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Author:
Melissa Collins
A grinder and coffee brewer combo is a great way to make the freshest, best-tasting coffee while still leaving space for other appliances on your kitchen counter. It’s the perfect combination of freshly-ground taste and life-is-busy convenience.
A single cup coffee maker with a grinder can be even more compact, and brews exactly the right amount of coffee for one or two people. For more versatility, you can also get a larger coffee maker with a single cup setting, so you can brew as much or as little as you need.
Looking for a coffee maker with built-in grinder of your own to brew that perfect cup? We’ve picked out our favorite models and reviewed them below. There’s something here for every budget and experience level, so you’re sure to find one to match your needs!
The Chefman Grind and Brew is a convenient way to get fresh coffee just the way you like it. Its 4-cup capacity is the perfect amount to serve one or two. Just add the beans and water and you’ll have a full pot in minutes.
You’ll get everything you need right in the box, too. That includes a reusable filter and a bean scoop for no-guess measuring. Operating the Chefman Grind and Brew is just as convenient. Start the brew by pressing one button. Don’t want to wait? You can pause the brew to pour. It’ll keep the rest warm for up to 30 minutes, with an auto-shutoff so the coffee doesn’t burn.
If you want to use pre-ground coffee, you can turn off the grinder. While there’s no strength adjustment feature, you can just alter the ratio of beans to water, and set the dial to match the number of scoops you added.
The KRUPS Grind Drip Coffee Maker uses a stainless steel flat burr grinder with two coarseness settings. This gives you a more consistent, precise grind than other models, as well as giving you more control over the strength of the brew. You can disable the grinder for pre-ground coffee.
We also appreciate the space-saving design of the KRUPS Grind Drip brewer. It fits easily into any kitchen or office, making it a great low-mess way to brew fresh-ground coffee anywhere. It’s low-waste, as well, with a reusable and durable stainless steel filter included.
KRUPS products are robust and durable, precision-crafted in Germany for long-lasting quality. You can even use the KRUPS Grind Drip Coffee Maker for flavored coffees and oily Italian roasts without worrying that you’ll clog the burrs.
The Mr. Coffee Single Cup Coffee Maker brews fresh coffee straight into your mug—and quickly. You can go from beans to brew in as little as 15 seconds. It’s just as convenient on the other end. With the grinder built straight into the permanent filter, clean-up is a snap.
Having a grinder built in makes the Mr. Coffee Single Cup Coffee Maker a great value already. They add to this by including an insulated travel mug that’s sized perfectly for the brewer. You can use regular mugs, too. The drip tray raises and lowers for no-splash pouring.
Now this model does use a blade-style grinder, which does make it susceptible to uneven extraction. It’s the best for those who want value, speed, and convenience. Overall, this Mr. Coffee brewer gives you fresh, bold coffee in less time than the competition.
Here’s another space-saving option that can brew both ground and whole-bean coffee. The Secura Automatic Coffee Maker is compact enough to use on your office desk or in tight spaces, like RVs. It brews up to 17 ounces per batch, which is just over 2 cups, perfect for one or two people.
The auto-start feature on the Secura Automatic Coffee Maker lets you program the brew to start a whole day in advance. You can have a pot already waiting for you when you wake up in the morning, and it’ll keep it warm for 30 minutes after the brew cycle finishes.
We also like the side access to the reservoir. You can fill the Secura Automatic Coffee Maker without making a mess. The water window is helpful for measuring the water as you pour, limiting the chance of overfilling or diluting your brew.
Looking for a larger option with a built-in grinder? The Barsetto Grind and Brew has a 10 cup capacity. You can use it for smaller batches, as well, without sacrificing flavor. It also includes convenient features like automatic brew pause when you remove the carafe, a built-in hopper for the beans, and a programmable timer.
The grinder on the Barsetto Grind and Brew is top-notch. It uses conical burrs for a consistent grind and less friction, preserving the true taste of your beans. There are 5 main grind size settings, and micro-adjustments in between for fine-tuning the strength of the brew.
The auto-shutoff on this Barsetto brewer is longer. It keeps coffee warm for 2 hours—great for larger pots, though it does risk smaller batches burning when they’re left unattended. That’s our only quibble from a single-cup perspective.
The Gevi Grind and Brew takes the guesswork out of making coffee. Not only does it have a programmable timer, you can also set the capacity from 2 to 10 cups. It will only grind and brew that amount, no matter how much water is in the reservoir.
