Oxo Brew Conical Burr Coffee Grinder [2024 Review]

Coffee plays an important role in setting your mood for the rest of the day. Strong, good coffee, made exactly how you like is the best start to your morning! Poorly made, weak coffee? Ugh, can this day end already!

And if you’re here reading this, we’re betting you feel the same way. If your coffee means a lot to you too, you’re in the right place.

We believe that coffee is best made with freshly ground coffee beans. Pre-ground coffee will never satisfy your craving for a good, fresh-tasting coffee simply because it’s incapable of doing so.

According to experts, pre-ground coffee can only retain its original taste and freshness for up to a week after being opened. This means anything you make after the 1 week period is just straight-up bad coffee (… or some variant of it). And there is enough bad in the world already, we don’t want that.

All of this is to say, start grinding your coffee fresh before brewing. Honestly, it makes all the difference!

Types Of Coffee Grinders

Burr Grinders

A burr grinder works by two burrs working in opposite directions. Which creates pressure to grind the beans down a funnel in a uniform size. Usually, the burrs are made of metal or ceramic material that creates minimal heat during the grinding process, this helps to keep the coffee flavors intact.

There are two types of burr grinders; flat disk and conical burr.

Burr grinders are considered the gold standard when it comes to coffee grinders. They are affordable and yield in a consistently sized grind. However, the heat generation and the cleaning can be a bit of a hassle.

Blade Grinders

Like a blender or a chopper, blade grinders work to pulverize the beans. They are often cheap, which makes them an attractive option.

However, blade grinders are pretty inconsistent when it comes to grinding size and they’re usually pretty low quality compared to burr grinders.

Manual Coffee Grinders

Manual coffee grinders are best suited for people who need to make coffee for a couple of people only and don’t see the point in investing in a more expensive coffee grinder.

The plus side of manual grinders is that they’re cheap, versatile with the grind size options, and are much quieter plus sustainable. The downside is of course the arm workout you get in the process.

Electric or Automatic Coffee Grinders

Automatic grinders are perfect for anyone that needs to grind a heap of coffee in one go to sort out a whole pot of coffee in the morning.

They’re efficient, more consistent, and much easier to use. All of which might just justify the price point they come with (which is often pretty hefty).

Oxo Brew Conical Burr Coffee Grinder

Now that we know we need a coffee grinder and what type of coffee grinder to go for, here is a product recommendation; OXO Brew Conical Burr Coffee Grinder.

Product Features

Stainless Steel Burrs

The burrs on this coffee grinder are made with stainless steel. They are less prone to breaking and last longer than ceramic burrs.

Steel burrs also tend to stay sharp for a longer time, meaning the grind size stays consistent throughout.

Conical Burrs

Conical burrs are less likely to retain coffee while grinding and produce less heat, so the flavor and aroma stay original to what it is rather than cooking it up or burning it.

15 Grind Settings

This OXO brew grinder has 15 different grind settings so you can grind coffee for every type of brew. Whether you want a coarse grind for french press or a finer grind for espresso, this grinder will do it for you.

One-Touch Starter

If you grind coffee the first thing in the morning, you probably don’t have the time to mess around with a dozen different buttons.

This grinder, fortunately, has a one-button function to get it going whenever you want.

Hopper

The hopper can hold up to 0.75 pounds of coffee beans at once, so you don’t have to worry about continuously feeding the grinder.

Ground Container

Grinding coffee beans can be messy and it can be a menace to clean up. However, this grinder comes with an onboard ground container that can hold up to 110 grams of coffee, that’s good enough for approximately 12 cups.

Pros

• Sleek and modernistic design
• Easy to clean, no need to deconstruct it
• Consistent grind size
• The noise levels are fairly low
• Solid construction
• Affordable price point
• The grind catcher does not have the static issue
• The grinding time is impressively fast
• A lot of different size settings make it pretty versatile

Cons

• The grind catcher does not lock into place and can easily get displaced during grinding
• You need to estimate the grinding quantity in seconds instead of ‘number of cups’ which might be confusing at first
• Needs to be cleaned often to prevent any build-up
• Conical burrs might not yield uniform grounds when tested at a finer grind setting
• Might not last long

Conclusion

If you haven’t used a coffee grinder before and want to start with a good one, the OXO Brew Conical Burr Coffee Grinder is as great as any to start with.

It’s not too expensive compared to other automatic grinders and avoids most other issues that come with coffee grinders such as static containers, difficulty cleaning, and of course, non-uniform grind size.

The usability might be an issue since you need to play around with the timer to figure out the quantity instead of the usual ‘number of cups’ but we feel like that is something you can overcome, with time and practice. Other than that, it’s pretty straightforward to use with its one-button start-up.

The design and construction are pretty solid. It doesn’t take too much space on the kitchen counter and has a reasonable capacity despite that.

Overall, it’s a pretty solid machine that delivers well on its promise of “better coffee”, one that we feel would make a good addition to your coffee appliance family.