Sounds maybe like he had a cold, took some time off, and filmed the conclusion as he was recovering. Orrrr just a crazy, massive difference in the acoustic properties of the room? idk
The grind time was shocking at first. But, I thought about it and decided it wouldn’t bother me since the time bottleneck for me will always be heating my water. I have the Stagg EKG kettle and it’s really fast, but still takes a couple minutes. Great review, just something to consider unless you have a hot water tank.
So i realise your comment is over a year old but i was watching this video and been deeply contemplating the Stagg EKG. I have an electric temp variable Bonavita kettle. is it worth it?
@@kyleyoung4405 so I realise that this comment is over two years old, but what on earth does the stagg offer you that you dont already have? And is that worth $150. I'm sure that you have long since made your decision, but I think it is worth pointing out the questions that you should ask when you're considering a purchase
I currently can't afford even your cheapest gadget recommendations so I'm just lifting my mood by watching your vids. Ofc I'm sipping my Ikea coffee made haphazardly in old Starbucks moka pot. Mhhhmmm, the artificial vanillin sugar really makes it. Happy lockdown everyone!
Can't argue with a moka pot! He's made a few videos on that, the long and short of it is fill with hot water (to reduce stove time), take it off the stove and cool down (under a running tap) as soon as steam starts coming through
My favorite extremely cheap coffee gadget (but more like hack) is to just straight up put coffee in a filter in a cup and pour water on it, let it steep a couple minutes and then slowly lift the filter. Can be kind of messy but back when I worked at a place with a shitty electrical brewer that was a lifesaver
@@TovaHolmberger wow I thought I was the only one who knew about this trick! But yeah it can be a lifesaver and it produces some pretty alright coffee.
I will only say that James Hoffmann is probably my favorite barista. Now it is wrong to simply blindly believe everything the man says just because he is a big deal, but it cannot be denied that he is one of the few people in the world of coffee who has the experience of that to speak future direction of the coffee industry.
I just got mine, it's a huge improvement in taste over my previous (cheapish) blade grinder. Thanks for the review. :) The grinding speed does not bother me. While it grinds, I prepare my Aeropress and start the kettle. The coffee container's lid is indeed a bit finicky but a lot easier if you put it on, for lack of a better description, coming from the back of the container. There is almost no static at all, after tapping a few times on the container at the end, it's pretty much empty.
Could you please do a video where you discuss the difference of different burrs? (Flat vs conical) Longevity, precision, speed, cost etc. Also what makes an 'espresso grinder' and a 'filter grinder'? Why could one not do both well? Thank you for the video definitely food for thought as I'm in the market for a new grinder.
@@jameshoffmann the shop I worked at had a well calibrated EK and then later switched to a Peak when they moved the EK to their new location. The EK shots were so much cleaner and sweeter compared to the Peak. A lot more consistent too (not really a burr thing though)
@@jameshoffmann I could be wrong, however range of adjustment seems like an easy 'problem' to fix. Use of more or coarser threads or detentes. Retention of the settings and just holding the 2 burrs in place seem like what really separates grinders (the wiggly wireless grinder you reviewed seemed quite inexpensive to produce) If you know of an article written in regards to the grinders, could you please share? It would be much appreciated After googling the second half of that reply, and spending an hour or two down the 'modal' hole, I feel left with more questions then answers hah. That kind of depth and blatant passion is why I love coffee. I am relatively new to the market of coffee and its' accessories (had no clue what an EK was) and appreciate your insight.
just remove the annoying plastic lid to the grounds container, it works without it in place and a nice bonus is it's easier to remove and replace the container too
At some point James has clearly influenced my decisions. I bought the silver Wilfa uniform and brew with the Sage Precision and I’m sat here drinking my morning coffee and thinking this is a little bitter from this new bag. I’m recommended this video which I’ve watched before and there’s James saying he’s using 28 on the grinder and I’m on 24 and he’s using the same set up as me. Clearly I’ve made my purchase decisions because of these videos and in true copycat style I dial back the grinder to 28. It’s only right. I feel tomorrow’s coffee will be a little less bitter. Perhaps I should start spraying my beans next… I’m not quite at that level yet but someday, maybe…
Where did you find it and is it available in Germany? I've got the Uniform Silver version and I use it for Filter and Pour Over. But I want to start and try it for Espresso.
Good to hear that you like it for what it is. I'm upgrading from the oldest version of the Wilfa conical (WSCG-2) and I hope the Uniform will give me a bit more sweetness. I got it in silver on "pre-sale" for approx. £180. Regarding Sette 270 vs Wilfa: When I tried to brew 15g brews with my Kalita wave, the 270 had no chance against the Wilfa. Way too much fines to get a great tasting cup of coffee with the beans and ratios I normally use. I have not tried more than a few times and only with the espresso burrs, the brew burr cone might do a better job. Thank you for the review!
