Espresso machine and grinder under $500

It is a sensible pair, and it fits: the Breville Bambino with the Baratza Encore ESP comes to $500 at the prices we checked. It ranks below our top pick under the same written rules as the quiz, and the reason is narrow.

• Same machine, same budget. Both setups are built on the Bambino, so the machine’s share of the score and the milk score are identical, and both use almost exactly $500.
• The gap is the grinder’s quality score. For a bit of both, our taste score weights machine and grinder equally. The Encore ESP has an editorial grinder score below the median for its price tier. The 1Zpresso J-Ultra is new to our list and not scored yet, so for ranking only it borrows that tier median. That difference is the whole margin, and it is small.
• What the makers publish. Baratza gives the Encore ESP 40 steps, with steps 1–20 as a finer espresso range. 1Zpresso lists 8 µm per click for the J-Ultra. Finer adjustment makes it easier to land a shot, which is why stepped entry grinders score lower with us for espresso. We have not compared the two side by side.

Where the Encore ESP wins: it is electric and it also grinds for filter. At $700 our quiz picks it with the Bambino Plus for milk drinks or a bit of both. If you would rather not grind by hand at $500, the quiz’s electric pick is the Fellow Opus 2, which edges the Encore ESP for the same reason. The weights are on how we pick.

The basket is the metal cup that holds the coffee in the portafilter, and it decides how much your grinder matters.

• Pressurized (dual-wall) baskets build the pressure in the basket itself, so the shot does not depend on a fine grind, and pre-ground coffee works. Breville’s Bambino manual says its dual-wall baskets regulate the pressure and help the extraction “regardless of the grind, dose, tamp pressure or freshness”. The catch is that the basket, not your grind, controls the shot, so there is little to adjust.
• Non-pressurized (single-wall) baskets have many holes across the bottom. The resistance has to come from the coffee itself: a fine, even grind, tamped well. That is where a capable grinder pays off, and where grind size, dose and ratio change the taste. Breville recommends its single-wall baskets for freshly ground beans.

The community-run Espresso Aficionados grinder guide puts it bluntly: with a non-pressurized basket, no grinder under $100 new grinds fine or consistently enough. Every grinder in our picks above is one we list as able to grind for espresso.

What ships with the machines in these guides: the Bambino and Bambino Plus come with both single-wall and dual-wall baskets (per Breville). The Gaggia Classic Pro E24 comes with commercial single and double baskets plus a pressurized double (per Whole Latte Love’s listing). The De’Longhi Dedica Duo comes with pressurized baskets only (per Whole Latte Love). If you buy a real grinder, use the single-wall baskets.