---
title: Battle of the grinders · Coffee Addict
url: https://coffeeaddict.nz/battles/bench-grinders/
source: Coffee Addict
checked: Prices checked 06 Sep 2026, 12:30 UTC.
generated: 2026-09-06 21:47 UTC
description: Five bench grinders, $288 to $1,983: the purist's first purchase.
---

# Battle of the grinders

Which coffee grinder should you actually buy for home espresso or filter?

## The contenders

| Grinder | Price | Burrs | Adjustment | Made for | Dosing | Also stated |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Baratza Encore ESP | $288 | 40 mm conical steel (M2), quick-release, 550 rpm | 40 settings: 1-20 for espresso, 21-40 for filter, French press and cold brew | Espresso and filter | Manual: a pulse button or the on/off knob; anti-static dosing cup for a 54 mm portafilter, with a 58 mm adapter | 70 W; 300 g hopper, 120 g grounds bin; 1.3 g/s at setting 10, 2.2 g/s at 30; 13 x 15 x 34 cm, 2.5 kg; 24-month warranty |
| Breville the Smart Grinder Pro | $399 | Stainless steel conical | 60 grind settings | Espresso to French press: cradles for 50-54 mm and 58 mm portafilters, or it grinds into an airtight container, a gold-tone filter basket or a paper filter | Adjustable: grind time programmed in 0.2-second steps, by 'shots' or 'cups', on an LCD (Dosing IQ) | 165 W; 450 g hopper; auto power off; 21.4 x 16 x 38.9 cm; 24-month warranty |
| Eureka Mignon Manuale | $649 | 50 mm flat | Eureka stepless micrometric | Espresso (the maker's recommended use); a brew setting for filter † | Manual, on demand: the portafilter presses the switch, take it away and it stops | 310 W, 1,350 rpm; about 0.9-1.5 g/s; 150 g hopper; rated for 8 kg a week; 14 x 12 x 35 cm, 5.6 kg; handmade in Florence; 1-year warranty |
| Fellow Ode Brew Grinder Gen 2 | $849 | 64 mm flat, stainless steel, uncoated (Gen 2 Brew Burrs) | 11 settings with 31 steps in between | Brewed coffee: pour-over, drip, AeroPress, French press and cold brew. 'Ode is not intended for espresso' † | Single dose: 100 g hopper, auto stop, a grinds knocker and a magnetically aligned catch cup | Anti-static (retention down to about 0.1 g); grinds as fine as 250 microns; 239 x 105 x 248 mm, 4.5 kg; aluminium body |
| Niche Zero | $1,982.99 | 63 mm conical | Infinite stepless dial | Espresso and filter | Single dose down a straight-through path; 58 mm grind cup; dose consistency within 0.2 g | About 1 g/s; aluminium with real oak trim; 4.1 kg; grind cup, socket driver and brush in the box |

An empty cell means the retailer's own listing did not state it, not that the grinder cannot do it.

† quoted from the maker's own page for that grinder, read the same day; every other cell is the retailer's listing.

One shop, one day, one shelf price each — this is a comparison you can check in a click, not a survey of the whole country. Prices read at each shop on 6 Sep 2026. We re-read them by hand about monthly; the shelf is what updates nightly.

