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https://coffeegeek.com/blog/techniques/one-to-fourteen/

#coffee #pourover #coffeeratios #siphoncoffee

CoffeeGeek @[email protected] · 2024-03-20 · 04:41 UTC

One To Fourteen.

One of the more important articles I've written on CoffeeGeek in some time. It's all about getting the best possible cup of pour over, siphon, press pot and AeroPress coffee, but without the need for an expensive (or even inexpensive) scale.

Read, and share, if you like!

https://coffeegeek.com/blog/techniques/one-to-fourteen/

#coffee #pourover #coffeeratios #siphoncoffee

CoffeeGeek @[email protected] · 2024-03-20 · 04:41 UTC

One To Fourteen.

One of the more important articles I've written on CoffeeGeek in some time. It's all about getting the best possible cup of pour over, siphon, press pot and AeroPress coffee, but without the need for an expensive (or even inexpensive) scale.

Read, and share, if you like!

https://coffeegeek.com/blog/techniques/one-to-fourteen/

#siphoncoffee #coffeeratios #pourover #coffee

CoffeeGeek @[email protected] · 2024-03-20 · 04:41 UTC

One To Fourteen.

One of the more important articles I've written on CoffeeGeek in some time. It's all about getting the best possible cup of pour over, siphon, press pot and AeroPress coffee, but without the need for an expensive (or even inexpensive) scale.

Read, and share, if you like!

https://coffeegeek.com/blog/techniques/one-to-fourteen/

#coffee #pourover #coffeeratios #siphoncoffee

Mark Prince @[email protected] · 2024-07-08 · 22:30 UTC

Back when we told you about the Baratza Encore ESP going on sale, that was a milestone for a company that never, ever puts their products on sale, or at least haven’t in their nearly 20 years manufacturing and selling coffee grinders.

Well, apparently that sale was so successful, they’ve decided to do it again, this time putting two grinders in the Sette lineup on sale, both at 20% off, and both just until July 21, 2024.

The two grinders are the Baratza Sette 30, and the grinder we use at the CoffeeGeek Lab as our standards-evaluating espresso grinder, the Baratza Sette 270Wi. Sadly for Canadians, this sale is US only.

The Baratza Sette 270Wi

The 270Wi, normally $600, is on sale until July 21 for $480. That’s a killer, killer deal.

I’ve always felt this grinder never gets enough love from the specialty coffee community, especially from the youtube influencers out there. I still consider it one of the best espresso grinders you can buy today under $1000. Why?

It was the first grind by weight espresso primary grinder available for sale to consumers
It has the equivalent of an Acaia Lunar (a $250 scale!!!) built right in
It is one of the fastest grinders you can buy today for the home
The output is nearly zero retention (amazing for a grind on demand grinder with a full bean hopper), obliterating the need for single dosing.
The output is fluffy, uncompacted and very evenly distributed in a portafilter basket
The output’s grind particle size and distribution of particle sizes is optimal for espresso
The dial in process for the grinder is fantastic, with the dual micro / macro settings available

Seriously, with the Sette 270Wi, I don’t really need to WDT (it can help, but the help it provides is marginal compared to most other grinders), and I can get the espresso grind packed, prepped, tamped and locked into the espresso machine in under 20 seconds, from the time I press the grind button. It quite literally can provide the fastest “grinder to shot pull” timings you can get today.

It is our standards-setting machine, so it gets tested and used almost on a daily basis. If anything, my appreciation for this grinder has only grown over the years.

Here, the Sette 270Wi is being put head to head with the Vario+ from Baratza.

The burr set is super tuned for espresso output, being designed and engineered by Etzinger, one of the world’s premier artisan burr designers.

The implementation of Acaia’s scale is brilliant too, because it goes beyond the mechanics of the scale mechanisms. Built into the Sette is a kind of predictive “AI” that analyses every grind session, recording the final weight, and adjusting the grinder automatically the next time to accurately compensate for any “float” of extra grind weight at the end of the grinding session when the grinder automatically powers down.

What does this mean in real world terms? Let’s say you set the weight output for 18.5g. You go through a batch of coffee from a particular roaster, and every time the grinder gets within .1g or less of that target output. Then you change the coffee in the grinder, and try again. Different coffees grind at different output speeds. The first grind with this coffee at 18.5g is relying on the past dozen grind sessions to accurately deliver 18.5g. But this time, with a different coffee, 18.7g comes out. The grinder recognizes this, so it adjusts the “float” time at the end of the grind by milliseconds shorter, so the next grinding session, it will once again deliver 18.5g.

Pretty genius.

There’s two flaws with the Sette 270Wi. First, it is loud; easily the loudest grinder I use on a daily, weekly, or even monthly basis. Second, while it does a “good” job on brew grinds (from AeroPress to V60), fines production are frankly horrible for anything coarser, like no bypass brewers, Chemex, and Pour Over. If you do use the grinder for these methods, get a sifter to sift out the fines after.

Other than that, everything about this grinder is golden, especially if your primary brew method is espresso. I consider it good enough that it is the grinder we use to a) evaluate espresso blends and single origins, b) test espresso machines with, and c) test other espresso primary grinders against.

Then of course, there’ Baratza’s legendary after sales service and support to consider.

If you are in the market for a premium espresso primary grinder, the Sette 270Wi, especially at this sale price of $480, should be at the top of your list.

The Baratza Sette 30 Grinder

The Baratza Sette 30, normally $300, is on sale until July 21 for $240. That puts this grinder into a very competitive market.

We did a full and comprehensive review of the Sette 30 (nb, currently being updated to our 2024 design change, should be completed by July 10), and I’d encourage you to go read that before pulling the trigger on this model.

I’m not as sold on the Sette 30 as I am with the Sette 270 series for one reason only: it is missing the micro adjustment to fine tune your grind output. It doesn’t have a built in scale either, but does have a very accurate digital timer, down to 0.01 seconds, which is unheard of anywhere near this price point.

It does have the exact same burrs as the 270 series, and outputs the coffee the same way: fluffy, uncompacted, well distributed. It is also just as fast as the Sette 270 series, making it one of the fastest grinders on the market today. You miss out on the “dial in ability” the 270 series delivers, but you can usually get a grind setting within about a 2-4 second window on your shot pulls, and get it consistently when dialing in.

This is the compromise, and one we’ve had to do with a lot of grinder under $400 for a long time: it can have the most amazing grind particle size distribution and output, but because the “clicks” between grind settings is fairly high, you also have to do a dose adjustment to get the shot times you want the most. In the case of the Sette 30, if your target is 18.5g in, 45ml / g out, in 30 seconds, it might give you 27 seconds at one grind setting, and 33 seconds at the next. So you have to adjust your dose up or down .2, .4g to hit your ideal brew times, if that is your goal.

All this said, the grinder is a Baratza grinder, so that also means awesome after sales support and service. At $240 on sale right now, you’re getting a lot of the benefits of the upper tier Sette grinders at a budget entry point. If you don’t want to spend more than $250 on a grinder, you could do a lot worse than the Sette 30.

https://coffeegeek.com/blog/deals/baratza-products-on-sale-again-the-sette-30-and-sette-270wi/

#baratza #baratzaSette #deals #espressoDeals #espressoGrinder

#baratza #baratzasette #deals #espressodeals #espressogrinder

Mark Prince @[email protected] · 2019-10-10 · 15:30 UTC

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Article Sette 30Gallery

Sette 30 Grinder

Sette Grind Selection Dial

Sette 30 Forks Position 2

Lower Burr Assembly

Grinds Chute, Adjustment Dial

Baratza Sette 30 Control Panel

Etzinger Burrs Inside

Baratza Logo on Sette 30

Testing the Grinders

Baratza Sette 30 Stray Grinds Tray

Bean Hopper Open/Close Switch

Baratza Sette 30 in Action

Sette 270 vs Sette 30

Sette 30 vs the Dose Control Pro

Sette 30 grinder compared

Testing Fines with the Kruve

Baratza Sette 30 with a Chemex Brewer

Removable Catch Tray

Sette 30 Control Panel

Sette 30 Forks

Upper Burr Assembly

Baratza Sette 30 with Breville Bambino Brewer

Sette 30The Review

In the spring of 2017, Baratza had an identity crisis with their latest grinder venture, the Sette 30 grinder. It was introduced at SCA’s Annual Trade Show with the intent of being marketed as a state of the art, fast and capable pourover and drip grinder. The idea was, take away most of the nifty portafilter stuff and the ritzy and unique Acaia scale that the Sette 270Wi had, simplify the interface, use more plastic while still having the same interior bits of the 270 lineup, and sell it for under $250 (ed.note: as of 2023, the grinder is now $299).

The issue, Baratza found out, was that their 270 burr geometry (which they also planned to use in the 30 model) as designed by Etzinger, had problems doing a full range of drip grinds up to press pot grinds. Even so, this burr set is amazing: it is absolutely blazing fast at espresso grinds (up to 4.5g a second) and the peak on grind size was tight when grinding for espresso. That meant not much fines, and not much coarse bits – most of the grind was within a set range of micron particle sizes.

But the Etzinger burr set had some limitations: the more coarse you set it, the more it produced fines. And weirdly, the slower the output as well. That meant by the time you got to drip, the fines produced would make up a larger percentage of the overall grind (though still very acceptable numbers) when compared to the fines in an espresso grind. And by the time you tried to go to a press pot grind size of 1200 microns, the output was slow (down to 2.5g a second) and an unacceptable amount of fines were being produced.

Baratza realised this, and decided to change tact on the forthcoming Baratza Sette 30 grinder. It was instead marketed as an entry level espresso grinder that could also do coarse turkish, moka pot, pour over, drip, siphon and chemex grinds. But mainly it’s marketed as an entry level espresso grinder.

Whereto Buy

Manufacturer Website

Buy here to support CoffeeGeek!

