Hey everybody,

I've been drinking espressos for quite some years now, but I am now just getting in to doing it at home. I make it about once a day on my cheap (and I mean cheap) espresso machine, my beans are either purchased already ground, or I buy them from a coffee house where they grind them for me.

I am looking to purchase a good grinder within the $500 or less range. I've been thinking about a stepless but I'm still not a 100% sure.

I was hoping to get some suggestions as to what is the best purchase.

As for an espresso machine, I will be purchasing a new one at a later date at which time I will probably be looking for some suggestions again.

Thank you,
Fernsir

The advice I was recently given (and followed) was to go with a Baratza Vario. It's not stepless but it has other pluses:

• Meets your budget req (<$500)
• Has 244 steps (so one might argue it's effectively stepless)
• Setup allows you to quickly move between press and espresso (which was a big seller for me)
• Timer for different grinds
• Mine came with a portafilter holder plus a "bucket"
• More of a house-friendly footprint than, say, a Super Jolly

I can't compare it to one of the higher quality grinders since I have zero experience with those but my advice was given to me by people here and CG who seem to have that experience. If you think you will be doing things other than espresso you might consider it. Otherwise I think folks will suggest you try to pick up a used Mazzer or something of that grade off eBay.

Your price range -
First choice: Used Mazzer
Second choice: New Baratza Vario

Ditto; except I would not recommend a Mazzer Mini, used or new. I would recommend the Mazzer Super Jolly along with almost all other other commercial espresso grinders with 64mm or larger burrs.

There are some caveats to this. The Rossi RR45 (the 64 mm burr model) and larger are less loved than the other brands because they are clunkier, bigger and noisier. If you don't mind these negative, you can usually find good prices on them. The Spanish Cunill 64 mm grinder is a very good buy (around $350 new), but it's not at the same fabrication quality level as the others.