5 Best Coffee Grinders for Home Use (Complete Buyer’s Guide 2023)

So you’ve got a good way to brew your coffee, but you’re looking for a fancy new toy to make your coffee-brewing process even better? A good coffee grinder is the way to go! But how do you choose one? Blade or burr grinder? Manual or electric? How do you pick one that will last for a long time?

In this guide, I’m going to be answering all of those questions and more, and I’ll provide a list of my favorite grinders overall. Plus, I’m going to explain why I believe getting a decent grinder is the best way to improve how your coffee tastes. Let’s get started!

Why You NEED a Coffee Grinder

I’m going to dive right in here and say that buying a coffee grinder isn’t merely a suggestion; it’s really a necessity for anyone who wants to enjoy their coffee.

The problem with pre-ground coffee is that it loses freshness far more rapidly than whole bean coffee. According to Justin Metcalf from the ASEAN Coffee Institute, you can lose more than half of a quantifiable amount of “freshness” about 15 minutes after grinding your beans. That means that the pre-ground coffee you buy from the grocery store, which often sits on a shelf for a year or more before you buy it, is 100% stale.

Kind of shocking, right? What’s even more shocking is how good fresh coffee can taste if you’ve never had it! As coffee sits, the CO2 in the grounds gets expelled, and along with the gas goes a ton of flavonoids. Moisture in the air can also pull coffee oils out of your grounds, and these contribute greatly to the taste as well. Carbohydrates, like sugars, break down, and you lose the natural sweetness you really should be finding in your cup.

Now, whole bean coffee will ALSO lose freshness, but much more slowly. Peak freshness of ground coffee occurs immediately after grinding. Peak freshness of whole bean coffee is about one to two weeks after roasting, from which point it will gradually decline.

Grinding your coffee beans right before you brew will change your life. I mean…seriously. Buy fresh whole bean coffee, grind it right before you brew, and I promise you’ll never go back. You might even stop using milk and sugar in your coffee because the sweetness and coffee oils can balance the bitterness that most people don’t enjoy.

Is a Manual or Electric Coffee Grinder Better?

Manual and electric coffee grinders can both be outstanding, and you can find equal quality in both. However, you will always get higher quality for the price out of a manual grinder. You’re not paying for an expensive motor, so more of the cost of production goes into the burrs, which are the gear-like cylinders that actually crush the coffee beans.

Manual coffee grinders require you to turn the burrs manually, while an electric grinder uses a motor to turn them. The outcome is the same, but manual grinders require a bit of elbow grease each morning. If you have lots of money to spend, feel free to buy a high-end electric grinder. If you want high quality but are also on a budget, I recommend a manual grinder.

Also, the process of making coffee is fun and therapeutic for me, and I know it is for many others as well. I personally use a manual grinder, partially because it’s really good and not terribly expensive and partially because I just enjoy putting a little time and effort into my coffee each morning. If making coffee is a nice ritual for you, a manual grinder might suit you better.

Is a Blade or Burr Grinder Better?

A blade grinder uses sharp blades to cut coffee beans into smaller pieces. A burr grinder uses burrs to grind the coffee into smaller pieces. They sound similar, but a burr grinder is far superior.

While blade grinders tend to be super cheap, they don’t result in evenly ground coffee. A decent burr grinder will yield more consistently sized grounds than a top-of-the-line blade grinder. Why is this important? I’m glad you asked!

(Nerd-out alert.)

The size and size distribution of your coffee grounds matters for three main reasons.

First, the bigger the individual grounds are, the less surface area there is for hot water to interact with the coffee and extract all the flavor trapped inside. Smaller grind size yields more rapid extraction. This isn’t always a good thing, so being able to control your grind size is important. Only a burr grinder will let you do this.

Second, a large variance in grind size distribution within a single dose of coffee — i.e. what you load into your brewer to make coffee — will yield an inconsistent cup of coffee. To dial in your perfect cup, you need reproducible results in your cup, which you can’t get with a big size distribution. Coffee ground to consistent sizes will mean the same amount of extraction capability for each brew, allowing you to change things with precision as you experiment.

Third, smaller grounds are more compact, which means more limited space for water to soak between them. The finer your grounds, the more the capillary action of water seeping between them will resist the force of gravity. In layman’s terms: finer coffee grounds hold water more readily, which means longer extraction times. If you can’t control the grind size, you can’t control extraction, which means you can’t control the taste.

All in all, burr grinders are better because they not only produce more consistent grounds but they let you reproduce a given result time and time again and make incremental changes to the grind size. This gives you total control over how your coffee tastes, which is always a good thing.

(Nerd-out complete.)

The Best Coffee Grinders Available in 2023 — My Top Picks

Now that you know what to look for in a grinder…we can finally get to the grinders that I recommend for home coffee brewers.