Buy here to support CoffeeGeek! NotableFeatures

Literally the fastest home grinder you can buy - it can do an espresso grind at as fast as 4.5 grams per second output.
Virtually no ground coffee retention between grinding sessions, means you're never putting stale ground coffee in any real quantity into the portafilter.
That you get a very accurate 1/10th a second digital timer built in at this price point is actually quite impressive.
Baratza has industry leading after-sales support and service, even out of warranty, adding value to this product.
You're getting about 80% of the Sette 270Wi, and 90% of the Sette 270, for half the 270Wi's price.

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want to reach a global specialty coffee audience? advertise with us. Sette 30Out of the Box

I happen to think the Sette series from Baratza are some of the best “looking” grinders from a major manufacturer that you currently can buy for your home. That stylized silhouette of the “7” (Sette is 7 in Italian), the compact size, the small footprint, the balanced action of it all – this is one gorgeous grinder series. The 30 looks as good as the 270s, because it’s the same housing for the most part.

As you pull everything from the box, you may start to see where some cost savings were achieved (especially if you’ve seen a 270 series grinder from Baratza up close). The bean hopper looks the same, but upon closer inspection, the open/close mechanism for the hopper is all plastic (it’s metal on the 270s). The forks that hold the portafilter and grinds basket is very basic, and not the complex design seen on the 270 series. The burr housing collar and grind selection wheel on the 30 is all plastic too, where it’s beefy metal on the 270s. And the front control panel is more simple, without any presets.

The good news is, inside, much is the same as the 270 series. The Sette 30 features many of the internal improvements the 270 lineup has seen in their evolution over the past few years (today’s 270 lineup is better inside than the 270 at launch time). It has the same motor, the same burr set, the same interior design, and these are all great things.

Here's the minimal Sette 30 box, showing the type of burrs included (AP, now called S1 by Baratza).

Baratza has two burr types for their grinders, and they are indicated on the box.

Baratza has these nifty graphics on the box to show the grinder's best uses: espresso, aeropress, and pourover.

Inside the grinder is put in cardboard forms and has a simple infosheet describing basic usage.

The grinder's packaging is fairly minimal; the Sette 30 is a very sturdy grinder, but I'd like to see more secure packaging.

Everything the grinder ships with: removable basic 3 prong cord, wire brush, grinds bin, whole bean bin, and rubber stray grinds mat.

Again, fairly minimal overall - but all the things you need to get the job done. There's no full manual, tools, or Grindz cleaner like older models had. The whole bean hopper does have a closing door for easy removal with beans loaded.

The grinder, soaking dry, weighs in a 3.85kg (or about 8.35 pounds; by comparison, the Sette 270 weighs 4.1kg). It comes with removable bean hopper that can be closed to retain the beans upon removal; a grinds hopper; a very simplified fork design (adjustable between a “universal” portafilter setting, and a grinds hopper holder); a removable grinds tray; a few spacers to adjust the burr set if you want the grinder to grind coarser, a couple of hex keys, and a heavy duty plug. There’s also a quick reference sheet, but no actual manual.

Checking over the control panel, it doesn’t have presets, but just has one setting for grind timings, which is infinitely adjustable. Under 10 seconds, the adjustments can be made in 1/100th a second increments. Over 10 seconds and it jumps to 1/10th a second. Also, one nice improvement I harped a lot to Baratza about: pressing the time adjustment buttons now feature three speeds – first, a very slow adjustment speed, then a medium speed, then a super fast, jumping multiple-seconds at a time speed, which is great if you’re switching between grinding out 18g for espresso, and 150g for ground coffee. Previously, the 270 only had two “speeds” in the timing adjustment, and you could sit there holding the button for 10, 15 seconds adjusting the grind timer from, say 4 seconds to 35 seconds. With the 30, you can make this adjustment in under 5 seconds.

A bit on the burr group. Our box shows the Sette 30 shipped with their “AP” burrset. This is their burrset more tuned for espresso. They also had a second burrset, called their “BG” burrset, which was more tuned for drip and pour over grinding. In April this year, Baratza changed the names of their burrs to S1 and S2 (archived). The burrs themselves didn’t change, just the name. I’ll talk more about the Etzinger burr set geometry later in this review.

No presets on this model, it only remembers one setting: adjust up or down 3 speeds, start grinder, pause grinder, or stop and reset.

30 (actually, 31) settings on the Sette 30 grinder, the espresso range on our test unit was in the 3-7 area.

Bean hopper has a nice open/close option for removing with beans still inside, something the Virtuoso lineup didn't have.

The mechanism and control on the Sette 30 is plastic; it is more metal on the 270 lineup.

The included grinds bin, which can hold a fair amount of ground coffee.

Happy that Baratza included this and designed it so well - the fit is superb, and almost feels "magnetized" in place. Makes cleaning up stray grinds much easier.

All in all, Baratza has cut costs on the Sette 30 were it has little impact on the grinder, save perhaps one area, which I’ll detail in the next section.

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I have to admit, I was very confused during the initial launch, then re-think and re-launch of the Baratza Sette 30 grinder. I understood the limitations of their Etzinger burrset’s geometry (which, btw, Baratza is working on with Etzinger), so it made sense they would move away from marketing this grinder as a drip/pourover/siphon/chemex/press pot grinder.

When Baratza re-announced the Sette 30 as an espresso grinder in the summer of 2017, I got excited, and thought that this was an interesting move from a company that previously resisted efforts to design and make an espresso-only coffee grinder. I also assumed, upon hearing the grind range on this new grinder was only 30 settings, that all would be tuned for espresso – from a coarse turkish, choke your espresso machine grind at 1, to a coarse, maybe it’s better for moka pot grind at 30.

Turns out though, they didn’t make that move. The Sette 30 is not an espresso only grinder; because the range from 1 to 31 on the grind selection dial is identical to the range in the 270 lineup’s “macro” grind settings. This means the grinder, out of the box, has a grinding range of around 200 microns to about 900 microns at the absolute maximum. For reference, espresso is in the 300-400 micron range, moka pot is 350-500um, pourover, drip and siphon is in the 500-900um range (sweet spot’s around 750um) and press pot is above 1200um.

Micron Sizes Compared Ideal Espresso Grind 350 microns Beach Sand 250 microns Table Salt 150 microns Ideal Turkish Grind 125 microns Width of Human Hair 90 microns Limit of Visibility 45 microns

So why did Baratza do this? To save costs. Baratza uses the same grind gear teeth geometry in the Sette 30 as they do in the Sette 270 lineup, because the internal upper collar that holds the rotating burr is identical to that from the Sette 270.

If Baratza wanted to re-engineer the Sette 30 so all it’s 30 settings fall within a turkish-to moka pot grind range (and thus give it much more fine tuning ability for espresso), they would have to re-design, re-engineer and re-manufacture a new rotating burr housing, which would have driven up the cost of the Sette 30 by a substantial amount.

As a side note, I hope down the road Baratza considers doing this kind of modification to a Sette 30 style grinder: having a dedicated espresso grinder where all 30+ settings fall within the Turkish to fine moka pot grinding range would be quite nifty.

Back to our review: all this means is some positives, and some definite negatives. The negatives are that there’s only about 4 or 5 grind settings to play with for espresso, and that’s if you’re going from almost stalled to a lungo shot (pouring out espresso at a rate of about 3g/second). The positives are, this grinder is still a multi-purpose grinder, capable of doing any grind from “near turkish” (250um) all the way up to a decent drip/pourover/siphon grind.

What does this mean for the end user? It means you have to resort to something we used to have to do with grinders like the Rocky and home Anfim espresso grinders: you have to settle for the fact that you only have a couple of grind settings you can use for your espresso grind, and rely on changing your dose weight to “dial in” an espresso shot. No more “let’s stay rock solid with 18 gram doses for a double shot”, relying on the grinder’s super fine adjustment ability to dial in that dose weight.

No, with the Sette 30, you first have to find your near-ideal grinding fineness selection, and then up or lower the dose to get your desired shot timings. If you feel your espresso tastes best when 45ml comes out in 30 seconds, but setting “7” on the Sette 30 at 18g delivers that shot in 36 seconds, and setting “8” at 18g delivers it at 26 seconds, your option is to either grind at “7” and use less coffee, or grind at “8” and use more coffee in the filter basket.

Make no mistake, this is a detriment to an otherwise amazing and feature packed grinder. Is it a deal breaker? I’d say no, because you’re still getting the following:

A grinder that grinds 18g in as little as 4 seconds
A grinder that produces a very even grind at the espresso setting, with minimal fines.
A grinder that outputs the grind in a near perfect way – fluffy, no compaction, and centre-dosed.
A grinder that has nearly zero waste.
A grinder with a super accurate 1/100th a second timer that produces your target grind weight +/- .2g every single time.

All for under $250 (ed.note: now $300, in 2024).

Because of the limited grind control for espresso use, you will also have to balance you dose (using the 1/100th second timer) to find your ideal dose + grind for your espresso machine. Sette 30Usability

The Sette 30 from Baratza isn’t as easy to use as their 270 lineup if your primary use is espresso. Reason? The 270 lineup can hold a portafilter hands free. On the 30, you have to hold and rest a portafilter on the basic forks. Not a big chore for something that can take only 4 seconds or less, but still, that’s a tiny tradeoff for the lower price.

Forks in the portafilter balance position.

Forks in the Grinds Bin holder position. Can also balance smaller pourover cone holders.

The forks on the Sette 270 vs the Sette 30, in the down, portafilter position.

The control panel on the Sette 30 is very basic as well; there’s no presets like the 270 lineup, and you’re just dialing the one set time up or down. On a Sette 270 series grinder, you can have different presets programmed for different brewing methods; with the 30, you have to remember that you would need to run the grinder for 3.85 seconds for your espresso dose, and 11.2 seconds for your 55g auto drip grinding needs (as examples).

