I’ve finally given in to the marketing efforts of the many roaster emails advertising their fancy light roast coffee with exotic flavours and am going to give single dosing a try. I’m not going to use the Mazzer for a few reasons but mainly because we rotate a few dark roasts we love and keep it dialled in for a bag at a time. So I’m wondering if using the C40 is feasible for trying some of these light roasts. I won’t be using it regularly, maybe every other day for one coffee so I’m not fussed about hand grinding effort. Also I’m using the C40 for filter each morning so are there any steps (cleaning etc) I need to take to switch back and forth easily?

My guess is that it should be fine. If your C40 can grind fine enough to choke your espresso maker, and I’ve never heard of anyone saying that a C40 can’t grind fine enough for espresso, it should be able to grind fine enough for the light roast beans you want to try. The only other factor is if the step adjustment gives you fine enough control to get good results, but that seems like something you’ll just have to try to find out.

From what I understand the big steps between each click makes the c40 a bit of a hassle for dialling in espresso. But you can get the red clix attachment that gives you more increments, I guess it will just be more clicks to do between espresso and filter setting when switching but not a big deal. If you don't fancy that you may just need to play with dose size to dial in better.

Red clix does help but it does make the swapping between filter and espresso more annoying to keep track of clicks. Not to say the results aren't good but it does have downsides. I do wish commandante would make a better system for adjustments, compared to a lot of other hand grinders that have external adjustment now

Thanks for the replies, really helpful. I've ordered a couple of new coffees, I'll give it a go! I'll try updosing rather than the Red Clix as it would be good to quickly go back to my filter setting.

This video might be helpful, he compares the Comandate to an EK43. https://youtu.be/HyZB8U0EJlg?t=542

Nice, thanks! That answers another question of what setting I should start at! I won’t be dosing 22/45 like so maybe a click down but let’s see if I get one drinkable shot out of a bag before it’s dialled.

@"whinmoor85"#p29618 That's hilarious :-) I mean an EK can grind a whole bag in seconds, costs £3k and is difficult to carry when camping/travelling. If the C40 grinds as tight a distribution as the EK for espresso (whether that is a good thing or not) then there is no difference between any grinders.

In addition, I was always under the impression the EK isn't great for espresso.

C40 for espresso

Petre

For espresso found C40 quite competitive taste wise with other grinders, however as you probably heard already, handgrinding for espresso it’s a bit more.. involved, to say the least. It takes longer to grind, it’s harder to turn the handle and if you fail a shot you get to do it all over again :) Nevertheless if you already have the setup worth experimenting. I think you also can easily turn your Mazer in SD mode(reversibly).

Ernie1

Thanks that’s good to know. I definitely wouldn’t be using the C40 regularly for espresso. Once a day for morning filter is quite enough!

The other issue is my other half cannot stand lighter roasts so it will only ever be me trying these, which is why the Mazzer will continue to be used on-demand for the dark roasts we’re currently grinding.

LMSC

Ernie1 wondering if using the C40 is feasible for trying some of these light roasts.

Give it a shot and see if you would sustain the effort required to grind light roasts daily. I am still using my JX Pro on the Evo. It’s hard anything on the left-side of the roast scale. In any case, it’s boring and tiring on the hands if I have to make 2-3 shots in a row, which I do every day. I am looking to go electrical (83 mm flat burrs). :-)

Ernie1

Ok so a Guatemalan and Columbian arrived from New Ground and I gave the C40 a spin for espresso.

Firstly, unless I’m doing something wrong the ‘10’ setting recommended by Comandante and the one the dude in the YouTube mentioned was way off. These weren’t super light roasts but until I got down to ‘3’, I was getting 36g in about 4 seconds.

I got the Guatemalan dialled in, and ended up with a decent cup at 18g/36g around 26 seconds. I was really impressed with the quality of the grind from the C40, really consistent and clump free. Taste was incredibly good too so I suppose the C40 is technically capable of some really good espresso.

However! Like everyone has said, what a workout! I suppose I’ve been spoiled ripping through 30g of filter on setting 24 each morning. I would not want to be grinding regular shots of espresso by hand, although it would save on a gym membership.

The biggest surprise finding is that I now want a Niche so that I can single dose espresso… it was inevitable at some point. There’s a neat little space next to the Mazzer.

If anyone can make me feel less guilty by telling me they also run two grinders…

wilburpan

Ernie1 No need to worry about what someone else’s grinder settings are. There can be many reasons why someone else’s ‘10’ is your ‘3’. The type of bean, how old it is, and how your grinder is calibrated compared to the other one both makes the actual number not very important, as long as your grinder can go fine enough to choke your espresso maker.

From your original post, it seems like you have more than one coffee environment you like to live in. In your case, it looks like dark and light roasts. That’s a good reason to have two grinders to avoid lots of switching back and forth, and assuming you have the counter space and electrical outlets to spare.

tompoland

Ernie1 Two?

Ha…

Feel better?

(Plus breville in the roastery and a Helor 106 in the espresso travel case)

wintoid

My C40 does espresso at around a 3 or 4 too, so I’m glad to read I’m not the only one. Too much of a workout though, so I don’t use it for espresso at all now.

Newdent

Yeh considering recipes are often communicated through comandante clicks, not all of them are calibrated the same so it’s a pretty useless system.

My C40 espresso range is in the 8-12 click area for 16g doses and red clicks is definitely worth getting. There’s a fast adjustment method where you change grind setting by rotating the handle instead which makes changing between filter and espresso very fast with red clix, just takes a few seconds. One full rotation is 12 clicks standard and 6 clicks if you have red clicks installed.

Oh and the C40 produces tastier coffee than the niche so bear that in mind! Something electronic that has copied the c40 burr might be more up your street like the lagom mini or sptk38.

LMSC

tompoland You seem to have a place for another grinder! 😂

Awesome collection, btw

Ernie1

Thanks yeah it was a worthy experiment, the C40 is definitely a great grinder.

@tompoland haha! Exactly the kind of justification I was looking for.

The Niche seems to be readily available at the minute… hovering over that buy button!

tompoland

LMSC planning to shed one. Just finding it impossible to choose which one.

(There is also a Weber EG-1 out of shot)

The Olympia Moca SD has upset my plans. I had intended to try it, write a review (to be posted here) and then sell it. But the darned thing is proving to be quite the little charmer. “Quality problem” as they say.

But something has to give.

LMSC

tompoland planning to shed one. Just finding it impossible to choose which one

Wish you are local to us!

tompoland Olympia Moca SD

Please do write a review when you get to! We enjoy reading your detailed review. It’s very useful. :-)

wilburpan

tompoland (There is also a Weber EG-1 out of shot)

My nomination for humblebrag of the year. 😄

tompoland

wilburpan bragging rights is my way of extracting more value from that grinder 😀

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