The Maison & White Manual Coffee Bean Grinder is an inexpensive manual grinder that uses a crank handle. It can be set to different coarseness levels in much the same way that you set the coarseness on a pepper grinder, and it will hold approximately 50 grams of coffee in the feeder with about five times the capacity in the bottom container. If you are hoping for espresso fine ground coffee, though, you should be prepared to crank the handle for some time.

This slim and attractive electric burr grinder from Barista & Co. has an impressive 40 grind settings and produces a consistent grind for both basic espresso (settings 0-5) and filter coffee (around 25). It’s also very easy to use and maintain. The grinder itself can be detached from the main body for cleaning and a small cleaning brush is provided – though for prolonged use, we’d suggest investing in your own. What’s more, the removable bean hopper has a shutoff opening, which allows you to weigh out your beans in the hopper before attaching it to the machine without any spillage.In other words, it was the environment that the coffee machine was in, in which the changes were happening, not the hopper, but the hopper wasn't providing any protection against this change in humidity. The grind adjustment dial changes the number on the digital screen, smaller is finer, bigger is coarser, and if you didn't think it could get any simpler, it can, because it tells you on the screen what brew method the current grind relates to, so at the finer end you'll see “espresso”, and then that will change as you move it, so if you're grinding for espresso for example, you can just start off somewhere in the middle of the “espresso” range, and adjust from there. So all I actually needed to do in this situation was to take the grind more coarse and use these beans either via the dual walled baskets or for manual brew methods. However, the beautiful thing about the Niche is that it has a grind setting range from Cafetiere, to coffee for Moka pot and right up to espresso.

This sleek and slim hand grinder from Lavazza can’t hold quite as many beans as the Hario Skerton featured above (we managed to comfortably fit about 18g into the small hopper), but it’s a neat little tool for your kitchen, with one notable advantage over the Skerton: its ease of adjustment. Pour-over — aka drip coffee, manual percolation, manual drip, or filter brew — is the oldest form of percolation brewing. It traces its roots to ancient Ethiopia and Yemen — where traditional brewing methods involved pouring hot water over ground coffee in a controlled manner. A much fairer comparison would be the Sage Smart Grinder Pro vs the Baratza Virtuoso +, as the Virtuoso Plus is only slightly more expensive, and is sold as being mainly a brew grinder. I've used both (and the forte, and most other Baratza grinders), and again, the SGP has a lot of pros vs the Virtuoso, mainly where features and ease of use are concerned, and I think they're incredibly evenly matched where cup quality is concerned, in fact, this more scientific comparison resulted in the Smart Grinder Pro being awarded the title for the best particle uniformity. Automated Shimming I remember being impressed with the attention to detail not only where features are concerned, but also with the bits it comes with. For example, you get two sizes of portafilter cradle, one for the standard 58mm portafilter size, and one for the Sage 54mm portafilters that you'll find on the Sage Bambino and Bambino Plus for example.So instead of trying to describe the size of coffee grounds, we have designed this tool as a new approach to make your coffee brewing easier and more comprehensible. So, they replaced the grinder, and all was well. It wasn't until a few years later when I knew so much more about espresso in general and had so much more experience with the Smart Grinder Pro, that I figured out what the issue was. It was just the coffee beans! I was using the double shot basket, so it was obvious to me that I needed to press the 2 shots button. By the way, the reason the text “shots/cups” appears under this button, if you're grinding for espresso the digital screen will display “shots” allowing you to toggle between 1 and 2 cups, for the single or double shot baskets, and if you're grinding for manual brew methods this will change on the screen to “cups”. Have I mentioned how smart this grinder is!? 😉 It's smooth curves, tiny body shape, and warm wood accents around the base offer a distinct friendly feel. Most other coffee bean grinders for espresso in this class have a more industrial appearance.

Some grinders are specialists, there are some grinders that are made specifically for manual brew methods, and many that are made specifically for espresso, but this is an all-rounder. For me, the Smart Grinder Pro is the best all-rounder grinder for the money, overall, especially if you also want to be able to grind for espresso, with standard baskets. Although we have already created a range for pour-over brewers in this chart, we have decided to highlight the V60 with its own range. It is undoubtedly the most popular pour-over brewer in the world currently, seen in most brewing competitions, and winning 6 of the last 11 prestigious Word Brewers Cup competitions. Today, pour-over consists of pouring water over coffee grounds in cone or funnel shaped dripper containing a filter (typically made of paper or cloth). You get a richer, stronger-flavoured brew that reflects the subtle differences between different origins, blends and roasts. Moreover, you can control the grind, enabling you to mill coarse grinds for a filter machine or press, or finer grinds for an espresso machine or stove-top espresso maker.It has a pair of 40mm stainless steel conical burrs, as do most of the other cheaper grinders on the market. So if you're looking at the Wilfa Svart, Gaggia MD15, Baratza Encore, etc., when it comes to particle uniformity in the medium to coarse grind sizes, it's unlikely that we're going to find much of a difference by going for the Smart Grinder Pro instead of the Wilfa Svart, which is just under half of the price.