## The verdict on each

- **Baratza Encore ESP** ($288 at Harvey Norman NZ, read 6 Sep 2026) — **CHEAPEST WAY IN** — The filter grinder that learned espresso. Baratza took the Encore that half the pour-over benches in the country run on, tightened the bottom twenty settings to espresso resolution and put a dosing cup in the box. On the day we read it Harvey Norman had it marked down from $419 to $288, which makes it the cheapest honest way to feed a Dedica Duo or a Classic Evo Pro. It is plastic, and it is slow at espresso settings. It is also the grinder we would tell a purist to buy first.
- **Breville the Smart Grinder Pro** ($399 at Harvey Norman NZ, read 6 Sep 2026) — **THE ALL-ROUNDER** — The appliance-shop answer, and not a bad one. Sixty settings from espresso to French press, a timer that doses by the shot or the cup, and a cradle for the portafilter, so it suits the household that wants one grinder for the AeroPress on weekdays and the machine on Sunday. Its espresso steps are coarse where the Encore ESP's are fine, it is the second Breville-group grinder on this page, and we saw it under $330 at another appliance chain the same day: shop around.
- **Eureka Mignon Manuale** ($649 at Espresso Ninja, Wellington, read 6 Sep 2026) — **OUR PICK** — The purist's grinder, at the purist's price. Fifty-millimetre flat burrs, a stepless dial you turn by fractions, no timer and no screen: you hold the portafilter under the chute until the dose looks right, and you learn the sound. It is built in Florence by a company that has been grinding coffee since 1920, it is twelve centimetres wide, and it is what we would put beside a Classic Evo Pro or a Dedica Duo before either machine gets a single upgrade. Espresso first, and proud of it.
- **Fellow Ode Brew Grinder Gen 2** ($849 at Toasted Coffee Roasters, read 6 Sep 2026) — **FOR FILTER ONLY** — The grinder that refuses to make espresso, which is the most honest thing on this page. Sixty-four-millimetre flat burrs the size of a cafe's, thirty-one steps across the brewed range and not one of them fine enough for a shot, a single-dose hopper and a knocker so the last gram comes out. If your coffee is a V60, an AeroPress or a plunger and there is no machine in your future, this is the best cup on the page for the money. If there might be, it is the wrong grinder. Toasted is a roaster on our shelf, so this is the one link here the tracker visits every night.
- **Niche Zero** ($1,982.99 at Di Pacci Coffee Company, read 6 Sep 2026) — **THE DREAM** — The one people save up for, and the only grinder here with no compromise to explain. Big conical burrs, a stepless dial, and a straight path from funnel to cup so that what you weigh in is what you get out, which is why it is the grinder behind every home-barista video you have watched. Espresso and filter, equally. It is also almost seven times the Encore ESP, and on the day we read it Di Pacci was the one New Zealand shop with it on a shelf; Niche also ships direct from Britain, and we did not price that road.

Every machine on the other battle page can pull a good shot, and not one of them can pull a good shot from a bad grind. The grind is where the cup is decided: how fine, how even, how fresh. So this is the thing to buy before the machine, or before the machine gets its upgrade, and we ranked five of them the way we ranked the machines: real New Zealand shelf prices from a named shop, the specs that shop publishes, and a verdict we will put our name to.

## Why these five

Five, and each one a different answer to the only question a bench asks: what do you brew? Espresso only, by feel (the Mignon Manuale). Filter only, and never espresso (the Ode Gen 2). Both, on a budget (the Encore ESP, with espresso resolution in the bottom half of its dial). Both, with a timer and a screen, for a household that brews three ways (the Smart Grinder Pro). Both, with nothing left behind, for the person who has already decided (the Niche Zero).

Bench grinders only. The hand grinders — the Comandante, the 1Zpresso, the Timemore you take camping — are a different purchase for a bench you do not have, and they get their own battle; this page links to it the day it is published. Two of these five are Breville-group grinders, because Breville bought Baratza in 2020 and the Encore ESP and the Smart Grinder Pro are still two different answers; we say so rather than pretend they are rivals from opposite ends of the earth.

Every one is sold new in New Zealand today, and together they run $288, $399, $649, $849 and $1,983, so the ladder is the argument laid out on a shelf. Considered and not used: the DF64, the enthusiast's value single-doser everywhere except here — on the day we looked the one New Zealand shop listing the Gen 2 new had it at $1,316 while an Australian specialist quoted $769 to ship one across, and a price that depends on which side of the Tasman you order from is not a shelf price; the plain Baratza Encore, which Baratza does not sell as an espresso grinder; the Fellow Opus, a second Fellow; and the Mahlkönig X54, out of stock at every shop we checked.

## The scoreboard

| # | Grinder | Picks | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Encore ESP | 0 | 0% |
| 2 | the Smart Grinder Pro | 0 | 0% |
| 3 | Mignon Manuale | 0 | 0% |
| 4 | Ode Brew Grinder Gen 2 | 0 | 0% |
| 5 | Zero | 0 | 0% |

No votes counted yet.

A pick is stored against a salted hash of your address, never the address itself. Same machine, same household, same office: one pick. Clearing your cookies or opening a private window does not buy a second one; the server is the record, and it keeps the last pick it was sent. The scoreboard on the page is counted from those picks each night and refreshed when you open the page.

## Awards

- **OUR PICK: Mignon Manuale** — Stepless, flat, Italian, and $649. It does one thing — espresso — and hands the whole job to you, which is exactly what a purist asked for. Put it beside the machine you already own before the machine gets its upgrade.
- **CHEAPEST WAY IN: Encore ESP** — Two hundred and eighty-eight dollars on the day, espresso resolution at the bottom of the dial and filter at the top. Start here, with fresh beans, and find out whether the machine was ever the problem.
- **THE ALL-ROUNDER: the Smart Grinder Pro** — Sixty settings, a timer that doses by the shot or the cup, a cradle for the portafilter: the grinder for a household that brews three ways and wants one box on the bench.
- **FOR FILTER ONLY: Ode Brew Grinder Gen 2** — Cafe-size flat burrs across the brewed range and not a step of espresso. If there is no machine in your future, it is the best cup on this page.
- **THE DREAM: Zero** — Nothing to apologise for: big conical burrs, stepless, near-zero retention, espresso and filter. Nearly two thousand dollars, and the number under the awards says what that buys in beans.

