Baratza Encore vs Encore ESP: Which Grinder?

Buy the base Encoreif you brew filter coffee — drip, pour over, AeroPress or French press — and never plan to make espresso. It grinds evenly across that whole range, costs less, and is the same repairable workhorse people have loved for years.

Buy the Encore ESP if you pull espresso, or if you want one grinder that can do espresso and filter. It is the only one of the two that reaches true espresso fineness, and it does it with fine enough steps to actually dial a shot in. If espresso is anywhere in your plans, the small price bump is worth it; if it is not, you are paying for a capability you will never use.

Start with everything that is identical, because it is most of the grinder. Both use 40mm conical burrs driven by a low-speed DC motor, which keeps heat and static down compared with the high-speed grinders in cheap machines. Both have 40 stepped settings on a ring you twist to change coarseness. Both are hopper-fed rather than single-dose, with a modest countertop footprint that fits under most cabinets.

Most importantly, both keep the thing that made the Encore a classic: they are built to be repaired, not replaced. The burrs and internal parts are user-replaceable, Baratza publishes exploded diagrams, and spare parts are easy to find, so a well-kept Encore of either kind lasts many years instead of landing in a drawer when something wears out. Neither is fast, and neither has a fancy metal shell — the plain plastic body is the same on both, and it feels like the entry-level product it is. You are paying for grind quality and longevity, not looks.

Because so much is shared, the choice is not about build quality or reliability — those are a wash. It comes down entirely to one axis: how fine each grinder can go, and how precisely it adjusts down there.

Three linked changes turn the Encore into the Encore ESP, and they all point at the same goal: making espresso possible.

1. Sharper M2 burrs. The base Encore uses standard 40mm conical burrs tuned for the filter range. The ESP swaps in sharper 40mm M2 conical burrsthat cut rather than crush at fine settings. Cutting cleanly at the fine end means fewer "fines" (coffee dust) muddying the grind, which is exactly what espresso is unforgiving about.

2. A dial recalibrated for espresso.This is the big one. Both grinders have 40 steps, but they are spaced completely differently. On the base Encore the 40 steps are spread across the filter range — roughly 250 to 1,200 microns, pour over up to coarse French press — and the finest setting still bottoms out too coarse for espresso. On the ESP the steps are re-mapped: settings 1 through 20 are fine, roughly 20-micron micro-steps tuned for the espresso range, while 21 through 40 open into larger ~90-micron jumps for filter. In other words, the ESP concentrates half its dial in the narrow band where espresso lives, then gets out of the way for everything coarser.

3. Actual espresso capability. Put those together and you get the headline: the ESP can physically reach espresso fineness, and it can be nudged in increments small enough to dial a shot — finer when it runs too fast, coarser when it chokes — which the base Encore simply cannot do. The ESP also ships with a 54mm dosing cup and a 58mm portafilter adapter so you can grind straight into the basket. The base Encore comes with none of that, because it was never meant to feed an espresso machine.

Why does this matter so much? Espresso forces hot water through a tightly packed puck at around 9 bar in about 25–30 seconds, and that only balances out when the grind is very fine and very even. A grinder with big coarse steps leaves you stuck between a shot that gushes and one that strangles, with nothing usable in between. The full explanation, plus target grind sizes for every method, is in our grind size chart.

The two side by side. Tap either "view" button for the live Amazon price; the number on Amazon at checkout is the one that applies.

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Buy the base Baratza Encore ifyour coffee is filter, full stop — drip, pour over, AeroPress or French press. It grinds evenly across that whole range, its 40 steps give you fine control right where filter brewing wants it, and it costs less than the ESP. It is the no-regret default for a filter setup, and if pour over is your ritual it slots straight into our best grinder for pour overpicks. Just go in knowing the one hard limit: it cannot make espresso, and no setting or trick changes that. The honest cons are the same ones that apply to the ESP — it is hopper-fed with low-to-moderate retention (a little coffee stays behind between doses), the adjustment is stepped rather than stepless, it is not a fast grinder, and the plastic body is plain. For the money, none of that is a dealbreaker for filter. The full write-up is in our Baratza Encore review.

Buy the Encore ESP ifyou pull espresso now, plan to soon, or want a single grinder that spans espresso through filter. It is the least expensive grinder we would trust to dial in a real shot: the 20-micron micro-steps across settings 1–20 give you the fine control espresso demands, the sharper M2 burrs cut cleanly at that fineness, and it still swings up into the filter range at 21–40 when you want a mug of drip. Pair it with a starter machine and it is the piece that lets that machine actually make good espresso — more on why the grinder outranks the machine in our best grinder for espressoguide. The cons are, again, honest and identical in kind: moderate retention rather than true single dosing, stepped (not stepless) adjustment, an unhurried motor, and the same plain plastic shell. For a first espresso grinder, those trade-offs are easy to accept — the deep dive is in our Baratza Encore ESP review.

Neither Encore is "better" — they are the same grinder tuned for two different jobs, and the right pick is decided entirely by whether espresso is on your menu. If you brew filter and only filter, the base Baratza Encoregives you the same repairable design for less money, with slightly finer control in the filter range you actually use. If espresso is in the picture at all — today or down the road — the Encore ESP is the one to buy, because it is the only version that reaches espresso fineness and can be dialed in, and it still handles filter when you want it. Both share the honest limits worth accepting at this price: moderate retention, stepped (not stepless) adjustment, and a plain plastic body. Decide what you brew, and the Encore almost picks itself.