Best coffee grinders of 2024 tried and tested
The year is 2024 and we're still spending an awful lot of time queueing up at coffee shops waiting for our daily caffeine fix. Instead of making daily trips to visit your favourite barista, there's a better option available: grinding your own coffee.
If you're not convinced by the time-saving element, do it for the smug conversations that follow as you sip on your own, freshly-brewed cup. "Oh this?" you say, airily, "just a new blend I discovered recently."
Monday mornings suddenly become a little brighter and those much-needed coffee breaks step up a notch. A coffee grinder doesn't seem like an essential purchase until you've tried one. Warning: you're about to become a (proudly) fussy coffee drinker.
Manual or electric?
Which is more satisfying: the feeling of achievement that comes from drinking your own, hand-ground beans? Or the smooth success that comes from enjoying a bean-to-cup process that takes mere seconds?
If you lean towards the former, you'll probably prefer a manual coffee grinder. Bonus: these are almost always cheaper, smaller and more straightforward to use. They give you the opportunity to grind your coffee exactly how you like it - smooth or coarse. The not-so-good points: they use up valuable time and energy (but think of the muscles you'll build up).
If you're looking for a more technical coffee grinder, choose an electric one. These come with a higher range of settings and features that'll grind your coffee exactly how you like - without having to do more than press a button. As you might expect, these grinders are almost always more expensive and take up more precious kitchen cupboard space.
Types of electric coffee grinder
You'll see the words "burr" and "blade" pop up frequently when browsing the best coffee grinders. Both fall under the "electric" umbrella. Burr grinders use two revolving abrasive surfaces to grind your coffee beans while blade grinders use a blender-like process with a propeller-like blade.
Burr grinders are generally thought to be the better of the two, thanks to the uniform process in which the beans are ground. Burr machines also offer more flexibility when it comes to the coarse or fineness of your beans.
Best coffee grinders at a glance
Shop the best coffee grinders below
Read More Best coffee pod machines 2024 from Nespresso, Lavazza and more Best home coffee makers 2024: filter, pod and bean to cup machines Best eco-friendly coffee pods that are more sustainable for the planet Best coffee brands in the UK to order online Niche Zero Coffee GrinderProduct imageBest for: overall performance
The Niche Zero Coffee Grinder is expensive. No one's denying that. But once you've looked past the price tag, you'll find a barista-standard coffee grinder that cuts straight to the point.
Everything about this single dosing coffee grinder is top quality, from its premium 63mm conical burrs to its virtually non-existent grind retention, which comes from its patented straight through design. This machine actually came about as the result of an IndieGogo campaign and, if there's one bad thing we can say about it, it's that it's almost always sold out.
The Niche Zero's ability to squeeze flavour out of every single coffee bean is almost unparalleled and its minimal design makes it a versatile choice. It's incredibly quiet, easy to use and offers speed and quality comparable to commercial grinders.
Buy now £538.82 Niche Coffee Smeg CGF11 Coffee GrinderProduct imageBest for: a sleek and stylish design
The Smeg CGF01 Coffee Grinder is so stylish you'll almost definitely want to carve out a prominent home for it in your kitchen. Sleek and minimalistic, it's a game changer in the world of home-ground beans that delivers a powerful punch in mere moments.
Beautifully designed with premium functionality to match, Smeg's CGF01 comes with plenty of grinding options and can tackle 350 grams of fresh beans at once. It gets bonus points for being super quiet: meaning you can brew to your heart's content, even if it's early morning and everyone else in the house is still fast asleep.
Simple and intuitive, if you're looking to streamline your coffee drinking, this is how to do it.
Buy now £219 John Lewis Barista & Co Core All GrindProduct imageBest for: consistent grinds
French Press lovers, listen up: Barista & Co's Core All Grind features burr blades that guarantee consistent grinds between 400 and 1000 microns. For those not familiar with the technical terms, that's some of the finest coffee around.
A grinder designed by coffee lovers and for coffee lovers, it brings together all of the necessary familiar features with a few added extras to make life just that tiny bit simpler. Its bean storage holder is UV protected, ensuring suitably temperate beans at all times. It grinds in automatic 10 second increments and also has a manual option if you want to be really specific. It has 40 settings, is easy to clean and is widely loved by baristas. Need we say more?
Buy now £140 Baratza Encore Coffee GrinderProduct imageBest for: beginners
If you'd consider yourself a coffee geek, you're probably already familiar with the Baratza brand. If you haven't, it's time to be introduced to the Baratza Encore Coffee Grinder: a great beginner grinder that performs way above its pay grade.