## What the coffee costs

Two flat whites a day at 18 g a shot is 13.1 kg of beans a year. At $6.80 per 100 g — the median of the 2,786 bags in stock on our shelf right now — that is about $894 a year of coffee, every year, whichever grinder is doing the work.

## The unpopular conclusion

Spend your money in this order: beans, grinder, machine. On this page that means the Encore ESP or the Mignon Manuale before any machine on the other battle page gets its upgrade.

A $288 grinder feeding fresh beans into a $298 Dedica Duo will beat a $7,299 Linea Micra fed from a blade grinder, and it is not close. Nothing here changes that; the Niche is the best grinder on the page and it is still the third thing to buy.

So: if you are buying your first real grinder, buy the Encore ESP and put the rest into beans. If you know it is espresso and you want to own every step, the Mignon Manuale. If it is filter and only filter, the Ode. If you brew three ways and want a timer, the Smart Grinder Pro. And if you have already made your mind up about this hobby, the Niche Zero is waiting, and it is not a shortcut either.

## Why there are no hand grinders here

Because a hand grinder is a different purchase: it is bought for the bench you do not have — the campsite, the office drawer, the overnight bag — and the trade it makes is your arm for the motor. Ranking a Comandante against a Niche on price tells you nothing either buyer needs to know.

The hand grinders get their own battle, the portable brewers get another, and this page links to the hand grinders the day that page is published.

See also: Battle of the hand grinders — https://coffeeaddict.nz/battles/portable-grinders/

## What a dash means

Every spec on this page is quoted from the shop's own published listing for that exact grinder, or — where a line carries a dagger — from the maker's own page for it, read the same day and linked under the row. Where a line is missing, it means neither said, not that the grinder cannot do it.

That is the same rule the rest of this site runs on: a gap in somebody's copy is a gap in their copy, and we would rather show you the hole than fill it in from memory.

## About the pictures

The photographs are the makers' own product pictures — Baratza's, Breville's, Eureka's, Fellow's and Niche's — taken from each maker's page for that exact grinder, set on the same white plate so they read as a set, and credited under each one. Breville New Zealand publishes its pictures under a Creative Commons licence (BY-NC-SA); Baratza, which Breville owns, does not extend that licence to its own site; Eureka, Fellow and Niche reserve their rights. We show them the way a review shows the thing it is reviewing: at the maker's own size and finish, saying whose they are, on a page that earns nothing from any link on it. Niche's picture came on a pale grey ground, which we lifted to the plate's white; nothing else was touched.

If you are one of those makers and would rather we did not, tell us through the tip form on the front page and the picture comes down the same day. No retailer's photography appears here.

## About these prices

One retailer each, read by hand on 6 September 2026, with the link so you can check it yourself in one click. It is not a survey of the country and it is not live — the shelf of beans on this site updates every night, this page does not. Two are Harvey Norman shelf prices, one of them a markdown on the day; the Mignon Manuale is Espresso Ninja's, in Wellington; the Ode is Toasted's, a roaster on our shelf; the Niche Zero is Di Pacci's.

Nothing on this page is sponsored and no link here pays us. If that ever changes it will say so on the line above the contenders, in that order: the disclosure first, the recommendation second.

## About this data

Prices, weights and stock are the roasters' own, read from their public shop pages and re-checked every night. We do not set them, mark them up, or estimate them: a figure we could not read is null. Free to quote with attribution and a link.

One scrape a night at 12:30 UTC (00:30 NZST, 01:30 NZDT), then the whole site and every endpoint is rebuilt.

Links to shops go through /go/ so we can count how many readers we send each roaster. We earn nothing from them — no affiliate deals, no commission, no paid placement — and if that ever changes this line changes with it.

Cite as: Coffee Addict — every specialty coffee bean on sale in New Zealand, priced per 100g and re-checked every night. https://coffeeaddict.nz

Machine-readable: `https://coffeeaddict.nz/api/beans.json`, `https://coffeeaddict.nz/api/deals.json`, `https://coffeeaddict.nz/api/roasters.json`, `https://coffeeaddict.nz/api/subscriptions.json`. Schema and terms: https://coffeeaddict.nz/api/. Everything this site publishes for agents: https://coffeeaddict.nz/llms.txt

MCP server: `https://coffeeaddict.nz/mcp` — the same data as read-only tools, over streamable HTTP.