Encore

That's absolutely not true, you can get a used baratza encore esp for like 100. Even the regular encore can grind fine enough for espresso, the increments are just too big. I had the same machine as OP, i just pulled the plastic insert out of the stock portafilter and put a non pressurised basket in

Check out the Baratza Encore ESP Pro - under $300. Good grinder. Don't just buy any cheap grinder. Buy a grinder that has fine grind settings for espresso.

Can verify comments from others. I picked up the Oxo for a friend who just does machine drip. We put it through paces, and while it was a big step up from Cuisinart in terms of grind consistency and great for drip, it could not go fine enough for my Breville. I love the grinder-- even bought another

I would recommend the v Breville Bambino as well, I have this machine for the past two years it's great. I would absolutely not agree with the smart grinder. The Breville Bambino cannot extract light beans... If this matters to your mom get a machine that works with that. The Bambino excels in mediu

If considering the Encore ESP, I'd also look at the Encore ESP Pro: the latter is a nice enhancement over the original ESP, with significantly tighter grind precision in the espresso range (a pretty amazing 2.2-micron display step, essentially near-stepless in practice--in comparison, the original E

The KinGrinder K6 manual grinder is well-regarded here for its quality/output/price value ratio; typically priced in the U.S. at just under US$100. Up from there, the 1Zpresso J-Ultra really is a hand-grinding star, albeit at ~double the KinGrinder K6's price. A major difference between the two: the

I really like my Baratza Encore ESP Pro. I use for everything from Moka pot to pour over and aeropress to espresso. I LOVE being able to simply turn the collar to get to the number I want. I find it easy to use and clean. I did buy a small bellows for the single-dose hopper, but you could use the ho

The Encore ESP Pro is a nice enhanced version of the Encore ESP. Note: the flavor profile is the same--the ESP Pro uses the same burrs as the ESP, and one should expect the same flavor between the 2 grinders, as a general matter. The biggest value is the ESP Pro's 2.2-micron display grind steps, as

Good range to be looking at. The Baratza Encore is a solid workhorse but worth knowing it is primarily designed for filter coffee rather than espresso, the stepped adjustment and grind range does not give you the fine control espresso really needs for dialling in. If espresso is your main brew metho

I had a similar issue with grind settings and I found the burr carrier was broken. I bought another one from Baratza replaced it and later found that the grind settings were a then bit high, 17 for medium and 19 for dark roasts. It seemed also that between the clicks, there was too much variance bet