As covered extensively in the previous section, the Sette 30 only has one grind adjustment, the same “macro” adjustment from the 270 series. So there’s not much to play with there in terms of dialing in espresso. But at least you can jump the setting up to moka, pourover, siphon, auto drip and chemex grind levels.

What the Sette does offer in usability are many of the things cloned from the 270 lineup: there’s the easy to remove bean hopper, which holds your beans in place. The machine offers nice positive feedback when using the control panel; you’ll never have to guess if you pressed a button or not. The dosing from the grinder is quite spectacular and on par with the 270s: super fluffy, non compacted grinds falling directly in the middle of the grinds basket or your portafilter. There’s also the nice rubberized stray grinds “tray” at the bottom of the machine that so perfectly into the machine’s base, I swore it was magnetized when I first used it.

Lastly, the machine is loud. But it’s not as loud as the original Sette 270s that shipped 3 years ago. Baratza has worked on the noise issues with the grinder and my best guess (since I don’t have an original Sette 270 to test) is the noise is about 20% lower than the initial models. Still, it’s one of the loudest home grinders out there. A lot of the noise comes specifically from the coffee being ground and how the vertical pass through design of the grinder seems to amplify this noise.

Very basic controls on the Sette 30, but does have a 1/100th second timer (up to 10 seconds). Connect with us on Social Media MastodonFacebook-fInstagramYoutube

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want to reach a global specialty coffee audience? advertise with us. Grind Quality / FinesSette 30

For this Full Review, I’m not doing a comprehensive test on the amount of fines produced, one that could be considered “lab quality accurate”.

Instead, I’m going to do a rather rudimentary test using the Kruve sifter system on test batches of ground coffee put out by the Sette 30. This test won’t be as accurate as the lab tests we’ve sponsored in the past, but should provide a general idea on how many fines the Baratza Sette 30 produces at a given grind fineness level.

This test used the following parameters:

Grind coffee in the Sette 30 at 3 different settings: espresso (target is 350um), fine siphon coffee grind (target is 600um) and Chemex (target is 800um).
Grind 30 gram samples, 3x for each target weight (9 samples total)
Using the Kruve sifter, vigorously shake and knock it for 30 seconds per sample.
In the Kruve, for espresso, fines are defined as under 250um; under 400um for siphon grind; and under 500um for Chemex.

Here’s the results.

NB We lost this data migrating from the pre 2020 version of CoffeeGeek, and have run the test again using a DiFluid grind particle analyser. The results are more accurate this time, showing a range of particle sizes from 100 microns to 1000 microns. The revised chart is below:

I also need to stress again that this is a near zero retention grinder design (a huge positive, something competing manufacturers cannot currently touch), and the way the grinder doses is also best in class.

I also need to stress again that this is a near zero retention grinder design (a huge positive, something competing manufacturers cannot currently touch), and the way the grinder doses is also best in class. Here’s some looks at the burr assembly and parts included.

Fully assembled, this is where the grinds exit, continuing a straight fall path for the beans. The grind adjustment collar is part of the lower burr assembly.

Here's the lower assembly with the installed conical burr. Note the plastic tooth-ring : this is the part of the grinder that Baratza did not re-design for more fine tuned macro grinder fineness levels.

The burrs inside the machine -- the upper burr set -- is the one that stays stationary (non spinning) while grinding.

Here's a comparison of the Sette 270 (and 270Wi) burr group to the 30's. As you can see, the 270 is more robust, with a metal tooth gate, metal construction and the inclusion of the micro adjustment system. Sette 30Non Espresso Use

There’s been some chatter here and there that the Sette grinders aren’t good for anything but espresso. I’ve heard it from cafe owners, home baristas and enthusiasts; Baratza has heard it too. I’ve talked extensively in this article about the burr geometry of the Etzinger burrs inside the Sette 30, and how the production of fines increases the coarser you go. The thing is, is that a bad thing?

Well, excessive fines in drip coffee is indeed a bad thing. They can clog up your paper filters, halting flow of the brewed coffee. Ditto for cloth filters. Even if the brewing filters don’t get clogged up, having excessive fines can lead to over-extraction problems. But the real question is, even though the Sette grinders do produce more fines the coarser you go, are there too many fines?

I don’t think so. Sure, they produce marginally more fines by the time you get to the drip grinding range (as compared to Baratza’s other grinders with different burrs, or other manufacturer grinders in the $500+ range), but it’s not enough of a difference to affect the cup quality, once you know how to work with the fines being produced. How do you do it? It’s a bit counter-intuitive, so let me walk you through it.

The Sette 30 works great with the Chemex and manual pourover coffee; just go a bit finer on the grind, compared to other grinders.

Let’s say you want to brew a Hario Cloth Dripper brew of coffee using 400ml of water, and having a complete extraction time of 4:10. You set up the Sette 30’s grind range to around 25 or 26, giving you an average mean particle size of 650-750um. You dose 7g per 100ml, or 28g of coffee. Go through your pourover ritual, and find it might be just a tad stalled, taking 4:30 to do the brew.

The initial reaction is, “I gotta grind coarser to get the flow rate up” on this brew. But that’s not what you do with the Sette series. You grind a bit finer instead! Hard to believe, but it’s true. If you go one or two clicks finer, and dose a tiny bit less (say 6.8g per 100ml, or 27g roughly instead of 28g), you will find you hit your ideal extraction rate time of 4 minutes, 10 seconds.

I write this, because this is more or less exactly the tests I ran, and tasting each of the finished brews, the adjusted finer grind + 1g less for 400ml brewed resulted in a better tasting cup. The longer brew had hints of over-extraction; the astringency, the more noticable bitters, yet the finer grind plus marginally less coffee resulted in a much more balanced cup of coffee. Why drop the dose by .2 (up to .5g per 100ml)? Because your mean average micron size is getting smaller, and thus providing more surface area for brewing water to extract from – you don’t need as much coffee.

I think, because this is truly counter-intuitive for most coffee folks, this is the reason why there’s some chirping about the Sette lineup not being able to do drip, pourover, or chemex coffee. The coarser you go, the weirder the extraction gets for these brewing methods when using a Sette; instead, go a tad finer, adjust your dose, and it’s all golden.

Bottom line? In my opinion, the Sette lineup is quite capable of doing grinds for the following brewing methods: near turkish (almost gets there to that talcum powder range); espresso; steam espresso machines; moka pots, vietnamese coffee, siphon coffee, manual paper pourover, manual cloth pourover, automatic drip, and chemex (with is 3 layer thick on one side filter). It can also do some (not all) cold brew methods. It cannot do anything close to a press pot grind, or the grind you need for cold toddy brewing.

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There’s two ways to compare the Baratza Sette 30 to other grinders; you could compare it to grinders under $250, no matter the primary use those other grinders have; and you could compare it to more expensive grinders designed primarily for espresso use.

In the Under $250 category, the 3 grinders the Sette 30 competes with are the Breville Smart Grinder Pro ($200), the Breville Dose Control Pro ($170), and Baratza’s own Virtuoso+ Grinder ($250).

The four grinders in this comparison are the Breville Smart Grinder Pro, the Sette 30, the Sette 270, and the Breville Dose Control Pro.

Versus the Baratza Virtuoso+

We can’t directly test the Sette 30 against the new Baratza Virtuoso+ for grind output, quality, and speed, since we do do not have a Virtuoso+ as of this review date, to test against the Sette 30. We do have a recent model Baratza Virtuoso (now discontinued), but it would not be fair to put them up head to head. Still, we’re using the Virtuoso in our stable as an informal comparison, since internally, it’s very similar to the current + model.

The Baratza Virtuoso+ does have a wider grinding range, and can go from a proper espresso grind all the way up to a press pot (1200um) grind; the Sette 30 can’t touch press pot grinding. It’s speed is a lot slower however; the Sette 30 is easily 2.5x faster than the Virtuoso+ when grinding equal amounts.

Both have digital timers, but the Sette 30 has a 1/100th second timer, and a longer timer range; the Virtuoso+ has a max 40 second digital timer that has a 1/10th second ability. The Virtuoso+ does have a “pulse mode” where it will operate manually, as long as you press the control dial; which works similar to the older Virtuoso’s front position button for manual grinding into a portafilter.

The Sette 30 lets you remove the bean hopper with the beans remaining inside; you will have to dump out the beans on the Virtuoso+ before removing the hopper to clean the burrs or do other maintenance. The Virtuoso+’s grind output is slightly on the clumpy side (for espresso, this is a possible detriment); but the Sette 30’s output is fluffy and clump free.

The Sette 30 is a near zero waste grinder; the Virtuoso+ doesn’t have a direct vertical path for ground coffee, so there’s always some ground coffee that remains inside between uses.

For use with a portafilter, the Sette 30, while having a very basic fork / basket holder design, can still accommodate a portafilter (while being balanced by your hand) right out of the box. To get this kind of option with the Virtuoso+, you have to buy a separate “Portaholder” device from Baratza for $12.

The Virtuoso+ does have a nifty set of LED lights inside the grinds bay, for lighting up the amount of grinds caught in its bin. In a way, it needs it because of the enclosed design; it also works nicely lighting up your portafilter when you grind directly into it using Baratza’s optional portaholder. This option isn’t really needed on the Sette 30 because of the open design of the grinder.

Both grinders are priced the same ($250), but you would have to add $12 if you want the portaholder option with the Virtuoso+.

Versus the Breville Dose Control Pro

Breville’s Dose Control Pro ($150) (ed.note: we wrote a new review of the Dose Control Pro in 2023) is $100 less than the Baratza Sette 30, and has some things better than the Baratza, some things worse.

The Dose Control from Breville is their budget point entry grinder.

