It’s all in the beans. Nothing will improve your morning coffee like grinding the beans right before you brew. It doesn’t matter whether you’re rocking a fancy liquid-cooled-quantum-AI-powered espresso machine or a $20 Mr. Coffee—making the switch to whole beans will transform your coffee-drinking experience. We have advice at the end of this article on finding good whole beans, and you might want to read our Best Coffee Bean Subscription Services guide. Once you have your beans, it’s time to grind ’em up fresh each day. These are the best coffee grinders we’ve tested.
Be sure to check out our coffee buying guides, like the Best Latte and Cappuccino Machines, Best Portable Coffee Makers, Best Espresso Machines, and Best Portable Espresso Makers.
Updated October 2023: We added the DmofwHi Wireless Grinder and Breville Barista Express.
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Photograph: Iryna Veklich/Getty Images
What Is a Conical, Flat, or Blade Grinder?
Our list consists mostly of conical-burr grinders. In a conical grinder, coffee beans are crushed and ground between two rings of burrs. They deliver a finer, much more consistent grind than you’d get with a traditional blade grinder, even the nicest ones.
Flat-burr grinders are similar, but they’re typically more expensive. In these, the burrs are laid on top of each other, and the beans pass through them as they grind. The grinder action pushes the grounds out of one end, instead of relying on gravity like a conical-burr grinder, and the beans spend more time in contact with the burrs. This results in a more consistent grind, but for home brewers, conical-burr grinders are just as good—even if they require more maintenance and don’t result in consistent-down-to-the-micron-scale grounds.
