Brian Quan's Kafatek video series

MWJB

Marco’s Ubergrinder had blind burrs 14 years ago…no one seems to mention the Ubergrinder any more?

Systemic

Until you mentioned them, I’d never heard of the Ubergrinder.

Petre

I like the idea of not having old grounds stuck in screw holes and released at random time.

dfk41

Petre Once compacted they are very unlikely to release…..even if they did, the minute amounts we are talking about, could you taste them?

Systemic

I can
Giphy - Jim Carrey Coffee GIF by Sonic The Hedgehog

chlorox

I suspect that whatever changes to taste that blind burrs will add, it will be imperceptible to human taste buds. That seems to be the consensus as far as the results that 102mm mizen blind burrs have produced vs 98mm mizen burrs so far anyway.

Anyway whatever the explanations of why they are so good etc., grinders like the kafatek are just beyond my budget for them and may as well be unobtanium. In this regard I am just glad I managed to find a used 98mm grinder at a good price and will have to stop my titan grinder ambitions at that stage!

mykm

Systemic I’m a little late to this discussion but if you have watched how the Monolith grinders have evolved, most of the newly added features have been customer or community driven. Blind burrs are on most people’s checklist of must have features when shopping for a new grinder. It’s a box ticking exercise. There’s little to no conclusive taste benefits reported of any blind burr but if you don’t listen to what customers are wanting and make the effort to give them what they want then you’re narrowing you’re audience in an already narrow niche of the market. I can appreciate a manufacturer who steers their products based off changing trends and is not rigid in thinking it’s not required especially at the expense of what it takes to implement those changes just to make people happier with the purchase. These videos really showed off the difference in my opinion of what a small business invests in competing with large more mass production companies. I have a Monolith MC5 and was happy to see where and how it was made.

JonWoo187

chlorox No doubt as people with the flat burr chasing is a bit much. If they put put more effort into sourcing different coffees, roast development they’d pick up FAR more change in taste/texture than what any burr set might have to offer. I find conicals to be more rewarding as they are blind in design for those seeking the unobtanium, bwahaha, as I find flats to be simply boring. The placebo has a strong effect for those willing to spend thousands on a grinder and a ridiculous amount for different burr sets.

dfk41

JonWoo187 What you seem to forget, is that the vast majority of stuff on forums and this forum, is opinion. The thing about opinions is, we can all have one and we can all be right. You cannot dismiss your opinion on flat versus conical in the generic way that you have. Personally, I also prefer the profile a good conical grinder gives you. My Niche Zero uses Mazzer Kony burrs and I think their reputation is unquestioned now. I also have a Solo T64 grinder that came with SSP burrs. I get some good results without spoonfulls of placebo but I still prefer the conical taste. Can I conclude anything from that or maybe the question ought to be, can you ?

chlorox

JonWoo187
It’s the opposite for me - I find conicals boring compared to flat burrs. When I shifted from 68mm compak k10 conical to ssp mp and ssp cast LS burrs in df64 grinders with light roast beans, it was a. Sea change with flavour nuances I couldn’t taste in the former popping out for the first time. My k10 has been sitting virtually unused for all the time I have had the df64. And now that I have the p100, the df64 next to it is unused !
As dfk41 said however, one man’s taste is another man’s poison. So you may love conicals but someone else may like flats and it’s All good as the world is big enough for both types of coffee enthusiasts.

Systemic

Flat vs conical is a bit like arguing which end of the egg is best to open.

JonWoo187

dfk41 Not forgetting anything as IMBHO pretty much everything in life IS subjective. Some tend to go on and on about things being objective as in claimed ‘scientifically supported fact’ and I call B.S. on that as well.
Point I gladly make is if people put as much thought into the coffees they choose to use they can tailor that to find what they want batch-to-batch instead of spending a buttload of money on burr/grinder swaps. It’s mind blowing how green selection/roast development plays by far the largest part in the equation that equipment chasing will never touch.

JonWoo187

Systemic Agree, same applies to brand performance/quality. Like the constant mention from some on forums that La Marzocrappo is the ultimate all others should be compared to, when I found them to be barely tolerable in a commercial use setting.

Systemic

JonWoo187 It’s mind blowing how green selection/roast development plays by far the largest part in the equation

Over the last few years, there have been major strides in this area. Take naturals for example - SCAA used to regard natural processing as flawed with taint. Modern processing methods have tamed the heavy boozy fermented notes making natural processing, for me, far more enjoyable.

Systemic

Years back, I had the opportunity to test out a GS3 manual. Trying to control the pressure with the manual paddle was impossible let alone replicable. I put some of my failure down to my not having any prior experience but discounted this watching the GS3’s owner have little more success than me. My conclusion - what was the point of the machine having a manual pressure profiling paddle if it didn’t work?

dfk41

chlorox The K10 was the finest grinder I have ever had, if you could swallow the retention issue. I often consider buying one again, but am I being nostalgic? I then had the E10 and taste wise, it was not in the same field

JonWoo187

Systemic I’ve never had any real respect for the SCAA and their retarded ‘standards’… For many yrs I’ve strongly preferred naturals over any other process method for that extreme ‘funkiness’ that just can’t be matched for my taste/texture preference.

chlorox

dfk41
The HB forum proclaimed the k10 as one of the so called titan grinders at the time so I bought two units for home and the office, and they served me well for more than 10 years. Apart from getting jammed with beans a few times and stalling as a result, it served me well and for the dark roasts i used exclusively at the time, they were great. I only found them lacking for flavour note differentiation and separation when I started gravitating more and more to lighter and lighter roasts.

dfk41

chlorox If your office is less than 10 miles from NE23 I will buy one from you…….LOL

chlorox

dfk41
Well out of range LOL

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