Best Coffee Grinders To Consider Buying

The best blade, burr, and manual coffee grinders you can buy.

Once you’ve had a great cup of coffee, it’s hard to go back. Many factors contribute to taste, including how it’s made and the temperature it’s served at, but the freshness of the beans is among the most important.

Most coffee is sold in a UV-blocking, vacuum-sealed container, but once you open it, the flavor starts to fade, especially if it’s already ground.

Whole coffee beans retain their flavor much longer than ground. For comparison, think of how freshly minced garlic smells versus the unnoticeable scent of a whole clove.

Related Post: Best Automatic Drip Coffee Makers

The longer you let it sit once it’s cut up, the more its scent will dissipate. The same thing happens with coffee beans — once they’re ground and exposed to more air, they start to lose flavor.

Grinding your own beans before each batch ensures the freshest flavor. It also allows you to control the grind size, a key selling-point for those who prefer using a French press or making cold brew.

To determine which coffee grinders to recommend, we tested 35 different grinders from trusted brands and best-sellers on Amazon.

They included a variety of blade and burr grinders, three of which were manual. We evaluated the grinders on how easy they were to set up and use, and more importantly, how well they performed.

The highest scoring grinders were able to produce even grounds for all types of coffee, including fine for espresso, medium for drip, and coarse for cold brew and French press.

They grounds were also easy to pour into a coffee filter from the container, while making a minimal mess. Our favorites were also relatively quiet.

The Top Rated Coffee Grinders From Our Test

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Best Overall Coffee Grinder

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1. OXO BREW Conical Burr Grinder

In our tests, we were impressed with how the OXO burr grinder performed. It produced very even coffee grounds that could be used for espresso, cold brew, and everything in between.

The hopper (where the beans are stored) features a UV-blocking tint and an air-tight lid, both of which help preserve flavor.

It can also hold up to 3/4 pound of coffee beans, the largest capacity of all the grinders we tested. The grinder operates with the touch of a button and grinds into a static fighting, stainless steel container.

The container features a lid with a hole big enough to empty the grounds into a coffee filter without making a mess.

The lid helps prevent grounds from shooting everywhere. After emptying the grounds, the container clicks securely into place, readying it for the next batch.

Coffee bean capacity: 3/4 pound
Grind settings: 15
Cup settings: None, but offers a 30-second programmable timer

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Best Value Coffee Grinder:

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2. Hamilton Beach Fresh Grind Electric Coffee Grinder

While blade grinders are generally less expensive than burr grinders, this Fresh Grind Electric Coffee Grinder from Hamilton Beach stands out in terms of performance, too.

It can confidently grind up to 9 tablespoons of coffee beans quickly and evenly. It’s also easy to operate with the touch of one button.

The clear lid allows you to fully see inside to see how your beans are grinding, and the grinding container is removable, which makes it easy to empty out into a coffee filter.

Unlike other blade grinders we tested, the container also features 6-, 10-, and 12- cup coffee ground markings to better guide your experience.

It also lists a maximum for spices, although we typically recommend grinding your coffee and spices in different containers.

An additional unique feature is its cord storage system hidden within the base: Pull it down to expose a dowel that you can use to wrap the cord around, and pop it back up to hide it.

• Coffee bean capacity:

9 tablespoons, according to the manufacturer’s instructions

• Grind settings:

Not applicable to blade grinders (only applicable to burr grinders); grind size can be controlled by how many times you pulse it or how long you process it

• Cup settings:

None, but can be controlled by how many tablespoons of coffee beans you grind at a time

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Best Coffee Grinder for Espresso and Pour Over:

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3. Breville The Smart Grinder Pro

The Breville Smart Grinder Pro is designed beautifully for the most picky espresso and coffee drinkers, including pour over!

It features 60 grind settings that produce some of the most even results we’ve seen. The finest setting produces powdery results that don’t clump together, while the coarsest resembles the ground coffee you’d buy in a store. 

The grinder features a large, digital screen that allows you to effortlessly select the grind size, cup amount, and grind time.

From there, if you prefer a stronger or lighter cup, you can adjust the grind time even further based on your preference.

The grounds grind directly into a hard, plastic container with cup markings for espresso, drip, and French press coffee.

The container also features a cover for the hole in the lid in case you don’t use all the ground coffee at once.

The most unique feature of this grinder is its attachment for portafilters. For the non-espresso making buffs, that means you can grind the coffee directly into the filter y0u use in your espresso machine.

So long, measuring and filling with a spoon.

• Coffee bean capacity: 1 pound.
  
• Grind settings: 60.
  
• Cup settings: 1 to 8 espresso shots, 1 to 12 coffee cups.

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Best Coffee Grinder for Cold Brew and French Press:

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4. Cuisinart DBM-8 Supreme Grind Automatic Burr Mill

The Cuisinart Surpreme Grind Automatic Burr Mill offers 18 grinds, all of which are noticeably different from each other. 

