The OXO BREW Conical Burr Coffee Grinder adheres to the golden rules of preparing your coffee at home: grinding your coffee and when you use those grinds (freshness). It costs as much as some entry-level coffee makers, priced almost half what you’d spend on the OXO 8710200 On Conical Burr Coffee Grinder that comes with an integrated scale.
Our review model doesn’t have a built-in scale, but for the price, we’re satisfied with the design, speed, and 15 grind settings (including micro settings).
The Oxo Burr grinder is speedy, crushing through coffee with more precision than competing grinders that cost more. However, it doesn’t get premium features like finer controls for the grind size. Still, if all you need is simple operation and convenience, the OXO Conical Burr Coffee Grinder is an excellent choice.
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Design
The OXO coffee grinder cuts a premium profile, one you’d see in a more expensive coffee grinder. On the top is a funnel-shaped hopper that holds whole coffee beans. The hopper empties its contents into a steel grinding mechanism then feeds it into a stainless-steel receptacle.
You can adjust the quality of your grind between 15 different settings, and depending on your taste, you can choose from either fine enough for espresso or the coarseness for French press. If you need better control over the grind size, the Baratza Encore is a better choice, offering 40 coarseness levels.
Performance
Except for the lack of a built-in scale, like its sibling, the OXO 8710200 Burr Grinder, the OXO Burr grinder is faster and quiet than most home-use grinders. It churns 23 grams of whole coffee beans into grounds suitable for brewing in 9.4 seconds. The Cuisinart DBM-8 takes much longer (22 seconds) to grind the same amount of beans.
Apart from speed, grind size consistency is considered when buying a coffee grinder. I saw that the Oxo has an edge with more uniform grounds in shape and surface area. This is very important in consistently extracting coffee’s flavor since coffee’s essence extracts faster from fine grinds than from coarse grinds.
The Bottom Line
The OXO Brew Coffee Grinder does an excellent job grinding beans for home use, but whether it gets a place in your kitchen or not depends on what type of coffee drinker you are and how you might be in the future. If you’re wild like me, then you prefer to try all sorts of roasts and juggle with various grinds before choosing the perfect cup.
This grinder is the best way to go with its greater grind control, better grind consistency, and sturdier construction. Otherwise, if you don’t mind spending a little more to get a faster grinder with the convenience of its scale, the OXO Conical Burr Coffee Grinder is worth a look.
