Getting the right commercial coffee grinder is a big first step in assembling the right coffee equipment arsenal. These high-end pieces of equipment will go a long way towards ensuring you produce world-class drinks if you’re thinking of opening a coffee shop or plan on serving specialty coffee in bustling business environments.
Of course, not just any commercial-grade coffee grinder will do. You’ll need a unit with the best value-cost balance, and we’re here to help you narrow down the list. Over the last several days, we’ve scoured the internet to find top-rated grinder units and detailed our findings in the sections that follow.
But before drilling down into particulars, let’s cover some basics first.
What makes the Best Commercial Coffee Grinder?
Before talking in detail about our top contenders from the list, I’d also like to go into brief detail about our methodology and how we decided on our top picks.
Capacity
While capacity does matter, it’s less essential than most people think when it comes to finding the best commercial coffee grinder. Why? Because once you’ve ground coffee beans, they start losing their freshness almost right away. And if you’re in the coffee-selling business, you want your drinks as fresh and nice-tasting as possible.
What’s more? Using generously-sized bean hoppers to store your coffee beans prior to grinding isn’t the best option either. Its been proven to significantly degrade their freshness. For the newbies, the hopper is the canister that directly links to your commercial coffee grinder and will hold your whole coffee beans before grinding.
I know what you’re thinking, “The busier my business will get, the more I’ll need an industrial-grade grinder with impressive hopper capacity, right?” That couldn’t be further from the truth. Provided your commercial coffee grinder can deliver consistently and fast, then capacity shouldn’t matter in the larger scheme of things.
So how do you go about picking the right capacity?
If you’re just opening a coffee shop, experts recommend steering clear of large commercial coffee grinders. In the early days, the large unit is almost certainly going to have more capacity than is needed in your business. So why pay for extra capacity you’ll rarely need?
Alternatively, if you’re conceiving your business with your sights set on growth (and your budget allows for it,) then investing in the “extra” capacity could come in handy in the future. Plus, it’ll mean you won’t have to worry about making additional purchases in the future when business booms.
Consistency & Speed
In any business, speed is life. The faster you’re able to execute something without sacrificing quality, the more successful you’re apt to become. By the same token, if your fine-tasting specialty coffee is your shop’s stock-in-trade, quality and speed will matter a great deal.
To achieve both, first consider the commercial coffee grinders’ burrs. “Stainless Steel vs Ceramic Burrs, which one should I peak?” That’s the exact question you should ask yourself.
Stainless steel delivers a better grind consistency. Note, however, that the difference is usually negligible, and a tradeoff does exist: i.e. the fact that stainless steel, a metal, will tend to heat up after repeated use. This heat can, in turn, burn your fresh beans, ruining their flavour.
Some commercial coffee grinder models counter this issue by incorporating cooling fans that’ll keep the burr’s temperature down. This addition, of course, will add to the appliance’s price.
Ceramic burrs, on the other hand, are slightly costlier but will get around the overheating issue. So which of the two should you pick? We suggest ceramic grinders. In most cases, the slight loss in grind consistency isn’t significant enough to matter, or sufficiently significant to justify the incorporation of cooling fans. To learn more about burr coffee grinders, check out this article.
The 5 Best Commercial Coffee Grinders
| Commercial Coffee Grinder | Weight | Grinder | Features | Price |
| Mahlkonig EK43 | 24 Kg | Conical Burr | Quick, efficient & powerful, highly consistent, large grinding capacity, easy to use, clamp for the bag included | Learn More |
| Mazzer Major | 20 Kg | Flat Burr | Perfect for high-traffic locations, produce uniform grind, stepless micrometrical grinding adjustment, ventilation device with electronic control | Learn More |
| Baratza Vario W+ | 4.1 Kg | Conical Burr | Extremely accurate, fast, LED-Backlit Display & mordernized user interface, accurate intergrated scale, easy to use | Learn More |
| VA Mythos One | 25 Kg | Flat Burr | Fast, reliable, reasonably quiet, can handle high volume, slim footprint, user-friendly design | Learn More |
| Anfim SP2+ | 16.3 Kg | Flat Burr | Titanium coated grinding discs, stepless grind adjustment, multifunction display, dual cooling fan system, safety switches under bean hopper | Learn More |
So now that you know a little about picking the finest commercial coffee grinders in the marketplace, let’s skip to the most interesting section of the guide. It’s, after all, the section that brought you to this guide in the first place.
In my opinion – here are the five best commercial coffee grinders money can buy today.
