I started my speciality career using Simonellis Mythos One Climapros and up until 3 months ago I switched to Mazzer grinders (Kolt and Robur), and I’m struggling to see why so many high end and big reputation cafes in the UK (namely Kaffeine) use them. The only positives I can attribute to Mazzers is the fact that they (as far as I’m aware) are almost always offered with La Marzoccos, and that you can call out an engineer to fix both at the same time for lower cost, rather than getting two seperate engineers out for the grinder and the machine, and they also don’t seem to heat up the grinds that much either when compared to a climapro, whether that’s a positive or a negative is still debatable. They’re also like Reliant Robins, do they ever break?!b(they’re also 400/500£ cheaper)
But apart from those three things, I can’t see them as the #1 espresso grinder. my first issue is that purging them is extremely wasteful, it takes about 80-120g of purging to get your new grind coming through, and if you work in a cafe where the temperature fluctuates, you can wind up purging through almost a kilo of coffee.
Secondly, they are horridly inaccurate at dosing, it can only go up in increments of 5 100ths of a second at a time (0.60>0.65) unlike Mythos ones which can go up in increments of 1/100ths of a second (0.60>0.61) which helps get the dosage more accurate, and as well was that, the Robur seems to just throw grinds out due to it being based on centrifugal force rather than dropping down from the burrs.
And finally, I find that because it has such a huge dosing funnel, grinds can get stuck inside the wall and can be pushed off into the basket should the grinder be tapped, which affects espresso extraction. The funnel also seems to splurt the grinds out which makes the surrounding area messier.
As for particle size and the sciencey stuff, I don’t know at all, maybe that’s where the Mazzer comes out top.
Please let me know 1-) Your personal experiences and your own opinion. 2-) if you have any mods:tricks to make it better.
the purging is pretty ridiculous. quite time consuming when busy, and even after nearly filling an 8 oz. paper cup, it seems to take 2 or 3 shots to see the final result. also running for such a long time straight makes me worry that the burrs have heated excessively, affecting the pull time of the next few shots. the adjustment collar also seems overly sensitive. i’d prefer to move it a significant amount to get a noticable result, as this wouls help with being more accurate in grind adjustments.
i don’t use the auto doser, i dose a mound by eye, set the portafilter on an acaia lunar scale, taking small bits off the mound with a demi spoon to accurately dose.
i haven’t had trouble with the
dosing funnel retaining grinds or spurting out in a funny way. i know the little cage screen the grinds would exit the burr chute through and enter the funnel should be left there and is supposed to help cut down on static electricity, which may be your issue with retention.
I’d have to agree on all counts. Possibly, lots of cafe are still using Mazzers as grinders aren’t cheap and they might not have the capital to buy the latest equipment.
Ditto on the grinds getting stuck inside the funnel & the spray. Tilting the portafilter up towards the spout helps a tiny bit, but otherwise, it’s time to get handy with your trusty paintbrush or sweeping tool of choice.
I have similar feeling with the above posts. When I first started at my current cafe, we used a robur for “house espresso” and a K30 for “single origin”. When we got the Mythos grinder, it completely changed the game IMO. We currently use the Mythos for our “house espresso” and the Robur for our SO.
The real trick I learned to improve consistency with the Robur is to dose into a cup, swirl it around, and jam funnel it into the portafilter. I’m not sure why (scientifically) this works, but it does always lead to the most clean and consistent shots when using the mazzer.
First of all- what made you get rid of your K30 but keep the Robur?
Second- the reason why you probably pull better espresso after swirling the grounds is because you break up any clumps that can lead to channeling and uneven extraction.
Thirdly- on a scale of 1-10, with 10 being busiest, how busy is your cafe? I can’t see the SO being efficient enough in a store with high footfall.
First - As a staff we felt the Robur was much more consistent of a grinder. They were both purchased used when the cafe opened originally and I believe the K30 just had more ware on it so rather than get a new burr set we sold it and upgraded to a Mythos.
Second - agreed.
Third - I’m not sure how you would rate a 10 (non stop tickets from open-close?), I would say we are the busiest (non-chain) third wave store in the city. Weekends especially are just about a line of customers the entire morning. Dosing into a cup may add 5 seconds to a shot time, but you also aren’t pitching shots as often (or serving bad espresso). I view it as adding as much time as some baristas who want to pour 15 tier tulips, only in this case your making the drink taste better.