Hi Folks,

I've been lurking for years. Thanks much for all the excellent writing and discussion. You're a bunch of freaks.

Just bought a used robur off a stranger on the internets and would like to share my impressions.

Summary: No regrets - it is just as tolerant and pleasant as everyone says. If you have the space just do it.

I'm going to share my annotated coffee history so you can understand I'm just a duffer that enjoys 2-3 doppios each morning, wife has 2-3. We drive to Seattle each week to obtain new dolce from vivace, maybe 6 pounds a year is not dolce.

1985: Start drinking coffee:
- Single pour melitta, starbucks Verona. Happy as a clam. We still use this for camping.
- Gold filter no good because of the fines.
1993: Sinus infection and I start tasting the pulp in the filter.
- French press nasty because of the fines.
- Solution was special filters that don't taste like newspaper (personally recommended by Mr. Peet!)
2000: Starbucks barista grinder and machine. ($150 for both)
- Experimented with non-pressurized portafilter. Found really that grind was not fine enough
- Modified grinder to grind finer but then burrs ate themselves within 2 months.
2002: Nuovo Simonelli Grinta ($100, new)
- $150, no doser
- Ground quite slowly
- Very noisy
2006: Replace barista machine with brewtus 2 ($1400 new)
- Eyes opened. Actual real espresso for first time ever. Now begins the time where most café's espresso tastes bad to me.
- Problems with pressure too high and not adjustable, replaced with newer part and improved espresso
- Machine's been apart many times:
o Replace dead pid and temp sensors
o Replace steam boiler heater element
o Reverse pressure relief valve o-ring every year
o Brew lever seals
o Pstat replaced
- Machine requires expensive coffee, cheap coffee tastes terrible, good coffee is very very good.
2007: Converge on Vivace Dolce - 95% of our use.
2010: La Marzocco Super Jolly ($175 craigslist)
- Heavily used, 10+ years in a university cafe
- Big improvement to coffee over grinta - surprise!
- Grinds faster, better control
- Lots quieter than grinta which made my ears bleed.
- Given its heavy use - maybe it is defective? Still lots better than grinta.
- Lots less channeling but still occurs frequently.
- It is very touchy to get a 25 second pour, too fine and nothing comes out, otherwise too course or channeling, the difference is very small.
2011: Replaced burrs with duranium which made no difference to cup quality ($45)
2013: bottomless portafilter (can see the channeling)
2013: VST baskets (slightly less channeling)
2013: Weighing and more careful tamp - but still no dice: too much variance.
2013: Borrow friends Veralab M3 for 2 weeks
- Realize my Brewtus is not the problem, the grinder is the immediate bottleneck. Need to move up from super jolly.
- M3 coffee is amazing, every single shot is better than any I made before.
- Hate the actual grinder, designed by architect, super inconvenient to use
o Popcorning so use a lid, still beans find their way out a tiny hole and bounce on the counter
o Need to hold portafilter in the holder, otherwise it rotates out and dumps onto the counter
o Even indifferent wife thinks it is stupid, says it is not an option for her
o Really silly how awkward it is to use.
- No retention!
2014: Lots of time considering grinders. Coming to terms with grinder actually being an issue. Weird space to be in because I'm trying to trust my palate over the advice of experienced people who maintain that "The SJ is one of the best grinders you can buy."
- Doesn't make immediate sense that the M3 tastes so damn good, what's the magic?
- Maybe my SJ is busted? Misaligned?
- Read a bunch of internet lies about grinders.
2014: La Marzoccco Robur ($1200)
- Yes, spent almost as much as we did on a new espresso machine. Figure it won't depreciate so is a hedge against inflation?
- Unit is 2 years old non-electronic doser, with augur.
- Ex café - heavily used (estimate it has ground 1600-2000 pounds of beans, no word on if/when burrs were replaced)
- Dropped in shipping - doser damaged bent so lid won't fit.
- Practically it isn't *that* much bigger but lots higher. Just a slightly bigger foorprint - we're lucky to have no height limit at the "espresso bay"
- Doser is higher, a little tough for wife to see into it.
- Plop it down, pour in beans, plug in and start grinding:
o first pull too course but silly crema.
o 2nd shot still too course
o 3rd shot good
o Slightly finer (1/3 notch) after 12th shot (2 days later) - and it is dialed.
- "Correct" grind feels much coarser than super jolly.
- Fast! < 4 seconds for 18g basket
- Figured I'd need new burrs and bearings, new doser spring but wow, it is much better than the super jolly
- Bottom (cone) burr doesn't feel so sharp. Plan to replace burrs within a year - after the honeymoon.
- Really freakin' quiet, and grind is done before you know it.
- Cleaned out grinder after 3 days. Total retention is 7 grams - including grounds in chute.
- Not bothering to single dose
- Not even pre-weighing beans, I'm within 0.5 grams and the delta can be tasted but all are good.
- No foolin' - good shot every single pull. Naked portafilter approved.
- Amazing the improvement over my super jolly - consistency is impossibly good.

Robur Vs M3 (head to head after 5 days, same beans - young vivace dolce, 1 day old - shots back to back):
- This aint a blind test. Friend brought his grinder over so I can dial in the grind and determine if it needs new burrs.
- We made maybe 5 pulls from each grinder.
- Compared to M3 the grinds from Robur's are more granular. They feel much too large to work for espresso. Lots of latitude in adjustment, coffee "good" when adjusted within a 2-3 notch range (which seems huge). No channeling and great crema even with a 15 second pour. Dosing matters more than grind.
- The M3 makes a very fluffy doughnut shaped deposit into the portafilter. Looks fancy, smells great, grinds feel very fine and airy. M3 was more difficult to dose correctly because its grinds were so fluffy and wanted to fall out of the filter prior to tamp.
- M3 grounds had lighter more organic smell, robur grounds smelled darker and more chocolate.
- M3 was difficult to settle on a dose (seemed to want more coffee than robur - high 18g for 18g basket).
- Flavor of both coffees was terrific. M3 shot had notes of lighter organic smell, robur was again darker. Both delicious and sweet. Friend agreed he couldn't tell them apart. I thought the M3 was a little brighter. We're in the noise though and variance due to amateur barista.
- If I had to eat ground coffee I'd pick the m3, better smell.
- Robur grounds don't feel like I'd expect, much coarser.
- Not getting new burrs.

Five days in:
- Simply no issues, grind doesn't need adjusting
- Family all agrees we like how quiet the new grinder is. You can talk over it in the kitchen and you only run it for a short while.
- From upstairs I can hardly hear it. Mixer is noisier, espresso machine is *much* noisier.
- Fast! It is very easy to grind too much!
- Took the finger guard off but sort of hard to get the grounds out of the chute because of the flap. Gunna take out the flap to get better access to the chute.
- Nice to have a doser - sweep the extra grounds back into it for the next shot.