If you're wondering how many coffee grinders your café needs in order to serve great tasting, quality coffee for your customers, the answer is simple.
One!
With one good quality coffee grinder, you'll be able to serve great tasting espresso-based coffee drinks of a wide range of styles, whether you're offering a traditional Italian dark roasted style of espresso, or something more specialty and complex.
However, it's not uncommon to see cafés with two, three or more grinders on their workbench. So, what exactly are they being used for?
In this article, we'll outline how many coffee grinders your café actually needs depending on your goals, your business, and the types of coffees you want to serve.
Your Primary Coffee Grinder
House Espresso
Your first grinder should always be focused on your house espresso.
If you only have one grinder, this is the coffee you’ll be serving day in and day out. It needs to be reliable, consistent, and aligned with the majority of your menu. With a single grinder, you don’t have flexibility in switching between coffee beans, but you can produce a full range of espresso-based drinks to a high standard.
Invest in a Quality Espresso Grinder
Your house espresso grinder is not the place to cut costs. It should represent a significant portion of your coffee equipment budget. A high-quality grinder will:
- Deliver consistent grind size and dosing
- Reduce dial-in time and waste
- Improve barista workflow during busy periods
Ultimately, a fast, consistent grinder leads to faster service and better-tasting coffee. Get this right first.
When to Add Another Grinder?
A second grinder becomes relevant when you want to introduce flexibility into your offering. This could be in expanding your menu, improving quality in certain areas, or offering different experiences.
Additional grinders allow you to separate coffees, optimise each one individually, and create more value from your menu.
Dedicated Decaf Grinder
If you want to serve genuinely good decaf, you’ll need a dedicated grinder for it. Because switching coffees is difficult when you only have one grinder, many cafés opt to use a pre-ground decaf - leading to stale, bitter tasting decaf coffees.
A dedicated decaf grinder removes this issues entirely, allowing you to serve tasty, freshly ground decaf coffees whilst keeping your main espresso grinder to dialled in and consistent throughout the day. A more affordable, lower volume grinder is absolutely fine here.
Flexible Back Bar Grinder
If you want to sell bags of coffee for your customers to take home, or you want the option to serve filter coffees or bulk brew, a flexible 'back bar' grinder is key.
This type of grinder is designed to handle a wide range of grind sizes, which makes it useful for multiple functions across your café. It can be used for decaf if you don’t have a dedicated grinder, for filter coffee or batch brew, and for grinding retail coffee for customers who want to take beans home.
These types of grinders are typically reserved for cafés that truly want to invest in the quality of their coffee offering.
Secondary Guest or Single Origin Espresso
Another common reason to add a grinder is to offer a secondary espresso.
Many cafés operate with two main espresso grinders. One is used for the house coffee, which is typically a blend designed for consistency, while the other is used for a guest or single origin espresso that offers something more distinctive.
This second grinder gives you the ability to introduce variety into your menu without disrupting your core offering. It might be used for a rotating guest roaster or a single origin coffee that changes regularly, allowing you to showcase different flavour profiles.
So How Many Grinders Will You Need?
Here are some general recommendations for your grinder setup based on your needs.
Just Serving Espresso-Based Coffee - 1x Espresso Grinder (premium)
Espresso Coffee & Freshly Ground Decaf - 2x Espresso Grinder (1 premium, 1 budget)
Espresso Coffee & Filter Coffee - 1x Espresso Grinder (premium), 1x Back Bar
Espresso Coffee, Filter Coffee & Fresh Decaf - 2x Espresso Grinder (1 premium, 1 budget), 1x Back Bar
What Grinders Do We Recommend?
In terms of specific equipment, for your house espresso grinder you would typically be looking at options such as the Mahlkönig E80 Grind-by-Weight, or the Victoria Arduino Mythos MY85.
For a decaf grinder, models like the Anfim Luna or Anfim Alba are reliable and cost-effective choices.
For a flexible back bar grinder, the Mahlkönig EK43 is widely regarded as the industry standard due to its versatility.
For a secondary guest or single origin espresso, the Mahlkönig E65 Grind-by-Weight or Mythos MY75 are strong options that balances performance and consistency.
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