Varia Evo Hybrid Hand/Motor grinder

MWJB

What makes this high end, compared to say the Brew Pro?

Is the body long enough for you to hold it properly with one hand, whilst cranking with the other, avoiding skinning of your knuckles (my only gripe with the Brew Pro)?

tompoland

MWJB What makes this high end, compared to say the Brew Pro?

Probably the price 😀

Good question but don’t know sorry, haven’t had a Brew Pro. Is the BP a motorised hand grinder? If so, a link would be appreciated.

My “high end” assessment is based on this video see around 10.15 mark:

I have had some high end handgrinders e.g. Helor 106 and C60, but the two motorised hand grinders I’ve tried (Hario and Soul) didn’t do espresso. The Hario was quite lightweight.

From Varia: “Space Grade Aluminium Alloy, Stainless Steel” components. Make of that what you will.

FadedFrontiers

MWJB What makes this high end, compared to say the Brew Pro?

Well you won’t need to wait three+ minutes for an espresso for one thing 🤣

MWJB

tompoland Quite a discussion already here:

https://coffeetime.freeflarum.com/d/1725-the-unknown-handelectric-grinder/74

This model only comes with a brew style burr.

MWJB

tompoland but the two motorised hand grinders I’ve tried (Hario and Soul) didn’t do espresso. The Hario was quite lightweight.

The Hario G stick thing might not be practical for espresso but it does make the Hario Mini Slim grinder much less of a chore to use. Also fits my Porlex tall with its supplied adaptor. I have seen folk also use adaptors for the Comandante grinders, but my X25 is such a breeze to grind with manually I don’t really see the point.

Wouldn’t the Goat Story Arco also be a contender in the high end, hybrid game?

tompoland

MWJB it sure would, I’d forgotten about that one. It’s a bit different again I suppose because it can also be used as a mains power bench top grinder. Looks very clever though.

How do you find the Porlex for filter? I had one in my very early espresso-only days as a travel grinder but abandonded it quite quickly.

I had a bunch of attempts at motorised adaptors including with the Hario G Stick but in the end reached the conclusion that they really and truly are not worth it for the frequency I use a hand grinder which is typically once a day, or three times if travelling and the latter is only a couple of times a year at the moment.

That said, something that’s made specifically for benchtop use of a handgrinder has appeal.

MWJB

tompoland How do you find the Porlex for filter? I had one in my very early espresso-only days as a travel grinder but abandonded it quite quickly.

Indeed, grinding for espresso on the Porlex (or other ceramic burr hand grinder) for typical dose is a real chore, I have used it for single doses of around 10g.

For filter, it’s normal/typical just the time that it (the Hario and the Rhino) take to grind, manually, is a big downside. At one time I made 30g Clever brews in the office, it was a sweaty race against the kettle (4 min to boil) to get the dose ground! It was replaced with the first iteration of the Lido grinder.

Porlex is fine for smaller doses though, but it’s difficult to see, if anyone had a faster grinder, why they’d bother going back to it, other than for a light travel grinder.

tompoland

Well it’s finally arrived

Just seasoning it which will take some time using the elecric motor because the manual recommends a 90 second rest between grinds and not more than 6 minutes of operation per 30 minutes. Oh dear, didn’t know about that before. Caveat emptor and all that.

Whilst that’s a bit restrictive for seasoning the burrs, it’s still enough to bang out two espressos over five minutes or so (duration of grind yet to be measured).

At this stage the motor itself feels a bit of a gimmick. I mean, hand grinding for one or two espressos is really not a monumental task. Lot of user experience ahead of me so I won’t jump to any conclusions just yet about the usefulness of the motor.

But I think there may be a few others here that bought a motorized hand grinder recently so I’d love to hear your thoughts on the concept.

Still, I’ve bought it for reviewing, I’m unlikely to keep it but who knows, if I prefer the burrs to the C60 it might just become my travel grinder. Never say never.

Norvin

tompoland But I think there may be a few others here that bought a motorized hand grinder recently so I’d love to hear your thoughts on the concept.

I bought mine mainly for use in our caravan which is usually used off grid. We drink our coffees over breakfast and it is a faff to interrupt it to hand grind beans in order to make the next coffee. With the Solo the beans for the next coffee can be grinding while having breakfast. Once breakfast is over, Solo is recharged via USB using the caravan’s battery ready for the next day. So for me, the battery powered grinder is more useful as a time saver than an energy saver.

JHCCoffee

tompoland Might I ask the price (or price range)? In whatever currency you wish to state it as.

