Published on Mar. 04, 2025
We put this much-loved Breville coffee grinder to the test. Discover why the Smart Grinder Pro was ranked our favorite coffee grinder overall.
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There are a lot of tricks to making the perfect cup of coffee at home, including finding the best coffee brand and grinding the beans to the perfect coarseness. Whether you prefer a classic drip or crave cappuccinos, there’s almost nothing the Breville Smart Grinder Pro can’t do. It’s a little on the expensive side, but its ease of use and quality of grounds make it more than worth the price.
The Breville Smart Grinder Pro was ranked Best Overall on our list of the best coffee grinders.
We found the Breville coffee grinder to be well worth the splurge
The Breville Smart Grinder Pro is a conical burr grinder with more than 60 settings. It measures 15 inches with a cord length of 11 inches. The hopper can hold up to 18 ounces. It’s a durable and heavy grinder with gripping feet, but it still looks very nice and sleek.
It has an LCD display that shows grind times, cups/shots and grind size. Our team thought this screen was a major benefit to help people of all experience levels. There’s also a large grind-size dial on the side. To help you even more, the pull-out container has measurement lines indicating quantities for espresso, French press/plunger and percolator/drip filter.
The grinder comes with a fair number of accessories: a small portafilter cradle, a large portafilter cradle, a grinds container and a conical burr cleaning brush. You can also buy more accessories on the Breville website. We didn’t find that the accessories that came with the grinder were the same quality as the grinder itself, but they still added value.
The Breville comes with a manual, but there’s also a free app to help you learn how to use the machine and make your ideal cup of coffee. The machine comes in various elegant colors, like cranberry red, black sesame and champagne gold.
For something smaller and more budget-friendly, we’re loving the Hamilton Beach coffee grinder.
To see how the Breville coffee grinder performed, we gave it the same test we gave all the other grinders on our list. First, we wanted to see how well it ground fine, medium and coarse grounds.
Immediately, we were impressed by its ease of use. Considering the number of settings you can adjust, it’s intuitive and easy for a beginner to understand. It can automatically function once you choose your brew style, but there’s still the option to manually control it. (Here are some of the best manual coffee grinders.)
It took nearly 20 seconds to grind the beans to a fine ground and just 8 seconds for a coarse grind. We used a Kruve sifter to test the consistency, and the Breville coffee grinder performed very well—so much so that our testing team referred to the consistency as “beautiful.” The noise level, even at its peak, was fairly muffled, and the process wasn’t messy at all. The grounds fell right into the container.
We took those beans and made a cup of pour-over coffee using a Hario pour-over. The coffee had a bold, full and strong flavor with a slightly bitter aftertaste.
Then, we moved on to the final test: grinding espresso beans to see which machine could best meet the needs of espresso drinkers.
It took a few tries to get it right—we pulled a shot at 20 grind size, 15 grind size and 10 grind size, but they came out a bit weak. The 7 grind size, which took 23 seconds, made an espresso that was pretty close to perfect. Out of all the ones we tested, we found this to be the best coffee grinder for espresso because of the portafilter, which allows for grounds to be administered properly.
While making the espresso, we appreciated the diagram on the side by the dial, which helped troubleshoot issues. It lets you know if your grounds need to be finer or coarser, depending on how fast your shot is pulled.
Hint: Go finer for a slower extraction, and coarser for a fast extraction. No need to Google in case you forget!
Looking for an espresso machine? For cafe-quality lattes, we turn to the Breville Bambino Plus.
Cleaning was also pretty simple. You can remove the grind container and lid and the hopper container and lid to wash by hand with water. We wiped the rest of the machine down with a damp cloth, and the burrs can be removed and cleaned with a brush. The manual does not recommend putting any parts of the grinder into the dishwasher.
“The LED screen makes it incredibly easy to learn the ins and outs of this machine without having to spend hours looking through the manual. Total game-changer,” our testing team raved.
Breville’s non-coffee products impressed us, too, like the Breville toaster, the Breville food processor and the Breville air fryer oven.
We found the Breville coffee grinder to be well worth the splurge
The Breville Smart Grinder Pro is available for $199.95 with a 1-year limited product warranty. It’s also available from Amazon, Crate & Barrel, and Williams Sonoma for the same price.
Cleaning a Breville coffee grinder is simple. You can remove the grind container and hopper container to clean by hand, brush the burrs and wipe the rest of the machine down with a damp cloth. No parts of the Breville coffee grinder should be put into the dishwasher.
You can adjust the grind setting, grind time and the number of shots or cups you need on a Breville coffee grinder by using the LCD display. There is also a manual to help you figure out how to use the machine, but our team found the LCD screen was helpful, even for beginners.
Yes, Breville coffee machines are known for their high-quality construction, user-friendly features and excellent brewing performance. They offer great value for both beginners and coffee enthusiasts.
Burr grinders are better because they provide a more consistent grind size, which leads to better flavor extraction. Blade grinders, while cheaper, chop beans unevenly, resulting in inconsistent coffee.
Our expert Product Testing team evaluated multiple coffee grinders to identify the best of the best. We ranked them all based on the same factors: the noise during grinding, its countertop footprint and its grinding capabilities. We considered how long grinding took, how consistent the grounds were and the taste of the coffee we made with the grounds. Top models went through to make an espresso shot.
I’ve written many product reviews and gift guides, which often involve coffee in some form. I’m also a big coffee lover and at-home coffee maker, and I’ve experienced firsthand the importance of a grinder in making a good, strong cup of coffee.
