Just be aware that different individuals have different needs, wants and expectation, and some have genuinely "better" palates while others dont....allowing some to genuinely discern different characteristics in the espresso, while others genuinely cant OR simply dont care because they are not looking for that...and may only be looking for a great milk coffee. Horses for courses, and what works for one individual doesnt necessarily work for someone else. I therefore submit (as I have done time and again), that it is really necessary to define the meaning of the word "better", in the context of what an individual wants from his or her grinder, and that you have to be very very careful when interpreting the info that is written up on the internerd in respect of this ("better grinders"). May I add some random pointers that I have found to be useful in the context of the original question of this topic, and some of the replies that have come up: a) Eureka Mignon an excellent baby commercial espresso grinder, but has now been priced out of its market section through manufacturer price increases. b) I have personally conducted a comparative test of brew quality (espresso) between the Mignon (50mm) and a much larger (75mm) excellent name commercial grinder using the same bag of beans and espresso machine and operator (me) to see if I could discern any significant difference between the quality of the brews due to size of grinding burrs....and I could not find any, for single coffees, where the grinders have not been overheated through continuous use (as would happen in cafe use and where the larger grinder would be "better" than the smaller one....but this is not the case here where these grinders are intended for home use). This is very important in respect of all the stuff written on the internerd about "bigger being better"...because I couldnt find any significant difference between the good name 50mm grinder and the 75 mm grinder (both planar - flat - grinding plates). c) Macap M2M an excellent baby commercial espresso grinder, has overtaken the Eureka Mignon simply due to significantly better price for equivalent performance. d) the Compak K3 is a 58mm grinder as opposed to the Mignon and M2M at 50mm. Does the extra size of the plates mean anything? Please read below. I like the small stepped adjuster of the M2M much much better. e) Generally speaking, the diff between (good) grinders using planar or flat grinding plates, and those using conical grinding burrs, is that for the same bag of beans, the flat plate grinders will (if you have the palate to be able to discern this in an espresso) give you an espresso with more body ("bottom end") , while the conical grinder will give you a coffee with more "clarity" (less bottom end, more medium to top end). If you dont drink blacks, do you "need" a commercial sized conical grinder with corresponding price tag? f) contrary to popular urban belief, conical grinders are not "better" than grinders with planar or flat grinding plates from the point of view of grind quality. The character in an espresso may be slightly different to someone that is looking for that, but conicals are designed and built and are primarily "better" for the reason that the conical grinding burrs last significantly LONGER in commercial volume use before they wear out and start to wreck the grinds if the burrs are not changed out.... the fact that the resulting brew, when compared to that from a flat plated grinder using the same beans may offer something different, may be significant to some adjudicators, but not to all. Some people like a more traditional espresso with a good bottom end and should stick with planar or flat plated grinders, and others like a more "transparent" character and may want to spend the extra dosh on a large conical. g) there is a significant price difference between flat plated and conical burred grinders. In commercial use this can be warranted due to the extra long life of the conical burrs, but only an individual can decide whether the price difference is justified for their 2 cups of milk coffee per day at home. h) If the grinder is specced properly for the use intended, "grind retention" realistically becomes a figment of the imagination that is fueled by incessant cyclic discussions, and which makes people needlessly worried and insecure. If you use a doser grinder at home, or a large conical grinder at home, the grind retention that they suffer from is what it is, given you are using a grinder that is designed and built for volume cafe use, not for use in your home. Buy an appropriate grinder, and there wont be a problem. i) anyone contemplating an elektra grinder should seriously consider that for the most part, elektra grinders are a custom body placed straight over a Macap grinder. So only an individual can decide whether they might want to pay say $2.5k or more for a conical elektra, when you can probably have the macap M7K for less than $2k (an educated guess on the prices at this stage but cant be too far out....). j) a lot of BS is oft written about stuff in the internerd and it has the very real effect of manipulating what consumers purchase...often for the wrong reasons, and I have tried to shed some light on stuff above. Also there are a lot of contributors that have a pet brand model and will go all out to defend their pet and tell the world why it is so much better than anything else. This has the very real effect of making many readers that have already bought something different, doubt and feel insecure about their choice, and it also makes new clients very scared of buying the "wrong thing". They will often trust anonymous givers of advice on the www, but not a professional equipment dealer who knows his stuff... This is nothing short of criminal, and has people going into the spiral of "upgradeitis" looking very often, for a kind of grinder or brew Nirvana that simply does not exist....but it is good for the traders selling these items. For all of the above reasons and explanations, buying a grinder can sometimes be made so much more complicated that it really needs to be. Read everything with a grain or two of salt. Sue, if you have an requests for info, feel free to contact me here or elsewhere.
