My thoughts
Finally I can speak about the niche duo, its been hard work watching the speculation over whether niche would go flat burr
I was asked in November to be a tester of a new product, I had no idea what it was till I said yes, after some email exchange I get a shipping email and then a box turns up, it was a niche.
The box turned up just as a new niche zero would, fully packed as if it had be bought from the website, box opened and grinder unpacked, it was placed on my counter next to my other grinders:
The other grinders are a niche zero and a mazzer major with both stock and ssp hu burr sets
All way through I’ve taken notes as its good to go back, this was my initial thought upon unboxing, well boxed, good size, smaller than the mazzer, zero point looked good.
I spent a few days getting to grips with the grind settings, though already owning a zero the duo is second nature. Â
Early observations, I did some initial testing,
Work flow both the zero and duo you add beans, close the lid and grind, with the mazzer you wdt, dose, brush then give the motor another blip to clean the grinds, this led onto the next test retention and exchange.
On a clean grinder, with a 20g dose going in my major gave 19.3g out, the next 3 tests with 20g in I got 19.8,20g,19.7g out, as the zero is known I didn’t test that, the duo clean took 20g in also gave out 19.3g, and the following 20g in produced 20g, 20.1g, 20g. grind times very similar between the stock major burrs and the duo, but the ssp ground in half the time.
After a week of dual use, I cleaned both grinders to see what was left inside. The mazzer with the ssp fitted retained 2.2g and the duo 1.2g, Â
I did a sound test using a very simple phone app, the major 70db, zero 64db, duo 69db.
Then after that it was just a case of use it, I find for my use, med to med light and even filter roasts on my test grinder I have about a 5 step window for dialling in, this seems to equate to what the mazzer does also, I did some experimenting with the same bean, same dose and shot times and
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didn’t tell the test subject (mrs) and both times she preferred the duo to the ssp burrs, this was a medium bean in milk.
More weeks past, and I took the ssp out of the major and added the stock mazzer burrs, which is what’s inside the duo, to give it a grinder to grinder test rather than burr to burr, the first thing I noticed was the oe burrs in the major were now out of alignment, I had shimmed the ssp, so I had to re shim and marker test the major, to get it some what parallel, the duo out the box marker tested perfect, in this time, multiple cleans between the duo and the zero saw them both hold less than 1g retention, just a note on calibration the duo comes calibrated from factory, so cleaning doesn’t affect the zero point.
The burrs come on their own carriers, they are designed not to be swapped out for other burrs, they are designed for mazzer burrs only, Â
Some time round January I noticed the static really dying off and the cup on the duo becoming a lot cleaner dose for dose, this is with no wdt at all.
The big thing with the duo is the ability to remove the burrs and add the second set of filter burrs, visually different to the espresso burrs and also taste as well, its so quick to change, one bolt, remove both burrs, clean and install the burr of choice, no need to calibrate, just go to your setting, I found mid to early 30’s good for a v60 with an Ethiopian filter roast. I don’t drink much in the way of filter now, but there was a noticeable difference to the conical in the zero.
Evaluation.
I took the major off my counter about 2 months ago, the duo offers a smaller size, ease of use and a huge burr set, comparing the duo to the ssp it gives a more rounded balanced cup, the ssp pull to the brighter more acidic side, while adding some sweetness it can unbalance the cup, they certainly give for a worse visual shot, breaking down and looking thin, they also pass on more fines to the cup, were as the duo burrs give a very even pour, bringing out the balanced character of the bean, if its light and tea like you get that, if its richer and more body that comes through also, Â
Its been amazing to have been asked to be part of this trial, and I’ve had a good 6months with the niche duo, ill be sad to see it go.
Thanks jake
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