Hi, I always freehand dose from the Vario straight into my portafilter and have never had a single problem with that, never messy. Sometimes I run some old stale beans through there when I'm re-adjusting from coarse grind to espresso grind and still don't get any mess, I'd be surprised personally if bean type was the cause, at least I've never seen a problem like that myself, but I guess you'll see when you switch to something else. Somebody above suggested cleaning out the exit chute for the grinds and I agree with that. On the Baratza website somewhere they suggest taking a big paperclip and straightening it, make a little L shape at one end and clean out the exit chute. You can clean it from both sides, if you put the paper clip up the chute you will feel a little rubber flap up there, you can clean around and behind that too, who knows it might help.

mariobarba wrote:It's the beans. Passalacqua, from Naples, is a dark roasted robusta laden southern espresso blend. My mom and aunt brought me a bag directly from Naples last year. My aunt said the espresso she had at a Bar Mexico (where Passalacqua is sold and used), pulled on a lever machine was the best she has ever had.

I would bet my Vario that the grounds shooting all over your counter is from the static generated by the beans. Try going back to a 100% arabica, lighter roasted coffee and your problems will disappear.

Good luck.

I agree with Mario.

My Vario has been a fantastically clean grinder, except for when I use a certain kind of bean. No matter what I try, when I use La Colombe's Madagascar - Sama Estate (a medium roasted robusta) the coffee just flies everywhere and makes a huge mess. Can't do a thing about it. Pulls a damn good shot though!

As soon as I go back to an arabica based blend, no mess, and right into the PF. It's the beans.

Sorry, I lost track of this thread, mariobarba, I bought the beans from Buon Italia which is in Chelsea Market in NYC. They don't have them on their website, but maybe you can order if you give them a call. Last time I was there they had the Harem and Moana blends. http://www.buonitalia.com/default.asp?c ... bcatid=804

Once I'm finish up the current batch of Passalacqua beans, I'm going to try something else to see if I still have the problem with the mess.


Thanks for the responses.