The Dose Control Pro comes with two dedicated portafilter holders, one for a 58/57mm portafilter, and one for a < 54mm portafilter, offering hands off grinding. Also, there’s many more grind selections available on the Dose Control Pro for espresso usage, including a master adjustment by changing the alignment of the internal burr group; what this means is, you have about 6 or 7 workable “clicks” to adjust your espresso grind on the Dose Control Pro, and a reserve of another dozen or so adjustments, depending on how you tune the interior burr placement.

Another area the Dose Control Pro beats the Sette 30 is in the grinding range capability; out of the box, the Dose Control Pro can most definitely do an acceptable press pot grind; but it struggles to get down to “turkish”; long before you get there, the grinder will emit screeching sounds of the burrs grinding against each other. And, the Dose Control Pro is quieter than the Sette 30 in operation.

Like the Sette 30, the Breville Dose Control Pro has a removable bean hopper that has a mechanism to keep the beans from spilling out, and it’s digital timer (controlled by a dial knob) has a pause function if you want to remove your portafilter halfway through a grind to settle the coffee in the basket.

The Sette 30 absolutely beats the Dose Control Pro in several areas. First, in timing; the Sette 30 has a digital 1/100th second timer (until 10 seconds, then goes to 1/10th second); the Dose Control Pro’s biggest flaw is it’s timer is in 1 second intervals. On grind quality, I definitely give the nod to the Sette 30; there’s less fines at espresso, and it’s super fluffy non compacted coffee delivery (the Dose Control Pro gets clumpy). In speed, there’s no question – the Sette 30 is easily 2x faster, if not more so.

The Sette 30 also comes with a grinds bin, something the Dose Control Pro does not have. And lastly, there’s the companies behind them; Breville still operates on a policy that, if the grinder breaks, it’s headed to the garbage heap, and the Dose Control Pro doesn’t enjoy the 2 year warranty that many newer Breville products have (it’s still 1 year). If a Baratza grinder breaks, Baratza stocks almost every part available for the machines and will walk you through after-warranty repairs. That’s worth a lot to me.

Versus the Breville Smart Grinder Pro

Many of the differences between the Baratza Sette 30 and the Breville Dose Control Pro also apply to the Breville Smart Grinder Pro, since the Smart Grinder Pro has similar internals to the Dose Control Pro – same burr group, similar motor (the Dose Control Pro is 130W; the Smart Grinder Pro is 160W), similar grinding speed, similar grind selection range, both come with two portafilter cradles, etc etc.

That said the Smart Grinder Pro has a lot of features that neither the Dose Control Pro or the Sette 30 have. Most of it has to do with usability and control. At $200 ($50 less than the Sette 30), you get a lot more control and functionality in the Breville unit.

The Smart Grinder Pro from Breville comes absolutely packed with features and settings, but does grind a lot slower than the Sette 30.

Without getting into too much detail (we covered a lot more in our 2016 review of the Breville grinder) (ed.note: We rewrote the Smart Grinder Pro review from the ground up in late 2023. It can be found here), the Smart Grinder Pro’s control and timers are almost on steroids. It has a 1/5th second digital timer (0.2sec resolution), but the timer is also “hooked into” the grind selection you do, so it remembers four different timer settings for you, for espresso, drip, “perc” (also Chemex coarse) and press pot.

And then on top of that, once you set the programmed time for 1 “cup” for each of the ranges, the machine will automatically calculate how much time to grind for 2 cups, 4 cups, etc, should you rotate the control dial to say how many cups you want to grind for (in the espresso range, it is limited to a single or double). The Smart Grinder is also loaded with sensors; including one that knows if you have the portafilter cradles in place when trying to grind for drip coffee (a notice on the display says “remove cradle”).

The Smart Grinder Pro comes with a grinds hopper as well as the two aforementioned portafilter cradles. The hopper is smartly designed too – it has measurement markings for three types of coffee grinding (drip, perk, press). Also, the Smart Grinder Pro comes with an internal activation button when grinding directly into a portafilter – just push the PF into that button and the grinder stars. Overall, the build quality is a bit better than the Dose Control Pro, but I’d still give the nod to the Sette 30 for overall build quality. And of course, the Smart Grinder Pro is eminently capable of doing a press pot grind, where the Sette 30 is not.

The Baratza Sette 30 beats the Smart Grinder Pro in all the same areas it does the Breville Dose Control Pro: it has a much better motor (which should handle more intensive grinding sessions); it has the 1/100th second timer; it’s grind output is much better; it is much faster, the espresso grind quality is better. And there’s the after warranty support, not to be shirked at.

Versus the Baratza Sette 270

This is where things get interesting. How important is dialing in the grind to you, for espresso? If it is a deal breaker on the Sette 30, then the Baratza Sette 270, at $130 more, will deliver.

The Sette 270 has Baratza’s famous “Macro / Micro” adjustment range, one that works much better than the one found on their Vario and Forte models. This gives you a lot more adjustment ability when dialing in espresso.

For that extra $120, you also get more robust build quality, including all metal mountings for the burr area, and you get the more advanced portafilter holder design that lets you use the machine hands free. You also get more detailed user controls on the Sette 270, including the three time presets you can easily program and change.

The only advantage the Sette 30 has over the 270 is price; everything else is either the same, or better on the 270 model.

The Baratza 270 series offers a lot more functionality, including the multi timer settings, better portafilter fork, and more. Subscribe Today COFFEEGEEKNEWSLETTER Sign up for the twice-monthly Coffee Pulse Newsletter from CoffeeGeek, with original, exclusive content, prize giveaways, and updates on the newest website content. Newsletter Signup

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want to reach a global specialty coffee audience? advertise with us. Sette 30Conclusion

Is the Baratza Sette 30 a “Rancilio Rocky Killer”? Frankly, too many grinders today are Rocky Killers, including all the ones mentioned in this review; they grind faster, some have much extended grind selection ranges for espresso, they dose better, they work better. The only thing Rocky has is it’s built like a tank; the motor’s commercial, the burr group is commercial, the housing is commercial. But it’s a grinder from a bygone era and doesn’t do what espresso enthusiasts demand today – grind fast, grind well, have a lot of grind selections, and don’t waste coffee.

So let’s set aside the Rocky Killer moniker once and for all. Is the Baratza Sette 30 a best buy? In some areas it is. For $250, you get one of the world’s fastest grinders, one that outputs a fantastic, even espresso grind, fluffy and clump free, and you get a nifty and accurate 1/100th second digital timer. I can remember spending $150 to add such a timer to a Super Caimano espresso grinder a few years back.

There’s also something you can’t put a price on: you get a grinder from a company that backs it up, both under warranty and after. Try getting a Breville serviced 3 years after you bought it; the company will offer to “repair” the grinder, but their idea of repair is to junk it, and send you a refurb; there’s almost no options to DIY the repair yourself with parts from Breville.

The Sette 30 is well suited for espresso; paired up with a machine like the Breville Bambino Plus, for $750 total cost, you can have a great home system that even froths your milk automatically.

The real achilles heels of the Sette 30 is the fact you are severely limited on dialing in an espresso grind, and the fact it won’t do anything remotely resembling a press pot grind. There’s also the problem with fines when you’re grinding for drip or chemex.

When you consider Breville offers two grinders that are $100 and $50 less than the Sette 30, and both are true “all purpose” grinders with better dial-in ability for espresso (albeit both slower, and both with marginally worse output on grind quality than the Baratza), there’s a strong argument for considering either the Smart Grinder Pro or the Dose Control Pro over the Sette 30. And then there’s Baratza’s Virtuoso+ grinder: you give up speed, “top of class” dosing of ground coffee, and the portafilter holder, but you get a grinder capable of press pot grinding, and you get the same after-sales support. Lastly, there’s the Baratza Sette 270 to consider: if you really want super fine tune control and better usability with presets, the $130 extra might be worth it to some.

Overall, we really liked the Sette 30 from Baratza. You get many of the benefits of the 270 and 270Wi range, in a beautiful package, for $250 – that’s less than half the price of the Sette 270Wi from Baratza. It’s grind output (for espresso) is head of the class, the speed is untouchable, and it looks great doing what it does. Still, we can’t give it our “best of class” award because of the too-limited espresso grind range and because it’s not an all purpose grinder: it cannot do a press pot grind, which is important for many coffee consumers. The grinder would score better for us if it was truly just an espresso grinder, with most of its grind range usable for turkish to moka pot grind.

While the Baratza Sette 30 is not best of class, it has a lot going for it, and if all the coffee you brew is from the espresso to drip pot range, this grinder will definitely suit. It’s advantages outweigh the disadvantages, and many home coffee enthusiasts would be happy to have this on their counter. We rate it as a very good product, and just a half point shy of making our “recommended” listing.

Sette 30Final Ratings

7.5 Design It’s pretty to look at, but the decision to not better tune the grind adjustment for espresso gets a big knock.
8.0 Usability Again, easy to use, good controls up front, but the lack of real dial in ability for espresso is a detriment.
7.0 Features One more time for the lack of a micro adjust system for the grinder. Also the very basic fork could have been better.
9.0 Performance Very fast grinder with excellent output for espresso.
8.0 Value vs. Cost The market is competitive and there are possibly better choices for espresso primary grinders at this price.
9.0 Quality of Build Built with Baratza’s typical excellent quality.
10.0 Service / Warranty It’s Baratza. They get a 10 here every time.
9.0 Included in the Box The grinds bin and grinds catch are nice additions.
8.5 Resale Value It’s not too bad; other Baratza grinders have better resale value.
8.5 Overall It’s a good grinder with excellent output, let down a bit by the lack of dial-in ability.

Where to Buy

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https://coffeegeek.com/reviews/fullreview/baratza-sette-30-coffee-grinder-full-review/

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#baratza #baratzaSette #coffeeGrinder #espressoGrinder #fullReview #grinder #sette30

#baratza #baratzasette #coffeegrinder #espressogrinder #fullreview #grinder

CoffeeGeek @[email protected] · 2023-10-02 · 05:02 UTC

Is grinds retention an issue with the Baratza Encore ESP grinder? Not for pour over, aeropress, or press pot grinding. But it is for espresso, and sometimes very stubborn to remove.

