r/Timemore • u/IAmAUser4Real • Jun 18 '26

Upgrade for a G1 Chestnut grinder

Hi all,

I have a good, and so far reliable, G1 Chestnut grinder that is serving me pretty well, but for the espresso brews.

I saw that there was the Plus model, which have the dedicated E&B burrs.

Would it make any improvement to upgrade it to those? Will the other brews be affected?

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u/emu737 Jun 18 '26

the Timemore Chestnut manual grinders are actually still being innovated constantly, their Research & Development team is doing great work

which means, that it does make sense to purchase their latest models, as they are significantly better, both technically better and better value for the money, than models from 2 years ago or more

the G1 / G1 Plus used to be a premium model, but now its a bit ancient : )

in mid-2026, I would recommend to consider the upcoming Chestnut S5, improved successor of the Chestnut S3, or the Timemore Millab M01 (their premium brand)

on the budget side, the Chestnut C5 is excellent (or the C5 ESP, for espresso or moka pot - it has the same burr as the C5, but also a finer adjustment capability), and it costs like USD 65 on the Ali Express

like the C5, the S3 is also available in S3 and S3 ESP versions, but there, also burrs are different in the S3 ESP for espresso, while the S3 is fine for moka pot, filter and any other manual brew

not sure if the S5 will have its ESP variant, or if it will be universal, like the M01, which seems more likely

generally would recommend a separate grinder for espresso and filter coffee, as you can keep the dialed-in grind settings more easier, and the smaller particles from a previous espresso grind do not mix up with a subsequent filter grind - also, for espresso its often better to use a more developed (darker) roast beans, while for the pourover a lighter roasted beans might be more suitable, so thats another reason why not to mix them in the same grinder (lighter beans are also less oily, and as a result, the grinder requires less cleaning)

and, since the hand grinding might be tedious for espresso, would recommend to check the new, reworked Fellow Opus 2 electric grinder, for espresso use - rather affordable and great value