The French press is a simple way to make quality coffee at home. If you know how to do it correctly, it produces a delicious brew without a lot of the hassle that comes with other brewing methods.

One important factor to keep in mind when it comes to making French press coffee is how your coffee is ground. Grind size is of the utmost importance when it comes to French press coffee – just any bag of ground coffee from your local supermarket will not taste as good as freshly ground coffee beans.

This means that the coffee grinder you have is just as critical as your French press device. The two of them combined will help you produce the ultimate cup of Joe every morning.

But don’t worry – if the idea of French press coffee and coffee grinders is new and overwhelming, we’re here to break it down for you. You won’t have to spend thousands of dollars searching for the best coffee grinder for your French press. 

Here we’ll be discussing the best coffee grinder for French press. We’ll break down eight machines to see if they fit the bill for the best coffee grinder for French press coffee and get you closer to one delicious cup of Joe.

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What Is French Press Coffee?

The French press device was patented by Italian designer Attilio Callimani in 1929. The design of this simple brewing style hasn’t changed much since.

It consists of a coarse metal filter that the user plunges into a glass cylinder full of hot water and ground coffee. The metal filter traps the grounds at the bottom of the glass tube, leaving French press coffee to be poured from the spout.

It’s this metal filter that defines the press. The gaps in the filter are larger than those in a paper coffee filter, meaning microscopic coffee grounds can get through.

This means two things:

One, the coffee has more body. The metal filter lets small particulates through, and these give the coffee a heavy and full feeling in the mouth.

Two, coarse grounds are the way to go. Grounds that are too fine may work for espresso, but they’ll pass right through the French press plunger. What you get afterward will be a very grainy experience, something no coffee lover wants first thing in the morning.

Short on time? Here are the grinders we recommend at a glance:

Sboly Conical Burr Coffee Grinder

With 19 grind settings, the Sboly Conical Burr Grinder is a good choice for those looking to get some variation in grind without getting overwhelmed with options.

It’s quiet and makes a great early morning companion. This grinder is also compact, so it won’t take up too much space on your countertop.

SHARDOR Electric Coffee Grinder

SHARDOOR‘s sleek design will add a beautiful and functional appliance to your kitchen counter. And, to keep things classy, the cord rolls up nicely in the bottom while the cups can be removed and washed.

This blade grinder won’t be slowing you down as its sharp blade grinds beans in no time at all.

De’Longhi Dedica Conical Burr Grinder with Portafilter Attachment

This stylish grinder will look stunning in your kitchen, and is built out of high quality materials.

The De’Longhi Dedica Conical Burr Grinder is easy to clean and has plenty of grind settings, from fine espresso to coarse French press.

Silva Manual Coffee Grinder – Hand Coffee Bean Grinder 

This tiny grinder is a powerhouse. Easy to transport on business trips or just to the office, the little Silva Manual Coffee Grinder can hold its own against electric grinders and is a great choice for a coffee lover on the go.

VKCHEF Manual Burr Coffee Grinder

Another handheld powerhouse, the VEVOK CHEF Manual Burr Grinder is about the same size as the Silva.

It does have fewer settings, but the brand is noted for its excellent customer service should anything go wrong with the VEVOK CHEF device.

Khaw-Fee HG1B Manual Coffee Grinder

This simple coffee mill will give you a wide array of grind sizes, even as fine as a Turkish coffee grind.

This product also comes with a lifetime guarantee, so you are free to return it if it doesn’t suit your needs.

Hamilton Beach Fresh Grind 4.5oz Electric Coffee Grinder

With room for beans to make up to 12 cups of coffee, this Hamilton Beach grinder is great for bustling households.

The trick to this blade grinder is to turn the grinder upside down when taking the lid off in order to prevent spilling your grounds.

Buying Tips – What to Look for in a Grinder

So now that you know what French press is all about, it’s time to focus on how to achieve the right grind for your cup of coffee. Here’s what to look for when choosing a grinder to pair with your French press coffee maker.

Budget

As with any new purchase, budget is the primary thing to consider before diving into the world of coffee grinders. A quality grinder can easily cost hundreds of dollars, so you as the coffee connoisseur need to decide how much you’re willing to spend.

Even if you are new to coffee and don’t want to spend too much, cheaper is not always better. You might spend money on a cheap grinder, but then grow frustrated with your brews. Then you’ll end up buying a better grinder later, and your bargain machine will gather dust in the closet or make its way to the thrift store.

There’s no need to buy an expensive commercial grinder for your kitchen counter right away, but do keep in mind that if you want a quality ground coffee, you’re going to have to buy a quality grinder.

One last note on budget: grinders have different settings, and certain grinders might be great for general use. Something that can be the best coffee grinder for French press might also make a mean cup of drip coffee or espresso.

You don’t need an expensive coffee grinder with 500+ settings for every coffee known to man, but it’s good to pay a little more to have options.

