I've dodged upgrade fever in recent years. Some mighty fine espresso machines have graced HB's bench, and the Elektra A3 was really, really tempting (sorry, no amount of rationale could sway the master of the kitchen). But I've failed to squelch the Siren's song that began the day I saw this picture:


From the Bench review of the Versalab M3 grinder

The strangest things will impress a barista, don't you think? For weeks, Abe and his posse regaled us with pictures and commentary; my mind started clicking through the calculations... lemme see, $850... that's two Mazzer Minis. Ouch. Despite the eye-bulging pricetag, I could feel my grip on the Visa card weakening. "Hey, it would be better for testing espresso equipment, right?" I reasoned. Then a week after the Internet chatter of the M3 rose, so did the price: $1250. Gulp.

Is this crazy? Should I cede to the Siren's taunts, or put it out of my mind and be happy with my two grinders (Mazzer Mini and Super Jolly)?

Well, I bought one; and I think it's slight improvement over a conventional commercial grinder. The same level of improvement can be had from commercial conicals as well. At the old ca. $900 price, the M3 had a significant price advantage. At $1200, the nod would go to the Kony at the same price, since the company is more solid, and the parts situation wouldn't be as murky.

The delivery system is interesting, but needs improvement. For my cupping needs it's ideal, since the cups I use fit snugly against the funnel. However, many cups do not, and then the grinder makes a mess. I use the bubblewrap to wedge the espresso baskets against the funnel, and that works nicely. However, holding a portafilter oneself while it's grinding, is to my mind, simply an insult, a task worthy of a village idiot. So the buyer will need to rig up some sort of PF rest to prevent this frustration, since the design is too "pure" to have bothered with that.

Teme wrote:Still, the grind distribution pattern, the unique appearance and the potential for even better espresso made the M3 very tempting.

It's also quite compact compared to the Kony. Even though I had some plausible rationale based on improving the quality of HB's equipment writeups, my temptation dropped off considerably with the price hike. Funny how the price remained the same for over a year, then within weeks of the first active discussion of it on the Internet -- bam! -- the price increases by over forty percent?!? Add to that Jim's comments about the poor ergonomics and extra mess, it's hard to stomach such an extraordinarily high premium.

Thanks for the comments and votes, it made my decision easier: I'm putting the money into my kids' college fund instead.

another_jim wrote:At $1200, the nod would go to the Kony at the same price, since the company is more solid, and the parts situation wouldn't be as murky.

I got a letter from Laura Dearborn saying that Versalab prides itself for carrying spare parts for everything they've ever produced, and that people can be confident about the M3 on that score.

My original post didn't mean to impugn Versalab on its spareparts policy, rather it referred to the inherently greater risk for the buyer in dealing with any small newcomers to any industry as opposed to the established companies. While such caution is prudent for the buyer; it is certainly unfair to the startup company. However, that's business; and the startup has to offer superior price/performance in order to thrive.