#baratza #encore #baratzaencoreesp #encoreesp #coffeegrinder #espressogrinder

https://youtu.be/P4_EX-mWC0M

#baratza #encore #baratzaencoreesp #encoreesp #coffeegrinder #espressogrinder

CoffeeGeek @[email protected] · 2023-10-02 · 05:02 UTC

Is grinds retention an issue with the Baratza Encore ESP grinder? Not for pour over, aeropress, or press pot grinding. But it is for espresso, and sometimes very stubborn to remove.

#baratza #encore #baratzaencoreesp #encoreesp #coffeegrinder #espressogrinder

https://youtu.be/P4_EX-mWC0M

#baratza #encore #baratzaencoreesp #encoreesp #coffeegrinder #espressogrinder

CoffeeGeek @[email protected] · 2023-10-02 · 05:02 UTC

Is grinds retention an issue with the Baratza Encore ESP grinder? Not for pour over, aeropress, or press pot grinding. But it is for espresso, and sometimes very stubborn to remove.

#baratza #encore #baratzaencoreesp #encoreesp #coffeegrinder #espressogrinder

https://youtu.be/P4_EX-mWC0M

#espressogrinder #coffeegrinder #encoreesp #baratzaencoreesp #encore #baratza

CoffeeGeek @[email protected] · 2023-10-02 · 05:02 UTC

Is grinds retention an issue with the Baratza Encore ESP grinder? Not for pour over, aeropress, or press pot grinding. But it is for espresso, and sometimes very stubborn to remove.

#baratza #encore #baratzaencoreesp #encoreesp #coffeegrinder #espressogrinder

https://youtu.be/P4_EX-mWC0M

#baratza #encore #baratzaencoreesp #encoreesp #coffeegrinder #espressogrinder

Mark Prince @[email protected] · 2023-10-20 · 13:30 UTC

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Article Encore ESPGallery

Dosing Cup Plate

On / Off Switch

Burrs on the Encore ESP

Encore ESP Grind Settings

Encore ESP's Dosing Cup

Pulse Button Up Front

Encore ESP in Typical Home Bar Setup

Inner Box Removed

Encore ESP Grind Dial

Burr Carrier and Housing

Encore ESP in White

Removing Hopper

Encore ESP On/Off Switch

Smart Grinder Pro vs Encore ESP

Testing the Encore ESP

Testing Encore with Chemex

Encore ESP Dosing for Gaggia

All the Parts

Assembly required

Grind Collar Settings

Whereto Buy

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CoffeeGeek Sponsor! NotableFeatures

The innovative grind adjustment collar has two stages, one fine tuned for espresso, the other for brew coffee.
M2 burrset is a noted upgrade in overall burr quality resulting in faster grinds and less fines at finer settings.
Comes with both the grinds bin and a dosing cup.
Motor has more than enough torque for the lightest of coffee roasts
Same price (inflation adjusted) as original Encore 20 years ago.

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want to reach a global specialty coffee audience? advertise with us. Outof the Box

The Encore ESP follows Baratza’s new “beautiful brown box” methodology, meaning everything used to ship and protect the grinder during transport is made from environmentally friendly and 100% easily recyclable materials. The box the grinder comes in is unpainted. The inner protections are all cardboard. And the grinder is housed in a compostable bag during transport, to avoid cosmetic damage. The company really leads the industry in this regard.

It’s kind of cool to see companies like OXO follow the lead somewhat (their new OXO 12 Cup Brew auto drip ships in a plain brown box with all cardboard protection inside, but they still use a styro-style wrap to protect the drip machine from cosmetic damage).

Removing the Encore ESP from the box and protective sleeves reveals the same silhouette as the older Encore; the only thing that looks slightly different is the more subtle branding. They also got rid of the old weird font they used to write “Encore” on the front of the grinder. While it may seem the same, this is a new grinder body with very slightly refined shape to it. Enough so that the BaratzaGEAR accents for the older Encore grinder do not fit the Encore ESP.

The brown box the Encore ships in. Very enviro friendly.

Opening the lid on the box shows the product manual up top.

Baratza has long had an interesting product box design that aids you in actually removing the inner box and parts, via tabs like this.

The inner box removed, now it's time to dig into it.

The hopper for the grinder is up top, and wrapped in compostable bags.

Once you remove the hopper and cardboard guard, the main machine is spotted, also wrapped in compost bags.

The main body removed from the box, wrapped in a compostable bag.

Unwrapped, here's all the main parts of the grinder: but where's the dosing cup and other accessories?

The various accessories (incl dosing cup, shims, brush, dial knob, dosing cup plate) are in the grinds bin.

Here's all the rest of the parts with the grinder, including dosing cup, dose cup plate, brush, dial knob, and burr shims.

Just a bit of assembly required: attach the dial knob to the on-off switch.

All the parts that come with the Encore ESP.

Like the Encore before it, the Encore ESP has three control points: the on/off dial on the right side, the pulse button up front, and the main hopper rotates to select the grind level. The pulse button feels stiffer on the Encore ESP compared to previous models. The on off switch on the side now has an extended tab, pointing at its operating position.

The grinder comes with one bean hopper that can hold 325g of coffee (12oz). Unlike more expensive Baratza grinders, this hopper does not have a flow shut off design that would allow you to remove the hopper when it is full of beans. Optionally, you can buy a single dose hopper from Baratza to replace the full bag hopper on top.

The Encore ESP comes with two grinds bins: the traditional, specially formulated plastic slide in grinds bin that has anti-static features and a visible line for max volume; and new with the ESP, a dosing cup. The dosing cup also comes with a rubberized mat you place in the main grinds chamber of the grinder.

The dosing cup is designed for very small batch grinding for pour over (max capacity is around 25g), but mainly for espresso portafilter use. Out of the box, the dosing cup is fitted for 58mm portafilters, but it has a removable silicone sleeve that lets it work with smaller diameter 54mm machines.

The grind selection dial on the Encore ESP is the rotating collar of the bean hopper. Also note the nice textured paint on the grinder.

The Encore ESP's forward facing pulse button. Seems a bit stiffer than the previous Encore, but works well.

This has been redesigned somewhat; on the older grinders, it could rotate 360 degrees, clicking on and off. Now, it just has two rotating positions.

The grinds bin installed, fits nice and tight but is still (relatively) easy to remove and reinsert. Gets more difficult if coffee is in the bin area.

The Encore ESP with the dosing cup and dosing plate installed.

A nice dosing cup with a trick: out of the box it fits 58mm portafilters. Remove the rubberized ring, and it fits 54mm portafilters.

Most of the money in this grinder is in the motor, gear system, and burr set and housing. We cover the burr system in depth later on. The motor is a DC high torque system running a 550 RPM for the burrs. The torque is plenty fine enough if you like your coffee baked instead of roasted (heh, yes, that was a dig at super light “blond” roasts popular in some circles).

The power cord is a 2 prong model, and unlike some other Baratza grinders, none of the cord can be stored inside the grinder – its entire length must be accounted for on your kitchen counter.

Up around the collar of the bean hopper are the grind selection indicators. There are 40 available clicks, with the first 20 dedicated to an espresso range, and the next 20 dedicated to AeroPress through Press Pot grinding.

To remove the bean hopper to get to the burrs, just rotate the hopper until the silver tab lines up at this point.

Once lined up, just tilt and lift the hopper out of the housing, to access the burrs.

The grind collar clearly indicates the "espresso zone" on the grind settings.

Burr housing and grind collar settings on the Black Encore ESP. Note the white outline highlights.

On the white Encore ESP, the burr carrier and housing; the top stationary burr is in place in this photo.

The top stationary burr removed, you can see the easily removable bottom cone M2 burr, and the vanes used to kick coffee out the chute when operating.

The top burr, with it's machined razor sharp details.

Reinserting the top burr is very easy and requires no tools or even adjustments. Just line up the red tab.

The Encore ESP is available in two colours: the traditional black model, and the more recent white model with black accents. The latter has a bit of a Star Wars Stormtrooper vibe to it, with the main white body but black cavity to the grinds area, and the black pin striping around the base.

I note the little finishing details, like how they have the right colour accents different on the black vs the white models. Also, the paint applied to the plastic body has a nice detailed texture to it, which gives a bit of a premium touch.

The Encore ESP weighs 2.5kg (5.5lb) empty (50g less with just the dosing cup and dose cup plate), 11cm wide, 14cm deep, and 34cm tall with the standard hopper (4.3”x5.5”x13.5”).

Side by side, the Encore ESP's two colour choices. Connect with us on Social Media MastodonFacebook-fInstagramYoutube

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Every good coffee grinder needs a break in period. Burrs have to settle, wear in a bit, and the machine has to settle into standard operating mode. Because of this, the 50th pound of coffee you run through the grinder isn’t going to grind the same way as the 5th pound.

We did this with the Encore ESP, putting 5kg through the grinder over a 2 week period, before any real testing started. That doesn’t mean we didn’t taste some of that coffee – we sure did! And some initial observations occurred.

First observation: it’s noisy. Louder than a Breville Smart Grinder Pro, a Baratza Virtuoso+ or a Turin SK40. Much louder than the Lagom Mini, the quiet champ. You can still have a conversation while it’s running and thankfully, it doesn’t have the screech volume of a Baratza Sette or a Turin DF64 Gen 2.

Second observation: the controls feel very stiff and cheaper than they did on the previous Encore. Maybe it’s that new grinder feel, but turning the on/off dial on the side feels clunky and not very reassuring, and the pulse button up front is stiff.

Third observation is that things like the grinds bin, dosing collar mat all fit really well into the machine, nice and tight. When you compare the fit and finish of the Encore to a grinder like the Opus from Fellow, you realise Baratza takes a lot more care to these things (or perhaps just has the longevity in the industry to fine tune these things over time).