Great review as always. One thing I would've been curious about is grind retention. This is something that has bugged me with a lot of grinders I've used at home. Having to purge and waste coffee every time I pull a shot or make a filter coffee and having to weight the ground coffee once more gets sometimes a bit tedious. The Niche Zero I currently have gives a reliable output and it has made my routine so much more convenient that I wouldn't want to miss this feature with a new grinder. On the other hand, it produces a bit too much fines for my taste.
I am not seeing much retention. My scale only measures in whole grams. Sometimes it will go down 1, which can be a difference in rounding. Rarely, it will decrease by more... and then I know I ground a lot of oily beans too fine.
One huge benefit (at least for me) you did not mention is, that this grinder is remarkably quiet. You can very clearly hear the difference to the cheaper Wilfa grinder (9:59), but also compared to other grinders, the Uniform is noticeably quieter.
Good video, I really enjoy the depth you go into. I think you may want to do a bench mark or unpacked video we’re you can explain some of the more esoteric terms. P.s. be mindful of the audio jumps and quality of the audio. Your voice is such an important signature of the channel. It was a bit of a shock at the end of the video.
Concerning the speed, I have an even older version of a Wilfa grinder (WSCG-2) and practically the only difference is that its successor is significantly slower. What it does is it reduces the number of times my roasted coffee beens get stuck in the grinder which is a terrible thing in my model (any lighter grind is impossible unless I decide on a very coarse grind).
I wish I can afford a Burr Grinder. I live in Mexico and it would literally take me a week to just to buy the cheapest burr grinder. James you are the best. I enjoy watching your videos. I have learned so much from watching your videos. One day I would like to send you some coffee beans from a local area where I buy it from so you can let me know what you think. I really enjoy that coffee. I wish your brand of coffee was sold here.
I mill my own flour from wheat grain. The mill specifically is to run after all the wheat has passed through to clean the mill. It's problematic if grain is stuck. It follows for me as a coffee novice that the additional time will knock out a certain amount of the coffee grinds.
The continuity problem at the end freaks me out as well. And I find it hilarious that James looks down (at his script?) before he says that the grinder is good for the money (14:12). Normally these little details would be caught in editing, and I wonder if it was intentionally put there. I hope so :-)
Hi James, Going to stick with my knock aergrind (have you checked one out yet?) I also question whether 35s is too long. However, it seemed quieter? This could be seen as a bonus, especially in the early mornings. Flat mates, significant others and your own sanity could benefit. Just a thought! Love the vids man, keep them flowing!
Great review, I think the scale, while a really neat idea could be sold separately, to achieve even lower price. I think most people who buy this kind of grinder already have a scale. I understand though that it makes sense for a company to sell them together for a bigger profit.
Great review, i appreciate your details and laughed a little how you talked about Tim W, it seems like you were putting him up on a pedestal. That shocked me i think of you guys as on the same level. So i appreciate you being so humble.
Just a note on the lid. You don't need it, i threw mine out the first day. Works like a charm, no idea what it's needed for. All the ground end up in the bin without it.
I got the Sette grinder the other day and didn't check the specks. I only use drip at home and the sette is crap at that so I now have the BG burr set on order. I bought it because I liked the look.
Great review as always. Only comment is how gobsmacked I was in the difference in your voice between recording locations. It's as if you dropped 2 full octaves between espresso and wrap up!
I bought Wilfa.U. with scale and love it. It's more quite than NicheZ. Scale is great and responsive and I don't get too much static. James you could make a video on Gabi, it's great and simple
I have one of these and I find that the auto-off leaves some grounds inside. If I scale the grounds and compare to measures from before grinding, there will be some 2-3% missing. I don't get them out my restarting the grinder though, unless I turn the grind setting from my setting 26 to closer to 40 and then restart. Then I will have almost if not all my beans through the grinder. If you wonder after a grind if you have some left in the grinder, try turning the grind setting to finer. There will be resistance if there's unground coffee. After grinding with coarse setting as described above, the resistance is gone.
I purchased this grinder (without the scale) partially based on this review. The long auto off thing doesn't bother me because I'm doing pour over and the whole boiling water and setting up the filter blah blah takes time anyways. Overall I'm happy with it, but I'm still messing around with the grind settings.
