Baratza Vario Grinder - Second Look - Page 4

Behind the scenes of the site's projects and equipment reviews.
User avatar
ddr
Posts: 155
Joined: 15 years ago

#31: Post by ddr »

Thanks for bringing this up Hal. If I did grind your way then my 5.5 grams of waste would have been about 0 grams as the grinder will happily grind itself empty. Very cool. And even with the hopper on the Vario will fit on the counter.
Dan
LMWDP #242

User avatar
another_jim
Team HB
Posts: 13872
Joined: 19 years ago

#32: Post by another_jim »

Good news for you multi-purpose and single dose grinding fans:

I tested how easily one can switch coffees or grind settings by grinding the hopper & burrs empty, changing the grind setting from espresso to FP (and subsequently back again), grinding a small amount for clearing the burr chamber, and then grinding 7 gram and inspecting the grinds. If you sacrifice grind 3.5 grams, the subsequent grinds will entirely reflect the change in settings. Moreover, the change back to espresso (no change to the fine slider), produced a shot with proper timing.

In all likelihood, a bit less than 3.5 grams will work too when switching coffees or brew methods, but a half table spoon of grind through is about as small as I want to bother with. In any case, the grinder is very practical indeed for multipurpose or multicoffee grinding.

A triangle test with my cupping grinder du jour, the Capresso Infinity, produced no detectable difference.

A note. A coarse FP grind is all the way at the bottom of the right side coarse adjustment slider when the espresso setting is all the way at the top. So if your espresso setting is 2 or more clicks down, you need to do the grinder tweak to get usable FP. If you are a disciple of finer ground FP (yech!), then the tweak is less critical.

(An aside on testing FP or Cupping grinders: I've given up on this; since I think almost all decent grinders are too close to call. The tests usually do reveal a difference between grinders. But it is never consistently one better, the other worse. The reason is as follows: Small changes to grind level or brew time produce about 2.5 point swings in the cup. Hand adjusting the coarseness of multiple grinders falls in this 2.5 point window, so the test simply doesn't produce enough consistency day to day if the two tested grinders are both decent and fairly close in quality. Espresso grinding seems to be much more of a technical challenge than FP grinding, so comparison tests do reveal differences)
Jim Schulman

Advertisement
tinseljim
Posts: 11
Joined: 16 years ago

#33: Post by tinseljim »

It's interesting to hear that taste-wise there isn't much in it between good quality grinders wrt FP/drip. Would a possible test be to find the sweet spot for the Vario FP and then find the sweet spot for the SJ FP and compare them? Rather than get them to be the same brewing time? i.e. find the point at which the grinder grinds most evenly. This is a different ball game to espresso I agree! (I've tweeted the comparison question to Mark anyway as part of his coffee question tweetday tuesday or whatever it's called...)

I guess what I'm saying is that I've seen comparisons with the way the grind looks but not how it tastes. But, as you say, this is more difficult with FP and cupping.

Thank you for all the comparisons so far. VERY helpful!

zoomchick
Posts: 24
Joined: 16 years ago

#34: Post by zoomchick »

I am still tweaking what settings work best for my Salvatore One but my Vario sprays pretty wide. There are alot of grounds of either side of the grinder. After 14 seconds, its a mess and I have come to putting a flexible cutting board underneath to help with the clean up.
Any suggestions?
zoomchick

I'm really not addicted to caffeine...

User avatar
another_jim
Team HB
Posts: 13872
Joined: 19 years ago

#35: Post by another_jim »

The fork for the PF and the clip that latches the basket are adjustable (ddr adjusted it so my basket and scale make a good fit). If you adjust it so that the clip above the fork hooks into the basket, then the grinds should fall neatly into it (at least they do for mine - it's the first bubble wrap free doserless grinder I like).
Jim Schulman

greatphotos
Posts: 11
Joined: 15 years ago

#36: Post by greatphotos »

The entire PF holder unit can also be slid out some if that helps. It was designed to be able to do this. I am not using the PF holder any more as found grinds were coming out with such speed they bounced off an almost full PF and shot across the counter. It was ok when the PF was empty.

To combat this I am grinding into the bin and then dumping it into the PF.

User avatar
sweaner
Posts: 3013
Joined: 16 years ago

#37: Post by sweaner »

Would a short yogurt cup in the portafilter help? So far this grinder is sounding very nice.
Scott
LMWDP #248

Advertisement
akallio
Posts: 226
Joined: 15 years ago

#38: Post by akallio »

What kind of path do the grounds exactly take? I mean what happens after the burrs?

From pictures I have understood that grounds drop quite directly to the PF. The chute is narrower than the burrs, but not narrow enough to cause packing of grounds?

Some people have reported clumping, but I don't really understand how it can happen. Doserless grinders tend to clump because grounds have to travel some sort of horizontal chute and they pack together while doing it, but if this guy has direct drop there's no place for clumps to form?

User avatar
ddr
Posts: 155
Joined: 15 years ago

#39: Post by ddr »

I have no clumping and no spraying. I guess it could be environmental, or different coffee behaving in different ways, but I have tried PT's Bella, PT's Gizmo, Metropolis' Red Line, Intelly's Black Cat, and some home roasted Bonko of Jim Schulman's with no issues.
Dan
LMWDP #242

zoomchick
Posts: 24
Joined: 16 years ago

#40: Post by zoomchick »

I have been using Vivace vita. The grounds spray to each side at least a foot out. Today I ground into a plastic baggy (for travel) and the grounds were incredibly staticky. They even stuck to the top of the grinder cage (?) and up onto the control panel. I am in Santa Monica and it's not a particularly dry climate. I will try grinding into the holder and transferring to my pf. FWIW, the pf holder is at the top hole.
zoomchick

I'm really not addicted to caffeine...