The Baratza Sette 30 is my second grinder purchase (technically third but, I’m not counting the whirly blade grinder I used twice before I realized it was no good for consistently grinding coffee.)
It’s also my second Baratza. I purchased a Baratza Maestro Plus about 10 years ago and after hundreds of pounds of coffee, it’s still going strong and never gave me any issues. I perform the necessary required maintenance and it is always good to go.
Now, at the time of this writing, I have not used the Sette 30. I’ll have a review later on down the road once I have it dialed in for espresso.
If you are a coffee enthusiast and roast/grind/brew at home, you have probably heard that the grinder is the most important component for good coffee. You should absolutely buy the best grinder you can afford, even if that means waiting and saving some more money to buy something that will not disappoint you.
There are three grinders in the Sette line up. Sette means seven in Italian and if you look at the photo above, you’ll see that it’s a perfect description for the look of the line. Baratza markets the Sette 30 as an entry-level espresso grinder. The Sette 270 and the Sette 270Wi have a few more bells and whistles that I did not want to pay twice the price of a Sette 30 for. Besides, during my research, I found that there is an easy and not very expensive modification you can do to the Sette 30 that will allow it to grind identically to its more expensive counterparts. More about that later.
I liked the Sette 30 because I felt it gave me the best value for the money. It has a good sized bean hopper, simple controls and a fast grind speed. The Sette 30 will grind enough coffee for a double espresso in about 7 seconds.
The grinder gets that speed by rotating the larger outer burr and dropping the coffee straight through the bottom. Another benefit of this is that there is less ground retention along the path.
the grinder is the most important component for good coffee. You should absolutely buy the best grinder you can afford
You can grind into the coffee bin that is provided or, by repositioning the two arms 90 degrees, straight into a portafilter.
Maintenance is easy and removing the adjustment assembly is straightforward. Speaking of the adjustment assembly, Baratza has the Sette 270/270W adjustment assembly available on their website for less than $100. If I feel I need for more control of the grind size, the assembly fits directly on a Sette 30 for the exact same performance of the more expensive grinders and I’d still be ahead of the game price-wise.
That wraps up my quick look at the Baratza Sette 30. I’m looking forward to using this product and hopefully take my coffee game up to the next level, along with my new espresso machine that I will discuss next week.
Do you also brew your own coffee at home? What are you using for your setup? Is there something about the Sette 30 I did not mention that you would like to know? Tell me all about it in the comments!