These Efficient Coffee Grinders Will Make You Never Buy the Pre-Ground Stuff Again

"Hearst Magazines and Yahoo may earn commission or revenue on some items through these links."

While we can’t deny that picking up a pre-ground bag of coffee is a super-easy shortcut to getting your morning brew going, any barista will tell you that grinding your own coffee beans at home is the way to go. Just like using fresh-chopped herbs and hand-ground spices in your cooking, grinding your beans right before brewing your coffee releases the natural oils and aromas that give your brew a richer and more complex flavor.

When it comes to the art of methodical coffee preparation, a great coffee grinder is simply non-negotiable. And no matter how you take your coffee — be it from a countertop drip coffee maker, a stovetop Moka Pot, an espresso machine, or a cold-brew pitcher — after your beans of choice, your coffee grinder plays the next most important role in getting the taste just right.

Got a coffee-obsessed person on your holiday gift list? A really good grinder makes a pretty life-changing present for the right person. It’s one of those functional yet indulgent purchases that friends and family may not think needs an upgrade – until they taste the difference.

The Best Coffee Grinders

• Best Overall: Cuisinart Supreme Grind Automatic Burr Mill Coffee Grinder

• Most Efficient: Baratza Encore Conical Burr Coffee Grinder

• Best for Espresso: Breville Smart Grinder Pro Conical Burr Grinder

• Best Budget: Mr. Coffee Electric Blade Coffee Grinder

• Best Manual: JavaPresse Manual Coffee Grinder

What to Consider

If you're fairly new to this process, there are a few essential features and specs to keep in mind before you invest in your own coffee grinder:

Grinder Type

In this guide, we’ve tested both burr and blade coffee grinders, which produce slightly different textures. Burr coffee grinders crush coffee grounds into a more uniform texture, while blade grinders use a small amount of heat to slice through coffee grounds, producing slightly less uniform grinds.

The upside of blade coffee grinders is that these are typically small, handheld devices that stow away easily. Electric burr coffee grinders are countertop devices that tend to take up a bit more space, but are the gold standard and produce coffee with a more uniform flavor.

Ease of Use

Coffee grinders range from simple push-button controls to programmable functionality to completely manual cranking. Depending on how much coffee you typically grind per day and how much work you’re willing to put in, choosing the right model will get you the grind you want in the time that you have.

Yield

The size of the grinder, the capacity of its hopper (where the beans are placed before grinding), and its coarseness settings all affect the total yield of the device. This is definitely a consideration if you have a lot of coffee to grind each day.

If you want a quick and painless grind, you’ll want to size up your coffee grinder and look at special programming features, too.

How We Selected

For this guide, our team tested out their coffee grinders over the course of two weeks. We’ve evaluated each coffee grinder’s user-friendliness, grind consistency, noise level, and cleanup effort. We also considered any design features or flaws, affordability, and the footprint of the product since they are product features that will impact your buying decision.

We’ve also included a reviewer-favorite manual burr coffee grinder, which wasn’t a part of our initial product test, to provide an outlet-free option for those camping, traveling, or desiring an analog option.

Our guide to the best coffee grinders will help make your morning grind something to look forward to each day. To help you get the most enjoyment out of every cup of coffee you brew at home, our team tested all of the coffee grinders in this guide (with one exception!) to determine which models are best for all types of needs.

Best Overall

For regular everyday grinding, Cuisinart’s Supreme Grind Coffee Grinder can’t be beat. Reviewers say that it’s both efficient and reliable, as long as the unit is cleaned and used responsibly. The one common critique is that it doesn’t grind fine enough for making espresso, so if that’s your main drink, keep reading for a better fit.

This coffee grinder is a versatile and intuitive device featuring a large dial on its front that allows you to select your desired coarseness. This affects both the amount of time the machine spends grinding and the speed at which it works — two things it does automatically. It also measures how many beans to grind according to the slider on the front that denotes the number of cups you plan to make. When the 8-ounce hopper is filled with beans, you can grind enough for up to 32 (!) cups of coffee.

Our tester Josh Wolff gave this coffee grinder top marks for its easy operation and adjustability, even if it's not the quietest one around. He says, “Hands-down, the best feature is how I can keep a whole bag of beans in the hopper for a week and simply press a button when I wake up in the morning... This grinder is actually rather noisy when compared to my previous grinder. But then again, it’s a grinder. I didn’t find its level of noise to be too much of a nuisance.”

Most Efficient

The Baratza Encore Burr Coffee Grinder is simple enough for beginners to use, but longtime coffee pros will love its consistency and speed. Many reviewers have touted the brand for its excellent, sustainably-minded customer service, which allows users to send a unit in for repair instead of trashing it.

To use, just fill up the hopper with beans, make sure you have your grind setting where you want it (there are an impressive 40 different coarseness options available), turn the dial, and it grinds away. It’s not whisper-quiet but it works very quickly, so you won’t have beans grinding all morning long.

