Best Espresso Burr Grinders

If you're just getting into espresso, then you'll probably read many times that making great espresso consistently is more to do with having a high quality burr grinder than having a high quality espresso machine!

The reason for this is that espresso is all about the quality of the grind! You can make wonderful espresso with a perfect grind from a good grinder but using a cheap a low quality espresso machine. Whereas it's quite a lot harder to make wonderful espresso with a top notch espresso machine with a terrible grind using a poor quality grinder.

If you have an espresso grind that's not fine enough then the water will just seep straight on through and your espresso will be too weak. Likewise, if you have a grind that's too fine, almost like dust then the steaming water will have trouble getting through the grinds. The trick is to get the grind just perfect, and occasionally this will take a little trial and error.

You should find out about the best espresso burr grinders available and decide if they're something you would want to go for!

Below, i will compare the two best espresso burr grinders for the home, and hopefully you'll be able to make up your mind as to what you'd like.

The above two machines are the two most popular burr grinders for the home. The Rocky is the most popular and has a massive following, the Vario is much newer and is still finding its feet. The Rocky is a little over $100 cheaper than the Vario, however the Vario does beat the Rocky in many ways. If you truly want to purchase the best espresso burr grinder available then most people including myself would vote for the Vario. I'll now mention the features of both machines with the pros and the cons.

How It Works

They are both burr grinders! The burrs on the Rocky are attached to the motor, whereas on the Vario, there is a belt that runs between the motor and the burrs. This gives the Vario a slightly quieter operation.

The Burrs

The burrs on the Rocky are made from stainless steel, whereas they are ceramic on the Vario. This means that the grind quality will be a tiny bit more consistent with the Vario. It also means that the burrs on the Vario will last longer too. More importantly, the ceramic burrs on the Vario will not heat up unlike the stainless steel ones. When the burrs heat up on the Rocky, it can impair the taste in the grinds. This isn't the case with ceramic burrs.

Changing the Settings

You change the settings on the Rocky by pressing the button on the top and by twisting the bean hopper. On the Vario, there are two levers, one either side. The Rocky is stepped whereas the Vario is stepless. This means that the changing operation is easier on the vario and that the the burrs won't get stuck quite so often. The Rocky has 50 settings to the Vario's massive 200. The Rocky cannot grind as coarse as French press, whereas the Vario can. Of course you can also fine tune more specifically due to there being more settings on the Vario. The Baratza Vario wins hands down here!

Porter Holder

The Rocky porter holder seems to have been built specifically to hold the Rancilio Silvia espresso machine. If you don't have that espresso machine then you'll have to take out the porter holder and hold the porter filter in position yourself while grinding is in operation. This is a bit of a design fault. With the Vario, the porter holder is built differently and will accommodate almost any porter filter. The Vario wins again!

Price

As already mentioned, the Vario is more expensive but is a far superior machine! Having said that, the Rocky still does an excellent job and has many fans around the world. You will not have any problems with either grinder. However, this page is titled "Best Espresso Burr Grinders" and in my opinion, the clear winner is the Baratza Vario Ceramic Burr Coffee Grinder!