I have enjoyed having the Titan grinders in house this week. Jim had done a very good job shooting out the Titan grinders and I have little else to add to his well thought-out and thorough testing. My observations are just that a brief note about and my opinion of the grinders.
When the Titan grinders kicked off I had the pleasure of being the first to use the Mazzer Kony and Super Jolly. They once again grace my home with their presence as the project winds down. Along with them, I have the Macap MXR and Cimbali Max.
My original thoughts still apply for the Kony. It reflects the typical Mazzer build quality, heavy construction and commercial quality. When I originally received the Kony a few months ago I noted that the cup it produced was bright and acidic to the point of tasting harsh. A few months later the grinder has had more than a few pounds of coffee run through it and it has been shipped across a lot of states. It is no worse for wear than when it arrived at my home fresh from the factory. Of all the Titan grinders, I still find the Kony to produce the most acidic cup. While I have no means of conducting a blind cupping, I still try to keep an open mind and not bias my opinion.
The cup is a little less harsh than I remember. That could be due to the added break-in the burrs have received or I have simply become use to the brighter flavors that the conical grinders produce. I would guess the latter of the two options. The Kony combined with my Elektra would bring out the acidity and lighter fruit notes in blends that are heavy in the deeper earth/chocolate/nut blends but when I use a blend that is high in African and other acidic and fruited beans the acidity becomes too overpowering for my palate.
This time I have the Mazzer Robur on (or rather beside) the espresso bar. It is as big as it looks in the photos. There is nothing small or 'home' about this grinder and this is the SMALL Robur at 110v. The large Robur has even bigger burrs and run three phase 220 volts. From its arm straining weight to 8 amp power requirements this truly is the king of the countertop grinders.
Kony, Robur, Elektra A3
It shares most all the same traits as the rest of the Mazzer grinder line. The trademark Mazzer gray paint, the grind adjustment ring, doser (which is slightly taller than that of the Kony and Super Jolly), timer switch, etc... If you have ever used a Mazzer Mini, you will know how to use the Robur. You have to be quick on the doser lever and power switch; otherwise you will grind a lot more coffee than you wanted. The Robur is fast, noticeably faster than any of the Titan grinders. Grinding a double basket worth of coffee just takes a few seconds. The Robur has a duty cycle of 35 seconds on (max) and 60 seconds off (minimum). The Robur is at home in a commercial environment.
La Marzocco Swift, Mazzer Kony, La Marzocco Linea 4 group
The cup the Robur produces can be summed up by one word: consistent. The flavors are clean and bright without being overly acidic. I believe it produces a much rounder cup character than the Kony. All the flavors play in a symphony, yet there enough separation in flavors to be picked out each. The cup is also forgiving. Even when you are cursed with a spraying jet from the bottom of the basket the cup is still very drinkable. When using a bottomless portafilter the Robur produces visibly stunning shots with dark chestnut and brick red tiger striping. Shot after shot, you have a consistent cup almost to the point of being boring. There is never a surprise, no 'God shots' but at the same time almost no sink shots. Just what a busy café needs.
The Macap is another first time experience. The variant I have is the MXKR. The body of the MXKR is shorter than the Kony and is more home friendly, until you add the hopper. The hopper is still smaller than either of the Mazzers holding 3.3 pounds. It is also noticeably lighter at only 35 pounds and uses the smallest motor of all the Titan grinders (250 watt). I never thought I would call a 35 pound, $880+ dollar grinder a lightweight.
There are a couple of things that struck me as odd, one of which is the thick lexan doser and the doser full cutoff switch. The lexan looks nice but I can see it getting scratched up after a couple years of use. Inside the doser is a doser full cutoff switch. That is nothing new, most commercial grinders are equipped with them. However the one in the Macap protrudes very far out into the doser which makes sweeping the grinds out of the grind chute a bit awkward. This part is all plastic and relatively fragile. The paddle that activates the switch broke off early in the Titan Grinder Project. Even with the switch flap broken off, the switch assembly sticks out nearly half way into the doser making cleaning the grinds out after a session awkward. The grinds discharge chute on the Macap is quite wide (around the size of the Robur) and short so it retains a relatively small amount of grinds.