Our tester Jamie Miles loved the intuitive operation of this coffee grinder, which makes it great for users of any experience level. “This grinder results in very consistently ground coffee. I also love how fast this works... My biggest complaint about this machine is it always gets some coffee on the counter when I pull out the bowl to get my grounds into my coffee maker.”

On the plus side: It’s a pretty slim machine with an approximate 4x6-inch footprint, so it doesn’t take up too much counter space.

Best for Espresso

While versatility and options are great, if you are loyal to your espresso machine as the only thing that’ll get you up in the morning (but you also live in a household full of drip-coffee drinkers), you need the Breville Smart Grinder Pro Conical Burr Grinder.

This coffee grinder lets you program your coarseness level, grind time, and the number of shots (or cups) you wish to make, and it does the rest. The espresso grind is reliably fine every time, but if others you live with prefer cold brew or French-press coffee, it has 60 different grind settings to accommodate every preference.

Though not cheap at nearly $200, every design feature of this investment-level coffee grinder is smart and intentional. It automatically powers on when you insert the filtration basket into the holder and turns off on its own after sitting idly for a couple of minutes. The bean hopper also has an airtight seal to keep your beans fresh for days at a time.

Our tester Stefan Vazharov said, “The best thing about this coffee grinder is how user-friendly and non-intimidating it is! It has a digital display with blue backlighting and convenient knobs for precisely adjusting the grinding process (both time and coarseness)... It also runs on the quieter side. I’ve used it countless times before 6 a.m. without waking up my better half.”

Best Budget

The Mr. Coffee Blade Coffee Grinder is a totally different type of grinder, but a good one to consider if you are on a tight budget, brew small batches, or prefer keeping things simple on your countertop.

This blade coffee grinder plugs in and has just one button, and the coarseness of the grind all depends on how long you hold it down. Since there are no custom settings, there might be a little bit of trial and error in buzzing the beans to get the consistency right. This grinder is also pretty small, only able to hold enough grounds for roughly 3 cups of pour-over coffee.

While this grinder does infuse a little bit of heat in with each whir of the blade (which can result in a bitter brew if not done carefully), it grinds beans quickly and quietly. Our tester Bridget Clegg doesn’t mind its no-frills operation, saying, “There are no special features on this model, but that’s why I like it! It’s simple, small, and all-black to match my other appliances and gadgets... My one complaint is that the grounds stick to the bowl so you have to do some tapping and even some finger swipes to get everything into your coffee filter.”

Reviewer Dorthea also loves this grinder’s simplicity. “Was getting annoyed with all the moving parts to clean in my old grinder and once it broke ordered this one. So far really pleased … It is very fast and easy to use. Just make sure the top is properly lined up and securely on — the device won’t start if it isn’t as a safety [precaution]. A feature I really appreciate.”

Best Manual Coffee Grinder

If you’re going off the grid and you’ve got to have your fresh-ground beans, the JavaPresse Manual Coffee Grinder will allow you to grind anytime, anywhere, no outlet or on-button necessary.

This burr-style coffee grinder gives you 18 coarseness levels to choose from — from there, you can pour in your beans, seal the unit shut, and then crank the grinder until all of your beans are turned into grounds. It’s also a great grinder for Aeropress users, as it fits right into the hollow part of an Aeropress plunger for easy transport.

This coffee grinder is best suited for small batches only because it makes you work for your brew. The grind is not fast — the finer the coarseness, the longer it’ll take to churn. However, it’s as quiet a coffee grinder as you’ll be able to find, having no loud, whirring parts to it. There’s also no heat or excess force used in the burr-grinding process, so your grounds will maintain their oils and aroma, and the cup you brew will have incredible flavor.

Reviewers who don’t mind the extra effort appreciate its ergonomic build and ease of use. As one person says, “It grinds with remarkable consistency in ground size.” It’s also worth noting that many people really seem to love JavaPresse’s customer service, as well. Those who wore down the unit’s burr grinder a little too quickly were shipped a replacement product without any hassle.

Best for Large Quantities

For those who brew multiple cups daily, size does matter, and the OXO Brew Conical Burr Coffee Grinder has the capacity you seek. Its hopper holds 12 ounces of beans, and the entire unit is 13 inches tall and takes up a 5x8-inch footprint on a countertop. Although its size may seem daunting, its intuitive controls for grind coarseness and amount make it easy to use.

It’s slightly less expensive than some of the other burr grinders on this list, but it also has fewer bells and whistles. It has 15 coarseness settings, and unfortunately, those who make coffee in a French press and need a gritty, coarse grind may actually find that this one, even on its coarsest setting, produces a too-fine result that’s better for pour-over or drip coffee.

