How To Choose The Best Coffee Grinder For The French Press: Five Of Our Favorites

Making the perfect cup of coffee can be just as much about the ritual of preparing the coffee as it is about drinking it, especially if you’re a fan of the French press method. We’ve looked at five of the best coffee bean grinders for the French press method to help you choose the right one for you.

The Best Coffee Grinders For The French Press Of 2023

 

What Is The Best Choice?

Our Winner: OXO Brew 

If you’re really in a hurry, and you just want to know which machine we think is the best of the ones we tried for the French press method, then we’ll come right out and say it: it’s the OXO Brew. If you have a little more time, then hang around for our overview of all five.

 

OXO BREW Coffee Grinder 

When it comes to consistency, the OXO was the clear winner for us. It learned what we liked very quickly. It also offers one of the simplest “on/off” choices, you can tell it how long you’d like it to spend time grinding your beans, and you don’t have to worry about resetting it each time.

We have to confess we also liked it because it was super-easy to clean, and we didn’t get very much in the way of coffee powder residue from the blending process. We did, however, opt to buy a separate dedicated soft brush to keep our OXO Brew clean and our coffee tasting great (more on that later in this article).

 

Hand Ground Precision Review

Even the name of the Hand Ground Precision Manual Coffee Grinder tells you exactly what this machine is all about. It’s a manual machine; you don’t need any electricity to run it, and despite the fact it’s manual, you don’t need to have super-developed muscles to use it either.

It grinds fairly consistently; you have a choice of 15 different settings for different coffee brewing methods, from 1 for espresso, to 8 for French press. The other options are Aeropress Chemex, cold brew, drip, espresso, and pour over. It also comes with a very useful magnetic chart.

 

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The machine incorporates a 40mm conical ceramic burr mill, and for the engineers amongst you, each axle is milled on a 5 axis CNC with a tolerance of 0004. For those without an engineering background, that’s razor-thin. This is one of the best manual coffee grinders we’ve come across.

It’s portable, durable, quiet and consistent, so a great option for camping, traveling, or just general sustainability in your kitchen. The coffee gets stored at the bottom in the glass jar.  The hopper will take up to 4oz of coffee.

It measures 6” by 4” by 8.5”, and weighs 1.74lb (2.1lb with shipping). You’re likely to get the best results from this grinder if you use a medium to dark coffee: Columbian, Ethiopian, Java or Sumatra. You can use the heavier Costa Rican beans, but they do take a little more effort to grind. Only the ceramic burrs touch the beans while grinding is going on. All in all, it is actually one of the best manual coffee grinders on the market.

 

Pros & Cons

 

OXO Brew Review

Okay, we have to confess, of the five grinders we tried, the OXO Brew was our favorite; and here are some of our reasons why.

It’s an electric conical burr coffee grinder which is petite enough to fit into pretty much any kitchen. The double conical burrs mean the grinds are perfectly uniform, meaning the coffee tastes consistently good.

 

OXO BREW Conical Burr Coffee Grinder 

You get a choice of grind sizes, from fine to espresso to coarse for French press. It has a one-touch start, and the timer remembers your last setting so when you’re half asleep in the morning you don’t need to worry about resetting anything.

The durable 40mm conical burrs are made from stainless steel, and the hopper holds around 12oz of coffee beans. You can choose how finely, or coarsely, you want to grind your coffee beans; you can also decide how long you want the grinding to last.

This machine weighs 4.5lb (7.55lb with shipping) and measures 7.4” x 5.2” x 11.8”. It’s silver in color and is made from stainless steel.

It’s super easy to clean, although don’t ever use water or other liquids to clean the inside of the grinder or burrs – stick to dry methods, preferably with a dedicated soft brush intended to clean coffee machines.

 

Pros & Cons

 

The KRUPS GX420851 Review

The Krups GX420851 Coffee Grinder is a handsome-looking machine that definitely means business. The inside bowl is made of stainless steel. This burr grinder is on the larger side, at 18.3” x 10.2” x 6.8”, and weighing 6.2 pounds, although it copes just fine with grinding only enough coffee for one or two cups.