Of all the grinders, I dislike the switch on the Macap the most. It is located on the right side of the body. The switch is a rocker style and illuminated but covered with a stiff plastic cover. It appears to be exactly like the switch on the Cimbali Max. I would imagine that removing that stiff plastic cover would make the switch easier to work as it did when removed from the Max. So if the switch is the same as the one used on the Cimbali Max, why do I dislike it the most? Location. Again, this is relatively trivial and after some use reaching around the grinder to hit the switch would become automatic.
The MXKR is the slowest of all the grinders. The motor turns at a slow 400 rpm which will theoretically reduce the amount of heat created during grinding. The slower grind speed also gives the user a more leisurely working pace. You are not hurried to thwack the doser a couple of times then turn off the power before you grind two shots worth of coffee like the Robur. I would say it grinds at around the same speed as the Mazzer Mini. That put it in the 'home' market speed; in a commercial environment it would be a bit slow. The motor has a listed duty cycle of 1.5 minutes on (max) and 5 minutes off (min).
I also found the Macap to be the nosiest of all the grinders. While grinding is not a quiet process the motor gave off a resonating low pitch growl. The doser also has a very sharp clack when used and sounds much louder than the other test machines. It may have been simply the pitch which was much higher than the other grinders or It could have simply been the location on the espresso bar causing a bit of acoustic grief. The wife had had her fill of listening to it after the second day and my kid thought it sounded like a garbage disposal with a spoon in it. I do not know if this is a trait of the Macap or if my sample unit was simply abnormally loud but everyone in the house agreed, it is loud and annoying specifically the sharp pitched clack-clunk of the doser.
The MXKR is of a stepless design. To achieve this, the upper burr carrier has an indexed and toothed ring that engages a worm gear located at the rear of the grinder. The adjustment is fine and precise. It appears to stay put; I did not notice any creep in the adjustment ring while grinding beans. Either side of the adjustment has a thumbscrew making it easy to adjust be you left or right handed. Make note, there is no Start here mark on the ring for reference. When I received the test machine I cranked on the grind adjustment just to see how smooth it was and got it way out of adjustment. I went through a quarter pound of beans getting it dialed back in. Once you have it set, you may want to put a small mark on the adjustment ring as a reference point. The worm gear gives you a nice and precise adjustment, but makes large changes, like going from espresso to French press, a very big pain. As a single mode grinder (espresso, drip, French press) it is a very nice grinder but if you are looking for a quick adjustment between brew styles, the adjustment ring on the Mazzers is much easier and faster to change.
Now onto what really counts. The grind on the MXKR is very nice and on par with the rest of the Titan grinders. The slower grinding speed does appear to create more clumps but thwacking the doser while grinding breaks up most of them. The cup from the MXKR is very good. I find it bright and lively but with more balance than the Kony and not as acidic. While it does not equal the range of flavors and consistency produced by the Robur it is very good and nearly one third the cost making it a bargain hunter's favorite.
The Cimbali Max is the unusual grinder of the bunch. The Max uses a hybrid burr set with a conical assembly that grabs the beans and does the initial large chunk breaking of the beans. Those conical assembles then feed the broken beans into a 64mm flat burr. That flat burr is unlike most. Since the conical portion has done the coarse grinding and is forcing the beans into the flat burr, the flat burrs are made of a small tooth. Most flat burrs have on outer course grind portion, a middle medium grind and then the fine grind teeth at the outer edge. Those outer fine grind teeth compose the entirety of the Max's flat burr. Another interesting point, while the Robur has the largest conical burr set of all our test machines (71mm) if you add up the conical and flat grinding surfaces of the Max they are over 80mm in surface area.
The Cimbali Max is more industrial looking with it square stainless sheet metal body. The Max is also the shortest of all the Titan grinders. It is shorter than the body of the Robur and is with the hopper on the Max. The Max measures 18.5 inches tall with the hopper so depending on the arrangement of your kitchen cupboards, the Max may fit under them. That is a feat none of the other Titan grinders can approach without modification.
Elektra A3, Cimbali Max
A quick note about the Max bean hopper. Unlike the rest of the Titans with their funnel shaped bean hoppers, the Cimbali has a square hopper to match the body of the grinder with a tapered inner bottom. The hopper cannot be removed without undoing three screws inside the hopper. The hopper and doser are tinted a dark brown versus the clear parts on the rest of the Titan grinders. I have a little theory about this. Coffee beans are light sensitive, they degrade quicker in the presence of light, like beer and wine which are also bottled in tinted glass. I would guess that Cimbali had the same idea when making the bean hopper/doser. The tinted plastic cuts down on the amount of light that strikes the beans and helps preserve their freshness. How long does this extend the life of the beans (if at all), I do not know. They never sit in the hopper long enough to go stale.
