Baratza Preciso Coffee Grinder 685

I have been looking for a grinder for a while. I spent months hoping to find a deal on a Mazzer Mini, or something else of that quality, hoped to find a deal. I have used a few commercial grade grinders, either borrowing or at friend's houses. I finally became fed up with the search for a deal, and decided to do some new research. After reading a number of reviews I decided to try this grinder. By the way, check out the CoffeeGeek.com "First Impressions Review" - there's great info there.After using the grinder heavily for a month now, here's my thoughts:1) This Grinder is very consistent. The particle size is consistent for each setting. I used to work in the screen printing industry, so I have a microscope at home, and I reviewed the ground coffee at a number of different settings. The results are remarkable. As good as my friend's commercial grinder and another Mazzer. If you want to grind for French Press, you will get a consistent large ground size. The same was true for espresso, chemex, and every grind size I tried.2)The grinder does not produce a lot of "fines". No dusty residue coffee in the container to block up your filters, or change the flavor of your immersion. Once again, on par with commercial high end grinders.3) It does not require that the container be in the grinder to turn on. If you want to dispense straight into a small bowl, or you portafilter, you can. To many home grinders switch off when the basket/container is removed for safety. This is very annoying and inconvenient.4) The portafilter holder that comes with the grinder is lacking. It holds the filter too high, and is finicky to get the filter into securely. This was something I found lacking, but not enough to lower the rating.5) I wish there was a better way to store extra cord. This would make a more cleaner looking counter. The cord is long, and this is good, but without a way to store extra inside of the unit it is messy looking.6) Static. Almost none. Shockingly so. The grounds will have a very small amount stuck to the container they fall into. But, a gentle tap dislodges them. And they do not go flying around sticking to everything. They just fall into wherever you want them to be. This is one of the joys of the machine. No more counters covered in grounds that went flying when the container is moved. My kitchen counter coffee station is much cleaner. MUCH cleaner. The quality of the grind and this lack of static make this grinder worth the money. Trust me, you will be happier once you realize just how much coffee does not need to be cleaner up every morning.7) It is fairly quiet. Well, as quiet as a device that chews up hard woody seeds can be.8) The burrs are just pretty. I know that's not a "technical" point. But, honestly, they are.9) The variability of the grinder is incredible. you really can go from a turkish/near turkish grind all the way to a "I'm just going to dump the grounds into hot water an let it settle before I pour" size. If you want a professional quality grinder that will do all types of coffee/espresso - this will do it. With the micro controls you can dial in your grind and fiddle with the settings to get just what you need. I've burned through a lot of coffee to adjust to the perfect espresso grind for a particular blend. And, this grinder really let me customize.10) I don't like the "timer" knob. It is positioned in a place that's hard to see, so it is difficult to use. And it is difficult to set to the same period each use. It doesn't really matter much, I use the instant on button on the front and just hold it. Easy enough because...11) ...it is fast. It is a fairly fast grinder. Not coffee shop fast, but close enough for heavy home user. I haven't noticed any heating of the grounds caused by speed. Or the machine getting hot. Though a few people in forums have commented that they saw a little heating happening. I've done pretty large grinds. Filled up the container 4/5 of the way, and had no issues.12) This thing is heavy. No slipping or sliding.13) Finally, the grind chute is very short. Very little wasted beans. Almost every gram of ground beans ends up in your brew. And to clear it require a quick press of the button. With coffee prices high, it's great to no longer waste coffee because the chute is long and full of grounds.All in all, I strongly recommend this grinder. It's on the same level as any professional or commercial grinder I've touched. There is finally a grinder for a serious coffee enthusiast that is affordable. In fact, I'd buy this over a Mazzer.

The grinder is amazing but I gave it 3 stars because the top plastic bean reservoir is made of cheap plastic and I've already broken mine.

Do not buy this product. It is not intended for the nonprofessional. There is nothing user friendly or intuitive about it. Sometimes the beans fed through the grinder and sometimes they didn't. Sometimes a part that easily comes out would go back in, and sometimes it wouldn't. Sometimes the hopper would twist on properly, and sometimes it wouldn't. The knob for the fineness setting came off, but the whole thing became disengaged anyway, so it didn't really matter. It was broken. Rather than invest any more of my life force into this evil machine, I took it out on to my patio and smashed it to bits. The Karma will get these people. I bought a Rancilio for about $370.00 and it works great. I took the advice from a Seattle dealer and bought it from him directly rather than online. Of course, I paid a bit more than I would have online. Let your morals guide you. I bought the Baratza online without assistance and the Karma got me. The Rancilio is much simpler to operate and obviously much more rugged and durable in design.

This machine is a beast. When I run conferences, I will often put 8 - 10 lbs of beans through this machine per day. It holds up very well most of the time. However, sometimes it will jam up. When it does, the process of removing the beans, completely taking it apart, cleaning it, and putting it back together can be timely and messy. Usually I have to tinker with it to get it working, and then once it's set right, I do everything I can to avoid messing with it more than I have to.

