Cuprajake Its not his go to. Thats an eg1 £3000 grinder
He uses the niche as its an affordable bench mark for most
I tried a niche, wasnt a fan
I think the “higher tier” grinders were a more recent purchase for a video. Of course he has a roastery with lots of high end equipment; grinders and otherwise.
I believe it has been his “go to grinder” in the sense that it’s good value, small, a single doser, easy to dial in and easy to travel with.
Did you really give the Niche a chance? I remember your complaint being that it has a lot of chaff in the grind? What didn’t you like about it otherwise.
Frothbewithyou Just being devil’s advocate. Do you think confirmation bias, sense of being part of community, Niche being an ‘underdog’ versus <insert big corp> and following on from the community comment, tribalism fuels the Niche or nothing mentality.
I think there will always be bias, especially when people give opinions on machines they own or have been involved with.
At the same time if I was to sit down again and look at the best value for money home grinders (for espresso) or espresso machines, I believe I would reach the same conclusion. Grinders: Specialita, Niche, maybe Solo….yes you can get a second hand mazzer but they are huge. What’s the next step up..a Lagom P64? The Niche is not perfect but the workflow is excellent. On the espresso machine front how many viable dual boiler machines are there under £2.5k? An ECM/Profitec machine would be great but is it worth the significant premium for the same functionality?
Frothbewithyou Also now production has moved to China, I wonder if the DF Solo, Lagon Mini, Fellow ode, X54 etc can shave some market share off them. Sometimes being the first to a design philosophy is good but it’s hard to hold onto that dominance with iteration so prevalent. 😁
I wouldn’t buy a Niche if I didn’t make espresso. Although I also use it for Aeropress and V60. The Lagom mini is not viable for multiple espressos and stalls on medium/light roasts. The Fellow Ode is filter focussed and the X54 is very expensive for what it is. So we inevitably come back to the same options for espresso unfortunately…there is still a gap in the market especially for a flat burr grinder which has a similar workflow to the Niche…