I’ve never written a grinder review before, but I have used quite a lot of different grinders in my time and I think I am pretty much aware of what makes a good or bad coffee grinder. I have long been of the opinion that grinder technology is a bit lacking, and that for the money one pays for a ’state-of-the-art’ grinder, they really should be a bit more state-of-the-art. Sure it can cut up beans into different sizes, but is it repeatable and measurable? Is the grinder efficient, clean and easy to use? Can I use it for all types of coffee brewing? In a world where you can buy an iPhone and pretty much run your life from it, why are modern grinders essentially just electric versions of what we were using 300 years ago?

A while ago I heard news of a prosumer grinder being developed by the Washington based grinder manufacturer Baratza in conjunction with Mahlkonig in Germany. Baratza have essentially laid down a list of features that they would like to be included and they have slowly been chipping away and ticking them all off. Mahlkonig have been tasked with designing the burr set (cutting discs) and working out how they would fit inside the chassis. The Vario has been delayed a number of times, which has further heightened the anticipation of what could be a revolutionary coffee grinder.

When I first looked down the list of features on a preview article by Mark Prince I got about as excited as you can get about a coffee grinder without turning into a complete nerdy weirdo! Ceramic burr set (lasts 2x longer), efficient load/dose ratio (0.2-0.5g lost in the chute), anti-static portafilter holder, digital grind time adjustment, macro/mini adjustments for repeatable but precise setting, capable of grinding effectively for both espresso, filter and press…. £300ish. If you want to see the full list of features then please take a look at www.CoffeeGeek.com .

The grinder is only just out in the UK and Origin have kindly given me one to play with, all being well i’ll buy it off them… *snigger*

The first thing that I noticed is that the grinder is tiny. I am used to my Mazzer Super Jolly and Mahlkonig K30, they are admittedly designed for professional cafe use, this is definitely good if space is an issue, or if like me you are using it at home. I have a Rancillio Rocky too and this is pretty much the same size, but the footprint is even smaller.

The build quality is excellent. Feels really solid, buttons feel great, grind adjustments are a nice soft touch clicky movement. The portafilter holder is a bit flimsy, but still, this feels like a more expensive grinder to me.

The first thing I wanted to check is that the grinder is capable of producing fine enough grounds for espresso extraction. I had previously spoken to James Hoffmann, he had found that he was able to produce very fine particles suitable even for Turkish coffee and more than fine enough to choke an espresso machine. This unfortunately was not the case with my grinder. On absolutely the finest possible setting I was able to extract 50ml espresso from 16g of coffee in 25sec, that’s ok, but what if I want to dose 14g? Or if I need to grind finer for a particular bean etc.? What if (heaven forbid) I wanted to make Turkish coffee? At the other end of the spectrum James had told me that his was not grinding fine enough for press pot brewing, and guess what? My one does…

So clearly there are some issues as to how these grinders are factory set and if you are buying one you need to hope that yours is calibrated somewhere in the middle for all grind applications.

I have found a fix though. It is by no means something that I would encourage people to do, but it works and I am now a much happier person in general.

The Vario is fairly unique in that adjustment to the grind size is controlled by moving the bottom burr up to meet the top burr, rather than dropping the top burr down to a fixed lower burr. It occurred to me that if I could just bring those burrs slightly closer together it might be enough to offset the finest setting even finer. I removed the bottom burr and simply drew a template around it onto a piece of paper, then I cut out the template using a craft knife, cleaned out the burr holder carefully, and replaced the burr with the piece of paper fully secured and hidden underneath.

It’s hard to believe that a single slither of paper can make much difference, but every cut that my grinder now makes is the depth of that paper smallerI have estimated that the paper I used has a weight of around 75gm, which equates to 100nm. The fine adjustment is apparently accurate to 4nm per step, so I reckon I have gained about 25 steps, which is probably comparable to an entire step on the macro selector., and it has made a big difference. I now have the Vario set to the ‘Esp’ setting on the macro selector and pretty much on the middle setting on the micro selector. The finest possible setting now produces a very fine grind that easily chokes my machine.

As I already said, i’m not encouraging people to start modifying their grinders, especially when modification really shouldn’t be necessary, but hey, it worked for me.

