Full Review Of The Capresso Burr Grinder – What To Expect
Splurging for a grinder may be considered a weird choice or an unnecessary one. Most low cost grinders are fine for the vast majority of coffee drinkers. Surely for those who aren’t too invested or aren’t too picky. A normal, electric blade grinder will most certainly do its job fine, cutting down the coffee beans into a mix of different size grounds.
But clearly the Capresso Burr Grinder has a different aim. It’s not an expensive burr grinder, being marketed as a medium level grinder for those who want more control of their grinding. Rather than getting the cheapest blade grinder that you can even find in small supermarkets.
The Capresso Burr Grinder is a serious grinder that has reached a good reputation due to its sturdiness and the fame of its brand.
The company that makes these burr grinders, Capresso, is a Swiss-based one that focuses on making mid to high-end espresso machines, grinders, coffeemakers, frothers and kettles. It has a large offer of equipment for coffee lovers. If you are looking for a decent to good burr grinder, Capresso has many models to choose from.
Build/Design Quality
The Capresso Burr Grinder is a medium level grinder with a series of advanced features that will make it worth spending twice or more over the most basic blade grinder. First, it is a burr model. Whereas electric blade grinders work by rotating, at various speeds, 2 or more blades and furiously cutting the coffee beans, a burr grinder works by rotating burrs against each other.
The closer they are, the finer the grind size. Burr grinders allow a level of precision that blade grinders cannot achieve, due to the very principle by which they operate: blades rotating and hoping to catch all the beans in an uniform way against burrs that meticulously crush every bean to a fixed size.
Any coffee lover knows the importance of the ground size and how it impacts the final quality of your coffee. Being sure that the size you set in the grinder is exactly the one your coffee will need is a feature alone worth the price of the Capresso Burr Grinder.
Another factor that can impact the taste of the coffee and is not often considered is that a blade grinder generates more heat while operating than a burr grinder. This will slightly warm the ground coffee, having a small effect but noticeable to sensitive palates.
Moreover, and despite being an economical model, the Capresso Burr Grinder has up to 16 grind settings. It can grind the coffee beans from very coarse to extra fine. This many grind options allows you to use it in any brewing method you can think of, from pour overs to French presses and espresso machines.
The Capresso Burr Grinder is very light as it is made of ABS plastic. It is not the most durable material, it makes it very easy to move around if needed.
The machine is definitely not quiet while operating! Honestly something to be expected at this price range. And in any case, the grinder won’t need to operate for more than a few seconds every day, so noise is a relative problem. The burrs themselves are of steel and can be removed for easy cleaning.
How To Use
Actually using the Capresso Burr Grinder is extremely easy. Set the grind size with the dial on the side and press the main button to start and stop the grinding. That’s basically all there is to it!
You can just manually press the main button or use the timer switch on the front, which will allow you to grind for a specific number of cups, anywhere from 2 to 12. The grinder will then grind enough coffee for the selected number of cups and stop automatically.
It’s not an accurate way to measure your coffee to water ratio but it’s nice to have when you don’t want to fuss with the ratio and want the grinder to automatically stop without you being around throughout the whole operation.
Grind Consistency
The Capresso Burr Grinder is a cheap burr grinder and offers an average grind consistency. That means that generally not all the ground coffee will have the same size, down to the last small piece. Especially at super coarse and extra fine settings, the grind consistency is a bit off. Fine but not too fine sizes come out usually uniformly sized.
Features
The Capresso Burr Grinder can contain up to 8 oz of whole beans, and about 4 oz of ground coffee in the lower container. As we have said before, the cup selector is a nice feature to have but not one that you can 100% rely on. For the most accurate results, calculate your coffee to water ratio manually and put the exact amount of beans in the grinder yourself.
The usual safety measures are present in Capresso Burr Grinder too: it will not work if either the coffee beans or ground coffee containers are not properly set and unless the lid is closed.
Some Capresso Infinity grinders are made entirely of stainless steel, making them heavier but much more durable. They’re also less noisy while operating, have a better grind consistency and a zinc die-cast body, a way more reliable material for a grinder. Of course the Infinity line has different sizes too. The most basic model is about half a pound lighter than the largest one, and with a reduced coffee beans container (but the same size ground one).
Capresso Burr Grinder
Baratza Encore
Alternative Grinders
If you’re looking for an alternative to the Capresso grinders, the Baratza Encore is the usual go-to machine for many coffee experts. It is in the same price range of the good Capresso Infinity models, thus costing roughly three times more than the Capresso Burr Grinder.
The Baratza Encore offers way more grind options, up to 40, but is still somewhat inconsistent at the extreme end of coarseness and fineness. The Encore is as loud as the Capresso Burr Grinder, the most basic model of Capresso we just reviewed, and has different sized containers: less room for the beans one but more for the ground bin.
Conclusion
In the end, if you are just moving on from electric blade grinders, the Capresso Burr Grinder is an easy, cheap and reliable model you can make the transition to. It is the first choice if you don’t want to splurge or aren’t sure if you are going to grind with it often. For advanced features, more control on the ground size, increased durability, a Baratza Encore or a Capresso Infinity, like the Plus, will be much better alternatives.