I am quite satisfied with my Mazzer Major in many aspects, especially that shots have super heavy body while not compromising that much other qualities, but what would be nice to add to my setup is a grinder focused on clarity, while not compromising the body too much. I really enjoy the taste of Mythos 2 shots from a coffeeshop I go to frequently, but it is way to expensive and unfit for home use. I was thinking to get a set of SSP MP burrs for my df64 but I am not sure if that would raise to the expectations. If I have to describe the taste I am looking for it would be: clarity focused, ideally an “oily” body, or some sort of thickness, I don’t want to be watery like you usually get at 1:2.5 shots or higher. If it would be for a grinder, I could probably spend about £1000, used units included. I am willing to do mods, tampering with anything etc Any recommendations? If there are grinders to fit this but in a different budget I’d still want to know.

Petre Over the years, I have had many Mythos grinders, both the original style and the Clima Pro. I have not tried a ‘2’. Depending on your environment, they are larger but I always had the space for one. With the flat burrs being mounted at a 45 degree angle, the retention is extremely low as there is nowhere for the coffee to go apart from down the chute. Personally I preferred the higher speed original to the CP from a taste perspective. Since you can pick these up on Ebay if you are careful, for a few hundred pounds, I think they will be comparable to your Major

dfk41 you say it will be comparable with Major, but what I am looking for would be something that would complement it, ideally a grinder more clarity focused, or, of course, to upgrade it, that’s also an option. Do you think Mythos 1 would be a good candidate for that?

Petre I have never tried a Major. I know folks wax lurical about them, but I have had many Mythos grinders and personally (not that that means anything) I would happily go back to one if circumstances dictated!

dfk41 not anymore, grinders have gone nuts on ebay, £900 for the cheapest mythos

dfk41 I’m still loving my Mythos and haven’t once thought about changing it. 👌

Mythos 2 comparable grinder

dfk41

Jason1wood Not once!

Jason1wood

dfk41 Well have fancied trying a Niche but the Mythos is perfect for me

chlorox

Petre I have a df64 with SSP Unimodal burrs ans I am very happy with its performance. I have drunk espresso and lattes from cafes using mythos grinders and at 6-7 times more expensive than the df64 with ssp burrs (and even for the ebay mythos grinders it would stil be more than twice as expensive) I really doubt that he mythos is necessarily any better let alone worth the premium. Personally, the mystique given by many to grinders and the difference they make is similar to the hype hifi components are lauded for imparting in the hifi world. I could be wrong but I wonder if a double blind test would leave most people unable to differentiate between them consistently or to actually prefer the more expensive grinders…

dfk41

chlorox Wrong! The Mythos is not a single dose grinder. it is a full blown commercial capable of (depending on the model) grinding very quickly on a repeat process. No weighing single doses etc. The needs for a cafe are vastly different to home based. I have had a Mythos with 400,000 double shots. I would like to see your grinder after that! In addition, the burrs on a Mythos are mounted at a 45 degree angle so they retain virtually nowt! The 75 mm burr set is a goon set as well. True, prices have gone through the roof over the past couple of years but if I had to go back to a non single dosing grinder, the Mythos One (not the CP slower spin) would be my choice every time

chlorox

dfk41 of course I agree that as a cafe grinder, the mythos is built for heavy duty use day after day to keep up with the volume of a busy cafe. The df64 would never be able to keep up and would probably break down fairly quickly under such demands as it was never built and specced for such loads.

