# Sage Grinder Pro v Baratza



## Coffeenovice (Nov 29, 2019)

Hi

I am a newbie and inspired by my mate, just bought a Sage Duo Temp Pro (he convinced me to go the separate machine + grinder route) .

I need to buy a grinder to go along with it. He is willing to sell me his old Baratza (I think Virtuoso but could be Encore) for £99 which I am told is in good condition or I could purchase a new Sage Grinder Pro from Lakeland for £139 with a 3 year guarantee.

Which would go better with the espresso machine and is better value for money? Any recommendations?

I would be grateful for any insights soon as the Sage grinder is only for sale during black Friday.


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## MWJB (Feb 28, 2012)

I don't think the Encore or Virtuoso are going to be up to grinding & adjusting for espresso, more aimed at brewed coffee.


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## Coffeenovice (Nov 29, 2019)

Thanks for your response. Is the Sage Grinder any good? Or are there any other decent espresso grinders that I can get for around £150ish?


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## MWJB (Feb 28, 2012)

You're very limited for choice at around £150 for a new, espresso grinder, whether electric, or hand powered (perhaps not best for starting out with unless you have no other option) .

A little more will get you a Baratza Sette, but choices will open up once you get over £300.

Have you thought about a used grinder?


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## Slowpress (Jun 11, 2019)

deleted


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## MC1 (Jul 2, 2018)

The Sage Smart Grinder Pro will be more than adequate for a beginner. Small, compact, easy to understand screen and does a decent job (for the price) at grinding. 3 year warranty is also a bonus!

If, in the future, you decide you want to upgrade, it should be relatively easy to sell on (or just keep it for decaff...?).


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## Bica60s (Dec 3, 2019)

I have the Sage grinder pro and it's perfect. Ignore any comments about it not being up to doing proper espressos...that's just nonsense. I get consistently decent fine grinds from mine and it makes excellent espressos. It's easy to use, really nicely made and excellent value. I bought mine from John Lewis for about £135 I think. Highly recommended. You don't need to spend more. Some will but it's laws of diminishing returns. I shopped around a lot and it's the only one in this price bracket I could recommend. There's a hefty jump (read "twice the budget") if you want to better it, and by "better" you may be just getting a little more consistency with lighter roast beans especially between grinds but for the most part the Sage machine is all the machine most people actually need for home use.


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## Junglebert (Jan 7, 2019)

Bica60s said:


> I have the Sage grinder pro and it's perfect. Ignore any comments about it not being up to doing proper espressos...that's just nonsense.


 If you like the results and enjoy drinking them, then that's all that should matter to you, but if you're making a 100ml drink with 8 grams of beans, then two things are apparent.

1) You're making a very different drink to everyone else here.

2) You're not making anything approaching 'proper espresso'


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## Bica60s (Dec 3, 2019)

Well, if it helps to allay any fears or indignation that I'm not "doing it properly" (LoL) I also brew roughly 30ml shots (single shots using 8g) of espresso when I actually want a proper espresso (my mid afternoon coffee usually), and double shots of 16gr (my preferred double strength for my current grind) for my long drinks, mainly my morning drinks but in the evenings I usually drink half strength hence the 8gr for roughly 100ml. That's what I like and it doesn't mean that I'm taste blind or that my opinion is worth any less than yours my friend ?

So, what have you learned from this other than not jumping in with both feet before finding out a little more?

I couldn't care less what my drink compares to with anyone else's as long as I enjoy drinking it. I'm not a coffee snob.

I'm also a very experienced engineer...own lots of very expensive tooling and am perfectly aware of what it takes to make something of high quality to tight tolerances. What I find a little off-putting about some on coffee forums is that they tend to look down on anyone not spending as much as they justify, and often have an opinion on something without actually having tried or owned it. I will only comment on what I've owned or tried. I do own the Sage Grinder Pro and have tried many others, some belonging to friends and fellow coffee aficionados. Honestly, when I say that the Grinder Pro is capable of very good results, I mean just that. Think performance to a point where it easily competes with some machines more than twice its price and you get the idea. I would not recommend it for grinding say 10 or 15 double shots of very dark roasted bean shots a day....you really might want to look to a machine with a little more power for that, but for most of us, it's absolutely fine.