My next issue is one of static. No, i’m not saying that the static problem with this grinder is serious, but there can be no doubt that it does have a problem. Check out the video below of me dosing, it’s all going swimmingly well until about 3/4 full when the grinds suddenly decide that they want no part to play in this, and abandon ship. Am I being too critical? Is your grinder this bad?

My final negative point is a silly one really, but a nuisance none the less. In a nutshell, the portafilter holder doesn’t hold my portafilter! The holder works fine on deeper 53mm portafilters, but mine is too shallow and the adjustment is already set to the shortest setting. Come on Beratza, all that D&D only to fall down on something like this!?

So how about the positives? Well thankfully there is plenty of good news!

Firstly and most importantly, this grinder (when calibrated correctly) makes very nice espresso. It also distributes coffee quite nicely into the centre of the PF, unlike the K30, which tends to shove it all to the front. This means that I have not really found it necessary to distribute with my hand, tamping is all that is required.

The micro/macro settings are consistent, what I mean by this is that I can grind 16g of coffee on my espresso setting, switch to filter and grind some more, then go back to espresso and get the same results as before. I know that is to be expected, but I think its worth saying that it is the case. It is also very quiet. To be honest noise really doesn’t bother me, we’re cutting up beans here people, but if it bothers you – this grinder is pretty quiet.

The controls are very easy to use. It might look like there are a lot of buttons, but they all serve a purpose and everything from grinding, setting the timer, manual operation and presets are done with no more than a couple of button presses that don’t take a genius to work out.

It is wonderful for aeropress and filter brewing. I like to weight out the beans before then simply grind them through on my favourite setting. The box catches everything perfectly and is the right size to load directly into the top of an aeropress. I’ve not got around to testing it on a press-pot, mainly because my wife doesn’t drink brewed coffee and I only have a 1litre pot! Judging by the size and consistency of the grind (by eye) however, it looks like my grinder wont have a problem at all.

So in summary, there is one major issue with the grind calibration that I think needs sorting. There are also some niggly issues with static and the portafilter holder (I might have a workaround though). Having said that, I think that for the money this is still an awesome bit of kit… and probably about the best you are going to get sub £800. I also like the idea that the manufacturers have really spent some time trying to develop new solutions for many of the problems associated with espresso grinding, I hope that they can continue to take things forward (looking forward to the Vario II), and it is with that in mind that I happily hand over the dosh.

Update (Please Read)

Ok time for an update on this post since I have been living with the Vario for almost two weeks now.

Earlier today I went to grind some espresso and was faced with a serious static issue. If I thought that the video above was bad, this was terrible. Coffee flying everywhere and at least 3g all over my counter every time I dosed. Nightmare.

After having a bit of a hissy fit and wasting lots of coffee in an attempt to work out what the hell was happening I started googling around and trying to find a solution. Thanks has to go to Jerry really, who’s comment below got me wondering if I should go back to messing about with the grind calibration and see if I can get it to the correct fineness without the need for the paper insert (as mentioned above).

As Jerry says, there is a rectangular rubber grommet behind the ground coffee exit chute. If you remove the grommet you’ll find a single hex screw that is screwed in on an adjustable slider. By loosening the screw and sliding it back or forward you can adjust how far the burrs sit from each other. Moving the screw right back produces an absurdly fine grind and means you’d probably have to put the macro selector onto ‘filter’ to get an espresso extraction. Moving the screw as far forward as it can go makes the coffee very coarse, resulting in the ‘press’ setting churning out big chunks of coffee.

This screw certainly explains why some of us are receiving grinders that cut coffee very differently to others. Our task now is to calibrate this screw correctly for our own personal needs. I have (after quite a lot of fiddling) managed to graduate my grind right from slightly too fine for espresso (on ‘espresso’ setting), all the way up to a large press pot coarseness (on ‘press’ setting), so it is possible.

As if that wasn’t good enough news, my static issue seems to have gone away for the time being. Whether it was the removal of the paper, or just the fact that I have had the burrs out and back in again, I don’t know. I’m not going to ask why either, just pray that it stays that way!

Vario: The story continues…

4,811 post views