Plastic Encore ESP Coffee Grinder, Black

The perfect home grinder.

If you are seriously into coffee, then a good grinder is a must. Grinders are expensive, but are also the most important part of the brew. The Encore ESP (stands for espresso) has settings from 0 to 20 just for espresso grind sizes. Then on, for larger grinds like french press and so on. It does a good job of giving an incredibly even grind consistency, which of course, has a direct effect on the quality of your coffee. I am a espresso (black) person, so a good grinder was an inevitable buy. With the machine, you get a cleaning brush which really helps; you get two types of bins, one specifically for espresso grinds which fits into normal portafilters so there is no spillage when transferring the grounds; and if you are someone who needs finer than the finest grinds out of the box, they also provide two shims (like washers) that help you to go even finer. Practical, useful and a no-nonsense machine. Baratza recommends the setting at 15 for espresso, but personally, I found it dials in perfectly between 6 and 7. It varies by machine and technique as well, but it is imp for you to find that sweet spot for your machine where you can get a balanced shot of 1:2/2.5 in about 25 sec. There are tons of videos online, so one can check them out. From installing & removing parts; from burrs to cleaning, most of it is covered. Baratza support also have a number of good vids on their channel, covering cleaning, maintenance, shimming, etc. The attraction of cheap grinders is often difficult to avoid. But trust me, they are not worth it esp. if you are seriously into espresso. Even the TC3 does not give you the fine grind unless you are ready to toil about 50 min for a 20g output. Invest in a good grinder, and you will thank yourself every morning for the fresh tasty shot.

The encore ESP is a good grinder at this price point. It is consistent, not very loud with 30 grind size settings. The feed flask shakes during grinding, giving a feel of under par design. Overall build quality is good. Now, let us dwell upon the problem with this grinder: The quick release knob on top of the rotating burr becomes loose upon a single use itself. Which means the burr is now free to move up & down taking your grinding setting haywire & will give you inconsistant grind output. Looks like it is a design deficiency & the company has come up with a modified knob too. But Baratza Co. do not support this product in India and hence are ready to provide a modified knob only outside India, where they have support setup. Requested them to send it to me in India at my expense, but they just declined. But Baratza needs to address this serious shortcoming in their product being sold with old type of quick release knob. The authorised reseller in India, Blue Tokai, rang me up to assure that he will arrange the modified knob, but has not kept his word. So, I have used PTFE tape on the quick release knob bolt & tightened it, & it is working. So beware of this before purchasing it, rest is all fine with this grinder.

Good product. Easy to use I will share my experiences after using few more months.

First things first - yes this does grind espresso level fine coffee but be aware that it may not do so out of the box. 1) you may have to add a shim (2 are provided) or 2) you may have to recalibrate by opening the case (video available at baratza site) 1 star deducted from the review for this reason.

Gute Kaffeemühle, auch bestens für Espresso geeignet. Der Mahlgrad lässt sich präzise und einfach einstellen, sodass sowohl feine als auch grobere Mahlungen problemlos möglich sind. Ideal für alle, die Wert auf aromatischen Kaffeegenuss legen.

0 problems. Works very well. You can also clean it quite easily

C'est mon tout premier moulin électrique mais je suis comblé ! Tout le monde le répète, le moulin c'est le plus important dans un bon espresso, mais un bon moulin, c'est assez rapidement très cher ! J'avais donc trouvé ce modèle qui avait l'air d'addresser un bon rapport qualité/prix. Et au final très ravi, on peut descendre super finement dans la taille, je règle tout le temps entre 0 et 10 pour mes espressos et ça fait la diff, rien qu'en moulant à cette précision l'odeur est nettement plus marqué qu'un réglage plus épais ! Sinon niveau bruit, on monte jusqu'à 90dB, ce qui parraît assez élevé comme ça mais en réalité ça va, et de toute façon ça moud 10sec max. Et puis la marque ne fait aucune promesse de volume sonore donc rien à juger ici. Bref, si vous voulez vous faire de vrais espressos, c'est le moulin "abordable" qu'il vous faut. Honnêtement il ne faut pas une moulure plus épaisse que 10 si vous comptez utiliser un porte filtre bottomless.

Excelente molinillo para café expreso italiano. Después de probar varios molinillos que se publicitan para cafeteras expresos y no lo son, porque un expreso americano no es un italiano, este si es para un expreso italiano con filtro sin presurizar. Además la especificación de la máquina y el servicio técnico dan seguridad de tener un molinillo durante años. Como nota negativa, la tolva de plástico creo que no tiene la calidad de durabilidad requerida. Vale la pena gastarse un poco más y tener un molinillo para cualquier cafetera que sea solvente... Pero sobretodo para expresso, en este además te incluyen dos arandelas para que con el desgaste las puedas poner para evitarlo y que el nivel de molienda no se vea perjudicado. Lo dicho, si necesitas un molido para un café expreso italiano, sin filtros presurizados, este es el molinillo de entrada serio (que sea ESP que es para expresso, no el otro) para lo demás, italiano, prensa, goteo... cualquier otro barato sirve, aunque este tiene una uniformidad excelente. Tomar un café recién molido no tiene comparación al agua amarga con espuma que tomamos con un expreso y café molido de marca genérica...

It grinds fine enough for espresso, I am currently on the 16th grind setting with a dark roast which leaves me plenty of room to go finer for higher extraction. It also doesn't have much retention, and just running the grinder for a couple of extra seconds pushes most of the beans out. This grinder also has plenty of replacement parts which are easy to get. This makes it a good long term investment. I wish it were easier to do single dosing with it. It works out of the box, but one two beans usually fly around the hopper and take a while to be grinded. The grinder also splatters a bit of the grounds next to cup, which is a bit annoying but not too visible on the black model. I usually keep a little vacuum cleaner to quickly clean them up.