So Iāve been comparing the shots from both grinder for a few days. Iāve been using my Flair 58, a bottom paper filter and 18g in a Pullman basket and have tried my best to get comparable shot volumes, water temp, pressure reached etc.
Iām actually really glad I did this because I went into it thinking there wouldnāt be much difference and for some people, myself included, itās as much about investing in top notch engineering of the MC6 as it is about the results in the cup.
I have to say I have a new found respect for the likes of Lance Hedrick, James H and many others that we dismiss so readily. The time and energy it takes to do these studies and the amount of beans used and wasted is quite something and I only did very basic studies for a few days and even then my motivation was rapidly dwindling, they do it for months on end!
So day one I used a Black Cat Ethiopian probably more medium light, with MC6 and the Niche. I prefer fruits and florals over chocolate and nutty flavours and the MC6 delivers on this . The Niche presents the lower tones ,chocolate and nuts over fruits and florals, in fact I could hardly discern any of the fruity notes from the Niche. The MC6, even though the body is thinner than the Niche, certainly delivers this element. The aftertaste is also smoother on the MC6.
PM: I tried my own favourite decaf that I roast myself, again the results were very similar, to be honest I was really surprised as I honestly thought there wouldnāt be much in it .
Day two: I again surprised about the difference between the Niche and the MC6 , in my mind the MC6 tastes less conical and more flat burr but not in the territory of the finnicky highly transparant 98ās. I thought for fun I would compare the Philos to the other two. I think the Philos has been the red herring in all of this since owning the MC6 as I do use it regularly and wonder if it has made it less apparant just how good the MC6 is. I have the 1200D burrs .
Again I tried the decaf and again the MC6 was to me more enjoyable with fruits and florals but then I tried the same coffee with the Philos and it was so very similar.
Day 3. I repeated everything with a freshly roasted Kenyan. Again the Niche gave thick chocolate, nutty notes, very good but more one dimensional than the fruity, floral notes of the MC6 . The Philos also delivered on the fruity and florals although body was thinner than the MC6.
Tested again on Friday and over the weekend and the results were similar as mentioned. Just to say that none of the beans I used were particularly dark so that is one probably quite important comparison that is missing as many people love these darker roasted coffees. Really I would need to make the comparison to be fair so I may look into this in the future as I could roast some beans into nearly second crack or second crack territory .
I think if you are a lover of dark gloopy chocolate and nutty notes and donāt enjoy the fruitier element then the Niche is brilliant and something like the MC6 would probably be overkill or not to your liking?
If you enjoy medium roasts with fruits and a bit of floral then the MC6 delivers brilliantly but is thinner in body than a traditional conical grinder but still holds up very well in milk drinks.
I would love someone else to do some tests and prove me wrong but I was surprised by what I personally experienced these last few days, it turned everything on itās head to be honest .
I expect Iāll be in the firing line now as Iāve already been quoted on the Kafatek forum for saying a 2.5K grinder is comparable to a 800 but that was only looking at a few results over a couple of days and certainly not an exhaustive scientific study by any means, Iām just waiting for the fall out from thisš¬ . These are just my thoughts, probably nonsense but maybe useful to someone and all to be taken with a pinch of salt.