But I am not evaluating the mythos on such a basis. And neither should you unless you run a cafe. If we are looking at a grinder for use at home, then single dosing is usually the way to go unless you have a big family who drink 4-5 coffees daily each.!most importantly form the taste perspective, I am asking the question- does it really make a difference between the mythos and the df64 with ssp burs of yoir choice? For all the climacool tech etc, if you put it under a true double blind test approach, can we really tell the difference? Or even prefer the vastly more pricey mythos? How much of this is confirmation bias?

dfk41

chlorox I suspect the Mythos 75mm burrs produce a far better profile therefore taste to the DF64 burrs, SSP or not. Of course, I cannot prove that any more than I understand the fascination with 64/65mm burr sets. On a single dose grinder, presumably the bigger the burr set the more powerful the motor needs to be and that costs more. The fad of single dosing is a relatively new thing. Up until the Niche arriving, there were few if any, reasonably priced single dosing grinders but now, that is very different. There is still no way I would pay circa £1500 for a small burr set though

Cuprajake

ive never had a mythos, but i have noticed a taste increase as ive gone bigger in burrs, 50,55,64 and now 83

chlorox

dfk41 I am not terribly skilled at making espresso but I have been single dosing with the compak k10 for more than ten years even before getting the df64. So while i dont know how others see single dosing, for me, it is how I have always been making espresso drinks from the very beginning when I bought my first true espresso machine. I have had difficulty in getting a purpose designed single dosing grinder before I bought the df64 because almost all of them were almost perpetually out of stock and they were very expensive to boot (the niche zero was not in my target hairs since i already have the conical burr grinder corner tied down in the k10). Hence the availability of the df64 was a real boon for me as it is so much cheaper and almost always available for purchase together with ssp burrs. I hope that in the future, there will be made similar grinders made for larger burr set sizes particularly 98mm at that kind of price point and ready availability.

InfamousTuba

The mythos one is a great grinder, I have used them in a cafe and they are great to use, produce very good espresso and can last for years. You can get 75mm SSP burrs for the mythos so I don’t think the SSP Vs non-SSP argument makes as much sense, although you do have more options at 64mm. It would be interesting to compare the two head to head, it would also depend on how well aligned the grinders are not just the burrs they use

If you already have a df64, it would be cheaper to buy the SSP burrs and try them out. You could even get SSP burrs for the major if that works as an option

dfk41

chlorox The K10 was my all time ever favourite grinder, save for one thing……it retained 20 to 25 gms. The next variant was a little better. If you are single dosing by using a puffer I would still bet there is tons of retained coffee inside. If by single dosing, you put 18 gms in and get about the same out, then that is not the whole story. Some or a large part of the coffee that comes into the pf will be ‘retained’ and mix ed in with the fresh.
I would love to see the mods you have made and a video of the old beast in action!

Cuprajake

anything that size will always be 2k plus i reckon,

i nearly got a k10, i believe they grind very well, but as you say it was the making it single dose and not be totally ugly at the same time

chlorox

dfk41 I suspect you are right or at least not far wrong about the retention of the k10! I use a puffer and while it seems to clear a lot, I am under no illusions that there is still some still stuck in there to be mixed un with the next set of beans to be ground next time. I have not modified the k10 and so the whole process is more involved and troublesome than the df64, that’s for sure but it’s a question of cost benefit ratio for me. The df64 retains a lot less than the k10 but the bellows are more troublesome than ehat a p64 would require..on the other hand the df64 costs almost 4 times cheaper than the p64 so the latter makes no sense to me whatsoever. I hope the China manufacturer of the df64 will turn their attention to the 98mm burr set eventually and apply the lessons they are learning building the df64 to make a worthy 98mm grindee to provide a far lower cost but quality single dosing alternative to the Titus nautilus, levercraft ultra, monolith max and p100. I don’t mind coping with some more inconvenience in exchange for much lower cost and still get to use the ssp 98mm burrs.

dfk41

chlorox The main thing for me, is to be content with the gear you are using. I think folks these days become far too obsessed with ‘coffee bolloxs’ where infinitesimal changes apparently make all the difference. I sold my K10 expecting the F10 to be better. It was for retention but somehow they lost the flavour profiles I so liked. I only drank Java Jampit in those days and have never been able to find that flavour combination since! I have some resting at the moment and only have a Niche to play with. If I close my eyes and drift back in time, maybe I can kid myself it is just like the old days!