You can also customize your coffee better with the Gevi Grind and Brew. The built-in burr grinder has multiple coarseness settings. There’s also a strength selector on the front of the machine. With an upgraded heating element, the taste from this brewer definitely exceeds what we expect from a drip machine.
Like other larger coffee makers, the Gevi Grind and Brew has a 2-hour auto-shutoff. You can spare smaller batches from burning by turning the machine off manually.
Not everyone wants drip coffee in the morning. A home espresso machine is a bit more of an investment, but the Breville Barista Express Espresso Machine is a comparatively affordable 1-group espresso machine with a built-in steam wand. That means you can make lattes and macchiatos right in your kitchen.
You don’t have to be a trained barista to use this espresso machine, either. It has both manual and automatic operation. If you want, you can tamp and brew the shots yourself. There’s also an auto-tamper, though, and it will time the shots for you on automatic mode.
If words like “portafilter” and “tamper” are new to you, there will be a learning curve even on automatic mode. Still, the Breville Express Espresso Maker is an easy way to go beyond drip coffee at home. It even makes good enough microfoam for latte art if you want to take your coffee game to the next level.
If all your grinds don’t make it to the brew basket, your coffee will end up weak. The DirectFlow system on the Cuisinart Burr Grind & Brew combats this problem. The grounds move smoothly from the grinder to the basket, with an AutoRinse to follow up and make sure they all made it in.
You can customize your brew strength with the Cuisinart Grind & Brew. It’ll grind the exact right amount of beans to give your desired strength—no measuring needed. The charcoal filter removes impurities from the water so you’ll only taste your coffee.
The auto-shutoff on the Cuisinart DGB-800 is adjustable. Set it longer to keep large batches hot, or shorten it to keep smaller pots from burning. There’s also a programmable timer and a brew pause feature, so it’s one of the smartest grind & brew models on the market.
Last but not least, the Capresso Coffeemaker has an integrated conical burr grinder with a direct feed to the brew basket. This ensures a consistent grind, and that all the grounds make it down the chute.
You can brew anywhere from 2 to 10 cups per batch with the Capresso Coffeemaker. With 3 strength settings and 5 grinder settings, there are plenty of customization options. The integrated charcoal filter in the water reservoir removes impurities (and the bad taste they can cause).
The Capresso Coffeemaker holds the coffee at 180°F for 2 hours after brewing. Its sophisticated heater brews at over 200°F so it’s an excellent choice for those who like their coffee bold. Other helpful features include a programmable auto-start and a Brew Mode, which disables the grinder for pre-ground coffee.
Brewing coffee is both an art and a science. If you’ve ever tried to replicate your favorite café beverage at home, you understand this all too well. There’s not one all-encompassing formula to getting the best cup of coffee. There are simply too many variables involved, like the origin of the bean and the depth of the roast, even before you get down to the level of personal taste preference.
With the right knowledge and experience, you can brew a great cup of coffee with nothing but a grinder, a funnel, a filter, and hot water. Not all of us are professional baristas, though. A good drip brewer automates a lot of the work, giving you excellent taste without all the effort.
The exact features you look for in a coffee maker depend on your life and tastes. Having said that, there are a few consistently sought-after qualities in coffee makers, including:
There’s nothing inherently wrong with putting these two crucial components together into one machine—in fact, they have a lot of advantages (which we’ll get to in a minute).
The main reason grind & brew technology has a bad reputation is because some models don’t pay as much attention to the quality of the individual components. Both the grinder and the coffee maker need to be top notch if you want to brew a great tasting cup of coffee.
The other concern is whether all the ground coffee makes it to the brew basket. If some of the grounds get stuck in the chute, it’ll throw off the ratio and result in a weak pot. Many high-end grinder/brewer combos use technology to avoid this possibility, ensuring all the coffee gets to its destination.
If the grinder is high-quality and offers you options for adjusting the grind level, there’s realistically no difference between putting it inside the brewer and having them as separate appliances, aside from how much space they need on your counter.
The name’s pretty self-explanatory: a coffee grinder is an appliance that grinds whole coffee beans into the ground particulate you use for brewing.
If you tossed whole coffee beans into hot water, the limited surface area wouldn’t give the water much room to extract the flavor compounds that go into a delicious brew. The surface of coffee beans is also hardened by the roasting process, releasing oils that coat the surface and impede the water’s ability to extract the flavors.
Grinding coffee expands the available surface area and exposes the more porous insides. While there are methods out there for brewing coffee beans whole, it takes at least an hour. If you want a good cup of Joe in ten minutes or less, a high-quality grinder is a necessity.
