Crema – Domestic Grinder Review

As the Summer 2009 print issue of Crema Magazine hits the news-stands - we wanted to bring you a few ‘previews’ of stories. Here we preview our upmarket domestic grinder review, conducted earlier this year.

 So you love great espresso? We do too – that’s the whole reason for Crema Magazine’s existence. So is it all about spending $2,000 + on a fancy espresso machine? Well it may be, but before you go shelling out all that money on a fancy espresso machine, think about your grinder. In fact, one of Australia’s leading espresso authorities maintains that you should spend almost as much on a grinder as you do on your espresso machine – it’s that important.

Why is this most important piece of equipment so often overlooked and its importance underestimated? Well, it’s just not sexy, is it! The grinder is often the thing that you buy as an after-thought, once you have done all your research and finally fallen in love with the perfect, shiny new espresso machine sitting proudly on your kitchen benchtop. But the fact is, your beautiful espresso machine is nothing without the hard-working services of a grinder – one that is capable of grinding those magic beans finely enough for the espresso machine to extract the sweet flavours of the coffee.

Before we reveal our first review, a few notes and explanations:-

Why is temperature important?
Grinding coffee beans in itself, generates heat. It is important that the grinder blades don’t overheat [as a result of the mechanical friction of the blades, the conductive heating of housing materials or the working of the motor], as this can further expose the coffee to heat. Remember that roasted coffee is a delicate, perishable product and overheating may affect the flavour, along with potentially swelling the bean, affecting the fineness of the grind for a given setting [and therefore affecting the extraction].

Some grinders have dosing chambers, and some don’t.
One of the key things about good coffee, is that your beans should be fresh, and equally importantly, that they are freshly ground! A dosing chamber receives the grinds directly from the grinding mechanism, to be released into the filter basket in measured doses as required. For some people, having a dosing chamber is thought to be a temptation to leave ground coffee in the chamber to become stale, leading to an inferior coffee the next time. The argument against dosing chambers therefore, is that having to hold the portafilter right up to the grind chute of a chamberless grinder – as the coffee is coming out – forces you to grind on demand. That is, you can only grind enough to fill the filter basket for the coffee you are about to make, which of course, means the coffee must be freshly ground!

On the other hand, grinders without dosing chambers are inherently messy as the grinds exit straight from the chute, as you’re almost guaranteed not to be able to catch all the grinds as they come out of the dispensing spout. Also, the longer dispensing chute may be prone to clogging, which can cause a back up in the grinding mechanism and seize the machine. Either way, it is important to keep your grinder clean and routinely brush within the chute and grinding chamber if possible.

Flat Burr vs Conical Burr Blades.
Flat Burr Blades: Two metal plates with angled ridges (or burrs) engraved into the facing surfaces – a bit like two dinner plates stacked on top of each other.
Conical Burr Blades: Two metal cones one sitting inside the other with angled ridges (or burrs) engraved into the facing surfaces. 

There is continued debate as to the pros and cons of flat burr blades vs conical burr blades. The basic premise is the same ie: that the beans are crushed between the two burred metal surfaces, the closer together, the finer the grind. However, conical blades have a longer grinding surface and so maintain more contact with the beans during the grinding process – the advantage being that they are able to efficiently grind the beans at a slower speed, thus generating less heat.

Whether flat or conical, as is usually the case, it mostly comes down to quality of production, particularly with respect to the stability of the blade housing and the durability of the materials ie: plastic vs metal mountings. These variables in build-quality are usually reflected in the cost of the grinder.

Mazzer Mini 
RRP: $820.00

The Mazzer Mini hails from an impeccable commercial pedigree and has the look, feel and internal componentry of one of its ‘big brothers’. And at an imposing 45cm in height and weighing in at 10kg, you’d expect it to take its job very seriously. The Mazzer Mini is a flat blade, stepless unit with a dosing chamber. The dosing chamber has industrial, hardened plastic windows, which resist discolouration and scratching. The conical bean hopper has a ‘hopper-stopper’ to allow for tidy detachment of the hopper from the grinder and consequently, easy removal of beans (without having to tip the whole unit over sideways). The grind adjustment collar, as with bigger commercial grinders, is stiff to shift and requires its pin to provide leverage to help turn the collar, to make the fine adjustments that are the inherent benefit of a micrometrical mechanism. Operation was impressively quiet, fast and cool, the grind showed good consistency on visual inspection and the resulting espresso shots were excellent with a consistent flavour profile.

