The top five espresso grinders

In the last article, we explained why the espresso grinder is the unsung hero of the coffee bar. Choosing the right espresso grinder is critical for your baristas to have a fast and efficient workflow. The grinder is one of the biggest factors that determines how many coffees your cafe can make in a day. Furthermore, the choice of grinder can have a bigger effect on the flavor of your coffee than the espresso machine itself.

But just as there is no one "best" espresso machine , there is no one grinder that is the best choice for every cafe. The most important thing is to choose the best grinder for you. So here is our list of the five best espresso grinders, for five different cafes.

What’s the best espresso grinder for starting out.

If you’re less experienced in specialty coffee, then the ideal grinder is one that is reliable, and simple to operate — but that does as much of the work for you as possible.

For reliability, it’s best to seek out grinders from established international brands like Mahlkönig or Nuova Simonelli. Features like powerful motors, or large grinding capacities, indicate that the grinder will survive a little heavy handling — but the most important factor is that you have a good warranty and good service coverage.

For ease of use, look for simple controls. The best example of this is the Mythos One from Victoria Arduino, which has just three buttons. With this grinder, it only takes a single button press to adjust the dose, or to change from a single dose to a double. Changing the grind size is also very easy, with the adjustment knob placed on the front.

Finally, to reduce the amount of work your team has to do, look for grinders that can automatically deliver the correct dose of coffee without too much intervention from the barista. Most modern grinders use a timer to control how much coffee they dispense, but the amount of coffee ground in that time will vary as the grinder heats up and cools down, which means the grinder needs frequent recalibration.

The Mythos One also does a good job here by stabilizing the grinder temperature, which reduces the amount of recalibration needed. However, the best solution is a grinder with built-in scales, which weighs out the exact amount of coffee every time.

The best grinder for new baristas is the E65S GbW, the latest grinder from Mahlkönig. The Grind by Weight technology reliably delivers the desired dose of coffee straight out of the box.

Having the scales built right into the grinder makes it much faster and easier to put exactly the right amount of coffee into your machine. The The E65 GbW is an ideal solution, both for cafes that want to maintain pinpoint accuracy, and for cafes that prefer to ‘set and forget’ their grinder and focus on other things.

What’s the best espresso grinder for tight budgets.

The costs of setting up a new cafe can mount up very quickly. No matter how carefully you plan ahead, there are always unexpected costs or unforeseen problems that eat into your budget.

If you find yourself needing to cut costs, we urge you to avoid opting for the cheapest grinder you can find. You’ll get much better results by saving a bit of money on the espresso machine than you will by choosing a grinder that won’t be able to keep up with the business as it grows.

That said, there are some good-quality, budget-friendly grinders on the market. For a low-volume cafe, the Nuova Simonelli MDX On Demand is excellent value for money. It uses the same 65mm size of burrs found in many larger grinders and has a 500W motor — relatively powerful for its size. It makes life easy for baristas as well, featuring ‘hooks’ that hold the portafilter for hands-free operation, and intuitive controls. At this price point, the MDX is very hard to beat.

For the grinder that gives the most performance for your money, we recommend the Nuova Simonelli MDJ On Demand — the MDX’s big brother.

This grinder looks superficially similar to the MDX, and shares its user-friendly design and solid build quality. Under the hood, however, it has a bigger motor and larger 75mm burrs, which make a big difference to the grind quality. With bigger burrs, you get better grind quality and consistency, which improves the flavor of the coffee. Bigger burrs also allow the grinder to handle much bigger volumes. A grinder like this can hold its own even in a very busy cafe.

What’s the best espresso grinder for busy cafes.

For high-volume cafes, the most important features of a grinder are that it has big burrs, and that it won’t heat up too much during busy periods.

The Mahlkönig E80 Supreme ticks both of those boxes, with large 80mm burrs, and an active cooling system to keep the grinder stable during busy periods. It grinds quietly and incredibly quickly, and will produce excellent espresso no matter how hard you push it. The winner in this category, however, is the Mythos II from Nuova Simonelli.

The Mythos II is the best grinder for busy cafes. It has massive 85mm burrs, and a unique temperature control system that lets you choose the desired temperature inside the grinding chamber.

The Mythos II will keep itself warm during quiet periods, then cool itself very efficiently when you get busy — greatly reducing the amount of time you have to spend adjusting the grinder every time there’s a rush.

The Mythos II is also available in a ‘Gravitech’ version with built-in scales, but for speed, reliability, and ease of use, we recommend the ‘Fixed’ version of this grinder in cafes where fast service is the priority.

What’s the best espresso grinder for coffee geeks.

No true coffee geek would be satisfied with just one grinder. The ideal setup for keen baristas includes an espresso grinder for the main blend, and a single-dosing grinder, to offer more choices to your customers.

The single-dosing grinder on every barista’s wishlist is Mahlkönig’s EK43S . This is a version of Mahlkönig’s popular EK43 filter grinder, modified for use on an espresso bar with a more compact design.

A single-dosing grinder like the EK43S . allows baristas to offer an unlimited range of single origin coffees with just one grinder. With a library of coffees stored in airtight containers, or even sealed in pouches in the freezer, you can take your customers on a voyage through the terroir of coffee.

A single-dosing grinder, however, is challenging to use as the main espresso grinder.

The Gravitech’ version of the Mythos II is the perfect pick as the main grinder for baristas that want to explore every nuance of their coffees.

Best of all, the Mythos II is the only grinder on the market that allows you to control the grinding temperature and the motor speed. Both the temperature that you grind at, and the speed that the burrs spin at, alter the grind profile and the flavor of the coffee. How these factors affect the coffee is something that baristas are only just beginning to explore.

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What’s the best espresso grinder for design lovers.

Coffee connoisseurs will pay just as much attention to what grinder is on the bar as they will to the choice of espresso machine. Nonetheless, grinders are generally designed to fit in rather than to make a big fashion statement.

The rare exceptions are boutique grinder manufactures like Titus or Weber Workshops . Such companies build limited numbers of grinders by hand, usually with a special purpose or a distinctive aesthetic. Boutique grinders are rarely practical in a typical cafe, though. The designs are primarily aimed at home users, and the cost of such grinders can be eye-watering.

For a commercial grinder that will fit in with your chosen aesthetic, therefore, it’s best to choose an unobtrusive design that can easily be customized to suit your color scheme. Most grinders are only available in black, white, and occasionally, red. Mahlkönig recently released the EK43 in a beautiful range of limited-edition colors, but these models are now hard to find. So if you want to choose a unique color for your grinder, you’ll either need to place a special order for a custom color, or have it powder-coated yourself.

One of the few grinders designed with custom colors in mind is the Mythos II. The grinder is built in such a way that the main parts of the shell can be removed without affecting the inner workings of the grinder.

You’ll still need a qualified technician to help you disassemble the grinder, but it may work out cheaper and quicker to do this than to have a grinder custom built in your color of choice.

Every coffee shop has different needs, but armed with this list of the five best grinders on the market today, you can surely find the perfect grinder for you.

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