About Timemore
Timemore is a Chinese coffee equipment brand founded in 2012 by a small team with backgrounds in industrial design, product engineering, and supply chain rather than marketing: James Zhan (operations), Yu Yue, known within the company as Fish (design), and JiuShu Chen (R&D). The company frames its mission simply, as helping people pursue a slower, more deliberate coffee ritual through honestly made equipment. That design first approach shows most in Timemore's best known line, the Chestnut series of manual grinders, and it has been validated outside the coffee world too: the brand's design director has won the Red Dot Design Award twice, and Timemore's wider catalog holds additional Red Dot, iF Design, and Good Design Award recognition, including an iF Design Award for the Sculptor 078 electric grinder in 2023.
That reputation is backed by real specialty coffee credentials. By Timemore's own account, its equipment was selected in 2017 as the only mainland Chinese specialty coffee brand featured inside Starbucks' flagship Shanghai Roastery, and the companies have kept a long term product relationship since. On Brew Gazette's own bench, that quality bar held up across two separate categories: the Chestnut C2S earned a place among our coffee grinder picks with a 4.6 star average, and the C5 ESP Pro came out as the single highest rated grinder in our entire espresso grinder testing, at 4.7 stars across 302 reviews, ahead of every electric and manual competitor we tested.
Brand website: timemore.com
What Timemore makes
Timemore's range runs wider than the products we review. The lines we know best from our own testing are marked with a star:
Chestnut Series (C2S / C3 / C5 / S3 / X)
manual coffee and espresso grinders, the line both of our featured picks come from — featured on Brew Gazette
Sculptor Series (064S / 078 / 078S)
electric single-dose grinders with flat burrs, launched through a highly successful Kickstarter campaign
Black Mirror Scale Series
dual-sensor barista scales for pour-over and espresso, the brand's most widely used product line
Fish Smart Kettle
digital gooseneck kettle built for precise pour-over brewing
Bricks / Whirly compact grinders
ultra-compact single-dose electric grinders; the Bricks 01S won a Good Design Award
Why we recognized Timemore
The Brew Gazette Top Brand recognition isn't paid for and can't be applied for. We award it to the brands whose products consistently stand out in our hands-on category reviews. Timemore earned it on the strength of the products below, evaluated the same way every product on this site is: bought, brewed with daily, and judged on what lands in the cup.
Timemore products we rated highly
Timemore Chestnut C2S Manual Coffee Grinder
A 4.6 star average across 972 reviews ties it with the best rated grinder in Brew Gazette's coffee grinder roundup, remarkable for a hand grinder up against electric competition. Roughly 36 internal click steps give fine, repeatable resolution across the whole filter range, and CNC conical burrs paired with a full metal, double bearing body reach espresso fine grinds without the wobble that undermines cheaper hand grinders. It needs no power, so it works as well on a countertop as it does packed for travel.
Read the 8 Best Coffee Grinders of 2026 guide →
TIMEMORE C5 ESP Pro Manual Espresso Grinder
At 4.7 stars across 302 reviews, this is the single highest rated grinder in Brew Gazette's entire espresso grinder roundup, electric or manual. It is a hand grinder engineered specifically for espresso rather than a general grinder that happens to reach fine: the S2C-042 burr and an external adjustment pitch of just 0.015mm per click give roughly 50 adjustment levels, precise enough to dial in a shot by taste. The all metal, one piece body and double bearing axle keep the burr aligned for consistent particle size, and true single-dose grinding means near-zero retention between doses.
Read the 9 Best Espresso Grinders of 2026 guide →What earned Timemore the recognition
- The TIMEMORE C5 ESP Pro is the highest rated grinder in our espresso grinder testing: a 4.7 star average across 302 reviews, ahead of every other grinder we tested, electric or manual.
- Timemore is one of the few brands with top picks in two separate areas of our grinder coverage at once, the Chestnut C2S among our coffee grinder picks and the C5 ESP Pro among our espresso grinder picks.
- Independent design credibility outside of Amazon review counts: Timemore's design director has won the Red Dot Design Award twice, and the brand's wider catalog holds additional Red Dot, iF Design, and Good Design Award recognition, including an iF Design Award for the Sculptor 078 electric grinder in 2023.
- A verified specialty coffee pedigree: by Timemore's own account, its equipment was selected in 2017 as the only mainland Chinese specialty coffee brand featured inside Starbucks' flagship Shanghai Roastery, and the companies have kept a long term product relationship since.
- Purpose built engineering rather than one generalist grinder stretched across two jobs: the C5 ESP Pro's S2C-042 burr and 0.015mm per click external adjustment are built specifically for espresso, while the Chestnut C2S's CNC conical burrs and double bearing axle solve the wobble that undermines consistency in cheaper hand grinders.