JammyDodger Early days yet. I’ve only had the Duos a couple of weeks and I really like to use a grinder daily for three months of more so I can get to know it and allow the honeymoon effect to wear off.
But seeing as how I can feel the muzzle of your gun against by head … at this stage, if I had to have only one grinder (God forbid) it would still be the Moca SD. As it is the Little Swiss Miss has been collecting dust as I put the DF64Vs, Niche Duos and five premium hand grinders through their paces.
The reason I say that “if I had only one grinder” is that burr swapping with the Moca is … um … challenging. And the Ditting burrs in the Moca are left spinning whereas most other burrs are designing to spin to the right. Which really means that like most grinders prior to the DF range, burr swapping is at best impractical and at worst nigh on impossible.
As an aside, that’s what I like about the DF range: the ease of trying different burrs without any warrantly infringements. The original DF64 was a game changer in this regard. Yes, it has multiple defifiencies (popcorning, anti-clumper joke, chute clog, imprecise engineering, soft metal collar thread inclined to misalign due to damage) but many of these negatives could be mitigated or elminated with after market parts from Etsy. The DF64s massive redeeming feature was that it used the same coil spring system as the Niche’s making burr swapping not only easy but also workable. (Being easy to swap is different to making it actually work). By contrast, my opinion to date, is that the wave spring system on the DF83s and DF64Vs reduce the sweet spot / range of tolerance, for burr thickness.
Anyhow, I digress.
In regard to Duo v Moca SD and in-the-cup experience. Personally, if it was the standard Mazzer 151B burr sets in the Duo versus the Dittings in the Moca, I’d go with the Ditting. But that’s just me and my unconsious bias and my particular set of taste buds and whatever esle is peculiar to me. The Mazzers produce an exceptionally well balanced espresso. IMHO (and many will offer a legitimately different opinion) the Dittings achieve that too but add a bit more flavor whilst somehow still allowing different notes to come through. It’s very much horses for courses. If was just medium to dark roasted espresso with milk and I wanted some chocolate to punch through the milk, I’d go with the DF64V DLC burrs. That’s not really my thing; I’m just wanting to underline that a heck of a lot depends on what your preferred espresso style is.
To be real about it: they are both brilliant grinders with top quality burr sets that virtually anyone would derive great pleasure from and both could easily be classed as an end game grinder (for normal people 😁). But I still have a very soft spot for the Moca.
