... Or not... I need help with a sanity check.
Tl;dr. Yes it is expensive but is it actually a good grinder?
I'm so ready to pull the trigger for a buy once, cry once, purchase decision for a new grinder and i have been looking for a solidly build, European made, all purpose coffee grinder to replace my ageing Nivona Cafe Grano 130 (aka Capresso Infinity)
I have been looking around a lot and in a previous post where I asked about this Eurika was suggested and it feels like the best option for me among the bunch.
But this is a lot of money so before buying I need to know if what I'm about to do isn't completely stupid.
I want a single dose grinder with low retention since i change beans and brew method frequently. I love to experiment with all roast types so the grinder should be able to have some good all purpose burrs. I don't intent to have multiple burr sets or multiple grinders. I just want one that can do everything to a decent level (no perfectionism needed) and the grinder should last me a lifetime if possible.
I mainly brew with 3 methods. French press, pour over, and moka pot. I occasionally dabble with Turkish coffee but I have always just purchased pre ground for that but a grinder that can go towards that is interesting but not strictly necessary.
I have no need for espresso grind levels at the moment but since this is a by once grinder who's to say I won't own a small espresso machine in 5 years, so not needing to buy a new grinder for that is appealing.
The main reason i want to upgrade is the fact that my current grinder produces very uneven grinds with a lot of fines and some coarse bits at the same time making my French press bitter and my pour over and moka pot clog up easily. Tbh. I find the unevenness on par with a good blade grinder. Lighter roast coffees works the best but the uneven grind makes for what I feel is under extraction since it lacks sweetness even though I grind relatively fine, long brew time and high temps. I would love to get more clarity out of my beans and taste the more fruitier and sweeter notes. Darker roasts just turn bitter and muddy no matter what i do.
With those needs in place I narrowed it down to the Eurika mignon single dose pro or the mignon zero 65 all purpose which quite a lot cheaper.
The Pro is interesting to me because of the new type burrs that should last forever and the exceptionality low retention. It should also have an antistatic system.
Only downside I can find myself is the very small hopper of 45g. For daily use i grind only 30g of coffee for my French press which is fine, but when i have guests i pull out the big boy brewer where i need to grind 60g - 80g. It is rare i need it and tbh. i can easily live with just grinding 2 times.
So please help me out. Should I just go cry and buy the mignon zero pro or is the mignon zero 65 All purpose just as good or, have i missed some other grinder where the value is much better and my money better spent.
Thank you.
I think this is the biggest con of this grinder. The dial does have multiple turns, and you will need multiple turns to go between espresso and filter range. So the problem then becomes keeping track of which range you are in and getting back to the other one. And because the dial doesn't have very high precision, relatively speaking, it will be hard to get back to the exact point in the other range where you were before.
To me, this would become frustrating quickly. If a small difference in grind setting is fine for filter, I would find that for espresso I have to spend a lot more time dialing in, and, the worst of it , that I would have to re-dial whenever I switch back from filter.
While I think it's a good grinder for espresso overall, I would personally not get this if I plan to alternate between filter and espresso. I would perhaps look for a grinder without multiple turns, one where getting back to the previous position is easier and more obvious.
You also have to purge a decent amount of beans between such major changes otherwise you will risk bad cups for both. You should really purge on any grinder between changes, its less important for small changes in grind size in a low retention grinder but it can still impact the result. It certainly will cause problems with switching between pour over and espresso even in a very low retention grinder.
I would really just get a hand grinder for pour over (as that is easier to hand grind than espresso) and this, although I think a 64mm grinder offers a better prospect long term due to the ability to change the burrs for any of a huge range.