- Mahlkonig EK43 Coffee Grinder
If we had to pick a “best overall” commercial coffee grinder from this list, the Mahlkonig EK43 Coffee Grinder would be it for the reasons highlighted below. The unit is a sleek and aesthetic high-tech marvel, with a high grinding capacity suitable for all grind levels.
The unit easily qualifies as one of the best powerful and fast commercial-grade coffee grinders. Thanks to an impressive blade RPM and conical burr type, it’ll produce highly consistent bean grind particles in a fraction of the period taken by most other commercial market grinders.
You’ll also appreciate the units’ large grinding capacity. The 98mm burrs will support the capacity and ensure a uniform grind at all times.
The only slight downside with this unit is that it’s a pricier option. It seems all the extra power and sturdiness don’t come cheap.
- Mazzer Major Electronic Grinder
The Mazzer Major Electronic Grinder is a reliable, sturdy, and surprisingly affordable commercial-grade coffee grinder. It’s not the ideal option for novice baristas worried about a slight learning curve. If you’ve got some experience, however, or are willing to dedicate some time to master it, it’s a wonder that’ll leave you in awe.
Our next, favorite feature is the manual, timed dosing control that you can set in ranges between 5.5 and 8 grams. This feature also makes the grinder extremely versatile.
Regarding design, the unit will leave you slightly underwhelmed if, like most people, you’re a fan of high-tech wizardry. The grinder, despite its speed and consistency, is decidedly old school. You won’t find any on-board computer, so there’ll be nothing to program.
On the bright side, we all know that no matter how amazing high-end bells and whistles are, they ultimately break. So you can view Mazzer Major Electronic Grinder’s old-school design as a strength because there’ll be less stuff that can break down on the unit.
- Baratza Vario W+ Coffee Grinder
This Baratza Vario W+ Coffee Grinder is an aesthetic blend of function and form, featuring well-implemented technology that’s especially kind to novice baristas. Fitted with stainless steel burrs and a modernized user interface as well as a newly updated high-visibility backlit LCD, the grinder is easy to use, relatively fast, and consistent.
Baratza Vario W+ also qualifies as a semi-commercial coffee grinder, which means it’s designed for use in small businesses as well as large households with several power coffee drinkers. The 10 Distinct and Repeatable Macro Adjustments feature incorporated into the unit makes it the best commercial coffee grinder for small businesses that are just opening their doors.
- VA Mythos One Coffee Grinder
A company synonymous with premium café equipment, Victoria Arduino’s lineup of coffee grinders is assured not to disappoint. The brand claims it’s committed to “pushing the boundaries of coffee grind control in terms of increased production, precision, and temperature stability.”
Their flagship model, VA Mythos One Coffee Grinder, is without a doubt, one of the most advanced grinders in the marketplace today. It boasts high-end steel flat burrs, a clump crusher, and micrometric settings to ensure that it gets it right at all times.
What’s the catch? Hitting the dizzying price heights of approx. $4,000, the VA Mythos One Coffee Grinder is best suited for seasoned baristas. Learn how to take advantage of its fully customizable feature sets, and you can own it in every sense of the word.
The unit also includes the exclusive ClimaPro technology, which allows you to set the grinder’s exact temperature. So you can say goodbye to hot burrs and bad espressos. Victoria Arduino’s patented Gravitech weight system will help ensure you get the dosing right every time.
Anfim hand-builds all their coffee grinders in the coffee lovers’ mecca of Milan, Italy. Their wide product range is aimed at espresso bars, so those exclusively looking to get into the filter coffee realm may have to look elsewhere.
Claiming to design some of the most “reliable dosers” in the market, they’ve also embraced modern technology in all their units, while still retaining Italian traditionalism. This SP2+ unit from one of their product lines is a true testament to that commitment.
The Anfim SP2+ showcases technical know-how and passion for espresso, all without leaving a dent in your wallet. It’s fitted with two cooling fans and has minimal grind retention, which awards it great thermal stability at high volumes.
Also, in our test of this unit, it delivered remarkably consistent dosing, which, as you know, is critical to ensuring consistent, tasty espresso drinks. This is our pick for espresso cafes and bars that need reliability, consistency, and quality.
Final Word
And there you have it! We stand by our pick of the Mahlkonig EK43 Coffee Grinder as the best overall commercial coffee grinder available in the market today. If you agree with that analysis, perfect! But we realize that not everyone will, and that’s why we’ve included our runners-up.
Even more important, although we’ve made our “best” decision by zeroing in on the optimal design, at the end of the day, your needs, wants, and personal preferences may lead you toward a different commercial coffee grinder. And that’s okay.
