This is our review of the best selling Baratza Encore Conical Burr Grinder. This one has been designed in the USA, and it is aimed at the commercial world of coffee making.
That of course does not mean, that you can't have it at home. That is more a question of if you can afford it. It isn't cheap at around £180-£200 in UK sterling. It can of course handle any type of grind from French Press to Espresso.
It uses high quality conical burrs, has a 227 gram (8 ounce) capacity and a grinding speed of between 0.8-1.1 grams per second, which is extremely fast.
BY ENDA MCLARNON
Baratza Encore Summary
Many of the coffee experts, believe this one to be the entry level burr grinder, for those who truly appreciate the taste of the best fresh coffee at home.
This model has basic controls where you simply load up the hopper with beans, turn the hopper to the grind setting you want, and switch the Baratza Encore on.
Quality
This grinder is well made and has direct drive gears and a powerful grinding motor
Grind
This Baratza has a grind range of 250 to 1200 microns and 40 individual grind settings,
Value
This is one of the more expensive grinders, but the majority of buyers said it was good value for money.
The Baratza Brand
The Baratza company are a specialist coffee grinder brand that really supports the Speciality Coffee Community. They focus almost exclusively on high end and high quality burr coffee grinders.
They formed in 1999 and have been going strong ever since. Their grinder ranges include the Maestro, the Vario and the Preciso ranges.
They are a US company based in Bellevue.
Main Review of the Baratza Encore Conical Burr Grinder
Have a look below at the Encore on video. This will give you a better sense of what you may actually be buying. Below we have a video that will take you through what the product looks like, and how it is used.
As you can see from the video review above, this model is high quality and considered to be quite high end. It is an expensive option, but many buyers think this is worth spending their money on.
Key Features
It is worth noting that Baratza has improved the appearance of this popular grinder, as you can see from the image below.
- A vast choice of 40 grind settings
- Delivers a very fine grind which many coffee drinkers like to achieve
- High quality gears for perfect burring and grinding
- Front mounted pulse button for a quick grind
- Powerful motor that does not heat up during the grinding process
If you are looking for something of distinctly high quality then you should consider the Baratza Encore. If you like to brew your coffee using different methods such as , pour over, Chemex or Siphon, then this one will deliver on that type of grind.
It has 40 different grind settings, from very fine through to coarse.
The burrs inside this grinder are very accurate and precise. That means that you can be assured of getting a full extraction, and that means all of the coffee bean flavour and aroma.
With many grinders, they heat up when being used. That can actually remove a lot of flavour from your coffee beans. The motor in this one is very efficient, and also very powerful.
That means, that even at higher speeds, the motor can handle the grinding with ease. In other words the motor does not get hot, and your beans benefit quite a bit from that.
The front-mounted pulse button also makes it fast and easy to grind on demand into your brew basket.
It measures 12 x 16 x 35 cm and weighs around 300 grams.
Baratza Encore Electric Burr Coffee Grinder
There are over 5,000 online buyer reviews so clearly this model sells extremely well. Overall those same buyers have given an 88% average buyer satisfaction. Just below we have summarised what those buyers said after they had bought and used this grinder.
Pros
Cons
Conclusion:
If you are willing to pay the money for this, you will not be disappointed. This is a high quality conical burr grinder, that works very effectively.
The range of grinds is really very good. The fact that the grinder doesn't heat up is also great. Many of the cheaper electric burr grinders get really hot when being used. I just felt a lot safer using this one.
I was trying to figure out why the rating was lower than expected. Any negative reviews seem to be from 3-4 years ago, and mainly from espresso drinkers, who said they couldn't get a fine enough grind.
If this is not the one for you, then please check out our top 10 list of coffee burr grinders, that are currently available in the UK, by clicking right here.
Overall the Encore is a high quality conical burr grinder that does a very good job. The hopper can hold 8 ounces of whole beans, and the clear grounds bin has a fill line to indicate how much to grind, so little waste.
Hey, Thanks for your review. Yea it does seem that the Encore is the go to starting burr grinder