Test Drive: The LIGRE Siji Espresso Grinder

Patented precision, award-winning design, and a few things worth noting.

BY VASILEIA FANARIOTI
SENIOR ONLINE CORRESPONDENT

Featured photo courtesy of LIGRE

What to know:

• After putting the LIGRE Youn espresso machine to the test, we experiment with the LIGRE Siji espresso grinder
• The grinder features 55mm flat steel burrs and a patented grind-by-weight system accurate to 0.1 grams, as well as an automated, sensor-driven hands-free system

A grinder is rarely the romantic purchase in a home espresso setup. That role belongs to the machine. But spend enough time pulling shots and it becomes clear that the grinder is where most of the real work happens—and where most of the variance lives. 

The LIGRE Siji arrives with a case for being taken seriously on its own terms: 55mm flat steel burrs, a patented grind-by-weight system accurate to 0.1 grams, stepless micrometric adjustment, touchless grinding, and a design that won the iF Design Award in 2024 and German Design Award Gold in 2025. 

It is built as a companion to the LIGRE Youn espresso machine, and the two together form one of the most considered home espresso systems currently available. Tested primarily alongside the Youn—and briefly with a manual espresso machine at home—here is what extended use actually revealed.

First Impressions: Quiet Authority

The Siji is compact relative to what it offers: 140mm wide, 224mm deep, 345mm tall, and 6.7 kilograms. The front panel is solid anodized aluminium, satin-finished, and uninterrupted apart from a touchscreen display that uses the same clean design language as the Youn. Placed side by side, the two machines form a unified 600mm width with a 3mm gap—clearly designed to sit together on a standard kitchen counter and look like a single considered system rather than two separate purchases.

The build feels appropriately serious. Nothing flexes, nothing rattles, and the bean hopper lid closes with a satisfying seal—a sealing lip keeps beans fresher for longer and protects them from the motor’s waste heat. The grinder also notifies you on the display when the hopper is empty and stops automatically to protect the burrs.

The Technology: Grind by Weight, Touch to Start

The Siji’s standout feature is its patented grind-by-weight system. Insert the portafilter and the integrated scale zeros itself automatically. Wait a second, and grinding begins without pressing anything—the touchless grind function reads the portafilter’s presence and starts the process. The scale continuously measures the weight of ground coffee in the portafilter, and predictive software accounts for the coffee still in the air between the chute and the basket, stopping at the right moment to hit the preset dose. 

LIGRE claims accuracy to 0.1 grams, verified in stress testing with KUKA robotics over 50,000 repetitions. In everyday use, the consistency is genuinely impressive. Two preset doses (single and double espresso) are stored on the display and adjustable to a tenth of a gram. The stepless micrometric adjustment wheel is smooth and precise, and the portafilter holder angle is adjustable via a patented eccentric mechanism on the rear wall.

One thing worth flagging for specialty-minded users: the Siji is a hopper-fed grinder with a 250g bean capacity, and there is no dedicated single-dosing mode. Many home baristas working with specialty coffee grind only what they need from a sealed bag to preserve freshness and avoid stale retention between sessions. You can use the Siji this way, but the workflow isn’t optimised for it—the hopper and chute geometry are designed around a full or partial hopper rather than drop-in single dosing. For a grinder at this price point, that is a meaningful omission for a certain kind of user.

In Use

On medium and medium-dark roasts the Siji is composed and reliable. Doses land consistently, the grind distribution is even, and the resulting shots—pulled on both the Youn and a manual espresso machine—were clean and repeatable. The 320W motor runs at 1,350rpm and is notably quiet; the sound design is one of the more genuinely pleasant aspects of daily use.

A note on burr geometry for those who want it: the 55mm flat burrs produce a distribution that, while consistent, tends toward the bimodal end—more fines than you would expect from a larger flat burr grinder in this price bracket, such as a 64mm option. For medium and dark roasts this is largely a non-issue. 

For high-clarity light roasts where fines management directly affects cup quality, it is a relevant characteristic to understand going in. Combined with the motor running at 1,350rpm—on the faster side for specialty-focused espresso grinders, where heat buildup can affect volatile aromatics in delicate beans—the Siji’s ceiling with complex light roasts is lower than its spec sheet might suggest.

At finer grind settings required for lighter, more acidic roasts, the Siji occasionally hesitated—pausing mid-grind before continuing, or requiring a recalibration. This is a known characteristic acknowledged in the manual with troubleshooting guidance. I encountered it occasionally rather than consistently, but it is worth knowing about if light roasts are central to your workflow.

Maintenance

Retention is under 4 grams, though stale retained grounds from a previous session can affect the first shot of the day with more delicate beans—a short purge dose is worth making a habit. LIGRE recommends servicing every 300kg through their customer service, and sells a proprietary grinder cleaner for regular burr maintenance. The absence of a removable grounds tray is a recurring inconvenience—dust collects in the lower area and needs vacuuming or wiping after sessions.

Final Thoughts

The LIGRE Siji is a precision espresso grinder with a narrow, well-defined brief: dose accurately, grind quietly, look considered, and integrate seamlessly with the Youn. On those terms it largely succeeds. The grind-by-weight system is genuinely impressive in daily use, the touchless start is more convenient than it sounds, and the build quality justifies the premium materials claim without much argument.

The reservations are real but specific. For a specialty-focused user working primarily with light roasts, single dosing from rotating bags, and chasing high clarity in the cup, the Siji asks for some compromise—in workflow, in burr geometry, and at the edges of its grind range. For someone building around the Youn on medium and medium-dark roasts, those compromises are unlikely to surface in daily use, and the system works beautifully together.

If you are pairing it with a different machine or working primarily with challenging light roasts, it is worth auditioning alternatives at a similar price point before committing. But as the intended companion to the Youn, the Siji makes a coherent and capable case for itself—especially if design matters as much to you as what ends up in the cup. The LIGRE Siji is available on the LIGRE website.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Vasileia Fanarioti (she/her) is a senior online correspondent for Barista Magazine and a freelance copywriter and editor with a primary focus on the coffee niche. She has also been a volunteer copywriter for the I’M NOT A BARISTA NPO, providing content to help educate people about baristas and their work.

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