This impressively quiet grinder is proof that slow and steady wins the race, keeping at a consistent 550 RPM, which ensures a smooth feed of beans and a consistent grinding. It doesn't come with bells and whistles - hence its beginner status - but it does feature all the essentials. Namely a thermal overload cutout that recognises jams, an easy-clean design, durable gears made from 15 per cent glass-filled thermoplastic and a timeless design.
It's especially great for Aeropress or French Press coffee.
Buy now £160.94 Sage The Smart Grinder ProProduct imageBest for: specific settings for coffee pros
Sage's The Smart Grinder Pro is great if you like to dip your toe into various different coffee styles. Its LCD display takes things one step further when it comes to ease of use and 60 unique settings lets you play around with a new style each morning.
The conical burr grinder maximises the potential of whatever beans you're using, helping to bring out individual flavour notes without sacrificing time or capacity.
Taking specificity to the next level, The Smart Grinder Pro works in 0.2 second increments and lets you grind directly into the portafilter, airtight container, gold tone filter basket or a paper filter.
Buy now £209.95 Eureka Mignon Specialita Coffee GrinderProduct imageBest for: espresso lovers
Eureka Mignon's Specialita Coffee Grinder looks a little more futuristic than your average grinder and comes with fancy features to match. For a start, it's almost completely silent. Then, there's its intuitive touch screen, its 55mm flat hardened steel blades and its innately precise grinding methods.
The best coffee grinder for espresso lovers, it's designed for those who know exactly what they're looking for. Its futuristic top half comes accompanied with a sturdy, matte black bottom half. Looking for something a little more cheerful? It also comes in vibrant yellow.
There's a good reason this grinder is such a firm favourite year after year.
Buy now £437.87 Comandante C40 MK3 Nitro Blade Coffee GrinderProduct imageBest for: a versatile grind adjustment system
It's not really too farfetched to call the Comandante C40 MK3 Nitro Blade Coffee Grinder a masterpiece. Looking a little like a work of art and delivering coffee that would put even your favourite barista to shame, it's one of the most famous coffee grinders around and for a very good reason.
Ergonomic design goes hand in hand with slick grind quality, thanks to its stepped grind adjustment system. That system means you'll easily grind beans to your liking: smooth enough for Turkish coffee or coarse enough for French Press. The C40 is the renovated version of the original Comandante grinder and comes with an entirely new burr design. Its new Nitro burrs work quickly and seamlessly, especially if you're on the hunt for an espresso.
Buy now £257.37 Groenenberg Coffee Grinder ManualBest for: a budget friendly manual option
This manual coffee grinder is one of the most budget-friendly grinders around but still manages to hold its own against its higher-priced competitors. At just over £20, it's an unmissable buy if you're someone who's trying to cut back on a Pret or Starbucks habit but still needs that daily coffee fix.
Some of that cheaper price tag comes from the fact that you need to do the leg work yourself to make the coffee here, but that just adds to the satisfaction when you're done. A stainless steel finish and a smooth, sleek design ensures this coffee grinder looks perfectly at home on your desk or counter top, while its cotton travel bag stops it getting scratched en route.
Buy now £26.99 Hario Ceramic Coffee Mill Skerton Plus Hand GrinderProduct imageThe Hario Skerton Plus is the definition of quality and quantity. It's one of the larger hand coffee grinders around, which means double the work to produce a full batch but also double the achievement when you're pouring it out. That also means not having to start from scratch if you're making coffee for multiple people.
The Hario Skerton Plus uses ceramic burrs without preheating the coffee beans, which means all the flavour without anything lost in the heating process. This durable machine is easy to grasp and comes with a silicon base, ensuring none of your hard work goes to waste while you're grinding. The glass bowl above has a 100g capacity - perfect for speedy cups without too much waiting around.
Buy now £37.16 Fumao Akirakoki Manual Coffee Bean Grinder Wooden Mill with Cast Iron BurrBest for: premium wooden design
Et voilà, an easy-clean, reliable grinder with an ergonomic handle. All for under £40.
Buy now £55.54If you're serious about coffee, it's worth investing in a premium quality machine to deliver the goods every morning. Niche's Zero Coffee Grinder is speedy, compact, aesthetically pleasing and all-round delicious on a consistent basis. It's the best option available for barista-approved ground coffee and is definitely worth the hunt to source one for yourself.
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