The Fellow coffee grinder may look minimalist, but it will take your home barista skills to the next level.
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Fellow Coffee Grinder Review: A Professional-Grade Pick
Published on Dec. 18, 2024
A good cup of home-brewed coffee starts at the beginning: grinding your beans (and making sure you’re using the best coffee brand, of course). And the Fellow coffee grinder is what you invest in when you’ve mastered your home-brewing skills and could easily sub in for your local baristas. It’s sleek enough that it could be mistaken for decoration, but it’s also very powerful, able to grind beans to the coarseness you need to make everything for a cappuccino to cold brew in your kitchen.
Because of its quality and capabilities, we named this the best for pros on our list of best coffee grinders.
What is the Fellow Opus Conical Burr Grinder?
The Fellow coffee grinder is an electric burr grinder, with stainless steel, conical burrs. Burr grinders are recognized for delivering precise, consistent grinds, and the Fellow (along with the Baratza) is an example of burr grinders at their best.
It measures 10 inches tall, making it one of the more compact options on the market. But don’t let that fool you: It can handle a lot, with a high-torque motor, six-blade conical burrs and a hopper capacity of 110 grams. And it does seem like it’s trying to fool you; its appearance is equally deceptive. It’s very stripped-back and minimalist in design, nearly looking like a piece of decor rather than the powerhouse behind your daily drip. It’s available in both matte white and matte black.
The minimalism also makes it very intuitive: There’s only one knob for grind adjustment size, but it does have 41 precision settings. The underside of the hopper lid has instructions for what settings work best for what type of coffee brewing method, from a fine ground for espresso to a coarse grind for cold brew. We were very impressed by this—it gets a lot done with just a little. (As does the Hamilton beach coffee grinder, one of our favorite manual coffee grinders on the other side of the price spectrum.)
The Fellow coffee grinder also comes with a volumetric dosing lid which helps you measure beans for up to 12 cups. This makes it very easy to measure out the beans you need.
Emiko Franzen For Taste of Home
Fellow Opus Conical Burr Coffee Grinder
On your way to becoming a professional barista? This is the grinder we recommend for your home coffee bar.
How We Tested the Fellow Coffee Grinder
The Fellow coffee grinder went through the same test as all the other grinders we were evaluating. We started by getting a sense of how well and consistently it ground. It comes with a surprisingly charming manual that can help you figure out your grind settings if you aren’t sure.
For our tests, we used 20 grams of beans. It took 26 seconds to get that amount to a fine grind and 16 seconds for a coarse grind. The consistency was impressive. It’s not an inexpensive machine, but it immediately showcased why it had a higher price point. We were also struck by how quiet it was—its grinding was quieter than most.
When we made a pour-over with the grounds, it tasted like a good, classic cup. Exactly what you would hope for. Because of its performance, the Fellow coffee grinder moved onto our final test: making a shot of espresso. We ran into an issue here, and it’s possible it’s because the Fellow is too powerful for our espresso machine. The Fellow instructions recommended grinding the beans to a level between 1 and 2 for espresso, but the grounds were so fine that the shot couldn’t be pulled. When we adjusted the dial to being less fine, it was a success (and very delicious.) That being said, it’s definitely best paired with other high-quality coffee devices. (If you are an espresso drinker, check out our other best coffee grinders for espresso and our favorite espresso beans.)
Cleaning was very similar to other units. You can remove the hopper, grinder container and burr. The grind container and lid and the hopper lid can be hand-washed, while the outside can be wiped down.
The only downside with this grinder was that the grounds got everywhere and were always falling out. Even when we tapped the grinder multiple times after each test, more would continue to fall out, especially after grinding on the finer settings.
Pros
- Intuitive
- Sleek design
- Consistent grind
- Includes a dosing cup
Cons
- A lot of retention (grounds get stuck in the chamber)
- Can be a bit messy
FAQ
How do you clean a Fellow grinder?
Cleaning a Fellow grinder is much like cleaning any other coffee grinder. The grinder container and lid and the hopper lid can be hand-washed, while the burr can’t.
Is the Fellow Opus good for espresso?
Yes, the Fellow Opus can grind beans very finely, which is ideal for an espresso machine. We found it worked so well that our espresso machine couldn’t handle its finest grind, but when we found the right grind, the espresso shot was wonderful.
Why You Should Trust Us
Our expert Product Testing team had a long list of grinders to test out. We evaluated them all based on the same criteria. First, we looked at how consistently they ground, also noting the noise of the grinder, how much space it took up on a countertop and how easy it was to clean. We brewed a cup of coffee with the grounds and the Hario pour-over. Our top performers moved onto the final round: grinding beans for an espresso shot.
I’ve written numerous product reviews and gift guides, many of which have focused on coffee and coffee equipment. This is in no small part to my own love of coffee (and making it at home) and identifying the products that live up to their promise and offer a superlative home-brewing experience.
Where To Buy the Fellow Coffee Grinder
Emiko Franzen For Taste of Home
Fellow Opus Conical Burr Coffee Grinder
This professional-worthy machine makes the most consistent grinds for any coffee drink.
The Fellow Opus Conical Burr Grinder costs $195. It includes a two-year standard warranty or a three-year warranty if you register your grinder. It’s available for the same price at Crate & Barrel, Sur La Table and Williams Sonoma.
