I have long made do with a blade grinder for many types of coffee, including espresso. I know it’s a compromise and I have occasionally looked at burr grinders. I saw this very inexpensive manual ceramic burr grinder with decent reviews and thought it could give me an intro to the burr method. Exceeded my expectations - both the improvement in flavor with burr and also the quality of this cheap unit. Not sure of the durability, but we’ll see. Great size for one person and gives a few Zen moments during the grind. I would recommend it for a try to anyone else who has been married to the blade.
We have Capresso in SC and Cuisinart in FL.
I’ll be buying another Capresso and giving away the Cuisinart.
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If you’re okay with a hand grinder, I would suggest the 1Zpresso JX-Pro, it’s $169 on Amazon and will give you a more consistent grind than what you’ll get from the entry level of Baratzas like the Encore & Virtuoso. If you’re not planning to use it for espresso, you can save $30 and go with the 1Zpresso JX, which has less settings, so not as good at dialing in for something like espresso, but perfectly suitable for something like pour over.
The JX-Pro can get through 30-35 grams of beans in about 30 seconds and isn’t that labor intensive. It was a little tricky to get it properly calibrated when I first pulled it out of the box, but after watching a few youtube videos, I was able to get it sorted out and now am very comfortable taking it apart, calibrating it and putting it back together.
Baratza Encore should get high consideration. The company believes in repair worn out parts instead of throwing away. As such they have lots of repair videos that lead you through diagnosis and repair of all possible problems. Ours lasted 5 years and then I replaced the motor and it’s been going for 2 years now. I can always get behind a company that does not believe in use, break, and toss.
Got a Niche Zero. Excellent.
Did Side by side non blind and blind tasting with Baratza Sette and Monolith
Clearly above sette (sette is also silly loud)
Small step down from monolith but comparable.
Nice. Haven’t been able to get my hands on a Niche yet. They always seek out by the time I figure out there’s a new batch
u need to sign up to their email notification. they tell you the day before on next month’s sale. then u just mash refresh at the time of release and hope to get one… hopefully their production will ramp up.
Any thoughts about these vs the Mahlkönig X54? Looks like price is the same and are for a similar market. My use case is primarily pourover and drip, not espresso. This is primarily espresso for you guys?
The Monolith is pretty much a dedicated espresso grinder, I probably wouldn’t use it for pour over, let alone as a mixed use (espresso and pour over) grinder. The Sette likewise is also geared more towards espresso.
The Niche is pretty flexible in grind size for both espresso and pour over.
The Mahlkonig X54 is a new machine from Mahlkonig so the jury is still out on the quality and its performance as a grinder.
Personally i do single dosing so that giant hopper is an eye sore for me, but that’s a personal preference.
re: Monolith… it can grind pour overs very well, but certainly it’s a espresso focused grinder. and dialing the coarseness back and forth is a pain so the obvious answer is… to just own two monolith 