Choosing the Best Coffee Ginder for a French Press

When it comes to brewing coffee using the French press method, the texture of the grind means everything. If the grind is too coarse, your coffee won’t be as flavor-rich as you’d like it to be, but if it’s overly fine, it’s highly likely that bits of beans are going to find their way through the screen.

Choosing the Best Coffee Grinder for French Press

You have the option to grind your coffee beans at the store, but your grind will likely lose the oils and gases that are the essence of its flavor by the time you get to use them. With that said, we’ll help you get the perfect grind at home by unveiling the best coffee grinders for French press.  Did you know these grinders are also great for making cold brew coffee?

If you want to make coffee in a French press or make cold brew, your grinder is one of the most important tools:

Baratza Virtuoso+ Conical Burr Coffee Grinder
Baratza Encore Conical Burr Coffee Grinder
Bodum Bistro Burr Coffee Grinder
Breville The Smart Grinder Pro
JavaPresse Manual Coffee Grinder
Baratza Virtuoso+ Conical Burr Coffee Grinder with Digital Timer Display
Baratza Encore Conical Burr Coffee Grinder (Black)
Bodum Bistro Standard Conical Burr Electric Coffee Grinder, 12 Inches, Black
Breville Smart Grinder Pro Coffee Bean Grinder, Brushed Stainless Steel, BCG820BSS, 2.3
JavaPresse Manual Stainless Steel Coffee Grinder - 18 Adjustable Settings, Portable Conical Burr Grinder for Camping, Travel, Espresso - With Hand Crank
Baratza Virtuoso+ Conical Burr Coffee Grinder
Baratza Virtuoso+ Conical Burr Coffee Grinder with Digital Timer Display
Baratza Encore Conical Burr Coffee Grinder
Baratza Encore Conical Burr Coffee Grinder (Black)
Bodum Bistro Burr Coffee Grinder
Bodum Bistro Standard Conical Burr Electric Coffee Grinder, 12 Inches, Black
Breville The Smart Grinder Pro
Breville Smart Grinder Pro Coffee Bean Grinder, Brushed Stainless Steel, BCG820BSS, 2.3
JavaPresse Manual Coffee Grinder
JavaPresse Manual Stainless Steel Coffee Grinder - 18 Adjustable Settings, Portable Conical Burr Grinder for Camping, Travel, Espresso - With Hand Crank

You will notice these coffee grinders all have one thing in common.  They are all burr grinders, not the blade coffee grinders you may be used to.

Burr grinders allow you to customize the grind of your coffee, which is especially important if you are using different types of coffee peperpaation methods, from French press to espresso to cold brew and more.

Now let's take a closer look at each of these.

Baratza Virtuoso+ Conical Burr Review

If you’re acquainted with the Baratza Virtuoso, you know that it’s arguably the industry’s favorite coffee grinders. It has been for the past couple of decades, actually. The Virtuoso+ carries on its predecessor’s wayward, as it’s one of the top-rated coffee grinders on the market today.

One of the reasons why the Virtuoso+ is such a monumental coffee grinder is that it’s extremely easy to use. Further, it houses a powerful and reliable motor that delivers an effective and quiet performance. To add, its burr design is optimized for fine through coarse grinds.

If you take a closer look at how well-integrated the burr design is with the DC motor, you’ll notice that both components work hand in hand to reduce heat and friction, providing you with fantastic bean grinding. But how exactly is the Virtuoso+ any different from the original model?

The Virtuoso+ features a digital display that provides all sorts of useful information that can help make the grinding process easier and provide you with the desired grind quality. What’s more, it features a digital timer that helps add to the unit’s grinding efficiency and user-friendliness.

The Virtuoso+ has a superlative grinding speed of 550 RPMs and it’s equipped with 40mm burrs of commercial quality. This combination helps ensure consistent quality. It provides the user with 40 steps of adjustment, allowing you to grind for many brewing styles, excluding Turkish coffee.

