Mazzer just replied to my email from yesterday, confirming that the outer burr is the same for both ‘soft’ and ‘fast’, and it’s marked 0198C, while the inner burr changes (0198C for ‘fast’ and 0199C for ‘soft’).
Top marks for responsiveness!
I have edited the review above accordingly.
CoyoteOldMan that is a lot of turns and quite a long time (3 min). I’m surprised. The Kinu M47 Classic I had took 35 seconds and the Helor 106 is 55 seconds. Mind you, I haven’t counted RPM yet. Maybe I crank the handles fast? Then again, the fast version would be faster, but I wonder how much faster.
3mins for Turkish grind size isn’t it? Not espresso.
Will test and time espresso as soon as I have some decent beans; we forgot to pre-order and came back from vacation with no coffee, having emptied all stores prior to leaving.
The type of bean can make quite a difference when hand grinding, I’ve just finished a kg of Mbata beans from Django and they were very hard and considerably more effort than any bean I’ve tried previously. I know it shouldn’t affect the number of rotations but will affect time
Dusk I’m kind-of-looking forward to trying to grind some very light roasts that @“MediumRoastSteam” left me a few weeks ago, and were kept in the freezer until now… He said that one of them in particular was really hard.
I think I may try a French Press with one of them (way too light for espresso, I think), and see what comes out!
@CoyoteOldMan Great review, thank you. Although I can’t see any of the photos on my PC or phone. Not had that before.
PortafilterProcrastinator You are welcome; sorry about the photos. I don’t know what the problem is - they all show as imgur links if I try to edit the post; I have checked on two other browsers (Edge and IE11 vs. my Chrome default - IE screws up the layout, but the images show up), and it works fine even without logging into the forum (also using incognito/private/non-caching mode). Only thing I can suggest is to refresh the page/flush the browser cache.
Here is the list of links to the images in order of their appearance in the post above:
Gtbarringer did you import your HG1 prime to UK? How much tax you end up paying? Also it seems that the status is “in stock” on the website but when I click buy, it says not available. Did you buy it from the website?
I enjoy reading the inputs here as I am in the market to upgrade my JX Pro. I have been using it for 2 months. I lifted weight regularly. I thought grinding with the JX was easy and I enjoyed the manual process. But I recently feel the base of my thumb pretty sore. I grinder 60g -80g a day. It was the hand holding the container having issue. So, my objective it to find something with a solid base so I don’t need to hold lit while turning the handle. My budget is 1000ish and seems like the HG- Prime is the best choice?
@Knluk Do you mainly drink medium / medium dark and above? If yes, I am surprised and sorry to hear the sore thumb issue. That’s so soon!
If your taste preference change to lighter stuffs, you won’t enjoy the manual grinder. I recommend you go the electric route, unless you already have one. Niche is a great choice, if electric. :-)
Knluk It’s not so much time as quantity of coffee ground. My grinder was bought used from a small roastery - they used it for 6 months, and pulled through 27,000 single-shot-equivalents (or roughly 200 kg of coffee, assuming 7 grams per single-shot). In the past 4 months, I ground about 3.5 kgs.
Ceado say that the standard (non-coated) burrs are good for about 600 kg - the shop would have run through that in ~18 months; it would take me 50 years…
LMSC thanks for the advice as always! I am still exploring about beans. The lightest I have tried is medium. So far, I love the Chatswood from Rave which is dark roast. But I also enjoyed the chocolate Blend and Dock blend which I think is medium roast. Having seems so many experts here opt for light roast, I would love to explore that once I have more skill to dial it that. (Btw, what’s your pick on light roast beans? I heard good thing on Tim Wendelboe but they are not in U.K.)
yes. The soreness came faster than expected. I now changed using the non sore hand to hold the container. Niche is nice but I am thinking to invest a bit more to my end game (I think I will never spend 2000+ for a grinder). But I am still thinking as Niche sounds to be extremely capable for its price.
Knluk I now changed using the non sore hand to hold the container.
I find myself swapping hand after every minute of grinding - then again, I’m reasonably ambidextrous.
CoyoteOldMan swapping hand
Same here, which is easier if medium and above. :-)
I exchanged email with Lyn workshop on the HG1 Prime and found out they are in summer break thus cannot fulfil order. That allows me more time to think about it:
Thanks for input.
Knluk My 2 cents - based on 2 hours in which I’ve had a Niche in the house, and a fair amount of experience with audio gear (which seems to follow rather similar ‘rules’ to coffee gear):
Longevity - unless you plan to use the Niche ‘semi-industrially’, that thing is a) built like a small tank and b) with ease of maintenance in mind. Yes, there is less to go wrong in a hand grinder, and even just for that reason the Weber will outlast the Niche, but unless you truly plan on leaving your coffee dinasty a heirloom… little to choose from.
Build - I haven’t seen anything to suggest that the quality of design and assembly in the Niche is sub-par. Will it be the same as a super-duper hand-built grinder? I don’t know, but the few measurements I’ve seen done on Weber stuff don’t indicate that they are actually engineered and built (rather than finished) better than well-built mass-assembly products (like my Mazzer or Ceado, or indeed the Niche).
Beauty - in the eye of the beholder. The Niche is significantly less conspicuous… which, depending on what you (and your family) like, may actually be better than the in-your-face naked engineering of the Weber. If you allow me an architectural comparison, which one is more beautiful:
I can’t comment on cup quality, as I haven’t tried anything from a Weber, but I think with either of these (or the Kafatek, or the Lagom) you are very much on a near-flat spend-vs.-taste part of the curve. It may be more a question of what you enjoy in coffee and what type of coffee you drink, rather than ‘absolute’ improvement.
Re: the nastiness of dealing with Weber, again, no direct experience. I have read the same posts as you have (probably), and there were screenshots of messages that definitely weren’t pleasant. At the very least that would make me very wary. Then again, one of the best restaurants I know is managed by a guy who can be quite unpleasant to deal with, but once you understand where he’s coming from, and what “your” part of the bargain as a customer is, everything works brilliantly.
Knluk adding to Coyote’s post, there is a difference in the cup. I think its quite marked.
With the 83mm Mazzer Robur conical burrs (HG1P) I taste what I describe as more distinctive coffe-chocolate-nut flavor. With the 63mm Mazzer Kony conical burrs it’s just coffee-chocolate. Both delicious.
My tastes buds are nothing to write home about so if I can taste the difference, most will.
Hard to beat the Niche for workflow. Hard to beat the HG1P for presence.
Most of us would be delighted with either grinder.