We talked above about what to look for in a coffee maker, but what goes into a high-quality grinder? The main thing you want to pay attention to is the mechanism for grinding the beans.
The best grinders use burr grinders. Burr grinders use two metal plates that revolve, crushing the beans between them as they do. These may be flat or conical, but either way they accomplish the same thing: crushing the coffee into pieces of a uniform size. You can change the size of the coffee grounds by moving the burrs further apart or closer together.
A blade grinder looks more like a food processor, with a spinning blade that chops the beans as it passes through them. This makes it tricky to adjust the size of the grounds. You can get a rough coarse chop by pulsing the grinder in quick bursts, but you’ll still end up with both fine and coarse particles in the brew basket.
Why does the consistency of the grind size matter? For the same reason you use different grind sizes for different brewing methods. The more surface area in the ground coffee, the quicker the extraction. That’s why fast brewing methods, like espresso, use very fine particles, while longer brewing methods like French press do better with a coarse grind.
A blade grinder gives you less even extraction when brewed on drip. Smaller particles may become over-extracted, releasing more of the bitter flavors and roasting notes. Conversely, the larger particles will be under-extracted, only releasing their bright, acidic compounds. With a burr grinder, you get a more balanced cup, along with more control over the ultimate taste of your brewed coffee.
You’ll have to pay a bit more for a grind and brew coffee maker with a burr grinder, but the end result is ultimately worth it. Remember that this is replacing two devices in your kitchen when you’re comparing prices. Even if the coffee maker with a grinder is more expensive than other coffee makers, it’s often still a good value compared to buying each component separately.
The inside of a coffee maker is a dark, moist, warm environment, and that’s unfortunately the perfect breeding ground for mold and bacteria. Aside from being gross, build-up of contaminants can affect the taste of your coffee. Any grounds trapped in the burrs or chute can spoil over time, giving your brew a rancid taste.
Cleaning your coffee machine regularly is the best way to keep it sterile. It doesn’t need to be a lengthy process, either. Let’s walk through the steps to follow to make sure you’re only tasting your beans, not the gunk in the coffee maker.
1. After every use, empty the brew basket and rinse out any stray grounds. Once the carafe is empty, rinse it with soap and water. Before you put the carafe back in place, examine the warming plate for drips and wipe away any you see. It’s also a good idea to leave the lid of the reservoir open so the inside can dry, discouraging growth of mold and bacteria.
2. Once a month, fill the water reservoir to the top with equal parts water and white vinegar. Start the brew with this mixture, stopping it at about the halfway point. Let the water and vinegar sit for 30-60 minutes, then turn the coffee maker back on and let the brew cycle finish. This both helps to disinfect the inner workings of your coffee maker and can remove any calcium build-up left by hard water. Make sure to brew two or three reservoirs of fresh water after you’ve finished, so your next pot doesn’t taste like vinegar.
3. The grinder in your coffee maker will also need periodic attention. How you clean it will depend on what style of grinder you have.
a. For blade grinders, pour a half cup or so of uncooked rice into the grinder. Run the grinder until the rice is pulverized to powder. Dump out the rice powder, then wipe down the blades with a damp cloth.
b. For burr grinders, you can brush away loose coffee powder every few uses. A soft-bristled paintbrush works great for this. Harder deposits can be chipped away with a toothpick
4. Occasionally, burr grinders will need a deeper clean. Oils and coffee grounds can get caked into the grooves, and you often can’t get to them with a toothpick unless you take the whole thing apart. Rather than go through that hassle, you can user grinder cleaning tablets. Along with cleaning the burrs, this will help clear away any lingering powder in the chute.
a. Pour 35-40 grams of tablets into smaller grinders (70-80 grams in larger models).
b. Put the grinder on a medium grind setting and grind the tablets through.
c. Dump the tablet powder and put an equal amount of coffee beans into hopper. Grind it through to clear away any tablet residue (these tablets are food safe, but they won’t taste great if you try to brew them). This is a great use for old coffee that’s past its prime, but you can use any beans you like for the purpose.
https://www.thekitchn.com/coffee-tools-what-kind-of-grinder-should-i-use-204496
https://coffeeconfidential.org/grinding/ground-coffee/
https://www.thespruceeats.com/coffee-maker-buying-guide-4175074
https://www.consumerreports.org/cro/coffee-makers/buying-guide/index.htm