Pros:

  • Commercial-grade build quality
  • Very easy to clean and maintain
  • Highly consistent in its grinding
  • Features 40 steps of adjustment
  • Offers a user-friendly operation

Cons:

  • Quite an expensive bean grinder
  • Has minor grind retention issues

Get more information on Baratza Virtuoso+ Conical Burr Coffee Grinder

Baratza Encore Conical Burr Review

Baratza is a brand that’s well known for putting out some of the best coffee grinders available on the market, and the Encore Conical Burr is one of their best-selling products at the moment. The unit comes at a highly affordable price tag considering the value that it provides.

We understand that people in the coffee market often associate low-priced grinders and coffee makers with subpar quality, but the Baratza Encore Conical Burr is an exception. It offers superb grind consistency and can rival some of the more expensive coffee grinders on the market.

The Baratza Encore is a straightforward coffee grinder that isn’t equipped with unnecessary frills and doodads. It’s capable of handling almost all styles of brewing, including the French press. In addition, it’s super fast in its performance, as it has a grinding speed of 550 RPMs.

Equipped with 40mm conical burrs, the Baratza Encore offers 40 steps of grind adjustment from fine to coarse, making it an ideal fit for manual brewing styles. It can even be utilized to grind for espresso, but the grind won’t be as perfect as the grind provided by espresso-specific units.

One thing that a lot of coffee grinders on the market suffer from is the inability to keep the coffee beans cool during extended grind times. Thanks to the Baratza Encore’s efficient DC motor, you don’t have to worry about such a mishap. You won’t even experience noise or static buildup.

Pros:

  • Offers great bang for the buck
  • Smooth and quiet performance
  • Boasts superb grinding speed
  • Ideal for manual brewing styles
  • Features 40 grind adjustments

Cons:

  • Provides zero programmability
  • Can’t grind super-fine grounds

Get more information on Baratza Encore Conical Burr Coffee Grinder

Bodum Bistro Burr Grinder Review

Finding a cheap coffee grinder that provides consistent performance isn’t an easy feat, but lucky for you, you don’t have to do any looking, as the Bodum Bistro is here to the rescue. This coffee grinder is available at a price tag that’s just under $100, which is crazy considering its abilities.

Now we’re not saying that the Bodum Bistro is as formidable as other grinders on the list, it isn’t. It’s just that it’s so affordable and efficient that you can’t turn a blind eye to. In addition, it’s super easy to use and maintain. Also, you won’t encounter any grinder static issues with this unit.

The Bodum Bistro features a borosilicate bin for your coffee grounds, helping to protect this unit from any static issues. Further, the material from which the machine itself is made from ensures no clogging whatsoever, which tends to happen quite often when grinding oily coffee beans.

Unlike other units on this list, the Bodum Bistro is limited to standard brewing styles such as drip coffee and French press. But since you’ve clicked on this article in search of a coffee grinder for the French press method, we don’t think you’ll have a problem with its brewing limitations.

In terms of grind quality, the Bodum Bistro has a speed of 720 RPMs and it boasts conical burrs, so it’s good enough to deliver fine through coarse grinds. You can utilize it for numerous brewing styles, but when it comes to making espresso or Turkish coffee, it’s not the way to go.

Pros:

  • Offers great value for the money
  • Easy to use, clean, and maintain
  • Doesn’t suffer from static issues
  • Available in a wide array of colors
  • Little to no clogging whatsoever

Cons:

  • Not the most durable construction
  • The grinder only works on a timer

Get more information on Bodum Bistro Burr Coffee Grinder

Breville Smart Grinder Pro Review

The Smart Grinder Pro from Breville is the ultimate coffee grinder for tech-savvy individuals. The unit offers an exceptional range of options that will allow you to switch between different brewing styles with ease. And by brewing styles, we mean everything except for Turkish coffee.

