chlorox I am bemused by why merely questioning if adding a burr option would be a good idea for the niche is found by some of the people here to be almost heretical…
I think SSP burrs are good, very well made, slightly different flavour profile..Not as huge a difference as some make out, however Mazzer and SSP I do believe make some of the finest burrs out there. .
I don’t agree that Niche should supply SSP burrs, that’s very difficult to do in quantity and makes the situation complex. I thought about whether they should supply the grinder with No burrs, just empty carriers….which is also problematic, because it’s then becomes difficult to test the grinders, especially as Niche test a large proportion of all their grinders to ensure customer satisfaction and the quality of what they produce.
I do agree with you wholeheartedly that Niche could produce a Validated burrs list that would basically not invalidate your warranty by using them except of course, should you damage the carriers (grinder) installing said burrs…e.g strip threads, dropping them and bending a sweep arm etc…. The grinder is clearly capable of handling any burr thrown at it as it’s probably the only grinder out there that can chew through 18g of green coffee!!
Their difficulty would be dealing with the large number of inevitable questions from people saying “this burr isn’t on your list, do you support it?”, or the equally irritating “Do you intend to support these burrs?”. These questions will arise even if they put, please don’t ask these sort of questions…the list is the list. The other issue is grind time, different burrs may well extend grind time, again a potential cause of questions “I saw a video, it ground in 22s, I put validated burrs in now it’s taking x seconds, is something wrong”. Never underestimate the ability for people to ask questions that make you scratch your heat or think RTFM, or more properly RTFW (ebsite).
Mazzer production processes are super consistent and the burrs always stay within very tight tolerance for thickness and diameter….SSP might well introduce different thicknesses and diameters. I’m not sure they do and the ones I have seem very consistent, but it’s a very small sample…whereas I checked a very large quantity of Mazzer 83mm burrs.
SSP from time to time bring out new burrs and retire old ones…but it’s not hard to ask SSP for a sample of new SSP burrs as they come out and validate them.
The final point to consider is that Mazzer have been good for Niche and supply the very large number of burrs required for the Niche Zero and over the years a great deal of confidence has built up not only on Mazzers ability to supply in quantity, but at a consistently high quality.
So validation I think could and should be done, but not having different burr options for sale. You buy it with 1 or 2 carriers, already fitted with Mazzer burrs….then later are free to use any burrs on the validated list.
P.S. As for the Chinese burrs, for me the jury is out on those and why people suddenly think they are fantastic based on what influencers say….is beyond me. And for longevity, who knows.
