United States · since 1999
The grinder company that sells you the parts
Grinders wear. Burrs dull, adjustment collars stiffen, gearboxes strip. Most manufacturers answer that with a new grinder. Baratza publishes the repair guides, stocks every internal component including burr sets, and expects you to take the thing apart on a kitchen table with a screwdriver.
That is the whole brand, and it shows up in year six rather than at the point of sale.
The Encore ESP is the product most people should care about. The original Encore is an excellent filter grinder that technically reaches espresso and cannot fine-tune there; the ESP redistributes the range so forty of its sixty steps sit in the espresso band. That is the difference between adjusting a shot and guessing at one, and it is the cheapest electric grinder that genuinely does both jobs.
The limitations are honest for the price: about a gram of retention, a plastic body that sounds like plastic, and a grind speed that will not impress anyone. None of it changes what the grinder does to your espresso.
40 mm (1.57 in) conical · 40 espresso steps + 20 filter
The cheapest electric grinder that genuinely does espresso and filter without being bad at both. Forty fine steps in the espresso range is the whole point — and Baratza will still sell you a burr set for it in ten years.
Best for: Anyone pairing a grinder with a Gaggia Classic, a Dedica upgrade, or a Barista Express they have outgrown.
40 settings, 40 mm (1.57 in) conical burrs, hardened alloy steel, DC motor, 1-year warranty
Forty settings on 40 mm (1.57 in) commercial-grade conical burrs, hardened alloy steel made in Liechtenstein — and an on/off switch where the rest of the shelf has a timer.
Best for: A filter brewer who grinds by eye or by scale and wants burrs with a stated material and origin
≈ $150
