Baratza Encore

After spending hours browsing the various coffee/coffee forums I decided to purchase the Baratza Encore as a new best friend for my Gaggia Classic, and it doesn't disappoint! What you should keep in mind is that you will have to recalibrate it if it doesn't grind fine enough like it did in my case, i.e. no espresso grind "out of the box". For anyone who has this problem, I can recommend typing "How To Re-Calibrate a Baratza Grinder" on youtube. Now I have espresso grind on setting 6 and setting 1 is fine enough for Turkish coffee.

When you open the box, this device shows itself immediately, well packaged, simple but effective instructions, and the device itself is heavy and sturdy. In short, a completely solid package.

The Baratza grinds very consistently for the price you pay for it. In addition, you can easily adjust the grinding degree for all brewing methods. It is an entry-level model, so I expect a Virtuoso, for example, to do a little better with espresso. But for a coffee lover with a small budget, this is the grinder you want to have at home. It is not for nothing that they say that you should not save on the grinder. In addition, what I think is the tastiest brewing method 'french press' is also incredibly cheap. Because the small differences in grinding degree can be tasted very well due to the excellent consistency, you can continue to tinker with that perfect coffee, where the flavors that are often described with coffee beans can be easily extracted.

I can compare the Baratza Encore with different devices. The closest we can get is the Bodum Bistro burr grinder. The Bodum is nowadays almost as expensive as this Baratza. To the eye, the Bodum is better, it's just a nicer design and available in a variety of colors. But a coffee grinder must above all ensure a well-ground coffee bean, and the Bodum lags far behind. This is where the difference between a broad brand and a brand that focuses specifically on something is very noticeable. Baratza is a well-known brand of coffee equipment and is renowned for its high quality grinders and its customer-friendliness. And let the latter be the reason that when the Bodum broke down due to a simple part, and the endless broken 'customer relations', I went looking for another brand.

So for the choice it is simple; If you want something for the eye, and you don't care how you are treated as a customer, go for the Bodum, if you want to enjoy your coffee, go for the Baratza Encore.

I bought this coffee grinder 3 months ago to pair it with my gaggia classic machine.

I visited the website of coolblue on friday at 11:45 pm...and i got my grinder next Tuesday because there was a mistake with my bank and the payment was only done at 12:00 pm.. I called the service people next day, but unfortunately they couldn't do anything. There where holidays on Monday.

As always, coolblue people are great with non Dutch native speakers. They where immensely polite and professional.

Besides this first moment of frustration i am very happy to have bought this grinder. At the beginning my grinder worked great and I managed a couple of good espresso shots. I was able to change the size of my grinds easily depending on the kind of beans I was buying. Before that I had a manual grinder, excellent, but my arm was very tired after a few weeks. So I decided for the baratza. I found out that it worked great for freshly grounded coffe, but the packed beans from the supermarket suffered a lot. Specially if they where old and greasy. This beans will get trapped in the machine and I had to take the machine apart and clean it. In another hand if they where too dry, the grinding got a bit coarse for espresso. I visited the baratza website and they had instructions to change the calibration and make it work better with this kind of beans. It makes a finer grind. If you are not planning to prepare filter coffee this is highly recommended.

CHANGING THE GRINDER THIS WAY DOES NOT VOID THE WARRANTY!.

That worked great. It was very simple but you will have to take the box that covers the inside the machine. Here is a link to the baratza website: https://www.baratza.com/troubleshooting/

There you can download the PDF with instructions.

Since I changed it I had no problems whatsoever with any kind of beans(except the really bad ones and only because I became spoiled with good beans). Remember the really oily beans are basically just OLD coffee.

The machine is not extremely noisy, but it will make your cat run out of the kitchen, and the simplicity of the function is a plus. I stopped using the box to catch the coffe and grind directly on the portafilter which is better in order to avoid channeling. It is to my surprise not messy at all after some practice. I also stopped using the middle button, it just makes you tired.

The box comes with a useful brush and some special tablets to clean it. I have never used them. I find the brush is usually enough even for the oily beans mentioned before.

About all. I think it's a magnificent machine for the price. If you are on the espresso budget side, definitely think in this one.

Buy it in cool blue, it's worth your eight euros. You will save more money and time this way!.