A great bag of coffee beans is the final product of a lot of hard work and a series of small miracles. From water quality at the farm, to the method used to process the cherries, to bean storage and shipment, and on to the final roasting, blending and bagging, those coffee beans have traveled a great distance and endured a lot of fondling before landing on your kitchen counter. Now, it's up to you to brew it without messing everything up. HOW WE TESTED

We reviewed a series of home grinders based on popularity and on recommendations from industry professionals. We judged mostly conical burr grinders, which feature one large screw-like component that spins against a round wall of sharp ridges. Conical burr arrangements are usually the most consistent, and they're what you see in the large industrial units. We also judged a few flat burr grinders, which are less desirable because they produce more heat, which can speed up the evaporation of flavor-packed oils. All grinders were graded on speed of grind, dosing consistency, particle size range, particle consistency, noise level and ease of operation.The biggest mistake home brewers make is in the grind. Most consumers are happy to buy pre-ground or (gasp) instant coffee, but if you're serious about your daily cup, you need to grind your own. When coffee is ground, the surface area increases drastically, exposing the oils and dissolvable particles. The results -- and the taste -- will vary based on which method your grinder uses to pulverize the beans. There are the super-consistent conical burr grinders that have been around since the mortar and pestle went out of style. There are flat burr grinders which have a nasty habit of heating the coffee as they grind it. And there's the lowly blade grinders that will chop your coffee into a mix of huge chunks and super-fine powder. Seriously, if you're using a blade grinder, you'd be better off junking it and reverting to the aforementioned mortar and pestle. The best grinder is the one that gives you the best particle consistency. But let's face it, grinding coffee should be as easy as drinking it. You're operating this machine before you've had your morning caffeine fix, so a good grinder needs to be quick, quiet, and easy to operate. We've balanced those two factors -- quality of grind and ease of use -- when testing these seven candidates to find the best option.

Breville Smart Grinder Everything about the Breville Smart Grinder ($200) is designed to make great home espresso. Scooping grounds into an espresso basket adds an extra variable as the coffee may pack itself unevenly. Dosing straight into the basket is key to an effortless espresso routine. The Breville offers two different grinding cradles to rest your portafilter (fancy name for espresso basket) and is activated by a button under the dosing spout, spitting your coffee straight into your basket. The hopper holds one pound of coffee at a time, and the grinder had the best particle consistency on the "fine" setting of all of the grinders in the test. That said, the Smart Grinder's coarsest setting was way too fine, leaving my French press more sludgy than usual. Its "Dosing IQ" technology changes the dose amount whenever you change the grind setting. This actually worked really well -- it kept all of the doses within a gram of each other, and it was the most consistent doser of all the grinders I looked at. The Smart Grinder has two different dose adjustments. The "amount" button will perform large changes in the dose while the "adjust amount" dial changes the dose by a couple grams at a time -- a rather high level of adjustment for espresso, but more flexible than most other home grinders. My favorite part about the Smart Grinder had nothing to do with its "Dosing IQ" or other hi-tech gimmickry. As someone who is constantly cupping and tasting different coffees at home, I loved that you can easily remove the hopper and coffee without spilling a single precious bean. At 200 bucks, the Smart Grinder isn't for the coffee geek on a budget. But if you just spent a grand on an espresso machine, you should be using a grinder that will do your brew method justice. WIRED Easy, accurate straight-to-basket dosing. Super-consistent fine grind. The best for seriously upping your home espresso game. TIRED The coarse setting is finer than Anne Hathaway in The Dark Knight Rises. Rating: 9 out of 10

Capresso Infinity Burr Grinder Home-grinding coffee addicts all suffer the same dilemma: you need coffee to wake up, but the idea of listening to your coffee grinder is enough to make you want to go back to bed. The Capresso Infinity Burr Grinder ($90 to $140, depending on finish) is the church mouse's solution to electric grinders. Coming in at a mere 84dB (measured from my handy dandy iPhone at two feet away), the Infinity was the quietest of all the electric grinders I tested. With a pressure-sensitive safety lock on the hopper and a super-easy time-dosing dial that can be set to grind for anywhere between 5 and 60 seconds, the Infinity makes grinding extremely simple. Its dosing dial was surprisingly consistent, varying by only one gram in several identically timed doses. The Infinity is good for drip coffee -- its medium grind settings have nice sweet spots for V60, Bonmac, and Kalita drippers -- but its super-fine and super-coarse settings miss their marks. The finest setting feels like soft sand with some grit mixed in, and the coarsest setting had enough fine particles to make a French press enthusiast weep. WIRED Best choice for pour-over or drip brewing. Grind your coffee without waking up the whole damn house. Controls so easy even the most caffeine-deprived zombie can use it. 16 settings total, plus an accurate timer. TIRED Too inconsistent for serious espresso and French press lovers -- coarse setting was coarse with fine bits and the fine setting was fine with coarse bits. Rating: 7 out of 10