Our tester Leanna Yip said, “The OXO is formidable-looking but very efficient. It’s nice to have such a large capacity, though, because, unlike smaller grinders, you don’t need to keep emptying it out if you want to grind ahead of time... Though the OXO coffee grinder is fairly easy to clean, it does have more of an issue with static. The grounds cling to the side quite a bit, and sometimes the static transfers, meaning there’s a bit more wiping up to do afterward.”

The OXO coffee grinder’s loudness also seems to be on par with other countertop burr grinders — it's not ear-splittingly noisy, but it'll certainly be noticeable in a sleeping household.

Reviewer Scott notes: “I really like the simplicity of this grinder. It has a timer that stays on a setting until you change it. You just push a button and it grinds for the set length of time. You can experiment a bit on the length of time required to get the amount of coffee you want for a particular grind setting, and once that’s determined, you always know you’ll get the same amount of coffee for those particular settings. I use a French press, so I use a coarse grind setting. The grind seems to be consistent for this setting … I also like the fact that you can remove the hopper with beans in the hopper without turning the grinder upside down. This makes it easy to switch coffees if you want, for instance, switching between decaf and full caf.”

Best Combo Grinder

The sleek plug-in KitchenAid Blade Coffee and Spice Grinder may be pretty simple, but its two included removable grinding pods let you swap out your coffee for spices without missing a beat. There are no buttons on this coffee grinder — instead, it has a locking mechanism that turns the grinder on once the lid is locked and twisted.

When grinding beans for coffee, the unit’s handy, easy-to-read measurements on the inside of the stainless steel grinding bowl demarcate levels for 4, 8, 10, or 12 cups of coffee. The metal grinding bowl pops right out of the plastic grinder body, which makes cleaning out your coffee grounds (or spices) incredibly easy.

However, precision is admittedly not this coffee grinder’s strong suit. Since this blade grinder is time-based and only has one setting, you just hold down the lid in the locked position longer for fine grounds or in short bursts for coarse grounds.

If you’re short on space and want a kitchen gadget that serves more than one purpose, this dual-pod KitchenAid grinder is a worthy investment. Our tester Danielle St. Pierre said, “I really like how quiet this coffee grinder is, as well as its compact footprint. I consider it to be a great option for newbies grinding their own coffee beans at home or those looking for a quick, easy-to-use, compact grinder that can be easily stored away while not in use.”

Best Splurge

The Moccamaster grinder is perhaps the best of all worlds for the serious coffee aficionado and makes a spectacular splurgey gift. A 9-ounce bean hopper means you can make best-in-class coffee for a crowd, and the air-tight lid option on the grinds container means you can store any leftovers overnight without worrying about stale coffee the next day.

The dial on the top right of the machine easily toggles the coarseness of the grind, though we wish the grind glossary were printed somewhere on the machine for reference rather than just in the manual. Press the button on the bottom to begin the transformation where you can grind the specific amount of beans you desire.

Best for Commuters

If coffee happens when you are barely awake each morning, you will love the ease and automation (and great coffee) of the Cuisinart Touch Screen Burr grinder. Beans go in the top, the digital display pops on, and you make one very simple selection: How many cups of coffee do you want? Choose from 1-14 and away it goes. No way to mess it up. This is the perfect grinder for busy mornings when you Just. Need. Great. Coffee.

Although you can select from up to 18 levels of coarseness — this grinder understands its primary audience and has indicators for fine, medium, and coarse grinds only, easily changeable with a lift of the hopper lid. If you want to get fancy, you can also grind manually, but what’s the point when the train is coming in 22 minutes?

Best for Custom Grinds

This may just be the Ferrari of grinders. Made by extreme coffee aficionados for other coffee extreme aficionados, this great-looking compact grinder will sit pretty on your counter, silently communicating to all who see it: “In this house, we care deeply about good coffee.”

Remarkably, this is the quietest grinder we tested. Early risers have the best chance to get the coffee started without waking up the rest of the house.

A lift of the lid reveals the guide to the grind size, offering options from prismo (like espresso) to cold brew and everything in between. The Ode Brew shines in these less common grind categories, creating beautifully uniform grinds. The smaller hopper size encourages a la minute, small-batch coffee production, and while this is perfect for bespoke cups throughout the day, this may not be your grinder if you are making coffee for a crowd in the mornings.

The big grind dial on the face of the machine is easy to manipulate and feels great in the hand. A one-touch grind button stops when the beans are done and a magnetic container snaps into place below the mechanism ensuring perfect output. A toggle of a small metal lever on the side of the grinder allows you to clear out every last granule of your precious beans which also helps enormously with static issues.

You Might Also Like

• The Paris Hilton Housewares Collection Brings ‘That’s Hot’ Energy to Your Kitchen

• 16 Best Noise-Canceling Headphones Perfect for Rocking Out in Quiet Bliss

• Beyoncé Uses This $26 Amazon Product for Her Glossy Blonde Hair