Baratza Virtuoso+ Review

If you’re in the market for a high-end coffee grinder, you’ll find none better than the Baratza Virtuoso+, which earned the title of best upgrade pick in our larger tested review of the best coffee grinders. Here's why we love it.

Based on rigorous testing, I believe the Baratza Virtuoso+ to be the best high-end coffee grinder on ... [+] the market.

If you’re the kind of person who owns multiple types of coffee gear, you probably know the name Baratza. Among the most trusted brands in the space, Baratza is known for its premium coffee grinders, which yield perfectly uniform grounds that turn into balanced cups of coffee. While testing 10 popular grinders, I was blown away by the Baratza Virtuoso+, which I believe to be the best high-end option on the market.

Out of all the grinders I tested, the Virtuoso+ was by far the most consistent. Across every setting I tried—coarse, medium, medium-fine, and fine—it produced remarkably even grounds that brewed fresh, complex java. Now, if you’re not a bit of a coffee nerd, this ultra precise grinder might not be the one for you; you might be happier with the sleek Fellow Opus Conical Burr Grinder, a quiet grinder that’s only slightly less consistent, or the OXO Conical Burr Coffee Grinder, an affordable and user-friendly model. But if you’re the kind of person who cares deeply about the flavor and quality of your coffee and you’re in the market for a versatile grinder, the Virtuoso+ is well worth the investment.

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Dimensions: 4.7 x 13.8 x 6.3 inches | Weight: 8 pounds | Grind settings: 40 | Bean hopper capacity: 8 ounces

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The best all-purpose coffee grinders pulverize beans into perfectly uniform pieces at a wide range of grind settings. If your grinder produces uneven grounds, the flavor of your coffee will suffer; it will either be under- or over-extracted, resulting in unpleasantly bitter or sour cups of java. In testing the Baratza Virtuoso+, I was highly impressed by its consistency. When I ran the coarse, medium, medium-fine and fine grounds that I blitzed in the Virtuoso+ through my Kruve sifter, I noticed very few pieces that were too fine or too big. Its versatility cannot be overstated, as many lesser grinders struggle on the finer settings: The Virtuoso+ not only handled the coarser grind I needed for my French press, but it also yielded beautifully even grounds for my AeroPress. You also never have to worry about grinding too much or too little with the Virtuoso+. Featuring a 40-second digital timer that allows you to control—down to a 10th of a second—how long you want the machine to run, the grinder guarantees you’ll blitz the perfect amount of coffee every time.

All that said, if you’re someone who drinks a lot of espresso—and especially if you exclusively drink espresso—you might consider looking into dedicated espresso grinders, which boast more micro adjustments. But if you like to sip on a variety of coffee styles, espresso included, you’ll likely be happy with the Virtuoso+, as it’s one of the few all-purpose grinders that can grind a decent shot.

When I asked Josey Markiewicz, La Colombe’s senior director of coffee quality/experience, what he looks for in a good coffee grinder, he offered four main criteria: “Durability, efficiency, utility, aesthetic. You want something that provides a consistently uniform grind particle size without making too much of a mess.” On every front he listed, the Baratza Virtuoso+ excels—plus, it has smart features that make it easy to use, even if you aren’t super familiar with coffee grinders already. For instance, all 40 gradations are clearly marked below the hopper, and the LED-backlit grounds bin allows you to see exactly how much the machine is grinding.

While you probably don’t want to think about future repairs when picking out a coffee grinder, it’s worth knowing that the Virtuoso+ is relatively easy to fix. Why exactly is this so relevant? Even if you pamper your grinder, at some point (usually around the 10-year mark), you’ll need to replace the Virtuoso+’s conical burrs. While I didn’t try replacing the burrs during testing, I found the grinder very easy to disassemble and reassemble, and I had no issue accessing the burrs. When it comes time to swap them out, you can simply order a replacement from the Baratza website.

And let’s say you happen to purchase a model that seems defective. The machine comes with a 1-year warranty on its parts and motor. And if your warranty period has expired, you can reach out to Baratza to request a quote for the necessary repairs; then, you can ship the grinder back to the brand to get it fixed.

If you’re looking for a premium multipurpose grinder that really allows you to fine-tune your brews, the Baratza Virtuoso+ is the machine that will make a worthy addition to your home coffee brewing setup. While devoted espresso drinkers might be happier with a dedicated espresso grinder, the Virtuoso+ can blitz coffee beans into uniformly fine grounds for espresso—something I can’t say for most other machines I tested. If you’d like something quieter, more compact and less expensive—and crucially, you don’t mind it being a hair less precise—I’d go with my best overall pick, the Fellow Opus. And if you’re in the market for a more affordable burr grinder that’s less consistent but plenty fine for the average coffee drinker (especially those who use coarser grounds for standard coffee makers or French presses), I’d point you to my best value pick, the OXO Conical Burr Coffee Grinder.

To test the Baratza Virtuoso+, I relied heavily on a specialty coffee grounds sifter called a Kruve. After running Stumptown’s Holler Mountain whole coffee beans through the machine on four different settings—coarse, medium, medium-fine and fine—I then ran the respective grounds through the appropriate screens on the Kruve, which sifts out particles that are too large and too small. Then, I brewed the grounds in various machines—a French press, an AeroPress and a standard coffee maker—noting how well the coffee was extracted from the grounds. (Yes, I drank a perhaps inadvisable amount of coffee.) I also took note of the dimensions and weight of the Baratza Virtuoso+ and measured its loudness using my Decibel X app.

I’ve worked in food media for more than 7 years, with stints at both Food & Wine and Food52. I’ve also done my fair share of product reviewing for Forbes Vetted: I’ve previously tested the best juicers, the best meal kits and the best pillows. For this article specifically, I consulted two serious coffee experts: Josey Markiewicz, the senior director of coffee quality/experience at La Colombe, and Genevieve Kappler, Roasting Plant Coffee’s director of coffee.

With 40 grind settings and a digital timer, the Baratza Virtuoso+ is designed for coffee drinkers who want an all-purpose machine that yields uniform grounds at all grind settings. In other words, this is a grinder for the more serious coffee nerd. If you’re just getting into coffee and are looking for something less expensive, consider the Fellow Opus, a quiet, consistent grinder, or the OXO Conical Burr Coffee Grinder, an impressive budget-friendly pick.

In short, yes. The Baratza Virtuoso+ can pulverize coffee beans into grounds fine enough for an espresso machine. But a caveat: If you intend to use your grinder exclusively for espresso, it’s worth investing in an espresso-specific grinder because that would allow you to make micro adjustments in grind fineness at the espresso level. While the Virtuoso+ is capable of a grind fine enough for espresso, it’s designed to be an all-in-one workhorse.

The longevity of the Baratza Virtuoso+ largely depends on how much grinding you do at home, but it’s certainly built to withstand years of regular use. The Baratza site estimates that a set of the steel burrs like those on the Virtuoso+ should last through about 500 pounds of coffee beans; at the rate of 1 pound of coffee a week, that’s close to 10 years. And once the burrs wear out, you don’t necessarily need a whole new machine. Instead, you can buy replacement burrs from the Baratza site and keep on grinding for another decade.