Baratza Encore ESP Review

The Encore ESP is aimed squarely at the person stepping into espresso who does not want to spend more on the grinder than the machine. If you are pairing it with a starter machine like those in our best espresso machine for beginners guide, this is the grinder that lets that machine actually make good espresso. It also suits anyone who brews both espresso and filter and wants a single grinder to do both. If you only ever brew filter, the plain Encore saves you money; if espresso is a serious, long-term obsession, you will eventually want something stepless.

The headline change is the adjustment scale. The Encore ESP has 40 stepped settings, but they are not evenly spaced: settings 1 through 20 are fine 20-micron micro-steps tuned for espresso, while 21 through 40 open up into larger 90-micron jumps for filter. That is the clever part — it puts the fine control exactly where espresso needs it, then gets out of the way for pour over. The sharper 40mm M2 conical burrs help too, cutting rather than crushing at fine settings so you get fewer fines and a cleaner extraction.

Everything else is classic Baratza. A low-speed DC motor keeps heat and static down, the burrs and internal parts are user-replaceable so the grinder is repairable for years, and it ships with a 54mm dosing cup plus a 58mm portafilter adapter so you can grind straight into the basket. It is hopper-fed rather than single-dose, with a modest footprint that fits any counter.

In daily use the Encore ESP does the one thing that matters: it lets you actually dial in a shot. With 20-micron steps you can nudge a shot that is running too fast finer, or a choked shot coarser, in small enough increments to land on a good extraction — something the original Encore simply cannot do at espresso. Swapping to filter is as easy as spinning the dial into the 21–40 range. The included dosing cup makes for a tidy, low-mess workflow.

It is not a fast or flashy grinder. The low-speed motor takes its time, and the plastic body is plain. But it is quiet by grinder standards, undemanding, and the kind of tool you stop thinking about once it is set — which, for a grinder, is high praise.

Two honest limits. First, retention: it is hopper-fed with moderate retention, so a little ground coffee stays behind between doses. If you want to weigh in each dose and get exactly that back out — single dosing — a purpose-built single-dose grinder does it better. Second, stepped versus stepless: 20-micron steps are fine enough for the vast majority of home espresso, but they are still steps. Chasing the last bit of precision, or a specific flavor profile, eventually points you at a stepless grinder.

If you want a genuine step up and mostly pull espresso, the Eureka Mignon Notte swaps stepped conical burrs for 50mm flat burrs with truly stepless micrometric adjustment — more precision and clarity, at a higher price. If you would rather skip the motor entirely, the 1Zpresso J is a hand grinder with 48mm conical burrs that grinds espresso through filter with near-zero retention; our best hand grinder guide has more. And if you truly only brew filter, the original Baratza Encoredoes that job for less — just don't expect espresso from it.

The Encore ESP is the grinder that finally makes affordable home espresso make sense. It reaches true espresso fineness, gives you fine enough steps to dial a shot in, still handles filter, and keeps Baratza's repairable design so it lasts. Go in knowing the trade-offs — moderate retention and stepped (not stepless) adjustment — and it is hard to spend this little and grind this well. For most people getting into espresso, pair it with a solid starter machine and a proper technique from how to pull a shot, and you are set. New to why the grinder matters this much? Start with burr vs blade.