It would be great to see you pull what you consider to be an excellent espresso at the highest level - you're reviews are utterly fantastic but I'm not sure the results have ever exceeded beyond 'very good' or a 'nice' cup of coffee in your opinion. Bring us a review of the ferrari of espresso/professional coffee making equipment! Some of your current favourite coffee and equipment would be great to see and the process of 'dialling in'.
11:26-12:01 This is how I picture this scene in my head: James: "I didn't bring my car today so I'll just borrow my friend's car." *cuts to his friend's garage full of Lamborghinis* Me: O_O
James, thank you for the review. It was clear, concise, and I appreciate your objectivity. The only little quibble I have, and it is a small one, is that your voice was noticeably lower in the summary. This isn't a big deal as I said. And I did find it a bit jarring. I hope this was helpful. Thanks again for the great, very solid information.
The "autodetect lag" is more of a feature than a bug. The "autodetection" is just monitoring the current that the motor is drawing. When the beans grind through, the load on the motor goes down and the current drops. If it were to shut off immediately, it would miss the last few beans bouncing around in the hopper. They put a long delay on the detection threshold, to increase the chance that all those stray beans finally grind through. If they hadn't done this, the complaint would be that it sometimes leaves a few beans in the hopper. The no-compromise design solution would be to add feedback. They could make it beep or light up as soon as the motor current drops. Then you would know that it is just going through the final timing interval to get the last few beans. The value of adding such a feature is small though, because I suspect most people won't notice or care.
I have a Sette 270 and it is amazing. It's super fast with a lot less mess. However, it isn't very good at grinding coarse. You need to buy another burr for that and even then it's not super coarse.
Also, depending on the beans, the Sette has low static at baseline. However, some coffees will just have high static. Usually the more oily looking beans
Thanks for these reviews! I appreciate that you give quality time to the nuances as they relate to daily/actual use. I would love to see a comparison to the Rancilio Rocky grinder, it also has flat burrs and a similar price point.
@@jameshoffmann That's why I originally got one, but since I switched to drip and pour over at home it's seems pretty good. As a complete amateur I'm not sure if I'm missing something or not, seems to be able to go corse enough, looks consistent.
klaus stroismiller The sette is conical burr set and more of a direct comparison to the original wilfa grinder. Vario has similar sized flat burrs to the grinder James discusses here.
The scales really are crap for the $, the lag was first thing noticed. Went back to using regular scales. Would rather pay slightly less for it to just have a lid. Initial impressions V60 are pretty good. Much better clarity than small conical Helor 101.
@@evindrews "Better" is subjective. Im working with very light filter roasts and im after as even particle spread as possible. The Helor is a very good grinder and makes really nice coffee. As far as small conical hand grinders go, my experience the Helor and Commandante are in a class of there own ( ive owned quite a few). Still, the nature of a small conical is it produces more fines and boulders. I have been experimenting with the Uniform, it grinds much more even when NOT used as a single dose grinder. I put 50g in, ground 35g (by time about 1.5g/sec) at setting 26. Using the paper towel and standard 1mm kitchen seive hack, i lost 1.5g to boulders and 0.5g to fines, this is pretty good. Used for an immersion brew and a 24g V60 at 1:18ratio and it is VERY good. Focused, very sweet, not thin at all which is surprise for 1:18ratio. In contrast, the Helor will loose 2.5 X more weight when prepared the same way. Standard brewing, the uniform produces and much cleaner cup. The difference between single dosing the uniform and having some load is quite significant for my taste, so much so that i will probably not bother with it as a single dose grinder. Its a better single dose grinder than a Vario with steel burrs. Have not compared a fully loaded Vario with it yet.
Which grind setting would you use for V60? Or a, say, Moccamaster full pot? I know, it depends on a lot of things, but I’m curious anyhow. And of course, we’re talking about light roasts here. :)
wish they would really update the WILFA Svart. i used it know since 4 years and its really does the job for the money. if they could get rid of the static problem and ab bit less noisy, i find its still the best for the price on the market. but never used the Encore so …
Hi James, thank you for the always comprehensive reviews - highly appreciated. I think it would be really interesting to see a comparison of the grind quality between this grinder and the new Ode Fellow Grinder. I own this already and I am very happy with the grind for pour over and coarser settings. Will there be a difference in quality and will it be worth the “upgrade” (considering the difference in price)?
if you can catch the next trip on the Enterprise 1, i heard that on the Vulcans planet, they invented the perfect caffe equipment that will meet your expectations
Ok, which one is giving better grind result. Commandante or Wilfa uniform? I know one is manual and the other is electric. But, I just wanna know the quality of the grind result by comparing it with Commandante. Thanks!