1. Lido 3 Manual Coffee Grinder — Best Overall
2. Baratza Virtuoso Plus — Best Electric Grinder
3. Helor 101 Hand Coffee Grinder — Best Design
4. Baratza Encore — Best Electric Grinder On a Budget
5. Hario “Smart G” Ceramic Coffee Mill — Most Affordable

1. Lido 3 Manual Coffee Grinder — Best Overall

The Lido 3 is a manual burr grinder made by Orphan Espresso (OE). It’s stocked with 48mm steel conical burrs, which means they grind coffee very consistently.

I actually ran an analysis on my grinds using some software a friend of mine made — fun fact: the software was originally used to detect irregularities in the universe…seriously, he’s an astrophysicist who also loves coffee — and found that the grind consistency was out of this world — see what I did there? But seriously, you get consistency within each batch and across batches, which is crucial for making better coffee time and time again.

It has a step-less adjustment system, so you can infinitely tune the grind size. This is great to have for options, although I will say the mechanism used to adjust the grind setting is a little annoying to use. You can check out my full review of the Lido 3 for more info on how that works.

Overall, I’d recommend this grinder for anything as fine as pour over up to as coarse as you’d use for cold brew. I have had some success using this grinder for espresso, although the variation you can get at that small grind size isn’t ideal.

2. Baratza Virtuoso Plus — Best Electric Grinder

The Baratza Virtuoso is, in my opinion, the best electric grinder most people would consider for brewing coffee at home. It has 40mm conical burrs that are suitable for grinding everything from espresso up to cold brew. I still don’t think it’s ideal for espresso, but since it does everything else well, this can be a pretty good all-around grinder.

The machine has a pretty hefty 1.5-amp motor that can run at 550 RPM without beans in it and around 450 RPM with beans. If you’re looking for expediency, this is going to be way better than the Lido 3 or any other manual grinder. It can grind through around 2 grams of coffee beans per second.

Despite its speed, the Virtuoso puts out excellent grind size consistency to help you brew the perfect cup and dial in your preferences. It comes equipped with 40 grind settings to change up your coffee quality and brewing style.

3. TIMEMORE Chestnut C2 Coffee Grinder — Best Design

The TIMEMORE Chestnut C2 is a manual coffee grinder that is as beautiful as it is consistent. It’s small and has a super comfortable handle, and the CNC stainless steel is very striking and will add to your coffee bar decor.

This grinder doesn’t just look pretty. Its 38mm conical steel burrs will last a lifetime, and they provide a super-even grind that is probably as good as it gets for a manual grinder, at least as far as I’ve seen. The grind size analysis for this grinder was spot on, which means your cup will taste exactly the same each brew, provided all other variables are held constant.

This grinder is great for everything from pour over to cold brew, but it’s not ideal for espresso. I’d recommend something made specifically for espresso if that’s your preferred brew style. The mechanism for switching grind sizes for larger grinds, though, is incredibly satisfying and makes you feel like you’re James Bond playing with a new high-tech gadget.

There are two downsides to this grinder. First, it only has a 25-gram hopper capacity. If you’re a big coffee drinker like me, you’ll have to reload mid-grind to get your fix. Second, it is not capable of handling anything approaching espresso grind sizes with any kind of consistency.

4. Baratza Encore — Best Electric Grinder On a Budget

Baratza is synonymous with quality, so it shouldn’t be surprising that two of its products made our list. The Encore is the “budget” option, and while it might seem expensive to some, the quality provided is outstanding and well worth the investment.

This machine has a much less capable motor than its big brother, the Virtuoso, but it’s still plenty powerful to outspeed a manual grinder. It has a 0.5-amp motor that powers 40mm conical burr grinders to grind your coffee beans into a very uniform consistency. It’s slower than the Virtuoso, too, getting through around 1 gram of coffee per second.

This machine uses step grind settings, and you have 40 total to tinker with between 250 and 1,200 microns. This should be plenty for anyone looking to brew using a pour over cone — like the Hario V60 — a French press, a drip coffee maker, a Chemex, a Kalita Wave, a cold brew maker, and just everything in between.

The only thing it doesn’t do particularly well is espresso, so, again, I’d recommend a grinder made specifically for espresso if that’s your preferred brewing method.

5. Hario “Smart G” Ceramic Coffee Mill — Most Affordable

The Hario “Smart G” is the grinder I often recommend to people who are just getting into grinding their own coffee and aren’t convinced yet of the value a good grinder can bring. This manual grinder is the only one under $50 I’d feel comfortable suggesting.

It’s not terribly durable, as it’s made out of plastic and has ceramic burrs. Ceramic burrs aren’t as long-lasting as steel ones. They can also break if you drop the grinder, and they don’t provide the same consistency as steel ones.

The grind size consistency is decent, although it’s all over the place compared to the Lido 3. This is understandable, though, as it’s a quarter of the price. It’s also way better than an electric blade grinder, so you could do a lot worse than this piece of equipment.

It uses step adjustments, which are easy to use but don’t give you a ton of control or options for each brewing style. Still, this should be suitable for most brewing techniques, although I’d never use it for espresso.