Baratza Encore ESP: an espresso grinder in the entry bracket

Built for espresso, says Baratza: what the claim rests on

Our table carries the line “Suitable for espresso (per manufacturer): Yes”, and the words in brackets are the important ones. Baratza presents the Encore ESP as a grinder optimised for espresso, and we record that as its statement. Whether the grind is even, how fine it really goes and how much coffee stays inside are things we plan to measure and have not.

The claim matters most to owners of machines with single-wall, non-pressurised baskets, such as the Sage Bambino and Bambino Plus. Those baskets leave all the resistance to the coffee, so the grinder is half the machine. With a pressurised basket you can get away with far less, for reasons the grind size guide goes into.

Forty millimetres, 550 turns a minute

Baratza publishes more about the cutting parts than its rivals in this bracket: steel conical burrs of 40 mm, turning at 550 rpm. Among the electric grinders we list for the UK it is the only one with a stated diameter, which at least allows a comparison with the hand grinders, where the figure is routine: 38 mm on the Timemore C3S, 48 mm on the KINGrinder K6. A diameter is a description of the hardware, not a score.

The same page quotes a grinding speed: 1.3 g a second at setting 10 and 2.2 g a second at setting 30. Taken at face value, a 16 g double dose at setting 10 is about twelve seconds of grinding.

You are the timer

Dosing is manual. No timer cuts the motor and no scale weighs the result: you switch on, switch off and check what landed in the dosing cup. Put that next to Baratza’s own speed figure and the consequence is plain. At 1.3 g a second, stopping a second late adds more than a gram, and in espresso a gram shows in the cup. Budget for a small set of scales, or accept some trial and error.

If that sounds like a chore, the Sage Smart Grinder Pro times the dose in steps of 0.2 seconds and stops by itself.

The figure Baratza’s page leaves out

How many settings? The page does not say. It tells you the grind is changed by turning the hopper, and its speed figures mention settings 10 and 30, so the scale runs at least that far. A total would be the usual way to compare espresso grinders: Sage states 60 for the Smart Grinder Pro and De’Longhi 16 for the KG79. Until Baratza’s figure is on record, that cell stays empty. The weight is missing too.

Thirteen centimetres of worktop

The body measures 13 cm across, 15 cm front to back and 34 cm in height. Beside a De’Longhi Dedica, the pair takes under 28 cm of width, less than a Sage Barista Express on its own (31.8 cm).

The hopper takes 300 g, so a 250 g bag goes in with room left, and the grounds bin 120 g. A full hopper is some 18 double doses of 16 g. The motor is rated at 70 W, the lowest of the three electric grinders in our UK database; a wattage tells you nothing about the grind.

Encore ESP, KG79 or Smart Grinder Pro?

All three sit in our entry-level bracket in the UK, so the choice is about use, not budget.

• Cafetière or filter most days, espresso through pressurised baskets: the De’Longhi KG79, with a cup selector that stops the grinder. For espresso its manual points to the fine position alone.
• Espresso through single-wall baskets, and you do not mind weighing: the Encore ESP.
• Espresso every day, ground straight into the portafilter: the Smart Grinder Pro, with a timer and portafilter cradles. It is taller, at 38.9 cm.
• No socket, one or two doses a day: a hand grinder, the KINGrinder K6 or the Timemore C3S.

The coffee grinder comparison has all five in one table, and the budget machine-and-grinder pairings show which machines the Encore ESP is sensibly matched with.