Hello fellow coffee addicts,

I've been using my Sage/Breville Barista Express for the last 5 years and now it's time for an upgrade.

I'm quite confident in my choice of machine (La Spaz S1 Vivaldi), however for grinder I cannot decide. Some product description sounds great on paper, but reality is quite different. Typical example is Eureka Mignon Libra. I really liked the design and its grind by weight feature, but after reading some reviews like My disappointing experience with the Eureka Mignon Libra, I'm not so convinced. Especially when people are specifically mentioning issues with La Spaz 53mm portafilter.

My only experience with grinders comes from the one integrated in Barista Express, so It feels like anything else will be great improvement.

I don't really trust grind by time on my integrated grinder, so I'm pretty much using it as single dose (altough retention is quite bad).
Can you recommend some reasonable grinder within price range of Mignon Libra? (1k USD give or take)

Some additional info:
- I make espresso based drinks only, so no need to worry about coarse grinding
- Roast - usually between medium and dark
- I'm rotating 250g bags (like half a pound?) from local roasters
- Although I'm using it currently as single dose, I'd prefer not to. Just need something reliable that will give me my 18.5g of coffee.

Appreciate your feedback/suggestion.

If your budget is $1kusd I'd say see if you can stretch and wait for a zerno

yeah, Niche was also an option, but now that I know I probably can't avoid single dosing. I'm torn between Niche and Eureka Mignon Single Dose.
By the looks of it should be basically better and more quieter Niche.

BTW it's really cool forums like these still exists in 2023

mgwolf wrote:Hello Manik,
Welcome to HB. I'm sure you'll get lots of suggestions, but the Niche Zero would be in your budget and is a very nice grinder to work with. For medium/dark grinds it's excellent. I own one and it's great for espresso and the workflow is great. Along with your Spaz, you'll make coffee you'll enjoy.

+1 on Niche for med/dark roasts. They designed a single dose grinder from scratch and it works well. My impression is that many "single dose" grinders are more or less successful adaptations of existing grinders. Only thing you'll have to deal with is the Niche grinds into a 58mm dosing cup, so you'll need either a 53mm dosing cup that fits the Niche, or 53mm funnel -- hopefully someone with a Niche and a Spaz will chime in with their recommendations.

after further investigation, I decided to go with Niche Zero.
I was also considering Niche Duo for a while, but based on reviews it doesn't feel like an upgrade. So I'm gonna stick with Zero.

Anyway, thanks for you suggestions

.

why? I'd say it's quite subjective and depending on use case.

I don't make any filter brews, so optional filter burr is not interesting for me.

As for the conical vs flat burr - from what I understand there is some taste difference. While with flat burr you'll get more flavors, which is good for standalone espresso, conical will give you more chocolate-y tones, which is better for milk enriched drinks.

Since I make around 65% flat whites, cappuccinos and 35% pure espresso. Choice seems to be clear.

On top of that Duo is more noisy, suffer from popcorning and is more expensive

On the other hand you can upgrade to 83mm burr from SSP for example.


I'm certainly no grinder expert, this is what I got from watching dozens of YT videos. So feel free to correct me

.

damn, I use brazilians quite often.

Thanks, it's certainly something to think about