It is looking quite likely that I will picking up Dave’s black Bianca this weekend and selling my Rocket Appartamento TCA. I should be currently studying for an exam I have at the beginning of March. Instead I’ve found myself going down rabbit hole’s thinking about changing my current grinder set up. So I figured I’d post here so that don’t obsess for the rest of the month and I actually get some study done!
I currently have the T64 I posted about on the forum last year. I also have a Eureka Zero 55s and a Timemore S3 hand grinder for when away/at work for pour over.
The T64 has been fantastic, I’ve had some great shots and milk drinks with it. It’s white and my new machine will be black, so I could just replace it with the same but in black. I probably don’t even need to bother doing this but hey, there would be no fun in that! I’ve also been looking at other options which I’ll list later.
The 55s was a bit of a drunken impulse buy one evening so I could have a couple of different beans dialled in at the same time. I know it’s entry level, but it’s not been the best user experience if I am honest. Compared to the T64 apart from being quieter it’s been poor in comparison.
I had to realign the burrs straight away. It would not grind fine enough for the medium to light roasts I had. Sure enough they were out of alignment and had to use a couple of shims to get it to grind to a level I was happy with. The beans were not super light either. I know it’s entry level but surely grinders should be good to go and fit for purpose from the factory? This is the 55s though which I believe is no longer made in Italy. Perhaps some initial quality control issues?
The two other things that bug me about the 55s are the grinder vibrates against the dosing cup and it makes a really annoying knocking noise. A small issue but something that could have been sorted so easily from factory with some foam padding or similar to buffer the impact. Considering the mignon line are marketed as ‘quiet grinders’ you would have thought they would have sorted this. It doesn’t seem to be a one off either from looking at comments online.
Finally I’m finding 1-2g retention unless you fairly aggressively pump the bellows. It is then 0.1g most of the time. Comparing the use of bellows to the T64 it is night and day, I don’t have to use the bellows anywhere near as much or as aggressively.
So currently I am thinking of potentially selling both the T64 and for sure the 55s.
So if you are still with me (sorry!), here are my thoughts…
Sell both, replace with just 1 x black T64 at £299 and look for some burrs that favour lighter roasts. Then later on down the road look for a second grinder to complement it for different beans. This option is the most boring to me, but probably the most sensible seeing as i am happy with this grinder. At the moment though it’s my least favourite for some reason.
Sell both, replace it with the timemore 064s and do the same as above. I like the footprint of the grinder, it’s just over the £500 mark. As above I would then look for another grinder to complement it in the near future.
Sell both (and something else!) and get the niche duo. It’s really out of my budget but if people were to tell me it would be big improvement on my current suggestions then I could be persuaded.
Sell both grinders and get a GBW grinder? I am considering the Eureka Libra 65 all purpose GBW. I do miss the ease of just wacking a porta filter in and feel it would help with the faff when making drinks for multiple people. I do enjoy the ‘faff’ when I’m making drinks for myself, it’s almost like therapy going through all the steps and then enjoying the finished article. But when I make drinks for 2-3 people I can find myself getting mildly aggravated. It’s not often though. Perhaps I need both in my life? I can get the libra 65 for just under £550 from looking at UK sites. That is about my budget for now due to funding the espresso machine at the same time. Other wise I’d be looking at other pricier GBW options, but I think they are currently a fair bit higher.
Are there any other grinders you would recommend around the same price bracket? Or should I stick with the T64, sell the zero? If I did what grinder could complement it?
To help I tend to have 2-3 coffees a day and work from home for the most part. A mixture of espresso, long blacks and flat whites. I’m tending to favour medium to light roasts now, but don’t mind darker now and again.
Apologies for the short story! Appreciate your thoughts.