Baratza Encore Review: Buy This Before You Buy the Machine

Why this comes before the machine

Both espresso machine reviews on this site end at the same place: buy the grinder first. A capable machine fed inconsistent coffee produces inconsistent coffee, and no amount of technique closes that gap.

The Encore is the grinder that argument usually points at, and it has held that position for years for one reason. It puts 40mm European steel conical burrs into a body that costs a fraction of what burr grinders used to.

What the burrs actually buy you

A blade grinder chops. It produces boulders and dust in the same pass, and the dust over-extracts while the boulders under-extract, which is why coffee made that way tastes both bitter and sour at once.

Conical burrs crush to a set gap instead. The Coffee Folk reports minimal fines across the range and puts the settings at 40 positions spanning roughly 250 to 1200 microns. Coffee Chronicler's assessment is that consistency is well ahead of anything else at the price, with a caveat that it falls off at the coarsest settings.

Throughput lands at 0.8 to 1.1 grams per second per The Coffee Folk, which Complete Home Barista puts at 30 to 45 seconds for a single pour-over dose.

The espresso answer is no

This is the most important thing to know before buying, and it is unanimous.

Complete Home Barista found excessive fines at espresso settings, which cause channelling, and adjustment steps too coarse to dial a shot in. Coffee Chronicler adds that the motor is not designed for sustained fine grinding.

Baratza sells a separate model for that job. If espresso is your goal, this is not the grinder, and no setting on it becomes one.

What it is like to live with

Loud, briefly. Complete Home Barista measured 80 to 85 dB, which is vacuum cleaner territory, though the low 550 RPM motor and glass-filled gears keep it quieter than faster grinders.

Messy, mildly. Static makes grounds cling to the bin and leap out when you remove it. Both Coffee Chronicler and The Coffee Folk raise it, and most owners end up wetting the beans slightly before grinding.

Slow, a little. Coffee Chronicler notes beans popcorn around the hopper rather than feeding smoothly, which adds seconds.

None of that is a reason not to buy it. All of it is what you are accepting.

The part that ages well

The Coffee Folk points out that the grinder opens with no tools in about fifteen seconds. Complete Home Barista notes parts and support available long past the warranty, and puts a realistic lifespan at five to eight years.

That is unusual. The plastic housing looks like a cost cut, and in a sense it is, but the machine underneath was designed to be opened, cleaned and repaired rather than binned when a gear strips. On an appliance that grinds something abrasive several times a day, that matters more than the casing material.