso grinder. After having an electric grinder for years, I very quickly fell in love with my inexpensive manual grinder, but only if I am making one cup of coffee.