Note that Sibarist have packs of 25 if anyone wants to dip their toe in their water.
Haven’t blind tested them yet but I agree that withlout a blind test, opinions are worth a lot less.
I’m in the early stages of blind testing five premium hand grinders for espresso and the results are not going the way that I “knew” that they would. At the half way point, my champion grinder before the blind tests has been relegated down the pecking order. It’s just underlined how subjective opinions can be without blind tests. We all know the theory around unconscious bias but these blind taste tests have been shockingly revealing.
On that note, now that the Duos have become the Trios (the 3rd one just arrived) I can do side by side blind tests with different filter burr sets. But that’s probably not going to happen until the New Year. In the meantime I’m just trying different burr sets on the bench.
Speaking of which, I’ve now had the first few brews using the Mazzer k151G burrs which I seasoned with 2kg of our local supermarkets cheapest, darkest and oiliest beans, which I am assured were “hand selected from carefully chosen premium farm lots in the fertile hills of … ”
FWIW (not much probably), at this early stage of non-blind tasting, I’d say they produce a clearer brew but than the stock Mazzer 151F that come with the Duo, but not (for my taste buds at least), a tastier brew. The difference reminds me of the difference between the brew from the 1zpresso K-Ultra (super tasty) and the 1zpresso ZP6, the latter being so clear that to my newbie-filter taste buds, the brew semed closer in flavor to water than it did to coffee 🤔. But these are only very small samplings and non blind.
I’m resisting the temptation to put the 151F burrs back in and I’ll persist with the k151G burrs and play around more with grind size and brew duration, one at a time. (The other two Duos are for espresso burrs at this stage.) Note that I would simply swap the burr carriers out bewteen the 151F and k151G as the design intended, but I’m still stuggling with the zero point calibration when I swap them. It may simply be that I need more practice?
Also I need some cupping classes so I can not only detect differences in the brew but also articulate them in a meaningful way. (Any and all advice or guidance will be gratefully accepted.)
Enjoying the journey.