I am very well aware that you can spend north of £2,500 for a grinder, but personally consider doing so insane, because in 30 years of taking part in this hobby, the difference between a mediocre bean ground on such machines V's a really great bean ground on something like the Sage still results in the great bean tasting better. For those who can afford to push the boat out because they value the engineering, that's fine, I have no problem with that. What's affordable to one person may not be to another and certainly may not be justified. Personally I would find it abhorrent spending that much for that purpose. I'd much prefer to donate £2000 to Cafod or some other aid charity and spend say £500 on a grinder. Different folks, different strokes. There's also the question of how far you go....you can chase the perfect cup until it becomes an very unhealthy obsession. the OP wanted feedback on what machine gives good results in what I'm assuming is a domestic situation and offers value for money. I stand by what I have offered and he is free to take that on board or look at more expensive options.


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## catpuccino (Jan 5, 2019)

Ah the old "my dogma is better than your dogma" trick. Come on, 'ignore any advice'...there's a middle ground we can all meet at. Plenty here have credentials and experience, no need to be so combative. If the SGP meets your needs then excellent, but don't be surprised when you come to an enthusiast forum for specialty coffee gear that those who frequent it are enthusiastic about specialty coffee gear.

The two Baratza grinders mentioned are not marketed as espresso grinders, though they are excellent for brewed coffee. The SGP is marketed as such, but it's bottom end of the entry level market. It'll work well for some use cases, but it'll become a bottleneck very quickly for many people. It's also not particularly serviceable. It's not a good starting point imo.

My opinion has long been that the only electric grinder to consider within that price range is a used Mignon II.


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## Bica60s (Dec 3, 2019)

Absolutely! No argument at all with any of that. I think that you can buy replacement parts for the SGP from Sage, so you ought, for example, to be able to replace the burrs if ever necessary. As you say, it is entry level but nonetheless is still a proper espresso grinder and by my own experience with it I know it grinds fine grounds quite consistently. It won't be as good as a larger machine with a more powerful motor and as already mentioned, it isn't one if you intend putting it to repeated hard use daily for double shots of darker roast beans for example, but for those who may want 3 to 5 cups a day, single or double, it ought to be perfectly fine and I do think betters most, if not all others at that price. Only time will tell if the SGP turns out to be a good investment but as long as it stays reliable, there's no reason it shouldn't prove to have been a great little buy. Best bang for buck is probably with some of the well made hand grinders for sure, if you don't mind the work! I agree RE the Mignon, and had I come across it before buying the Sage, I may well have gone for that but it is over three times the price new.


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## Junglebert (Jan 7, 2019)

Goodness, someone's come here looking for an argument! I did say



Junglebert said:


> If you like the results and enjoy drinking them, then that's all that should matter to you


 So I'm not sure what's got your dander up. You've got an ok grinder, it's certainly not perfect, but it's ok. Mines ok too.

Now, about jumping in with both feet, well, where should I start?


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## ashcroc (Oct 28, 2016)

Junglebert said:


> Goodness, someone's come here looking for an argument! I did say
> So I'm not sure what's got your dander up. You've got an ok grinder, it's certainly not perfect, but it's ok. Mines ok too.
> 
> Now, about jumping in with both feet, well, where should I start?


With a stepless grinder!


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## Bica60s (Dec 3, 2019)

Junglebert said:


> Goodness, someone's come here looking for an argument! I did say
> 
> So I'm not sure what's got your dander up. You've got an ok grinder, it's certainly not perfect, but it's ok. Mines ok too.
> 
> Now, about jumping in with both feet, well, where should I start?


 I may have misread things a little but I did take your reply to be rather a smugly written slap down! As you know, forums (and email) rarely convey emotional response or intent so there's always a tendency to take things literally. What you said most certainly could be read as an insult. Whether you intended that, only you can answer but that's the way I read it. That being the case, someone with good manners wouldn't speak to someone to their face like that. I'm a polite chap brought up with good manners and expecting as much in return isn't much to ask.

As for the grinder, I'm not precious about it, trust me. It's a tool. If it wasn't any good I'd say so but it is (rather good at the price and capable of making fine enough grounds for a decent espresso). As you say, it's an ok grinder and isn't that what the OP was after? Something that represented VFM and offered reasonable performance? He certainly wasn't asking for a Rolls Royce at related costs! There are others of course but this one is the only one at that ball park that I could recommend from what is currently available of the one's I have tried.


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## Jony (Sep 8, 2017)

Buy a used Mazzer grinder if you have room and bothered about how it looks.


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## Junglebert (Jan 7, 2019)

Bica60s said:


> I may have misread things a little


 Yup.


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## Squidgyblack (Nov 18, 2019)

Jony said:


> Buy a used Mazzer grinder if you have room and bothered about how it looks.


 Did this myself. After buying a Smart Grinder. Big improvement in grind consistency. SGP was meh, was able to grind fine enough to choke the machine, just really poor consistency in terms of clumping and even dosing.


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