Hi everyone. I recently bought a Breville Bambino. It’s my first espresso machine, and I’m quite happy with it. I love the fact that it has a thermoblock which means that I don’t have to wait for the water to turn on before I can enjoy my coffee. I’ve been able to pull some good shots with it, but the exact same technique sometimes gives me inconsistent results. I’m thinking it’s my grinder.
I have a Timemore C3 manual grinder. It’s great for most other brewing methods e.g. aeropress, V60, French press etc. But I don’t think it’s the best for espresso. I borrowed a Baratza Encore from a friend and it gave me more consistent results.
Now, I do like the Encore, and would buy a new one, but I looked at this chart and it looks like it doesn’t go too low in terms of grind size. Do you guys think that it might cause problems when I upgrade my machine in the future?
Also, if you have any other suggestions for grinders, let me know. I’m willing to spend around $200 on it right now. (I guess I can go up to $300 if it’s worth the extra $100.)
Thanks for taking your time to read this. I really appreciate it.
This is a good suggestion.
I’d like to emphasize that a quiet grinder really is worth a little premium. I have a eureka mignon crono and that thing likes to scream with its lack of sound proofing.
When using a friend’s mignon silenzio I was surprised by how much nicer it felt to be able to make a quiet cup in the morning.
Long story short, I’m now looking into applying sound proofing to my grinder and I wish I’d just spent a little more to get a much better experience out of the box.