Baratza Encore Review: Good Entry-level Coffee Grinder for great coffee
Baratza Encore makes fresh-ground coffee easy
My fancy clear-plastic hand-held coffee grinder died because the plastic was too thin at the stress points. Time for a replacement! Baratza has what looked like a fine line of burr grinders for coffee. And unlike some companies, they stand behind their products with long-term availability of repair parts: not just the grinder teeth and plastic bits, but everything down to motors and circuit boards. Believing in their sincerity about sustainability, I took the plunge. Since I don’t have unlimited funds, I bought their entry-level electric grinder, the Barata Encore, for about $200 (Canadian); it sells in the US for about $150.
The machine arrived and went right into service. It works fine, and has a good range of adjustment for the fineness of the grind, from dust to chunky. It’s a burr grinder not a blade grinder, so it’s maybe a bit noisier, but does a better job.
Something I like is the choice of hopper. The machine arrives with a mid-sized clear plastic hopper that will hold half a pound of beans. If you grind the same beans all the time, and go through it quickly enough that the beans won’t get stale, this is a perfect default.
However, if like me you need to grind both dark roast and decaf most days, that’s not an option. I’m sure Baratza would like it if you bought two grinders for this purpose, but I don’t have the counter space for that (nor the budget). However, for the cost of half a dozen cafe lattes, you can buy a single-dose hopper that lets you measure the beans precisely on a weigh scale, and lets you use any of several different beans, maybe light and dark roast, or decaf and regular.
You use the cup to measure and pour the beans, then place it on top as a cover, to prevent any recalcitrant jumping beans from escaping the grind.
Another thing I like is the power switches. Yes, plural. There is both a push-and-hold button and a rotary on-off switch. If using the large hopper, the push button is convenient as you can hold it for the exact number of seconds to get the amount of grinds you need. If using the single-dose hopper, you can turn it on and not worry if it runs empty - it won’t hurt the grinder to run empty for a few seconds while you finish filling the kettle, or whatever.
I have only one issue with this grinder, and I lack experience with its competitors to know if it’s a general problem. When you grind some coffee and take out the bin to pour it into your coffee maker, some bits of coffee grounds fall into the space where the bin was. And the bin fits fairly closely into its space, so when you push the bin back in, it behaves like an air pump, and shoots the coffee onto the counter! But the issue causing the grinds to stick there is static, which must be common to grinders of this sort.
I mentioned this to Baratza support, and they responded promptly as follows:
I believe the coffee chaff you're seeing accumulate behind and below
the grounds bin is primarily due to the effect static electricity has
on coffee grinding. Static is indeed a hurdle for all coffee grinders
to overcome, as grinding coffee beans is a statically energetic event.
We use a right-angle discharge chute and antistatic plastic to combat
this, but ultimately static will come and go depending on atmospheric
conditions and coffee used- namely humidity and temperature (less
humidity, lower temperature, darker roast coffee --> more static).
I do have a few tips to troubleshoot the mess, though! Here are a few
extra steps you can try:1- let the grinder rest 30-60 seconds after the grind is complete to
let static dissipate.2- give the grounds bin a "knock knock" to dislodge clinging coffee
particles.3- consider wetting a butterknife and stirring your dose of whole beans
with it while resting in the hopper. Just a little water greatly
reduces heavy static. ... The best solution for me, though, has been to
keep the grinder on a tray. This way, chaff accumulates on the tray which
I can periodically clean rather than having to clean my counter!The good news? Those suggestions pretty much work as prescribed. And maybe waiting “half a mo” isn’t a bad thing — time to take a breath and relax. Oh, and do smell the coffee!
I’ve "bean" using this machine for over a year and it’s still going strong. It’s a good entry-level burr grinder. Available in black or white; color accents optional, along with the single-dose hopper. Information at Baratza’s site. You can download the user manual here and watch a video on cleaning the grinder here. As with any piece of tech equipment, please RTFM (read the fine manual) to see the actions that can damage the machine or the operator, and periodic maintenance.
Update: They now have an Espresso-specific variant of the Encore, appropriately named the Encore-ESP.
Summary: Baratza Encore: Recommended!
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Full Disclosure
I paid retail for this unit and did not receive any special consideration for this review.