There is one area where things seem jiggly: the bean hopper bounces and dances around a bit under operation. The original Encore was like that too. The grind selection won’t change, but you will see movement in the hopper under operation. Here’s a short video showing it.

Even during this break in period, I brewed and drank some of the coffee ground by the Encore ESP, and everything was tasting fine and working out well (mostly non-espresso methods were drunk; I ground out about 1.5kg at the “10” setting (espresso), but added that all to my garden as compost).

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The real test came when coffee was added to the Encore ESP for the first espresso tests. Baratza recommends 10 as the starting point for espresso, but this may be based on the 17g dose for 54mm espresso machines (natch, since Baratza is now owned by the most popular 54mm portafilter machine maker in the world, Breville). This was evident, because using our standard 18.5g dose resulted in a 40+ second shot. So we started at 11, and between 11 and 12, we hit our target range of 45g output in roughly 35 seconds (including 10 seconds preinfusion).

Grinding speed for espresso is pretty good; we measured 1.5g a second at the top end, requiring about 13 seconds to grind an 18.5g dose. Espresso grinds are very clumpy coming out of the Encore ESP, requiring some WDT action. The grinder also retains a lot of grinds when grinding for espresso; single dosing a cleaned out grinder resulted in as much as 2g or more being stuck inside the grind chamber and exit chute. Even using an aftermarket bellows (Introvert Makes) on the bean hopper, we struggled to get more than half of that coffee released.

Consistently during my off-camera data recording and collection, I was seeing 2g retention on a 10g sample, and when using the bellows, I could usually only coax out another .5g, with 1.5g remaining inside.

So, I decided to shoot a video showing retention during pour over grinds,and espresso grinds, and of course, my results (especially with espresso and the bellows) were an outlier: the bellows blowout of the espresso grind got us up to 9.8g out from a 10.1g sample grind. I have to point out this was an outlier, and not my normal result.

Here’s the detailed video.

Grind quality is generally good for espresso, and you kind of expect that from conical burrs and the M2 burr from Baratza and Etzinger. In Kruve sieve tests, I was measuring about 70% in our target range, and only 10% of the grind below 250 microns.

The grinds retention is definitely going to frustrate single dose fans. If I can go on a bit of a rant here, I’m not a fan myself of converting grinders designed for hopper use to single dose use, at least when it comes to espresso. The Encore ESP is designed as a hopper grinder, and will retain grinds between uses. This means be ready to waste 1-3g of coffee for every double shot pull you grind. Just comes par for the course.

My preferred method for using grinders like this is to fill up the hopper (or at least get 100-150g in there), and if you haven’t used it for a while, press the pulse button for a second to grind out 2-3g and get rid of any stale coffee. Then put your dosing cup or grinds bin on a scale, zero it out, and grind coffee into it for 12-13 seconds. Weigh the coffee to see if you’re at your dose weight. If not, grind a bit more. Then build your espresso shot.

Losing that 1-3g of coffee is a lot less hassle and frustration than cranking away with some bellows, or banging and slapping around a machine constantly to release any stored up grounds.

As for the clumping, I am sad to say the Encore ESP remains one of the more clumpy output grinders I’ve tested, at least at the espresso range. The Smart Grinder Pro is just as clumpy, and the Turin SK40 and SD40s less so. Only the Lagom Mini (the other grinder I compared) is relatively clump free in its output.

This grinder definitely needs some declumping action, be it through the WDT method, or stirring and agitating the grounds some other way.

After a bit of practice, the WDT method is very quick and easy to apply, and should take you less than 20 seconds.

Head to head, the Encore ESP does not produce espresso shots as consistently good as the Baratza Sette 270Wi (our test grinder) does. Several factors are at play, including the slower grinding time, the particle distribution, clump free vs clumpy, and the extra time needed to manage the espresso grind output from the Encore ESP. If the Sette was hitting constant 4 star shots, the Encore would reach 3.5 stars.

Against the original Encore, it’s no contest: the Encore ESP’s finer tuned grind for espresso produced superior shots nearly every time, and came much closer to our test parameter baseline.

Head to head against the Smart Grinder Pro from Breville, the Encore ESP was consistently the better shots in blind taste tests, but the SGP was closer in quality. If anything the Encore ESP shots seemed more defined in their flavour profile, and the SGP was more generic.

The Lagom Mini blew away the Encore ESP in terms of taste quality. Indeed, the Lagom beat the Sette 270Wi in several blind taste tests. This comes as a bit of a surprise because the Lagom takes nearly 50 seconds to grind 18.5g at an espresso grind.

But there are caveats here to consider. The Encore ESP can grind all day long if you want. Want to grind a full bag of coffee? No problem with the Baratza. Want to grind for your 1.4l auto drip machine’s full batch? The Encore ESP laughs at that task. The Encore ESP can bang out the 25g you want for your pourover in about 12 seconds.

The Lagom Mini takes nearly 50 seconds to grind 18.5g for espresso. And Option-O recommends only grinding 5 or 6 times a day max for espresso, otherwise the motor is too stressed. The LM is definitely a small batch, single use, single brew grinder. In that regard, it is amazing. But you give up speed and quantity with it.

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want to reach a global specialty coffee audience? advertise with us. Encore ESPOther Brew Methods Testing the Encore's output for Chemex brewing, using a Kone filter.

The Baratza Encore ESP is a very capable multi-purpose grinder with excellent grinding speeds (over 2g/sec for pour over). Right up to siphon, pour over, and auto drip, the grinder produces an excellent, uniform grind right up to that level. Once you move into Chemex and press pot territory, the particle distribution nose dives. To be fair, this happens with almost every conical burr grinder: the geometry and action of these grinders isn’t suited for coarser grounds.

Because there is no timer on the Encore ESP, you kind of have to eyeball how much coffee is grinding out if you’re using the full bean hopper. Knowing the grinding speed helps a bit: just count the seconds in your head to get close, and use a scale to increase your accuracy. Still, this grinder practically screams for a digital (or even mechanical) timer.

As much as I don’t like converting full hopper grinders for single dose use for espresso, I don’t mind it so much for non espresso brewing methods. And there’s further good news here: retention on the Encore ESP is greatly reduced with coarser grinds (like AeroPress and pour over grinds). In fact, I discovered an easy way to clean out stale espresso grinds from the grinder is to quickly dial it up to 30, grind for a second or two, flap the lid, and this pretty much empties out any retained grinds.

The Encore ESP works quite well as a single dose grinder for pourover, AeroPress and siphon coffee use. We tested the grinder both with the regular bean hopper, and the BaratzaGEAR single dose hopper. With the latter, lifting and lowering the cup-lid of the single dose hopper effectively clears out the grinder completely, meaning, if you put 20g in, you can get 20g out.

The clumpiness of the Encore ESP’s espresso grind all but disappears by the time the grinder is coarse enough for pour over; though sometimes the last bit out (especially with a lid flap) can be a bit clumpy. A quick shake of the grinds bin resolves this.

Pourover

As a pour over grinder, the Encore ESP performs very well, and nearly as good as the older Encore (retrofitted with the M2) burrs. Why not “as good”? Because your have a more limited grinding range settings in the non espresso range on the ESP, and there’s some pretty big jumps in grind size with single click changes on the grind selection dial. The older Encore had tighter jumps in grind size, giving you a bit more fine tuning. It’s not a big deal, but if you’re fooling around with no-bypass vs standard bypass brewing, you might find yourself wanting to go a half click finer or coarser on the ESP.

The Encore ESP performs better than the Sette 270Wi for pour over. Cleaner, better flowing cups. The Sette is fantastical for espresso, and drops off a cliff for pour over (it produces way too many fines). The Encore ESP has a much tighter grind distribution size in pour over range.

In head to head tasting against the Lagom Mini, the Breville Smart Grinder Pro, and the 2019 Encore (with M3 burrs), the Lagom Mini was again the clear winner, with every blind taste coming out on top. The Encore ESP placed second overall, but was beaten out by the SGP in one taste test. The SGP and 2019 Encore tied across 4 other tests for last place.

Chemex and Press Pot

Conical burr grinders do not do well for coarse grinds. Even the Lagom Mini can’t perform as well as the Baratza Vario+ for Chemex and press pot.

So for this round, I put the Encore ESP up against the 2019 Encore, just to see if the product line has improved in this regard (mainly due to the M2 burr set in the ESP). The short and honest answer is, I couldn’t tell.

Here’s the thing though. You’re not going to wince in disgust from a press pot brew made with coffee ground in an Encore (or Encore ESP). In fact, you will probably think it tastes excellent. People like me go nuts over fines, muddy cups, clogged filter paper (in the case of Chemex testing), and the like, but in the real world, the Encore ESP is still leagues better at press pot and Chemex grinds than your typical $75 Walmart burr grinder, or $35 Target blade grinder. Like night and day difference.

If all you drink is press pot coffee, I wouldn’t advise getting an Encore ESP. I’d recommend getting a good quality flat burr grinder that spins at lower RPMs, like the Baratza Vario series. But if you want a grinder that does every major brewing method, the Encore ESP is ‘good enough” for press and Chemex.

If the fines really bother you, you could invest in a cheap sifting dose cup if you want a really clean press pot brew with this grinder. One weird note in my testing: the Encore ESP was actually slower in the output for press pot (1.9g/sec) than for pour over (2.3g sec peak).

Encore ESPOther Details

The biggest knock against the Baratza Encore was that it could not do a good espresso grind. Baratza was keenly aware of this, for years, so when they started work on the ESP version, this area – espresso – was their primary focus.

The result of this is the most significant change in the Encore ESP over the previous Encore: the burr group, burr housing and grind selection design.