I like the ergonomics of the Max over the rest of the grinders. The doser handle is large and horizontal unlike the vertically mounted doser handle on the Mazzer line. It is easy to grasp with a soft rubber cover and works smoothly. I also prefer the power switch location on the Max. It is oriented on the front right of the grinder just under the doser. It can easily be pressed with your thumb while you thwack the doser, no need to let go of the doser handle to fumble for switch. The power switch is a green rocker switch with a stiff plastic cover over it just like the Macap pictured above. The plastic cover makes operating the switch somewhat awkward. The cover can be removed or cut off; once free of the cover it is much easier to hit the switch. A footnote about the switch, it can be retrofitted with the push button switch used by the Cimbali Jr.
The Max has a stepless adjustment like the rest of the Titan grinders but it has a detent every half turn of the adjustment knob. The adjustment is fine and you can stop between clicks on the adjustment shaft if you wish. Like the Macap, this small adjustment interval makes dialing in a precise grind easy but large swings, like espresso to French press tedious. However, the Max uses an index ring that is marked from 0 to 40 with half number marks. Each click of the adjustment knob is a quarter adjustment so it takes 4 clicks to go from an index of 5 to 6. To go from espresso (a 5 on my index depending on bean) to French press (a 20 on my index) it takes 60 clicks of the adjustment. The Max appears to hold zero, so if I do adjust it for French press I can swing back to my starting mark for espresso and be right on the money.
The adjustment knob protrudes from the right side of the case and is covered with a knobby rubber cover. I find it the easiest to adjust the grind on.
The Max produces a nice grind on par with the rest of the grinders. The Max spins its burrs in the 1400
RPM range which is much faster than the pure conical grinders. That increase in the burr speed translates to an increased grind speed. The Max does not equal the speed of the Robur but appears to be slightly faster than the Kony. As with all the Titan grinders, the Max has a doser full switch in the doser, and it is obnoxiously large. The flap is even with the back of the doser lid but hangs down just short of the doser star. You can still clean out the grind chute with a long bristled brush but removing that flap would be high on my list of first thing to do. The grind chute is wide and short and holds relatively few grinds. The clumping is minimal and thwacking the doser while grinding breaks up most of the clumps.
The cup the Max produces has that signature bright and clean flavor produced by all the Titan grinders. I would place the cup balance somewhere between the Robur and MXKR. I get a more acidic and lively cup than the Robur but with more body than the MXKR but not quite as overall balanced as the Robur. The Max requires a little more attention to grind setting than the other conicals. With the Robur you may make one grind adjustment over 3 days, the Max may take two adjustments. It still requires much less attention than the typical flat burr grinder and when it is dialed in, it will give the Robur a run for its money.
I find the grind quality very good on all of the Titan grinders and any of these would serve a lifetime in a home environment. A few closing comments and observations. Conical grinders do produce a different cup profile than flat burrs. The general consensus is that there is a correlation between the burr size and cup, essentially bigger is better. In my limited experience, I believe that analogy also holds true for flat burrs. The conical grinders are designed to work with a full bean hopper and are sensitive to the weight in the hopper. As the pressure exerted by the beans in the hopper diminishes, the grind drifts and the shots start to run fast. At what point does this shift happen, it appears to be around 30 grams but I have not conducted any tests to confirm this, it is just a general observation. To overcome this drift I keep the same amount of beans in the hopper when grinding. I leave about 30 grams of coffee in the hopper. As long as I maintain that 30 grams (or whatever you choose) the shots will consistently flow the same.
So in the end, which grinder do I prefer? The Robur. Its combination of balanced cup and consistency still brings it out on top. Coming up a close second is the Cimbali Max. While the Cimbali needs slightly more attention than the Robur, when it is dialed in it will give the Robur a run for its money and at a fraction of the price which is why I purchased one. I also like the ergonomics of the Max over all the grinders. The Macap and Kony round out the list. While I prefer the build of the Kony over the Macap, I preferred the cup from the Macap over the Kony. Keep in mind, these are only my opinions, a lowly home barista, based on a couple of weeks use with my espresso machine. Your mileage may vary.
I have enjoyed my time spent on the Titan Grinder Project, it has been an enlightening experience.
