tompoland
Just like with their original strategy with forcing buyers to buy both stock burrs if they want the grinder - which they were forced to retract once they realised the market didn’t agree with them and was not buying the duo in sufficient quantities - niche is really missing the thrust of the market again by continuing with their decision to reject burr swapping and choosing the wrong set of burrs as their espresso burrs.
The way i see it - the entire move to flat burrs was driven by the desire to experience more individual flavour separation which then drove the innovation towards lighter roasts and in making more and more unimodal type burrs. Which also drove the impetus to allow for the ability to replace burrs without affecting alignment etc.
The truly peculiar thing about niche’s inflexibility is how counterproductive and unnecessary it is. Instead of AGAIN trying to force the market to do what they want, they should realise that the stock espresso burrs they chose is just not the type of burrs that are optimal for light roasts, and allow burr swapping. Those mazzer burrs completely frustrate their aim to capitalise on the massive flat burr market and hold them back and instead cannibalise the market for the zero because it is too similar in taste profile - as Hoffman has highlighted!
It is particularly bewildering and unnecessary because the way they have designed the Duo ans creating burr carriers, it is already optimised for easy burr swapping. Instead of being a bad thing they try to discourage by warning of the warranty being voided, it is a massive business opportunity that niche is completely missing the plot on.
What they should have done from the start is to sell as different models of the Duo 1) with the mazzer espresso burrs for those who want the traditional Italian espresso they enjoyed with the zero but with flat burrs 2) with ssp 83mm lab sweet cast steel burrs and 3) with ssp MP burrs at the very least. 2) and 3) would greatly increase the duo’s attractiveness as a product and earn more profits for them and niche is already set up for it with the modularity of their burr carrier design! They literally have to do nothing except order ssp burrs and change their website to make this happen and yet they haven’t done it thus holding back their product.
My suspicion is that in a few months niche will come around and finally do this because hoffman has done them a favour by increasing the pressure on them to do this and it just makes sense and doesn’t even need any structural change to their product.