First, and very briefly, the burrs. The Encore now features Etzinger’s M2 burr set, first designed for the Virtuoso grinder (incidentally, Breville is now using these burrs in their latest espresso machine, the Breville Barista Touch Impress). The M2 burrs are much more refined for espresso production, while still maintaining a “decent” (all things considered) level of fines production for brew coffee. They, like most conical burr grinders, still produce an excessive amount of fines once you grind coarse enough for Chemex, no bypass brewing, or press pot.

The M2 burrs are respected; indeed, many folks would buy these burrs from Baratza, and retrofit their old Encores with them to get better espresso grinding performance.

The second big change is more of a long term benefit: this is by far the easiest Baratza grinder to completely change the burrs in. They redesigned how the solid cone burr (this is the actual rotating burr, the one attached to the motor) is removed. It can now be done by hand via a twist-cap on top. A bit of a game changer because, while some cottage industry grinders out there have come up with innovative ways to swap and change burrs, the main grinder manufacturers have rarely seen the need for a system like this. Until now.

On the white Encore ESP, the burr carrier and housing; the top stationary burr is in place in this photo.

Why is this a long term benefit? Because 10, 12 years from now, if Baratza has an even better burr set compatible with the Encore ESP, you can very easily swap it. Or, if you are grinding a pound of coffee every few days, you might want to change your burrs every 7-10 years.

Of course, the biggest change is the grind adjustment collar the burrs sit in. It’s a bit of a groundbreaking design too. Half of the grinding range is designed for “near turkish” (not quite) to “moka pot” grinding. Baratza refers to it as the espresso range, and the ESP in the Encore ESP is shortform for espresso.

Grind settings on the Encore ESP. The espresso range is a constant 20um change from click to click. Things ramp up in size differences rapidly once you're in the non espresso zone.

From Kyle Anderson, previous co-owner of Baratza and the chief engineer behind the Encore ESP’s design:

“In the range of 1-20, the entire grind output adjustment is around 400 microns. The slope on the burr adjustment in these first 20 clicks is 80 degrees. The actual vertical movement of the burrs across the range is only 70 microns (or about 3.6 microns per click!!!), but because the plane between the burrs is angled, each click registers about 20 microns in grind fineness adjustment.”

Anderson went on to explain: “In the range of 21 to 40, the burrs’ adjustment pitch changes to a steeper angle, and the angle slopes ever higher, so the coarser you go, the more increase in micron output size between the clicks.” This means going from 20 to 21 might give a 60 micron jump; adjusting from 38 to 39 could give a 150 micron jump.

Also of note, the ramp for the espresso grind settings is constant, meaning each click results in similar micron adjustments coarser or finer. This changes, as Anderson pointed out, once you get to the non espresso adjustment range, with each click change coarser resulting in a bigger grind micron size.

I’ve seen some video reviews trying to explain this, but according to Anderson they got the information wrong, especially in micron numbers. Bottom line: there is a lot of room to play on the espresso side of the grind adjustment (starting at “10” is a good place, then go up or down a few clicks to fine tune), but once you go past 20, expect much bigger jumps in grind size the coarser you go.

Of course, being a conical burr grinder, you can also expect more fines production the coarser your go. The Encore ESP is capable of a proper press pot grind with 1200-1400 micron chunks of ground coffee, but with a lot of fines in there too.

Back to espresso for a moment, what does each click represent in terms of actual brewing time? Anderson told me that each click in the espresso range results in a shot pull that is 5 seconds longer (or shorter) in time. In my actual testing, his quoted numbers weren’t that far off, and it could be my own testing numbers were different because of a different starting dose.

We tested this using our established parameters: Breville Dual Boiler as the test machine; Social Coffee’s People’s Daily Blend as the coffee; 18.5g dose, exact to .1g; WDT method applied; 10 second preinfusion; 25 second shot (35 seconds total shot time); 45g out (1:2.5 ratio). A setting of “11” delivered this shot time and volume.

Going one click finer on the Encore ESP (to “10”) using the above parameters delivered 45g in 39.1 seconds (average across three tests). One click coarser (to “12”) delivered 45g in 31.6 seconds across three tests. Why was there less jump going coarser? Most likely the fines production of the burrset plays a role.

The TL:DR on this is it is an innovative way to provide a true multipurpose grinder that gives the kind of fine tuning adjustment range you want for espresso, while still providing a good range for everything else, from AeroPress on up to press pot coffee. And in our testing, the Encore ESP delivers exactly that.

Encore ESPUsability

The Baratza Encore ESP is a very easy grinder to use and maintain. On the maintenance side of things, this is great. On the usability side, it’s because there’s almost no advanced features built into this grinder, a not-so-good thing.

I find myself using the pulse button up front a lot on this grinder. For espresso, I press and hold it for 13 seconds and always get near my 18.5g target dose (after doing a 1 second purge of old grinds). For pour over, and the standard 21g dose I want for a 300ml brew, holding for around 8 seconds gets the job done. Because the pulse button up front is pretty stiff, I do have to hold the grinder with my other hand so it doesn’t tip backwards.

The Encore ESP's forward facing pulse button. Seems a bit stiffer than the previous Encore, but works well.

When it comes down to it, I’d rather use this grinder with the full bean hopper up top, and the dosing cup setup below. Just be aware there is going to be some grind “spray” if you use the dosing cup. It gets on the counter, gets into the grind bin area, and can get messy. I also attached Introvert Make’s bellows to the Encore ESP’s bean hopper lid, and that helps a lot with retention; especially for grinds coarser than espresso.

The grinder is incredibly easy to maintain and clean. The non-rotating burr just pulls out, no tools required (once you remove the bean hopper). The rotating cone burr can be removed just by turning the knurled knob on top counter clockwise. Then you can deep clean everything. Again, no tools required.

I did wish the cord could be stored somewhat in the body of the grinder, or around some loop holder in the bottom. It is thick, heavy grade, and hard to hide on the counter if you want a nice, clean look.

I have to say, the white version of this grinder looks excellent on the counter. Towards the end of my testing, I had it next to a white Gaggia Classic Evo Pro, and it just looked… awesome. The made the cavity on the Encore ESP black, and that lends a very trendy “Star Wars” Stormtrooper look to it, one that car manufacturers seem to be embracing big time.

Then there’s the lack of a timer. This, to me, is the biggest failing of this grinder. You can get grinders with digital 0.1 second timers on Amazon for $50 these days. There’s no excuse for not including just a basic, simple, digital timer on a grinder costing $200, in my mind. You really start to notice if when you grinding larger batches. It’s very easy to overshoot your 6 cup auto drip grind, wasting 10, 15g or more of coffee. It adds up in cost. Even a mechanical timer would have been nice. On/off switchers are so last century.

Maybe the Encore ESP+ will have a digital timer, who knows. I’ll say this: I would have rated this grinder in the 87-88pt range if it had one.

Switch for the motor on the Encore ESP. This is the biggest disappointment on the grinder: in 2023, I don't think this kind of switch is acceptable any longer. Connect with us on Social Media MastodonFacebook-fInstagramYoutube

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want to reach a global specialty coffee audience? advertise with us. Encore ESPCompared To

We covered some head to head comparisons above in the drink build sections, so I want to keep this brief. Plus, I feel one of the things the video reviewers of coffee gear do particularly well is show how one product compares to another. They can do in 2 minutes what would take me 1,500 words to type and show a couple of dozen photographs. I recommend checking a few out if you want to see more direct comparisons.

This doesn’t mean I didn’t do a heap of head to head testing. Oh boy, did I ever. Over 3 dozen blind taste tests. Two with small focus groups. For a solid week, I had the Encore ESP sitting right next to a Breville Smart Grinder Pro, a Lagom Mini, a 2019 Encore, and just for extra workload, a Timemore C3 ESP Pro. And even though Fellow won’t send us their products for review, I did manage to borrow a Fellow Opus for a few days to test against the Encore ESP.

Vs. Baratza Sette 270Wi and Sette 270

The Encore ESP still cannot touch the output from the Sette 270Wi when it comes to espresso. Sure, the 270 is noisy AF, but the output is fluffy, uncompressed and there’s almost zero retention with that grinder. For espresso in particular, the Etzinger burrs in the Sette just seem to produce a better grind for espresso. Keep in mind, the 270Wi is a $600 grinder (albeit with an Acaia scale built in). You could go for the Sette 270 (which has the same micro and macro adjustment system as the Wi) for $400, but that’s double the price of the Encore ESP. The Sette 30 is a non-starter for us because adjustment in the espresso range is just too wide per click.

The Sette 270Wi remaiins one of the best espresso primary grinders you can buy under $1,000.

Vs. Smart Grinder Pro

I think the Breville Smart Grinder Pro, along with the Fellow Opus, are Baratza’s two main competitor products on the market, at least until the Turin SK40 came out (we have one here, but didn’t have it in time for this testing). Because of this, this is going to be the longest comparison in this section.

On pure grind quality and fine tuning for espresso, the Encore ESP is the clear winner compared to the Breville Smart Grinder Pro. Both are conical burrs grinders, but the M2 burr in the Encore ESP just does a better job overall for espresso grinder. The 20 micron adjustment on the Encore ESP also gives you a lot more fine tuning ability.

For drip coffee, both grinders are very even for me in terms of the grinds output and the quality in the cup. The Encore ESP is faster, and seems the more torque-ey of the two grinders, meaning it’s probably better for those baked roasts popular in some circles.

The Smart Grinder Pro starts to beat the Encore ESP when it comes to press pot grinds. Sieve test show less fines produced with the SGP.

The Smart Grinder Pro completely destroys the Encore ESP on features. A digital 0.2 second timer, multiple (like dozens) of timer memories for espresso, percolator, drip, and pourover that you can set, a clearer display panel with lots of information, the pause grinding feature (to knock down your PF), the dosing forks and the grinds bin, and the one handed, press to grind button when grinding directly into a portafilter. Seriously, the featureset on the Smart Grinder Pro is staggering.