The finest grinds well for espresso, the medium for drip and pour over, while the coarsest is perfect for cold brew and French press.

The grounds container features a small hole through which grounds can pass easily and mess-free into a coffee filter.

Plus, it returns to the base easily and securely with one hand. The grinder comes with a two-in-one coffee scoop and brush for easy cleaning.

• Coffee bean capacity: 1/2 pound
• Grind settings: 18
• Cup settings: 4 to 18 cups

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Quietest Blade Grinder:

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5. KRUPS Silent Vortex Electric Grinder

After a few unavoidable clanky pulses, the KRUPS Silent Vortex Electric Grinder was the quietest grinder we tested. 

While not silent, it had a muffled sound, which would benefit the sleeping members of any household. In addition to being quiet, it also produced even grounds quickly.

It has a small footprint, making it even more perfect for apartment dwellers.

• Coffee bean capacity: 12 tablespoons
• Grind settings: Not applicable to blade grinders (only applicable to burr grinders); grind size can be controlled by how many times you pulse it or how long you process it
• Cup settings: None, but can be controlled by how many tablespoons of coffee beans you grind at a time

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Quietest Burr Grinder:

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6. Capresso Infinity Plus Conical Burr Grinder

Out of all the burr grinders we tested, the Capresso Infinity Plus Conical Burr Grinder was the quietest. Like the KRUPS, it, too, made a noticeable low, muffled sound.

It features 16 grind settings, each of which is easy to select with clearly labeled markings. The grinder also features a dial, which could be used to select how many cups you’re grinding from 1 to 12.

The container is easy to pull out of the housing with one hand and ergonomic. It features a wide mouth, with minimal static, good for pouring the into a coffee filter.

• Coffee bean capacity: 11 ounces
• Grind settings: 16
• Cup settings: 1 to 12 cups

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Best Manual Coffee Grinder:

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7. JavaPresse Manual Coffee Grinder

For those looking for the absolute quietest way to grind coffee, a manual coffee grinder is your best bet. It also makes for an inexpensive alternative to an electric burr grinder.

The reason we recommend the JavaPresse over the two other manual grinders we tested is in its handle.

It was the most ergonomic, easy to use, and didn’t slip off during testing. Its grind settings were also the easiest to control and we liked that we could see the coffee grounds through the viewing window on the container.

• Coffee bean capacity: 6 tablespoons
• Grind settings: Not applicable to blade grinders (only applicable to burr grinders); grind size can be controlled by how many times you pulse it or how long you process it
• Cup settings: None, but can be controlled by how many tablespoons of coffee beans you grind at a time

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First, do you even need a coffee grinder?

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If you’d like to grind your own coffee at home, a coffee grinder is a must. Food processors, mini choppers, and blenders are not reliable.

While blade grinders resemble food processors and mini choppers. They actually have blunted edges that don’t beat up the beans more than they have to.

Their container is also smaller, which allows for a smaller amount to be processed better and more evenly.

Most importantly, when coffee beans are ground, they release oils that often stain and linger in the container.

No matter how many times you clean your food processor, mini chopper, or blender, chances are it will still smell like coffee.

What type of coffee grinder is best?

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There are two main ways to grind coffee; you can use a blade grinder or a burr grinder.

A blade grinder

Works like a food processor with blunted edges. The blade spins to chop the coffee beans. The ones we tested were loud when the beans were still whole, but operated more quietly when the beans broke down.

Overall, blade grinders are smaller and more compact than burr grinders. But require a learning curve to produce evenly-ground coffee of the right size.

A burr grinder

It works like a pepper mill in that coffee beans pass through two metal or plastic objects to be ground into pieces.

The grind size can be precisely controlled, depending on how many settings the grinder has, and the results are very even, which contribute to a fuller, more balanced taste.

They’re larger, louder, and often more expensive than blade grinders.

Manual grinders 

Manual grinders are smaller and inexpensive option, but selecting the perfect setting is not always easy and grinding takes way more time than we’d like.

They, too, work like a pepper mill by grinding beans between two burrs. Manual grinders store a small amount of beans, and require turning the handle many times to ground.

On the plus side, manual grinders are virtually silent compared to blade and burr grinders.

When grinding coffee, it’s important to achieve the most evenly ground coffee to extract the most flavor during brewing.

As with cooking, different sized pieces require different brewing times. Coarser ground coffee requires a longer steeping time than finer and vice versa. Unevenly ground coffee can result in a weaker cup than you’d expect.

Here are the ideal grind sizes for different types of coffee. Remember: The finer the coffee, the stronger the taste, and the longer (and more gentle) the brew time, the coarser the grind.

• Very fine: Turkish coffee and strong espresso
• Fine: Espresso
• Medium fine: Light espresso and strong pour over
• Medium: Light pour over and drip coffee
• Coarse: French press
• Very coarse: Cold brew