coffee Is Only as good as the beans you use to make it, and the beans you use are only as good as the grinder you use to render them extractable. Beans fed into a coffee grinder right before you brew them might as well be a whole different substance from the bag of ground beans you get at the supermarket, full of aroma and flavor compounds that quickly dissipate as they oxidize in the air. (It also helps to use fresh beans from excellent roasters: Check out our Best Coffee Subscriptions guide for some of our favorites.)

Grinders have become the most active tech frontier in coffee, and over the past decade coffee geeks have become devoted to the idea that getting the right grind on your beans is every bit as important as the machine you brew with. Uneven grinds can mean uneven extraction and uneven flavor—which is why we use particle size analysis to test the character of each grind from every grinder we review. But, of course, particle size alone does not tell the whole story, which is why I use the grounds from every model for cups of drip coffee, pour-over, Aeropress, and, when applicable, espresso.

Our Reviews team has tested dozens of grinders over the past five years, and I've retested all the top burr-grinder picks this past year. And while super-high-end grinders like the wonderful Mazzer Philos ($1,595) can run into the thousands, our top pick, the Baratza Encore ESP ($200) , will keep most people happy for much less.

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