The hopper takes up to 14 oz of coffee at a time; enough for around 12 cups. There is, however, no easy way to empty the hopper, you will either need to grind the beans until it’s empty, or scoop any residue out by hand if you decide you’d like to change blend.

 

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For coffee made using the French press method, you might find it grinds the beans a little too finely if you don’t keep a close and careful eye on the amount of time you decide to grind your coffee.

Some users report having used this machine quite happily for cinnamon, flax, and other substances, but if you were going to use it in that way, we’d suggest buying one just for that purpose.

One of the nicest features is the built-in lid seal – if the lid is not sealed properly, the grinder won’t grind.

 

Pros & Cons

 

Cuisinart DBM-8 Review

The Cuisinart DBM-8 Supreme Grind Automatic Burr Mill was the lowest-priced of the five machines we test drove. It’s a very compact device, measuring just 6” x 7.13” x 10.75” high. The grinding chamber holds enough coffee to make a very substantial 32 cups, and the bean hopper can hold 8 oz of coffee. This item ships with a measuring scoop and a cleaning brush. You can grind coffee for as few as 4 cups or as many as 18 cups at a time.

 

Cuisinart DBM-8 Supreme Grind Automatic Burr Mill 

This electric machine has an auto shut-off feature which kicks in when the grind cycle is complete, and a grind selector with 18 different positions, from extra-coarse to ultra-fine. As with most machines, the coarser grind is recommended if you’re using the French press method to make coffee, with the finer blends for espresso.

If you opt for this machine you need to be aware that it is a disk burr grinder, not a conical burr grinder, which accounts for the difference in price. The grinding disks are made of flat metal, not conical. You do need to make sure that the hopper is safely screwed in place before starting to grind.

The noise level on this burr mill is also relatively high, so bear that in mind if you’re using it first thing in the morning.

 

Pros & Cons

 

Baratza Encore Review

The Baratza Encore Conical Burr Coffee Grinder was the most expensive of the five machines we tried although it’s one of the cheaper models produced by this company, a favorite manufacturer amongst many baristas.

It has 40 grind settings and includes 40mm hardened alloy steel burrs. The hopper can hold 8 oz of beans, and the controls are super-easy to operate. You have a choice of on/off or pulse. The grounds bin is clear, and the fill line tells you when you need to empty it. It copes well with small and large amounts of coffee beans.

 

Baratza Encore Conical Burr Coffee Grinder 

The dimensions of this machine are 4.7” x 6.3” x 13.8”, and weight-wise it’s 6.83lb without shipping materials (8.1lb with). This grinder does not come with a measuring device and this machine does not have a timer, so you will need to find some other method of measuring how long your grind is taking.

You are likely to need to experiment with this machine to get the exact grind coarseness you want, and it may be necessary to recalibrate. It has a pretty robust motor, so it’s not the quietest machine out there. It’s also not the easiest machine to take apart when it comes time to clean it, although you do get a rather nice conical brush included with the grinder.

 

Pros & Cons

 

How To Choose A Coffee Grinder For French Press

The French press method of brewing coffee is one of the most popular. It’s straightforward and versatile, it’s sustainable and economical, and you get a truly authentic tasting brew if you get the grind right. And there’s the rub – when you’re choosing a coffee grinder, how finely you can grind those coffee beans is one of the most important factors to think about.

It’s not the only factor; there are many others, like how much coffee you can grind at once, the size of the machine, whether it’s an electric coffee grinder or manual, and how straightforward the device is to operate.

 

Looking For The Best Coffee Grinder

When using a French press or cafetière method to make coffee, you get the very best results if your beans are coarsely ground, so that’s what we’ve been concentrating on. Every one of these five machines is excellent in its way; all of them offer you a great range of options from super fine to extra coarse in terms of how they will grind your coffee.