This is one of the few machines on our list that’s capable of going from espresso fine grinding to French press coarse grinding without any problems. The Smart Grinder Pro also grants the user the option to grind directly into the container, portafilter, filter basket, or paper filter.

One of the most notable attributes of this unit is its bright and vivid digital panel with its precision digital time which you can adjust in 0.2-second increments. The Smart Grinder Pro features a lot of other smart features that will make your experience completely hassle-free.

The Smart Grinder Pro boasts a lower RPM than most of the units on this list. It’s also equipped with high-quality burrs that, when coupled with the unit’s low grinding speed, offer excellent finer and medium-fine grounds. It’s not the best when it comes to coarser settings, but it’s adequate.

Why did we include this grinder on our list if it’s not as efficient as its competition when it comes to coarse grinds? Because we, as coffee fiends, are always looking for the next best thing in the world of coffee, so you don’t want a machine that’s only great for French press, do you?

Pros:

  • One of the simplest units to use
  • An array of convenient features
  • Offers 60 different grind settings
  • The settings are programmable
  • Remarkably rugged construction

Cons:

  • Not the best for coarse grinding
  • Not really made for intensive use

Get more information on Breville The Smart Grinder Pro

JavaPresse Manual Grinder Review

Making the right cup of joe doesn’t always require the most expensive and feature-rich machine on the market. The JavaPresse Manual Grinder offers you the ability to brew an ideal cup of joe without costing you an arm and a leg. This Amazon best-seller is perfect for manual grinding.

Even though this grinder is basic compared to other machines on this list since it’s designed for manual grinding, it does offer an impressive range of features and functionalities that allows for ease of use, including 18 different click adjustments that you can easily choose from.

With the aid of these click settings, you can control how fine or coarse you’d like the grind to be. Features aside, we feel the need to highlight just how compact and lightweight this unit is. You’ll be able to take it with you anywhere you want. It’s a perfect coffee grinder for camping.

You’d expect a manual coffee grinder to make a lot of noise while it grinds the beans, but thanks to the JavaPresse’s Manual Grinder’s hand crank mechanism, the grinding process will go quite smoothly and quietly. To add, the unit features ceramic burrs that boast remarkable durability.

Another thing we’d like to point out is that this gadgetry isn’t designed for mass consumption. In other words, you shouldn’t expect it to grind a large amount of coffee, as it doesn’t offer a whole lot of capacity. If you like to prepare coffee in large batches, we suggest trying a different unit.

Pros:

  • Lightweight and compact build
  • Boasts outstanding durability
  • One of the cheapest on our list
  • Super easy to use and clean
  • Offers great coarseness control

Cons:

  • Not designed for larger batches
  • This is a manually-operated unit
Get more information on JavaPresse Manual Coffee Grinder

Choosing the Best Coffee Grinder for French Press and Cold Brew

Let's take a look at these coffee grinders one more time:

Our favorite coffee grinder is the Baratza Virtuoso+ Conical Burr Coffee Grinder.  It has a solid build construction, and premium features like a digital display and a wide range of adjustments to get the prefect grind no matter what kind of coffee you are making.

We also like the Baratza Encore Conical Burr Coffee Grinder.  While it doesn't have the wide array of features that the Virtuoso+ does, it does feature the same solid build construction is important.

If you are new to the French press world, you will soon learn that Bodum is a huge brand name in this space.  Their grinder, the Bodum Bistro Burr Coffee Grinder is a great basic burr grinder.

The Breville Smart Grinder Pro is truly that, a really smart grinder.  It is also versatile, but it can be beat out by some of the Baratza models.

Finally is the JavaPresse Manual Coffee Grinder, which is a huge contender if you are someone who really likes to be hands on in the espresso making experience.

There’s an extensive range of capable coffee grinders on the market, but for French press coffee, only a select few are worth your money. We’re confident that if you decide to run with any of the above-mentioned products, you won’t be disappointed. Let us know if you have any questions.

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