Strange sales argument - ceramic burrs do not leave stale aftertaste

#1: Post by **hrbrun** » August 29th, 2014, 11:51 am

Today I met an old friend who is working as a reseller of kitchen supplies from a German mid/high-end producer. I told him about my coffee interest and that I just had bought new coffee machines.

His first questions was "does the grinder have ceramic burrs". "No, of course not", I responded. "Why should it?"

Then it turns out that his company has a sales argument that ceramic burrs, that they have in their automatic machine, does not leave any after-taste after grinding. Implying that metallic burrs does.

I did not know how to respond to this statement. Have never heard anything like this before. It there any substance behind this argument or is it just a way to make buyers insecure...?

What do you think about this way of bad mouthing metallic burrs..?

#2: Post by **Hagar** » August 29th, 2014, 1:46 pm

You are still using metal burrs? Really!

#3: Post by **unix04** » August 29th, 2014, 1:56 pm

It's just a sales pitch. Unless we should all be using ceramic kitchen knives at home to get the best flavor out of our home cooked dinners...

#4: Post by **TomC** » August 29th, 2014, 1:57 pm

Ceramic or steel, once they're coated with a layer of coffee oils, it becomes a moot topic. It sounds to me that it's more like an "expert by opinion". Do we need to go to all titanium coated burrs? What happens when they get coated with stale coffee oils?

#5: Post by **Terranova** » August 29th, 2014, 6:26 pm

TomC wrote:Do we need to go to all titanium coated burrs? What happens when they get coated with stale coffee oils?

A TiN (titannitrid) coating is biocompatible and for sure neutral in taste.
Anyway I doubt that someone is able to taste the difference between steel and ceramic burrs, in particular out of an automatic machine.
I am sure they are using Lavazza, Segalfredo & Co beans (in the best case) + they have never ever heard about that a proper espresso needs a certain flow rate

#6: Post by **Randy G.** » August 29th, 2014, 6:34 pm

TiNi? Ceramic? It's all so last week. I had a custom set of burrs made for my Kony from 99.9% pure unobtanium. In quadruple taste testing, where no one had any idea as to what they were brewing, what they were drinking, nor of the significance of the results, none of the participants could tell the difference. I could send you a report of the findings, but I would contractually obligated to hunt you down if I did so.

August 29th, 2014, 7:03 pm

#8: Post by **Beenbag** » August 30th, 2014, 12:10 am

Terranova wrote:A TiN (titannitrid) coating is biocompatible and for sure neutral in taste.
:

Titannitride ??
Is that another trade name for what is formally known Titanium Nitride ?

August 30th, 2014, 1:36 am

Hehe, now everything feels better

I dont have to sell my steel japanese chef knifes and change my pans to ceramic ones....

There is no cure like serious irony!

Now I'm just a little annoyed about this stupid way of making clueless people even more clueless. But maybe that's just the way bad coffee machines are sold a little more expensively.

#10: Post by **Terranova** » August 30th, 2014, 5:56 am

Beenbag wrote:Titannitride ??
Is that another trade name for what is formally known Titanium Nitride ?

Oh I am sorry, it is the word for it in German.
Titanium nitride is the right word.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titanium_nitride