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Baratza Encore Grinder Announced: Maestro Series Rides Off Into the Sunset
Written by Matt Galyon on Mar 6th, 2012
Baratza has announced the release of their newest entry-level home coffee grinder. The Baratza Encore (more on this in a bit) has taken the Maestro Plus’s spot as the baddest entry-level home grinder on the planet. This announcement is bittersweet for me, as this means saying goodbye to the Maestro name. I (Matt) have been the proud owner of a Baratza Maestro for almost two and a half years now. It has been the best coffee investment I’ve made (or rather my wife made on my behalf when she gave it to me as a Christmas present). It has been the perfect home coffee grinder for the ridiculous variety of manual brewing devices I own. For someone who didn’t need a grinder for espresso, the Maestro has been perfect.
While the Maestro was discontinued a while ago, the Maestro name lived on through the Maestro Plus, a model which was set apart, at first, by its heavier base, timer, and pulse button. When the Maestro was originally discontinued, the base was dropped for a unified style and $129 “catch” price between the original Maestro ($99) and the Maestro Plus ($149). The Maestro Plus with it’s timer knob and on-demand pulse grinding button became the new premier entry-level home grinder. The Maestro Plus was a more than capable successor to the Maestro as Baratza’s base grinder, but with Baratza’s tick for progress and innovation, the Maestro Plus wasn’t going to last forever.
The time has come for the Maestro line to be no more, so I pour out some coffee for my fallen coffee-grinding comrades (R.I.P. Maestros), all the while taken back by what Baratza has been able to do yet again: make a good grinder even better. The replacement for the Maestro Plus is aptly named “Encore,” as I like to think that the Encore is the OG Maestro raising out of the ashes for another performance. You may be thinking, “Why didn’t Baratza call it the Maestro Plus Plus?” Okay, no one is thinking that, but regardless, this update isn’t a minor upgrade, there are some major changes.
The two big changes from the Maestro Plus to the Encore are the updated burrs and updated gearbox. The burrs for the Encore grinder are an entirely new burr set. According to Baratza, these burrs are similar to the Virtuoso Preciso burrs and were designed to bring espresso-grinding capabilities to their entry-level grinder. That’s huge news. Secondly, with the Encore, Baratza is rolling out what they are calling “Gearbox 2.0.” In this new gearbox, Baratza has increased the strength and durability of the drive transmission by using a new drive shaft, motor mounting plate, and bushings. These changes include a new drive gear made of 15% glass-filled thermo plastic which is quieter than the previous metal gear, wears better, and is more shock resistant. Baratza has said that during their testing of the Encore, they threw stainless steel screws into the burrs and in every case, the motor/gear/burrs stopped immediately thanks to the (automatically resettable) thermal cutout being triggered. The gears were fine. There really isn’t any good explanation for why Baratza would make these type of changes to their entry-level grinder other than that they really must care about pushing themselves and making the best grinders possible.
Since Apple is going to be unveiling their newest iPad this week, I’ll borrow from the late Steve Jobs:
One more thing, all of these added features to the Baratza Encore grinder for the same price as the Maestro Plus, $129.
To Pre-Order, find out more details, and see how the Encore compares to the rest of Baratza’s grinders, check out our Baratza Encore Conical Burr Coffee Grinder listing.
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Small, lightweight, and portable, the Skerton is the ideal hand grinder for the traveling coffee enthusiast, or the home enthusiast on a limited budget. The Skerton employs adjustable conical ceramic burrs for grinding any of the wide range of grinds employed in today’s coffee market. It can easily handle anything from fine espresso to a coarse French Press setting. The Skerton’s detachable 100 gr. glass jar is perfect for collecting the grounds, and in combination with the plastic screw-on lid (included in order) can even double as a storage unit for whole beans on those long trips. After grinding is finished, cleaning the Skerton is as easy as placing the unit in the dishwasher since the entire grinder is dishwasher safe. Whether you desire a quality, handy grinder for the road or enjoy the fine art of manual coffee preparation, the Hario Skerton is the ideal candidate. For an even more portable hand grinder from Hario, check out the Mini Mill (for a more detailed comparison of the two grinders, check out this blog post: Hario Skerton vs. Mini Mill).
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Hario Skerton grinder is handy for manual home and travel grinding, it can also be slightly more cumbersome for an extended road trip where only a small amount of grinding will be done (for a more detailed comparison of the two grinders, check out this blog post: Hario Skerton vs. Mini Mill). For those trips (or homes) where a minimal amount of grinding is needed, the Hario Mini Mill Slim is the perfect grinding solution. The Mini Mill employs adjustable conical ceramic burrs for grinding any of the wide range of grinds employed in today’s coffee market. It can effortlessly handle 24 grams of anything from fine espresso to a coarse French Press setting. Because of its lightweight (0.5 lbs) and sleek plastic body, the Mini Mill easily fits into small carrying bags and suitcases without adding a lot of extra weight. This, in conjunction with the Aerobie AeroPress coffee maker, has the propensity to make excellent coffee anywhere hot water and fresh beans are available.
The Hario Mini Mill is a traveling coffee enthusiast’s dream come true.... and with its ability to grind to the fine quality needed for espresso, it can be paired with a hand-held travel espresso maker such as the mypressi TWIST (and an excellent choice of beans) to achieve a quality rivaling the product found in many high-end espresso machines. Whether the need is grinding beans for a french press, Aeropress, or mypressi, the Mini Mill Slim is the perfect travel solution.
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(For a guest barista review, click here.) Anfim's Super Caimano espresso grinder, upon its initial release, was a solid addition to any high-end coffee house. It featured a 75mm flat burr set that helped to give a very consistent grind, allowing baristas to rely upon it for excellent shot-to-shot uniformity. When dialing in a coffee, the Super Caimano had 70 holes in its adjustment collar to allow for tinkering between shots. Now, however, Anfim has added an additional 20 spots for a total of 90 holes in the adjustment collar. The benefit of this? When dialing in and finding the sweet spot for any coffee being used to pull shots of espresso, a key factor the barista must take into consideration is the size of the grind particles. Yes, uniformity and consistency of those grind particles is also key, but the ability to make tiny, incremental adjustments is always helpful when striving to find the right balance of all a coffee's characteristics when pulled as espresso.
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this is awesome. i have the Preciso and those burrs are darn good. can't believe they'll be offering those, plus an upgraded gearbox, in a $130 grinder. baratza love.
We're excited too! Though just for clarification, this is not actually the same burr set used in the Preciso, but an entirely new burr set from Baratza.