Overall, our reviewers were impressed with the build-quality and smooth, commercial-style operation of the MM, and at the high price [RRP $820] you’d expect nothing less. We found it performed extremely well and certainly deserves its place up there ‘with-the-best’ for serious home espresso enthusiasts. It showed an excellent consistency of grind and of dose, but the most interesting attribute was the temperature performance. It delivered the lowest temperature increase of all the grinders. The only word of warning is that it’s quite a substantial unit, so make sure you check where it is likely to sit in the kitchen, to make sure it will fit underneath overhead cupboards.

VERDICT: Top of the range grinder with commercial-level performance. Recommended for the serious ‘prosumer’ who needs a grinder to handle medium-high volume with absolute confidence. Also suitable for mid-volume commercial use (ie: second grinder for a café).

Height: 45cm
Type: Flat Burr, Stepless (Micrometrical), Dosing Chamber
Consistency of Dose: Max variation range of 0.2gm (average dose was 5.4gm)
Speed of operation: 25.3gm in 30 sec
Temp of grinder blades at end of test: 29°C

 

ECA (Anfim) ‘Best
RRP: Silver – $699.00 Chrome – $769.00 (incl GST)

 

This unit has the look and build quality of a commercial grinder but with significantly smaller dimensions, which lends itself to the domestic kitchen setting. With its polished alloy exterior and weighing only 8kg, it’s slim and stylish with pretty much all the benefits of a larger, heavier commercial unit. Standing at 38cm tall, it has 500gm bean hopper with a hopper-stopper. It has tempered steel flat burr blades, a dosing chamber and utilises a stepped grind adjustment mechanism.

 

The Best performed very well and our reviewers were particularly impressed with the speed of operation, even when lined up against the bigger semi-commercial grinders. It showed an excellent consistency of grind and dose. The resulting espressos were excellent, with a consistent flavour profile.

 

There were a couple of minor niggles which were picked up by the reviewers, the main one being that the increments on the stepping collar were quite big – therefore not allowing for ultra fine adjustments to the grind setting, but in practice, this did not present a problem in setting an accurate grind for espresso. The only other main issue was that the tamping disc on the front of the unit gets in the way – in fact, it is often unscrewed and left off by operators ‘in-the-know’!

The build quality and performance make it an excellent grinder to compliment a high-end home espresso machine while its smaller dimensions make it a stylish and reliable grinder for the home espresso setting.

 

VERDICT: High performance unit for the serious ‘prosumer’. Recommended for the home espresso enthusiast who needs a grinder to handle a moderate to high volume. Also suitable for low volume commercial use (ie: back-up/decaf grinder).

Height: 38cm
Flat Burr (tempered steel),
Stepped, Dosing Chamber
Consistency of Dose: Max variation range of 0.1gm (average dose was 5.0gm)
Speed of operation: 39.2gm in 30 sec
Temp of grinder blades at end of test: 31°C

 

 

ECA (Anfim) KS
 RRP: $599.00 (incl GST) 

The KS is ECA’s doserless offering and again is well-targeted to the home espresso market. It is slim, weighs only 5kg and stands at 38cm high, making it easily assimilated into the kitchen setting. It houses tempered stainless steel flat burr grinding blades and has a similar stepped adjustment to the Best, with somewhat large increments, although again we experienced no problem in setting the grinder to an accurate grind for espresso.

 

While a little noisier than its counterpart and not quite as fast, the dispensing chute was very tidy, ensuring a minimum of mess/waste. Targeted a little more towards the mid-range of the domestic grinder market, the KS performed well and certainly had the power and finesse to grind finely enough to service a high-end domestic espresso machine without any hesitation.

 

Our reviewers were impressed by the capacity of this unit to do the job with a minimum of fuss. Even though it’s nudging into the light-weight category, it kept its cool at a maximum grinder blade temp reading of 31°C through pretty rigorous testing. The consistency of grind showed in the resulting shots of espresso being very good with a clean flavour profile.

 

VERDICT: a well-performing and stylish domestic unit. Recommended for the home espresso enthusiast for moderate volume.

 

Height: 38cm

Flat Burr (tempered steel)

Stepped, doserless 

Speed of operation: 27.4gm in 30 sec

Temp of grinder blades at end of test: 31°C

 

 

 

 

 

 

End Note: We will be releasing one grinder review a week online  – for the complete review and side by side comparisons, you can also check out the latest issue (Summer 2009) out now!

Tags: coffee australia, coffee equipment, Coffee grinders, espresso, espresso coffee, expert coffee advice, grinders

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 30th, 2008 at 8:59 pm and is filed under Machine reviews, Online Magazine. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.