It might be worth your while to partner this grinder with other coffee styles than just French press and experiment to find what coffee method suits you.

Noise

Let’s imagine a scenario where you wake up for work at six in the morning, ready to grind and brew some coffee to kick start your day.

You throw some beans into your new coffee grinder, press the button, and the deafening sound fills your house. Your partner wakes up, your kids wake up, the dog starts barking… what we’re saying here is, noisy coffee grinders may be more trouble than they’re worth.

Coffee is some people’s morning ritual, but sleeping is other people’s morning ritual. You will want to look out for those in your household (or your building, if you live in an apartment) and purchase a grinder with a suitable noise level for early morning brews.

However, if you prefer to grind your coffee beans at night and store them in an air-tight container, you would be okay choosing a noisier coffee machine. Or if it’s just you in the house and you don’t mind the noise in the morning.

Consistent Grind

Grind size matters for all types of coffee brewing, and that remains true for the French press. If you want to get serious about making delicious coffee, you’ll need your grinder to consistently produce the size you need.

Cheaper coffee grinders might be inconsistent with their grind size, and that can affect how the coffee interacts with the hot water and add unwanted notes of flavor to your brew.

For French press coffee specifically, you need a coarse grind. As previously noted, the coarse grind works with the metal wire plunger to keep the grounds trapped at the bottom of the press.

If you’re expecting a grinder that produces only coarse grounds, and fine grounds get mixed in, you won’t be satisfied with the cup of coffee you’re getting from your French press.

Size

Counter space is coveted territory. It’s typically best for kitchen appliances to do their jobs while taking up as little real estate as possible to leave room for preparing food.

Not everyone lives in a house either, and apartment renters who also love to cook know this struggle all too well. It can be difficult to find rentals with enough room to make all the wonderful meals and beverages you want without being too cramped.

Because you’ll use it every day, the coffee grinder you purchase will probably take up permanent residence on your countertop.

So make a note of the dimensions of the machine before you purchase it, and ideally, you should have a spot picked out already.

You could also be an on-the-go type of coffee maker and need your grinder to be as mobile as you are. Your biceps and back will thank you if you decide to go with a light, portable coffee grinder, so check the weight specifications too.

Sound

Generally, if your coffee grinder is producing screeching sounds or other unpleasant noises, something is probably not quite right. But discount grinders may not hold up as time passes.

Even though they may work okay at first, the parts inside of them could wobble apart after light use and become unpleasant to deal with. This is another area where paying a few extra dollars might mean more in the long run – a durable coffee grinder is one that will perform properly (and quietly) for many years after you purchase it.

Manual or Electric

This is a big choice to make for your coffee grinder. Most coffee addicts have some of each. But if you need to make a decision between the two, there are pros and cons to both.

Manual grinders are more reliable. They can grind on, rain or shine, even without power. They also produce much more consistent coffee grounds in terms of size, which is a valuable component in French press coffee.

They’re portable, simple devices, and they could potentially hold up better than electric grinders that cost five times the price.

The major con of manual grinders is pretty obvious; it takes a lot of work to actually produce your grounds. Be prepared for a morning workout with a manual grinder, especially if you’re making coffee for more than one person.

But hey, for those looking to exercise the muscles in their arms every day, this may actually be a pro.

One last downfall of manual coffee grinders is that, because they are so straightforward, they lack subtle settings that electric grinders can come equipped with.

If you’re looking to be extra precise in your grind size, and an electric grinder will be able to do that for you better than a manual one.

Electric grinders will save you a lot of elbow grease. They’re also typically decked out with features that may save you money elsewhere.

For example, some electric grinders will weigh out your beans for you, so you don’t have to do that separately. You can choose the complexity of the device and make it as straightforward or as complicated as you like.

Low-level electric coffee grinders can be noisy, be made with cheap parts, and can be inconsistent in the grind size that they produce.

If you’re thinking about an inexpensive electric grinder, you might want to consider a manual grinder for that price instead. There’s a better chance it will give you the reliable coffee ground size that you’re looking for in your French press.

Blade or Burr Grinder

Another hot topic in the world of coffee grinders is deciding whether to purchase a blade grinder or a burr grinder. Before discussing the pros and cons, it’s first important to note the difference between the two.

Blade grinders are similar to spice grinders that your grandmother might keep in the kitchen. They are equipped with a spinning blade that breaks up the coffee grounds into smaller bits. Blade grinders primarily bash the coffee into smaller bits rather than actually grind the coffee beans up in the traditional sense of the word.

Grinding is accomplished by using a burr grinder. Burr grinders have many abrasive surfaces in them (the “burrs”) that rub a few coffee beans between them at a time. The beans are broken up and passed to a new set of burrs to be ground down into smaller bits until they are the correct size.

Burr grinders also come in two different forms: conical and flat. Conical burr grinders are layered cones stacked into one another, and flat burr grinders grind the coffee beans between metal plates.

