It is also easy to maintain, clean, repair, and even customize, all for a fair price. For those who want an affordable yet high-quality portable hand grinder, the Timemore Chestnut C2 is the best in its class for speed, ease of grinding, and consistency. This grinder should be great for anyone who makes drip coffee or uses other methods that require beans ground at medium-fine to coarse settings like pour-over, Chemex, AeroPress, or French press.
Plus, Baratza also makes a smaller single-dose hopper , which lets you use its top lid to measure out beans, streamlining that process. Even so, this model is not significantly better at grinding than the Encore. The Encore offers a more consistent, versatile grind and a long-term maintenance and repair program, but the OXO hits the sweet spot in terms of price, grind quality, and ease of use.
If you wanted to fill up the OXO with a bag of beans and just hit a button every morning, you could: It has a ounce hopper and a timer ranging from zero to 30 seconds that lets you automate how much to grind. The C2 is the lowest-cost grinder from coffee gear company Timemore , whose manual grinders are well-regarded among coffee experts. To sell the C2 at a lower price, Timemore uses durable, high-quality plastic in the interior shaft rather than the metal in its higher-end models, and gave it a slightly less complex burr and crank arm, which is still easily removable for storage or travel.
The C2 has an impressively smooth and speedy grinding action, and is sturdy and well-built. Like the electric models in this guide, the C2 is not designed for espresso making, and because it is much smaller than an electric grinder, it can make only enough grounds for a cup or two of coffee at a time. But it only takes a couple of minutes—even cranking slowly—to grind through that, and it is easy to refill.
Rachel Wharton is a senior staff writer at Wirecutter. She has decades of experience in breaking down complicated culinary subjects for readers, as well as a good grasp of sensory analysis and coffee-brewing principles. You may have already read that the most important component of your coffee making setup is a quality burr grinder, one that will grind beans evenly —no matter how coarse or fine you want your grounds.
