A few weeks ago I spent four days visiting a friend in Berlin. A few other friends were waiting to meet me (and my friend studying in Berlin who met me at the airport) at a flea market (Flohmarkt am Mauerpark, for those wondering) when I first got there. After a brief walk through the row of vendors, I came across the following Zassenhaus 154, stamped "Made in Western Germany." It cost me 12 Euros, and appeared unused with the burrs in great condition. The coffee seen in the pictures is from today only. My friends spent the next few days joking about the fact that it was only natural that I would have purchased a coffee grinder within an hour of landing in Berlin.

I tried it for the first time today for a Chemex pot of Counter Culture's Kenya Nyeri. The results tasted good, and an espresso grind looks completely feasible without the burrs touching, and with the burrs cranking together Turkish should be possible (though I'll avoid it if I can). It's definitely true that they don't build em' like they used to - this one is much sturdier than the hand grinder I got from EspressoParts with my AeroPress. The Zass' will probably go to work with me along with an AeroPress, if I'm feeling up to it.

EDIT: I forgot to mention: grinding takes a reasonable amount of force, and this thing takes no mercy when pulling in beans... it just eats them up and spits out a great grind (from my inspection - will try espresso tomorrow). I'll give the "Number of turns for 14g at espresso setting" test a try this weekend sometime.

Anyways, here are the pictures:











And other than this grinder, I really enjoyed visiting the city.

That's a classic! I would give it a try with the Lusso just for fun. Sounds like you need to start searching around for a lever machine for the office!

Lately I've been filling the PV basket as you's suggested, by lightly leveling the grinds with the tamper once or twice during filling, rather than just tapping it as I used to. I find I've been getting better extractions, and fitting a little more into the basket.

The 45-mm basket definitely likes up-dosing much more than the 58-mm basket on my "new" Gaggia mini.

PC

How could I *not* try it with the Lusso! It's descaling now and I'm going to give it a whirl with the Kenya coffee just for fun (not expecting much in terms of a great espresso, but I've got to do it anyway). I'm looking forward to drawer-tapping 14 clump-free grams into the basket.

And for reference, I came up with 150 turns for 14g of Toscano at the tightest setting before the burrs have any hint of touching. The result was 1oz, 25sec sink shot, as the beans were stale. But at least I know the grinder can handle it.

More updates once I take this thing on an espresso run. The Chemex results have been crowd-pleasing at the very least, and grinding hasn't taken an excessive amount of time or effort.

EDIT: An espresso update: I put 14g of the Kenyan coffee in the Ponte Vecchio double basket. There was crema, and the timing was right for my one-pull shot, but DAMN was it a sour shot (I'm not sure to what extent a light-roasted Kenya has a reputation for being very sour, but it's definitely not an espresso-ready roast and I'm sure a much higher temperature would have helped). I've got some Black Cat on the way.