The description of blade grinders versus burr grinders may provide an answer: burr grinders are more accurate and reliable. Blade grinders are notorious for delivering inconsistent grind size, which makes your brew unreliable as well. Any coffee aficionado would recommend a burr grinder over a blade.

As with most appliances, however, quality equals expense. Blade grinders are much less expensive than burr grinders, as they are easier to produce and less intricate.

There are some tricks to using a blade grinder to get a more consistent grind, but that requires more work on the user’s end. If you want your coffee grinder to do it right the first time, a burr grinder is going to be the more reliable choice.

Cleaning and Maintenance

Finally, there’s the maintenance and clean up to consider after you make that delicious cup.

If you don’t give your coffee grinder a thorough cleaning every once in a while, residue from old grounds will go rancid inside, and that flavor will make its way into your next cup.

The recommendations for how often to clean your grinder vary from source to source. For darker roasts, bi-weekly is the best cleaning option. For lighter roasts, or for people that don’t drink coffee every day, every four to six weeks will suffice.

Either way, getting all of those fine grounds out of the grinder can be a chore. If that’s not something you look forward to, try going for a coffee grinder that’s been noted as being easy to clean.

Grind Settings

Manual grinders are cut and dry. They have some adjustment options, but for the most part, you are in complete control of the amount of grinding you do. Electric grinders, on the other hand, have an array of settings available. 

The most important thing is to experiment with your coffee grinder and get to know the kind of coffee it will produce for you.

Grinders may have labeled, preset settings, but it is up for you to determine how long it takes to grind the coffee to your desired specifications. This is part of the beauty of grinding the perfect cup of French press coffee or any other coffee brewing method.

Below are some of the most common grind settings available on electric grinders and an overview of what they do.

Pulse

The pulse function on your grinder will produce a short grinding pulse as long as your finger is on the button. The more you pulse, the finer the grind you’ll receive.

A lot of blade grinders have this function built-in, similar to a blender or spice grinder. When you pulse your coffee beans in a blade grinder, it’s important to check them every once in a while by rubbing them between your fingers.

This will help you figure out the desired consistency. Don’t pulse too long, though – coarse grinds for French press coffee only require around eight to ten seconds of pulsing.

Auto-Grind

If you’d rather not babysit your coffee grinder while it works its magic, some come equipped with an auto-grind feature.

Once you select how coarse or fine you’d like your coffee to be, it will grind and automatically stop once it senses that the hopper is empty.

This could be a great choice for those busy folks who want to get ready for work while also enjoying a freshly ground cup of coffee.

Timed Grinding

The timed grind setting requires a bit of finesse. Beans are loaded into the hopper, and the machine will grind for as long as the user sets the timer.

It will be up to you to find out roughly how many grams of coffee you get from grinding for a set amount of time, and the coarseness level slightly affects how long that amount will take to grind.

But the better you know your coffee grinder, the more useful this type of grind can be for you. Eventually, you’ll learn exactly how to get the amount of coffee you need for every cup.

FAQs

What is the correct grind for French Press?

To get a delicious cup of French press coffee, you’ll need a coarse coffee grind. French presses operate slightly differently than traditional drip coffee makers with paper filters. Their metal press filter has larger holes in it, so finer particles will slip right through.

The coffee also steeps for several minutes in the bottom of the press, so a fine grind would be too acrid and bitter anyway. A coarse grind is the grind you’re after for the perfect French press style of coffee.

Can you use regular ground coffee in a French press?

Ground coffee at the grocery store is an okay choice for a French press. If it happens to have a bit of a finer texture to it, then expect more silt at the bottom of your cup.

A coffee house, or grocery that can grind whole beans for you, is a better option than coffee from a bag. Ask for a coarse grind if you plan to brew the coffee with the French press method. Or, for absolute control, purchase a coffee grinder for your countertop.

Do you need a grinder for a French Press?

No, but it is very helpful. The coarse grind can be requested at your local coffee shop or supermarket if you’re purchasing whole beans there.

But if you want to try multiple brewing methods that require different consistencies, a coffee grinder for your home is essential. Plus, there’s nothing fresher than grinding coffee right before you brew. 

Does French press coffee have more caffeine?

French press coffee has a lot of body to it. This is because of the fine coffee sediment that makes its way into the brew.

However, a French press coffee has no more caffeine in it than any other cup of coffee. Because it uses coarse grounds, it actually tends to release less caffeine into the brew. However, caffeine levels in cups of coffee vary greatly depending on how long the coffee is steeped for, and what kind of coffee roast you’re using in your French press.

What is the advantage of grinding your own coffee?

Many coffee experts agree that the best-tasting coffee is ground right before it’s brewed. Coffee can lose flavor even an hour after it’s been ground up! Freshness is the most important reason to grind your own coffee.

The second most important reason is the freedom to choose your coarseness. If you purchase finer coffee or ask the barista at your local shop to grind your beans very finely, then you can’t explore brews that require coarse coffee like cold brew or French press.