Now that I can safely say the honeymoon period is over, I feel that it's time to write a review and give an honest opinion on this fantastic grinder.I was originally looking at the Encore until I realized how critical the grinder is. I increased my budget (more than doubled it really) and I'm extremely glad I did. This grinder is my second greatest possession, only beaten out by my full suspension mountain bike.Small caveat: I'm a pretty big coffee snob. I currently use the following brew methods: Chemex, Aeropress, French press, moka pot, and cold brew. If you are just looking for something to help get you daily caffeine fix, it might not be worth the high price. If you want fantastic coffee, I wholeheartedly recommend this grinder.Pros:-consistent grind-440 steps makes it very easy to adjust to a precise detail-cleaning it is incredibly easy-Baratza customer service is legendary, although I don't know this first hand because I've never had a problem big enough to use it-having a pulse button and a timer option is amazing, especially grinding huge quantities for methods like cold brew.-If you want to do espresso, many people say this is the entry level grinder of choice for truly good espresso. I don't make espresso, but the ability to move into it without having to upgrade my grinder definitely factored into my budget.-The machine itself feels substantial. It is much heavier than it looks.Cons: (keep in mind I'm being almost hyper-critical on here just to give potential buyers an idea of what my biggest gripes are in my few months of ownership. This grinder really is great)-mine wobbles. It's not a huge deal, but I was kinda ticked that my $300 grinder had uneven legs on it. Minor issue, but probably the most annoying.-The timer piece feels somewhat cheap. It's intentionally detachable, but in my opinion it makes it look and feel cheap. Sometimes it will loosen and pop off. For the most part it just annoys me because this fantastic looking/hefty grinder has a cheap feeling piece on it.-the micro-adjustments can move on you while you're grinding. I wait until the very last second to grind my beans, so that means I kick the timer right as my water comes to a boil. While the machine is grinding, I'm pre-heating vessels and wetting down filters. I've noticed that the micro-adjustments will wiggle coarser while this happens. This is my biggest, and really the only legitimate gripe, that I have with this product. That shift can make a significant impact on certain sensitive brew methods like pour-over. This does not happen when I use the pulse grind and keep my hand on the hopper.Bottom line: fantastic grinder and I wholeheartedly recommend Baratza products. I'm actually on the verge of buying my girlfriend a refurbed Encore just so I don't have to deal with her crappy blade grinder anymore.

Este Molino fue un upgrade de un Mr. Coffee modificado que utilicé por un año.El molino es muy constante en el molido de café. el espectro de molido es muy bueno, aunque solamente lo he utilizado para espresso.Desde que lo tengo, ha mejorado el sabor de mi espresso, logrando extracciones de 27 segundos en una Silvia Rancilio quitando todo trazo de amargura que previamente daba mi molino anterior.Su uso es muy sencillo, ya que a pesar de ser un molino de pasos, al incluir tantos pasos intermedios (letras) entre un paso (número) y otro, da un control muy preciso en el molido requerido.Al incluir un aditamento para poder moler directamente en el portafiltro, hace mas fácil la limpieza del área y no se necesitan pasos intermedios como sacar el bote receptor y utilizar una cuchara.Lo recomiendo por su costo y su facilidad de uso.

This is my first grinder. I am not expert in grinding machines but I am very satisfied with the quality of this machine. Looks heavy and well constructed. I only brew espresso and it works fine with my old KRUPS machine (planning to upgrade to RANCILIO SILVIA soon). I like the combination of MACRO and MICRO step adjustment that gives you the freedom for fine tuning (a total of 440 steps!). It arrive in Cyprus in four days. Setting it up was very easy and fast.

I'm an expresso & cappuccino coffee fan. No coffee shops in my area. So,I became a YouTube trained barista. I bought a Delonghi pump espresso machine on Amazon & used a mixer to grind beans. I was initially pretty happy with the outcome. I read later that the blade grinder (mixie ) heats the beans and some flavours are lost in the process. Besides, the grounds aren't of uniform size; a very important factor for the perfect espresso shot. Only a burr grinder could achieve both. Thanks to the net I found that the Baratza Preciso was the best home use burr grinder. I was overjoyed that it was available on Amazon sold by Muhavara Enterprises. Though I'm located in interior Karnataka, the item reached promptly & was very well packed. The performance is mind blowing. The flavour of the coffee has improved in leaps & bounds....with the same beans & same espresso machine. I'm sure my coffee tastes better than any commercial coffee shop. I highly recommend this product. Be prepared to see instructional videos on YouTube or else you won't know how to use it effectively. Detailed manual can be downloaded from the Baratza website. If you are passionate coffee geek then this product won't disappoint you.

I tried the Breville smart grinder (two different machines) but both were faulty. It could have been a bad batch from Breville that Amazon was selling, but it didn't matter. The issues were enough to change my mind about what I wanted. I spent considerably more on this Baratza 685 Virtuoso machine to circumvent the problems and WOW, and I EVER GLAD I DID! This machine is absolutely phenomenal. It's a no frills kind of machine, grinds all kinds of beans extremely well, and does so with extreme precision; the micro adjustments help with this as well. I would HIGHLY recommend this product to anyone who likes espresso, lattés, french press coffee, or the best drip coffee you've ever had in your life. A+++++

Excellent machine for the espresso fanatic