I have been making do without an electric grinder for a while now and I have decided the time has come to get one back on the kitchen work surface. I usually make coffee with my aeropress or chemex, and sometimes grind coarsely for cold brew. I don’t have an espresso machine and while I could imagine myself dabbling with the weirder manual and stovetop espresso options out there, I know that I prefer the extraction from pourover so it would never be a Thing.
I am trying to decide between the Fellow Ode v2 and the Baratza Encore ESP. One the one hand I feel I can’t go wrong with a Baratza and the ESP would give me some extra flexibility. On the other hand, the Fellow Ode probably matches my coffee sensibilities perfectly. I can’t really see myself choosing other grinders because I have had a Baratza before in a former life and I know their customer service is amazing. It’s just those burrs on the Fellow Ode v2 that are tempting me. Any thoughts? Gotchas? Steers either way?
I’m an espresso handgrinder sort of person, but I do know that the Ode 2 is pretty well thought of for pour over. If you aren’t doing espresso I don’t think you can go wrong with it. James Hoffman did a video review on his YouTube channel a few months back.
How are you hand grinding for espresso, out of curiosity?
I have an 1zpresso J-Max for espresso grinding. It’s the top of their line for espresso and still on sale I think. It’s a nice grinder, although grinding very light roasts for expresso can be a real chore.
Using a Kingrinder K4, which I believe shares burrs with the 1zpresso J-Max. Takes probably less than a minute to grind 18g of medium roast. Pretty happy with it. I think it has about 250 clicks, so lots of precision.