My Fellow Opus 2 Review

When Fellow released the original Opus in 2023, it was supposed to be the affordable all-rounder. One grinder for a couple of hundred bucks for espresso, pour-over and everything in between, with Fellow’s design sense on top

It didn’t quite work out that way.

The Opus 2 is Fellow’s attempt to get it right. Bigger burrs, a new adjustment system, a new grind path and auto-stop.

I have spent the last two weeks drinking so much espresso and drip coffee from it that I can almost feel the enamel stripping off my teeth. Here’s everything I’ve learned.

The Fellow Opus 1: a bit of a letdown

On paper, the original Opus looked like a great deal. In use, the complaints piled up.

Retention was the big one. Many owners ended up smacking the lid after every dose to get the last grounds out, which is not what you want from a grinder sold for single dosing.

Then there was the adjustment. Getting fine enough for espresso meant dealing with a bizarre inner ring for calibration on top of the outer dial. Confusing? You bet.

What Fellow changed with the Opus 2

The Opus 2 goes after every one of those problems:

• Burrs up from 40 mm to 48 mm
• One stepless dial from espresso to cold brew. The inner ring is gone
• A redesigned grinding path with an ionizer and better designed chute
• Auto-stop, so it switches off when the beans are ground up
• Two magnetic catch cups: 100 g for filter and 30 g for espresso (fits 54 and 58 mm portafilters)

And to be clear, most of it works.

Check out my video below for an in-depth explanation.

Fellow as a company: from design objects to plastic

To understand the Opus 2, I think you need to look at where Fellow has been heading.

Fellow started out making very beautiful design objects with some quality to them. The Fellow Ode is a good example. Whatever you thought about the grind quality of the first version, it felt like a solid thing on your counter. I’ve had mine for more than five years now and it’s still a solid grinder. It’s built to last.

However, in recent years Fellow has moved into would be described as a flimsy-construction era.

The Fellow Aiden was very plasticky. But it offered fantastic temperature control and tasty coffee, so I was happy to forgive it.

The new Fellow Espresso Series 1 also has a plastic build (I haven’t tested it in person yet but this is the the overwhelming sensation among users).

And now the Opus 2 is even more plasticky.

It’s still a Fellow product, so the design is on point. But the materials are not anything that stands out in 2026. On the contrary, I would say.

Fellow Opus 2 specs

Specification	Fellow Opus 2
Burrs	48 mm stainless steel conical
Motor	300 W (according to the label on my 220V unit)
Speed	Around 400 RPM
Adjustment	Stepless dial
Load bin	100 g
Catch cups	100 g standard + 30 g espresso cup, both magnetic
Grind speed	18 g of espresso in 9 seconds (my test)
Retention	0.1–0.2 g (my test)
Noise	84–85 dB (my measurement)
Size	206 × 130 × 267 mm
Weight	2.3 kg
Made in	China

Fellow Opus 2 workflow: the good parts

So, how the Opus 2 in daily use? Let’s start with the good parts, because there are a lot of things to like about this little grinder.

Yes, it’s plastic, but it still looks nice.

Next to other nicely designed grinders, it doesn’t look out of place.

Next to other Fellow products, it’s going to look very sleek and modern, because Fellow really are the ultimate designers of that modern matte black aesthetic that has infiltrated every segment of specialty coffee.

It’s compact, it’s light. It grinds fast – also for espresso.

It’s not quiet, though.

I measured around 84–85 dB, against 74–75 dB for the StarSeeker Edge. The noise is a bit rattly, but at least it’s over quickly.

I like the adjustment wheel on the side. Good granularity, and it’s a nice touch point.

Retention is low. Straight out of the grinder I’m typically finding around 0.2 grams. Sometimes a bit more, but generally very goood.

If I use the lid as a bellows and push it down a couple of times with the grinder running, the exchanged retention drops to 0.1 gram.

So the Opus 1 retention problem? Fixed.