Baratza Encore The cheapest of Baratza's impressive line up of home grinders, the Encore ($145) is as simple as electric home grinders come. The conical burr Encore has two controls: grind size setting, and on/off. Unlike the fancier models, there's no timer for dialing in a perfect dose. Instead, the Encore has a "pulse" button that adds a gram or two at a time. Folks might be attracted to the Encore because of its lack of a complex dosing system, but users should definitely get a gram scale to make sure they aren't over or under-dosing. On the "fine" setting, the Encore spat out a relatively consistent powder, but it quickly started clumping after a few doses. These clumps of ultra-fine particles are stuck together by static, and they could make your coffee taste like aspirin. When grinding on "coarse," the Encore had a ton of super-fine particles mixed in with its large grounds. A few small particles is a normal byproduct of coarse dosing, but the Encore was too inconsistent to warrant its price. The medium setting is good enough to please most drip coffee purists, but the Encore's dosing chamber fits awkwardly into the body of the unit, making things a little to complicated to use. WIRED Gram-at-a-time pulse dosing makes life simple for groggy coffee-seekers -- just keep a scale handy if you're doing single-cup pour-over. Easy on/off. Not too expensive. TIRED Coarse setting was way too inconsistent for decent French press. The dosing chamber fits in like Justin Bieber at an Insane Clown Posse concert. Rating: 5 out of 10

Krups GX6 This grinder is like a crush that turned out to be too good to be true after a couple of dates. When I first saw the Krups GX6, ($60) I thought it was pretty. Turns out it was just pretty loud and pretty messy. The GX6 also lied to me. The Krups website says it's a conical burr grinder, but when I took off its hopper, I saw that the burrs were totally flat. That explains the loud mess (and the low price). Grinding on "fine," the GX6 spat out large clumps of super-fine powder. On the other end of the spectrum, the "coarse" setting was relatively consistent, but the trade off is a counter covered in a dusting of static-y coffee. I didn't want to hate the GX6. It's pretty, after all. I thought I could overlook its flaws if it had a consistent doser. Unfortunately, the GX6 didn't deliver there, either. Doses varied by up to four grams, which is totally unacceptable. I'm sorry, GX6, but we have to break up. It's not me, it's you. WIRED Decent coarse grind setting. Snazzy design. TIRED Messy and loud with inconsistent doses. Not to mention, it totally lied about its burrs. I mean, really. It's not like I am totally against grinders with flat burrs, but don't lie about it. Rating: 2 out of 10

Cuisinart Programmable Conical Burr Grinder Finally, a coffee grinder with a built-in Linux kernel. Not really. Cuisinart's Programmable Conical Burr Grinder ($100) doesn't actually offer much in the "programming" department. The only thing that it lets you choose is the grind size and amount of "cups" you want to grind out -- both of which will appear on the grinder's LCD screen. If you don't want to commit to any particular number cups, you can use the manual button that will dose out grounds as long as you keep your finger on it. As far as particle consistency goes, the Cuisinart was decent. The fine setting left a few clumps, but nothing as bad as the flat burr grinders I tested, and the coarse setting had a minimal amount of fine particles mixed in. The dosing system on the Cuisinart didn't suffer from much static, and the timer was consistent, varying by only one gram on multiple doses with the same time. Unlike other conical burr grinders, this one was pretty loud. It came in only one decibel quieter than the screaming Krups grinder. Overall, Cuisinart's grinder is a great option for a home coffee enthusiast on a medium budget. It's easy, not too messy, and has pretty good particle and dosing consistency. Just don't expect to be able to develop any apps for it. WIRED A clean, mean, grinding machine. Consistent dosing with a solid timer. Relatively affordable among conical burr grinders. TIRED Not the best, not the worst. About as programmable as a toaster. Loud. Rating: 6 out of 10

Hario Skerton For those who like their coffee with a little bit of elbow grease, the Hario Skerton (around $40 from Amazon and retail outlets) will give you the satisfaction of a hard day's work before you've even left the house. Instead of relying on electric motors to grind up your coffee, the Skerton is hand-cranked. This means a slower grind (obviously) and therefore less heat affecting the coffee before the brew. Personally, I only use my Skerton during times of electricity-free coffee crisis (or as my husband calls it: camping). Moving as quickly as possible, I can grind 25 grams of coffee in 45 seconds. That's way too much time and effort for one cup in my opinion. But that's just me. Call me spoiled, but I like to think that I live in a world with effective electric grinders and functional printers. (Obviously that last one is still a dream.) Folks who don't mind cranking out their morning cup will find that the Skerton has exceptional particle consistency on both fine and coarse settings. In fact, its consistency is on par with the pricy Breville Smart Grinder. The reason for this is the Skerton's large ceramic burrs, the quality of which rival those found in large industrial grinders. Adjusting the grind on the Skerton isn't the easiest task. It requires removing the crank handle and a small lock ring before adjusting the center burr. To make the adjustment, you twist the burr assembly and move it up or down the screw in the center. There are no easy numbers or notches to tell you when you're ready. Instead, you have to adjust it, put it back together, and test the new position by cranking some beans through it. It's all trial-and-error. If you're a home barista who doesn't mind a little extra work, the Skerton is a steal at only 40 bucks. The hand grinder can get super-coarse or super-fine, and offers very consistent particle sizes throughout the whole spectrum. The only real problem is at the end of the grind, beans will start popping up out of the hopper as they hit the burrs, making a little mess. WIRED Amazing particle consistency will help you get the most out of your beans. High-quality burrs. Cheap, compact, and great for traveling. Glass bottom unscrews from the burr/hopper assembly and comes with a lid, so you can take your grind to go. TIRED Seriously. My arm is tired. The Skerton takes a ton of physical effort to grind your beans. Ain't nobody got time for that. Rating: 7 out of 10