I'd buy this in a heartbeat if the scale were engineered to be fit under the grinder so you can weight directly into the hopper. There could be a small readout on the side vs the top and it's already the right size. Maybe version 2 or 3 if it's a hit. I'm spoiled by my Esatto in this respect and at work I don't want to be as fiddly making a cup.
What do you use yours for? I bought one recently but am yet to have a filter coffee machine so wanted it initially for espresso and at some point I will move to a filter machine. However mine does not grind fine enough for espresso, not even close! It’s no where near as fine as it shows at the end of this video so now I’m a little worried there’s something wrong with it 🤷♀️
@@samanthasharman36 Hi, I use mine for pour over and it works great. I have also pulled a few shot of espresso and it has worked for that. Although there is a limited range of grind sizes capable of producing espresso. The twist top of the uniform can be confusing. Twist it tight, all the way round until your grinder is zeroed and grind a dose of beans. I find this is fine enough to choke my espresso machine and should serve as a check if your machine is broken or now. I ground for espresso at a 3 -4 on the scale. If this doesn’t work contact customer support and they may be able to help. Hope this helps.
@@thomasmoore3164 thank you for replying. I’m pretty sure there is something wrong with it 😕 I’ve looked up customer support but can’t seem to see any obvious contact. I don’t suppose you would know? This is the last question I promise !
Hi James - as you took a second to call it out, I wanted to mention that I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts on the Sage Precision Brewer. I've been using the Breville-badged version for a while, and it would be interesting to see your process for morning coffee in case there's some insights I've missed.
From the Wilfra Website: "Autostop Grinding stops automatically after the last prayer has been ground" Presumably a coffee bean is a prayer esp. first thing in the morning!!
Bought one yesterday and Im very happy with the grinding results. But i have one concerne with the adjustments. With my old wilfa grinder i had the motor running when adjusted to finer. When i do this with the Uniform it feels like the motor is jamming a little. The manual dosent mention anything about how to adjust to finer when having coffee wasten in the burrs.
Would have been so easy to put a “switched” power supply in it: 110V or 230V AC. I mean, you gotta put in a power supply anyway - might as well make it switchable. Trying to decide whether to get this with a power converter for a USA installation.
Waiting 42 seconds for the grind seems like an extremely long time. (Obviously that’s not a long time but relatively speaking to other options it’s significant.)
Depending on when you put the kettle on. My kettle takes a couple minutes to heat the water, so a 40-second period can be easily fit somewhere into the prep :D
@@jameshoffmann thank you for taking the time to respond to comments, that's awesome! I don't know what your relationship to eureka is and if you decide that the relationship prohibits you from giving a fair assessment then i applaud you for being honest and reflective. But i do not agree that bias alone should deter you from reviewing certain products. As long as you are aware of being biased, state your bias and reflect the impact of your bias upon your judgment no one should be criticizing you. after all we're all biased in some way. tl,dr: biased doesn't mean you can't be fair. still would love your opinion on eureka products (with bias or without)
Seems that this is pretty much the only 58mm burr grinders you can get for this price. Extra sad they didn't deliver a great espresso grinder for that price. Just a small upgrade to stepless adjustment could take care of that.
Fellow's new Ode grinder seems very similar to this Wilfa grinder in terms of its modern hipster look, price range and most importantly build quality and grinding performance. Or perhaps slightly worse. They are sitting somewhere between Baratza's Virtuoso+ and Vario.
I wanted the Ode so bad, but the creators already shot me down saying they're not shipping to my country and don't even try to use a freight forwarder LOL. So I bought this one instead.
@@jko8888 I imagine Fellow need to fight with a lot of red tape and very different laws in different countries, so it's going to be a bit more difficult for the Ode to hit markets other than CAN/US/AUS.
I would love to buy that thing. But it's a huge step from the blade grinder I use now. Can you do a Bodum Bistro review? Such would be affordable for me.
hi just discovered your channel, enjoy the reviews. Can you do test videos on the grinders you review? It would be cool to see how the coffee holds up when ground for french press/chemex vs pour over etc
The cons would bother me but but what about the customer support? I think my baratza (sette) worth it even though I know about when it's gonna let me down cause baratza supply parts and they are more amazing than every companies I know. I speak for having dealing with them few time.
And tips on zero setting calibration? On zero, my grinder is still way too coarse! I've twisted it as far as I can and it powers on, but the grind size is incredibly large!
I like mine a lot actually - but I have the feeling that whenever I take it apart for cleaning and reassemlbe it, the grind size changes slightly... what used to be 25 is suddenly 22 etc
Thanks again for your great insightful reviews. Are you able to do a review on the Hario Siphon coffee maker? I'd love to hear your opinion on it before I purchase one.