The ionizer works really well, too. Static is very low compared to most other grinders I have tested.

It’s not messy. Both catch cups slide in magnetically under the chute, catching most of the grounds and even the annoying lightweight chaff particles that most ionizers have a tough time dealing with.

Workflow in detail

From a workflow perspective, it’s excellent in most categories.

Speed: excellent. 18 grams of espresso took 9 seconds to grind. So pretty much 2 g/s, which is fast.

Ease of adjustment: top of the line. It just works very nicely with that knob. It’s very easy to make micro adjustments, but also to go from espresso to filter coffee.

UX: excellent. The auto-off function is actually very well calibrated, so it stops almost at the right time when everything is ground. It’s tidy, and it’s easy to dose in and out.

Fellow Opus 2 grind settings

Inside the lid, Fellow has printed grind size suggestions for different brew methods.

For espresso, I was mostly between 0.2 and 0.7 on the dial. For pour-over, I was more in the 5 to 7 range, which is pretty much spot on with Fellow’s recommended ranges.

The plastic problem

When you open it up, getting access to the burr out is relatively simple. You just twist the load bin counter-clockwise.

The new burr is big and bulky. It’s Fellow’s own in-house design that you’re not going to find with any other grinders. The engineers have done a great job here.

But then there’s the grinding chamber. Where the steel burr deserves praise I can’t really love the grinding chamber.

It’s plastic, but the type isn’t specified. I’d guess it’s likely a strong material, possibly nylon. The impeller beneath the burr is also made of the same material.

Most grinders nowadays come with a steel impeller in a steel grinding chamber. So in 2026, I have to admit I feel a bit hesitant giving a strong recommendation to a grinder built like this.

What does the impeller do?

The impeller sits underneath the burr, spins around at the same speed as the burr and pushes out the grounds. So it’s kind of a wiping arm. Sometimes it’s also called the “paddle wheel”.

There are actually some grinders that don’t even use an impeller. Instead, they’re designed so the grounds just fall out from the burrs, which I think is the optimal design. Pretty much all manual grinders work this way. But also the Baratza Sette and Mx Cool Aries are impeller- and chute-less grinders.

But most grinders do have an impeller, and typically it’s made of steel.

A cautionary tale

However, there is another company that makes a lot of conical grinders with plastic parts: Baratza. They have one of the most popular grinders of all time, the Encore.

What tends to happen is that after a few years, a lot of Encores start grinding slower and slower and have more trouble pushing the grounds out. That’s because the impeller slowly wears down from all that friction against the coffee, and it loses its precise fit.

Remember, the impeller in the Opus 2 is spinning around at 400 RPM, pushing against a lot of particles.

Baratza is good with spare parts, so you just buy a new one. But it does beg the question: where did the missing plastic go?

I think you can see where I’m going with this. Probably into your ground coffee.

Now, to be fair, the Opus 2 is still new, so this is a bit theoretical. And as far as I know, nobody has actually measured how much microplastic comes from a coffee grinder.

But a study from this year found that salt grinders with plastic grinding heads shed microplastics into the salt.

That’s a different situation, though. There, the plastic is doing the actual cracking of hard salt. In the Opus, the burr is steel, and it’s only the impeller that’s plastic.

But it is still spinning fast against particles that aren’t trivial.

We’ve seen the same thing with plastic cutting boards and blenders. When plastic meets friction, it sheds.

And I know there’s plastic in a lot of coffee gear. I’m honestly not that worried about a plastic dripper. What worries me more is a plastic part spinning at high speed against coffee particles, every single day, for years. That’s exactly the kind of part we’ve seen wear down before.

So if I have the choice, I want that part in steel.

I’ll update this article as my Opus 2 gets older, so if you’re reading this in one or two years, check the bottom of the page for my updated findings.

American brand, made in China

People sometimes complain to me that some of my favorite grinders are from Chinese brands.

Well, the Opus 2 might come from an American company, but it’s made in China.