Looking forward to your review (even preliminary) relative to my 1Zpresso J-Max vs your C60. I could sell my 1Z and with an additional investment …. 🤑 😋

MWJB

Does your whole hand/all fingers fit on the narrower top section, when using the hand crank?

tompoland

MWJB Finger and thumb touch. My hands are a bit bigger than Donald Trump’s though. 🤗

Easy for me to grip properly but slightly thicker than a 1zpresso. Someone with small hands may struggle to use it easily when hand grinding but that would normally only be as a last resort as a result of the battery being out of juice.

Just ground 20g by hand very fine, super smooth and easy but took 2 minutes. Back to the motor methinks.

tompoland

JHCCoffee 1Zpresso J-Max vs your C60.

J-Max is a top grinder!

The Evo hybrid is US$249 on the varia brewing website.

I’ll post initial impressions of the burrs soon.

DavecUK

tompoland That grinder has a super familiar look about it

tompoland

DavecUK I guess you mean this one.

https://coffeetime.freeflarum.com/d/1725-the-unknown-handelectric-grinder

If so then yes indeed, the shape is cartainly similar. Both 38mm burrs too. Did the above grind well for espresso or was it mainly for filter? Certainly less expensive, by a long shot.

I’m not too surprised that popping a motor on top of the barrel of a hand grinder results in a similar appearance.

But I can’t work out why the barrel of a 38mm hybrid hand grinder is wider than say the 60mm C60. Maybe there is extra engineering to cater for the motor? Is that plausible?

There appears to be a lot of differences otherwise.

DavecUK

tompoland If so then yes indeed, the shape is cartainly similar. Both 38mm burrs too. Did the above grind well for espresso or was it mainly for filter? Certainly less expensive, by a long shot.

It could grind for espresso, but I felt too too long, filter was fine, just press the button and leave it to do it’s thing. The reason it wasn’t sold as an espresso grinder was because I felt the grind time was excessive. Funnily enough, before the burr change to coated burrs and clearly a geometry change for some reason, the espresso grind time was around 90s on the prototype and filter was much faster as well. When the production ones appeared, it was slower. I could grind 360g+ of filter coffee on one charge though!

Using the handle was just not worth it as pressing the button was much easier and the way pieces stacked inside each other was great for travel.

Of course, if you are prepared to hand crank and pay a bit more, the 1Zpresso used to be great. I remember being impressed when I first came across them 4 years ago, a bit before the influencers. I have a JX pro, which grinds for espresso in 30 seconds the unedited vid. Not as portable as the electric powered one though.

JHCCoffee

This is getting interesting. I have need of a grinder for extended stay auto travel. The Varia VS53 that @tompoland just reviewed was/is a logical purchase for that. I plan to buy it in the early spring.

But if this Varia Evo fit the bill, I would have to limp along with my NZ and 1ZPresso J-Max through the summer 😁 and then either: a) sell my 1Zpresso and buy both the Varia VS53 and this latest motorized hand grinder (Evo), OR b) sell my 1ZPresso and just buy the Varia Evo.

A key decision critera is size: If this one is much larger or heavier than the 1Zpresso J-Max, then it will be too big for air travel. In which case its a non-starter. I would then keep my 1Zpresso and continue with my current plan of buying the Varia VS53 in the spring.

Can you please post the weight and dimensions of the Varia Evo, @tompoland . Thanks.

The current short term plan is to add the Varia VS53 to my current Niche Zero and 1Zpresso J-Max grinder complement, in the spring. The medium term (this coming Xmas) plan is to add a flat burr grinder of 64mm to 94mm dimension with easily swappable burrs for both espresso and filter (probably the NZ Duo).

tompoland

JHCCoffee here you go…

Weight: 1.24kg

Dimensions: Height: 218.7mm, Diameter (Max): 64mm

tompoland

In between the VS3s…

JHCCoffee

tompoland Weight: 1.24kg

Dimensions: Height: 218.7mm, Diameter (Max): 64mm

Hmm J-Max is 180 × 56, excluding the handle. So the Vario is a tad bigger. The J-Max weighs in at 0.75kg, so (understandably) the Vario weighs more.

The J-Max was already somewhat large for airtravel (such as touring through Italy). So the Vario may not be best suited for that type of travel.

tompoland

500g through it now. Static was nuts but settled down after 300g or so.

I’ll get it dialled in and start pulling shots tomorrow.

I ground 5 × 20g with a 90 second pause between grinds and the battery delivered consistent power as measured by the grind time. Seemed to have plenty of juice left.

A few quirks but no deal breakers, assuming it will definitely grind fine enough for espresso but that’s definitely not a given with any hybrid grinder.

Impressively hefty components.

The early ones had issues, similar story to the VS3 Gen 1, not field tested enough but fixed quickly. Just a shame that the rigorous pre-sale testing that’s practiced by Niche is an industry exception and not an industry standard.

Early days but so far so good. Looking forward to tasting some espresso from the Hypernova Ultra S burrs.