Baratza Products on Sale – Again – the Sette 30 and Sette 270Wi

Back when we told you about the Baratza Encore ESP going on sale, that was a milestone for a company that never, ever puts their products on sale, or at least haven’t in their nearly 20 years manufacturing and selling coffee grinders. 

Well, apparently that sale was so successful, they’ve decided to do it again, this time putting two grinders in the Sette lineup on sale, both at 20% off, and both just until July 21, 2024. 

The two grinders are the Baratza Sette 30, and the grinder we use at the CoffeeGeek Lab as our standards-evaluating espresso grinder, the Baratza Sette 270Wi. Sadly for Canadians, this sale is US only.

The Baratza Sette 270Wi

The 270Wi, normally $600, is on sale until July 21 for $480. That’s a killer, killer deal.

I’ve always felt this grinder never gets enough love from the specialty coffee community, especially from the youtube influencers out there. I still consider it one of the best espresso grinders you can buy today under $1000. Why? 

• It was the first grind by weight espresso primary grinder available for sale to consumers
• It has the equivalent of an Acaia Lunar (a $250 scale!!!) built right in 
• It is one of the fastest grinders you can buy today for the home
• The output is nearly zero retention (amazing for a grind on demand grinder with a full bean hopper), obliterating the need for single dosing.
• The output is fluffy, uncompacted and very evenly distributed in a portafilter basket
• The output’s grind particle size and distribution of particle sizes is optimal for espresso
• The dial in process for the grinder is fantastic, with the dual micro / macro settings available

Seriously, with the Sette 270Wi, I don’t really need to WDT (it can help, but the help it provides is marginal compared to most other grinders), and I can get the espresso grind packed, prepped, tamped and locked into the espresso machine in under 20 seconds, from the time I press the grind button. It quite literally can provide the fastest “grinder to shot pull” timings you can get today.

It is our standards-setting machine, so it gets tested and used almost on a daily basis. If anything, my appreciation for this grinder has only grown over the years.

The burr set is super tuned for espresso output, being designed and engineered by Etzinger, one of the world’s premier artisan burr designers. 

The implementation of Acaia’s scale is brilliant too, because it goes beyond the mechanics of the scale mechanisms. Built into the Sette is a kind of predictive “AI” that analyses every grind session, recording the final weight, and adjusting the grinder automatically the next time to accurately compensate for any “float” of extra grind weight at the end of the grinding session when the grinder automatically powers down.

What does this mean in real world terms? Let’s say you set the weight output for 18.5g. You go through a batch of coffee from a particular roaster, and every time the grinder gets within .1g or less of that target output. Then you change the coffee in the grinder, and try again. Different coffees grind at different output speeds. The first grind with this coffee at 18.5g is relying on the past dozen grind sessions to accurately deliver 18.5g. But this time, with a different coffee, 18.7g comes out. The grinder recognizes this, so it adjusts the “float” time at the end of the grind by milliseconds shorter, so the next grinding session, it will once again deliver 18.5g.

Pretty genius.

There’s two flaws with the Sette 270Wi. First, it is loud; easily the loudest grinder I use on a daily, weekly, or even monthly basis. Second, while it does a “good” job on brew grinds (from AeroPress to V60), fines production are frankly horrible for anything coarser, like no bypass brewers, Chemex, and Pour Over. If you do use the grinder for these methods, get a sifter to sift out the fines after.

Other than that, everything about this grinder is golden, especially if your primary brew method is espresso. I consider it good enough that it is the grinder we use to a) evaluate espresso blends and single origins, b) test espresso machines with, and c) test other espresso primary grinders against.

Then of course, there’ Baratza’s legendary after sales service and support to consider. 

If you are in the market for a premium espresso primary grinder, the Sette 270Wi, especially at this sale price of $480, should be at the top of your list.

The Baratza Sette 30 Grinder

The Baratza Sette 30, normally $300, is on sale until July 21 for $240. That puts this grinder into a very competitive market. 

We did a full and comprehensive review of the Sette 30 (nb, currently being updated to our 2024 design change, should be completed by July 10), and I’d encourage you to go read that before pulling the trigger on this model. 

I’m not as sold on the Sette 30 as I am with the Sette 270 series for one reason only: it is missing the micro adjustment to fine tune your grind output. It doesn’t have a built in scale either, but does have a very accurate digital timer, down to 0.01 seconds, which is unheard of anywhere near this price point.

It does have the exact same burrs as the 270 series, and outputs the coffee the same way: fluffy, uncompacted, well distributed. It is also just as fast as the Sette 270 series, making it one of the fastest grinders on the market today. You miss out on the “dial in ability” the 270 series delivers, but you can usually get a grind setting within about a 2-4 second window on your shot pulls, and get it consistently when dialing in.

This is the compromise, and one we’ve had to do with a lot of grinder under $400 for a long time: it can have the most amazing grind particle size distribution and output, but because the “clicks” between grind settings is fairly high, you also have to do a dose adjustment to get the shot times you want the most. In the case of the Sette 30, if your target is 18.5g in, 45ml / g out, in 30 seconds, it might give you 27 seconds at one grind setting, and 33 seconds at the next. So you have to adjust your dose up or down .2, .4g to hit your ideal brew times, if that is your goal. 

All this said, the grinder is a Baratza grinder, so that also means awesome after sales support and service. At $240 on sale right now, you’re getting a lot of the benefits of the upper tier Sette grinders at a budget entry point. If you don’t want to spend more than $250 on a grinder, you could do a lot worse than the Sette 30.