And the build quality is actually significantly worse than the Chinese brand grinders in the same price range. The StarSeeker Edge and the DF54 both come with a steel grinding chamber and a steel impeller. The DF54 weighs 4.3 kg, almost twice as much as the Opus 2 at 2.3 kg.

So if you pay extra for the Fellow name, you’re paying for design and workflow. Not for build quality.

How does the Fellow Opus 2 taste?

But workflow and build are not the whole story. So how does it actually taste?

The Opus 2 is mostly marketed as an espresso grinder, and for espresso it does a solid job.

I used everything from dark roasts to medium-dark and more modern medium roasts.

Dark roasts, it nails them. I would say it’s hard for a grinder to really be outstanding with dark roasts and be better than the rest. It’s more that some are good for them and some are bad, and this one falls into the good category.

When we move into medium and medium-dark territory, it’s a little bit more nuanced.

At this roast level you’re starting to be able to pick apart flavors. And here I would start to consider whether a flat burr grinder would do better.

Personally, for the slightly darker side of medium, I would rather take a flat burr such as the Eureka Mignon for those smoother chocolate flavors.

And if I was looking to explore the different layers a bit more, for a slightly more modern light to medium espresso style, I would favor pretty much all the different versions of SSP burrs in the 64 mm size. The MP for modern light flavor separation, and the HU or Cast for traditional and more full-bodied.

But now we’re also talking about grinders that are much more expensive. You probably need to spend double the price to find something that just clearly beats it.

Fellow Opus 2 for filter coffee

Filter coffee is a different story.

I did a bunch of side-by-side brews against a similarly priced conical grinder, the StarSeeker Edge. In 8 side-by-sides, I preferred the Edge every time.

All of them were light roasts on the Hario Switch, with my typical recipe: two pours, the first 50% as percolation and then 50% as immersion.

The Opus actually gives you pretty good fidelity on the flavor notes. But it just lacks sweetness and development. And when you try to unlock that sweetness by going finer, you mostly get more bitterness.

In my pour-over grinder comparison, I put the Edge at the entry level for enjoyable pour-over. For me, the Opus 2 doesn’t quite get to be in that conversation.

It’s not bad, and it can do it in a pinch. I just have many grinders in my collection that I would rather use.

For instance, I’d much rather use a hand grinder with a heptagonal burr, or something like a Timemore S3. In my hand grinder guide, I would take the models in the medium and good categories over the Opus. And quite a few of them are in that $100 to $200 price range.

Who is the Fellow Opus 2 for?

So who is this grinder really for?

If you’re spending around $200 and pour-over is your main thing, I’d get the StarSeeker Edge or a DF54. Both are in the same price range. They just taste better to me. Plus, you can upgrade the DF54 with the brew burrs, and then it’s just in a whole different league.

If espresso is your main thing, the Opus has the better workflow of the three. And in the cup, I think it holds up well against both. It gives you a very flattering conical profile, where the Edge is not quite as balanced.

However, if you’re mostly making cappuccinos or brewing very dark roasts, you won’t notice much difference between any of them.

Compared to the Baratza Encore ESP at the same price, I think the Opus is the stronger overall grinder, with much better workflow.

The Encore ESP just feels a bit old and dated in comparison. Both have a similar plastic construction with plastic impellers. So here there’s less reason to go for the Encore ESP.

Conclusion: should you buy the Fellow Opus 2?

I expect we’ll see deals where you get the Opus 2 bundled with the Espresso Series 1. If you find one at a really good combo price, I can’t really blame you. And if you don’t share my concern about plastic, it’s the workflow champ at this budget.

To me, it’s a little bit weird that Fellow sells a slightly more premium version of the grinder, with a wooden lid and a metal adjustment dial, for a bit more money.

I would much rather see a “Pro” version with a steel grinding chamber and impeller for that same amount. At that price point, it would really be the no-brainer espresso grinder under, let’s say, $400.

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