Both grinders put out a very clumpy grind for espresso, requiring WDT. The Smart Grinder Pro is even more clumpy. I have not tested the retention on the Smart Grinder Pro like I have the Encore ESP, but I do know it retains a lot. My experience with the SGP is to always run it for a few seconds to clear out old stale grinds.

So why go for the Encore ESP over the Smart Grinder Pro? If you are espresso-primary in your house, the Encore ESP is the better overall output, with better fine tuning. It’s also faster. Second, Baratza’s after sales service is phenomenal (even though Breville bought Baratza). Third, Baratza stocks most of the parts for the Encore ESP and sells them at near cost if you ever need to repair it down the road. Breville? Toss the grinder if it breaks in 5 years, and buy a new one.

Why go for the Smart Grinder Pro over the Encore ESP? It’s quieter, to start with. It is more versatile in terms of grind settings and digital timer “memory” settings. It can very easily transition between espresso and drip grinding. And its output for Chemex and Press Pot is better.

For me, I would miss the extra featureset of the Smart Grinder Pro (I love the way you can just dock in a portafilter, press it back and grind on demand), but I lean towards the Encore ESP out of these two, based on the espresso output, speed, and Baratza’s after sales service. If I bought one, I’m comfortable knowing that 10 years from now, I could buy the motor for $40 and follow their handy PDF on swapping it out should mine die.

The Smart Grinder Pro from Breville is also an excellent sub $200 grinder to consider.

Vs. Lagom Mini

I continue to be amazed at just how good the Option-O Lagom Mini is, given its tiny size and slow RPMs. Honestly, it is better than the Sette 270Wi in terms of espresso cup quality. It’s tiny, it is exceptionally well made, and just a joy to use. It’s also $375, or almost double the price of the Encore ESP.

Through its grind range, the Mini’s output is more uniform and even, compared to the Encore ESP. Some of the best conical burr “cups” of pour over I’ve ever had have come from the Lagom Mini. The Mini even excels for press pot grinding.

The Lagom Mini is almost painfully slow (up to 50 seconds to grind 18.5g) and its duty cycle is limiting. All that said, it really is one of the best grinders under $1,000 that I’ve used for espresso in terms of what you drink in the cup. The stepless grind adjustment also allows for very finite adjustments and fine tuning.

So why would you consider the Encore ESP over the Lagom Mini? Putting aside that it is $175 cheaper, you can also do a lot more coffee grinding with the Encore ESP. The two main negatives of the Lagom Mini is how slow it is, and how the motor inside is not really rated for high volume, constant grinding. Option-O also recommends not using the grinder more than 5 or 6 times per day.

The Encore ESP doesn’t have these limitations. While not rated for commercial use, it can easily grind an entire bag of coffee (in two stages) without issue. More realistically, the ESP can grind for your full batch, large size auto drip coffee maker. The Lagom Mini cannot.

The Lagom Mini is a unique, game-breaking grinder but is almost double the price of the Encore ESP.

Vs. 2019 Baratza Encore

Even though the Encore ESP is $50 more than the Encore, the choice here is a no-brainer: go for the Encore ESP. You get a better burr (usually a $30-$40 upgrade over the Encore), the dosing cup and dosing mat (as well as the standard grinds bin), and most importantly, the newly designed, more beefy burr housing and grinds adjustment. The fine tuning you can do in the espresso range is a serious upgrade.

In short, the Encore ESP can do all your grinding needs. The Encore cannot (when it comes to espresso at least).

To put this to the test, I used a coffee that was brand new to me (Victoria BC’s 2% Jazz espresso blend, The Hudson) and tried to dial in both to CoffeeGeek’s standard of 18.5g in, 45g out, in 35 seconds, including 10 second preinfuse. I never got there with the Encore. Shots were either nearly stalled (50+ seconds to output 45g) or gushers (under 25 seconds including the preinfusion). To get to our target brew time, I would have to adjust the dose volume.

It took me only 2 dial in attempts with the Encore ESP to get to within 2 seconds of our target brew time. Setting 11 worked great. I do have to say, coaxing the 18.5g poured into the grinder hopper fully out into the dosing cup required a lot of bellows and banging on both units.

The Encore ESP is also marginally faster in output than the Encore is, again due to the new M2 burrset inside.

Vs. Timemore C3 ESP Pro Hand Grinder

In a pure blind taste test, with five shots pulled, head to head, the Timemore C3 ESP Pro beat the Encore ESP. This result kind of shocked me. I have to put it down to Timemore’s new S2C burrsets inside.

The Timemore also allows very fine adjustments in their ESP version of the C3 grinders, giving roughly the same micron adjustment (20um) per “click” that the Encore ESP does. The “action” of the folding crank arm on the C3 ESP Pro is also nice, letting you crank away at around 75-90rpm with some practice.

I found both grinders were similar in pour over coffee quality and give a slight nod to the Encore ESP on anything for Chemex or Press Pot. The Timemore is relatively fast (for a hand grinder) when grinding for press pot (21g out in about 30-35 seconds) but nowhere near the speed of the Encore ESP with its’ 2.3g/sec grinding speed.

So why choose the Timemore C3 ESP Pro over the Encore ESP? It’s half the price, outputs better espresso grinds, and being unpowered, is a great travel and portable grinding option. It is fast (relative) for AeroPress through Press Pot grinds, and is very well built. Lastly, the output, even for espresso is way less clumpy than it is with the Encore ESP.

But the Encore ESP is motorized, can handle big batch grinding without any issues, allows a nice granular and repeatable grind settings for espresso, and is much, much faster overall. Basically, if you’re only making a couple shots of espresso a day, and one or two 300ml pourovers, the Timemore C3 ESP Pro might be the better option for you. If you don’t want beefy forearms and want hassle free, convenient grinding, whether it’s 18g out or 80g out, with really good output, the Encore ESP is your choice.

The Timemore C3 ESP Pro, at around $100 or less, outputs an excellent grind and has fine adjustments for espresso; but the motor is your hand. Subscribe Today COFFEEGEEKNEWSLETTER Sign up for the twice-monthly Coffee Pulse Newsletter from CoffeeGeek, with original, exclusive content, prize giveaways, and updates on the newest website content. Newsletter Signup

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The Baratza Encore ESP carries on a 20 year tradition, started by the Baratza Maestro, then the original Encore as a leading choice in the budget, quality grinder category. It confidently addresses one of the greatest shortcomings of the Encore, by having a robust, capable, fine-tunable grinding ability for espresso.

The after sales service that comes with this grinder is worth nearly the price of the grinder itself. You will probably be seeing Encore ESP grinders being used 20 years from now, just like how I have a 2000-era original Encore still in operation (it has had a motor change ($35) and a burr change ($25).

The output quality from espresso through press pot grinds is excellent. The speed is good, peaking at 2.3g/sec. The noise levels are acceptable, if a bit on the loud side. The motor has enough torque to handle PNW and Scandinavian baked roasts. The addition of the dosing cup is a nice perk that saves you $20ish dollars. The upgrade ot the M2 burrset saves another $35 or $40.

The biggest negative of this grinder, and the one that truly prevents it from being our absolute top recommended grinder under $200 is the lack of a timer. Given that $50 Amazon specials have 0.1sec digital timers on their budget grinders, there’s no excuse for the Encore ESP not to have one. This isn’t 1995 any longer. A timer would have really boosted the overall useability of this grinder, and more importantly, would prevent waste of good coffee. A solid 4+ points in our rating are knocked off because of this omission.

Some may point to the SK40, SD40 and DF64 grinders from Turin and point out they do not have timers. But they are also true single-dose grinders. The Encore ESP is a hopper grinder, capable of holding up to 300g+ of coffee up top. Hopper grinders need timers. Single Dose grinders do not.

Overall though, we do recommend the Baratza Encore ESP as an entry point, multi-purpose grinder. The longevity, build quality, grind output, and fine tuning ability for espresso make it a great choice for anyone looking to get into quality coffee in the home on a budget.

Encore ESPFinal Ratings

8.5 Design Looks good, has a nice footprint and everything fits together nicely.
7.0 Usability A lot of grinds retention when grinding for espresso, and even using aftermarket bellows doesn’t work well. No timer is a further knock.
7.5 Features Big ups for the grind selection dial innovations, easy to change burrset and dosing cup. Big downs for the lack of grind timer.
6.5 Performance Espresso performance is even better than the Virtuoso+ in Baratza’s lineup, and it does a good job at other grind settings too.
8.5 Value vs. Cost At $200, this is actually cheaper today than the original Encore ($205, adjusted for today’s dollars vs 2004 cost). You get a lot of entry point grinder at this price.
8.5 Quality of Build Baratza spends the money (mostly) right in this grinder, with most going towards motor, burr set, burr housing and the grind selection dial.
10 Service / Warranty It’s Baratza. Best after sales service in the entire coffee industry. Most companies can’t touch them.
9.5 Included in the Box Lots of stuff included, from the single dose container to shelf, brushes and more.
8.5 Resale Value As long as it is in good shape, you should be able to get up to 75% of the price back on resale.
8.5 Overall Giving it up for the innovative grind selection dial and bonus dosing cup. But this grinder loses points for the lack of timer.

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Mark Prince @[email protected] · 2023-10-20 · 13:30 UTC

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Article Encore ESPGallery

Dosing Cup Plate

On / Off Switch

Burrs on the Encore ESP

Encore ESP Grind Settings

Encore ESP's Dosing Cup

Pulse Button Up Front

Encore ESP in Typical Home Bar Setup

Inner Box Removed

Encore ESP Grind Dial

Burr Carrier and Housing

Encore ESP in White

Removing Hopper

Encore ESP On/Off Switch

Smart Grinder Pro vs Encore ESP

Testing the Encore ESP

Testing Encore with Chemex

Encore ESP Dosing for Gaggia

All the Parts

Assembly required

Grind Collar Settings

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