Every machine we tried has at least fifteen choices to grind your coffee, from so fine it’s almost dust to coarse and earthy. One of the machines in our selection, the Baratza, offers forty levels, although for everyday use we just mind find that a little too much choice.

 

Things To Look For When Choosing Coffee Grinders

You need to take into account quite a few features when you’re making your final decision on which coffee grinder to buy. Firstly, is it a conical burr grinder or a flat disk grinder? You will get different results, and in general, conical burr grinders are built for heavier use than flat disk machines.

Speaking of the burrs and disks, what are they made of? Typical choices are ceramic, stainless steel, or hardened alloy. All of the machines we looked at were burr grinders, although only the Cuisinart is a flat disk grinder: the other four all use conical burrs.

Size is also a factor, as is style. You also need to think about how finely and coarsely the machine can grind your coffee beans and how much, or little, coffee you can grind at once. Another consideration is how simple the machine is to operate, and whether you need power or not.

Four of the machines we tried are electric; the only one that is completely manual is the Hand Ground model. All of the others require power. All of the machines are compact. If height clearance is limited, then the smallest model is the Hand Ground; if width and depth are more of an issue, then the Hand Ground and the Baratza are the smallest.

 

Can You Only Use A Coffee Grinder For French Press Coffee?

Although this time around we were testing suitability for French press coffee, you could use all of these machines to grind up blends for pretty much every other coffee brewing method, including Aeropress, Chemex, espresso,  Moka Express, Pour Over, Stovetop, and even cold brew.

For all of these machines, you will need to experiment a little until you get the blend and consistency just right, but once you do, we suspect you’ll never look back. Quite apart from the taste of freshly ground coffee, there’s that truly delicious aroma. (We’ve even heard real estate agents suggest brewing a fresh pot of coffee if you’re selling your home, to make potential buyers feel extra welcome.)

 

How Well Will The Coffee Grinder Fit Into Your Kitchen?

We know it’s a relatively small matter to consider, but you do need to think whether the coffee grinder is the right size for the space you have available, and if it will fit with your existing kitchen decor.  In terms of color, the machines are relatively similar, with a silver or stainless steel casing and a transparent hopper, some of which are made of plastic. From a “blending in with the décor” perspective, all the machines looked modern and attractive.

Budget is also something to bear in mind, and to a large extent, this may depend on how often you’re planning to use the coffee grinder, and for how long. If you’re only going to use it occasionally, does it merit buying a more expensive model? While the more commercial style machine might appeal to your inner barista, would you be better off with a mid-range machine instead?

And while we’re on the subject of duration, does the machine come with a timer or are you going to have to stand over it while it grinds? Is there an auto-off function? How straightforward is it to take apart? How easy is it to obtain replacement parts? And will you need to buy any additional accessories, like cleaning brushes?

 

Tips For Getting The Best Out Of A Coffee Grinder

We have found you do need to choose the right kind of beans to get optimum results from burr grinders: drier blends will usually produce a better consistency, so try to make sure you don’t choose varieties that are too oily.

We have also heard of people using them to grind up spices, seeds, and other substances, but in our experience using your burr machine for that purpose as well as coffee isn’t a brilliant idea, and we’d suggest a dedicated machine if that’s your bag.

 

What Is The Best Coffee Grinder For The French Press?

Our Winner: OXO Brew 

The OXO is not the cheapest of the machines we looked at, but it is very sensibly priced and represents good value, with the best range of features compared to the other machines we tried.

For its size, the OXO Brew is a sturdy machine, standing up to frequent use. We also liked the fact that it coped extremely well with just a small amount of coffee, and a decent amount of beans: some of the other machines felt a little too large, capacity wise, for a small household or one where only a couple of people are fresh-ground coffee fiends.

And we loved its no-nonsense design as well as the sensible number of grinding options, and the fact that we could tell it not only how fine we wanted our coffee grounds, but also how long we’d like the grinding process to last.

So, for all of those reasons, we’d recommend the OXO Brew.

  Last update on 2023-03-25 / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API.