Considering the density problems maybe the Grindz route has more validity or - dare I say - to choose a very light and very dark bean for as strong colour contrast - more difficult I grant because of transference of oils etc. on the burrs....

Hi guys,

using rice is a compromise between colour and consistency. You can't easily 'simulate' coffee when using rice as it hasn't got any oils in it (or too little anyway) and it's simply not going to stick to anything. Grindz is probably going to be similar as it's a cleaning product as well, it can't stick otherwise it would suck in cleaning.

Measuring precisely how much old coffee gets left in the grinder is never going to be easy, but in my opinion the rice method is a fairly good approximation. At least you know how long a purge should be to get rid of most of the stale coffee inside the burr chamber/throat.

Based on what people already measured I guess I can say that the big conical E-series Mazzers aren't so good after all. I'm curious how different it's going to be on the Major.

Regards,
dsc.

I'll bet a fair bit less.

dsc wrote:I'm curious how different it's going to be on the Major

+1

Is someone going to be doing this?

Hi guys,

yup I will test my converted Major-to-Major-E today.

Regards,
dsc.

Hi again guys,

so I did the test, but only once since I didn't have enough time and didn't want to leave the grinder full of rice. Unfortunately the type of rice I used was kind of tough and it actually stalled the grinder. None the less I was able to do some approximated measurements and:

- I had to grind around 7-8g of rice to get mostly rice coming from the chute

- I had to grind around 5-6g of coffee to get mostly brown/coffee stuff coming from the chute.

Still there were highly compressed pieces stuck behind the grid that wouldn't budge and I had to use a small BBQ stick to vacuum them. So I guess it's a good idea to give the chute a clean once in a while.

Generally I'm quite happy with the results and even though it's nothing super precise I think a quick 2-3s purge should be enough to get rid of most of the stale coffee.

Regards,
dsc.

Thanks for posting that, DSC. Quite a few grammes difference.

I don't want to take us off-topic, but for obvious reasons I'd be very curious to know what differences you find in the cup with Major vs. Robur. I've never come across any direct comparisons.

Cheers

Mike

Mike,

I've read a few accounts here and there of people that have compared the Major and the Super Jolly; those accounts typically describe the Major as a better version of the Super Jolly. That is, it's more consistent and it has slightly better 'flavor separation' than the Super Jolly, which is already in the Titan league itself. It's faster and it produces a slightly fluffier grind than the Super Jolly, so it's just a bit easier to work with overall. Then, of course, there are the comparisons of the Robur to the Super Jolly that you can read in the TGP and in a few other places on the internet if you look hard enough. The Robur has a slightly sweeter profile over the Super Jolly and tends to produce what most tasters found to be a good balance between 'edgy' and 'laid back' renderings of a coffee; The Super Jolly would be a little more 'laid back;' one might also describe that as slightly flatter... or slightly smoother. There's no doubt that all these grinders are superb and in most cases the bigger ones simply have a slight edge on consistency/convenience/workability. The flavor differences are both small and, really, a matter of preference.

John Weiss (RapidCoffee) has a Super Jolly, Major, and Robur. I believe that when he first added his Major to the fold, he predicted that all three would produce excellent shots, but the Robur would still win out on the ease of making excellent shots. I am not sure if he's reported confirmation of his hypothesis since then or not.

shadowfax wrote:John Weiss (RapidCoffee) has a Super Jolly, Major, and Robur. I believe that when he first added his Major to the fold, he predicted that all three would produce excellent shots, but the Robur would still win out on the ease of making excellent shots. I am not sure if he's reported confirmation of his hypothesis since then or not.

Here's my confirmation. It's hard to beat a large conical for ease of dialing in the grind.

I sold the SJ prior to obtaining my bargain basement Major. The Major's grind is noticeably less clumpy than the SJ, but otherwise it reminds me far more of the SJ than the Robur. All are great grinders for espresso.

OK, so following my first flawed measurement of residual grinds in the ROBUR-E (i ran it until the hopper was empty) I redid it this morning. Surprising (on the bad side) I was able to liberate 28 grams. This purposely did not include perhaps another gram of caked on grounds that I assumed was there for the long haul, and therefore not likely to influence things. This is obviously a major drawback in a home setting, much less so for a high volume environment. If you only have 3 doubles a day, it makes purging stale grounds a very high percentage of consumption.

I believe the burr chamber and chute are the same on the -E series as on the normal dosered versions, so these figures should hold roughly true for both, assuming the chute isn't cleared and grinder run dry.

Out of interest, here is a photo of my 'seasoning' shot this morning. Its a home blend I am having a bit of trouble with at the moment. Notice the telltale light crema sitting on top of the rest, indicative of stale beans.



I don't even bother to taste the first shot. Visually the second shot looks alot better, but I then ran out of the same beans so couldn't compare to shot number 3.



Looks like I should give the machine a wipe down, close up photos make it look filthy!

Cheers, Chris