The purchase (or construction...) of a new grinder has been on my mind since the arrival of the Londinium. There have been several aspects to this - firstly, my Faema MPN grinder has relatively small flat burrs @ 52mm and concensus seems to be "bigger is better". Secondly the old machine is just about falling apart, and looks bloody ghastly in the kitchen - minus most of its shell, its just an ugly machine. More importantly though, I have felt like something has been missing from the espresso experience.

I have consistently found the shots I pull at home have more flavour, richness and layering than from the various pump machines at roasters and cafes I visit. This stands as testiment (in my mind at least) to the advantages of a good spring lever machine. But there has been a but. Equally as consistently, I have noticed that my own shots have lacked a certain 'alive feel' in comparison. Words like 'zing' and 'electricity' have been missing from the descriptions of my espresso. After talking with other Londinium owners, I became certain this was related to the grinder.

Another thing I had noticed was how grind adjustments I made didn't seem to equate to much in terms of flow rate and taste in cup - this ultimately made for a wide 'sweet spot' but tuning was difficult.

Yesterday I managed to stall the grinder - I heard a noise that suggested a stone or something had involved itself in the grind proces, so I shut the machine down and stripped it of its burrs for inspection and a good clean. There was no evidence of damage so I began to reassemble it.

Once the lower burr carrier was in place, with burr attached, I pulsed the switch - and immediately noticed the burr was not concentric with the drive shaft. I checked the shaft for runout and deformation, then the burr carrier, but found they were concentric to within slight margins.

The problem was in the mounting of the burr. I worked using eyesight only to align the burr, eventually getting to a point where I couldn't see any runout. Not the most scientific method, but because of the design of the burr carrier, it was the best I could do. I measured and centralised the top burr also.

After reassembling the machine and dialling it, I found that the grinds for a given setting behaved quite differently than beforehand, with the finer settings apparently more consistent and slower to flow through the grinder, and with more distinct steps (the Faema is stepped) through the adjustment.

The wide sweet-spot was gone too, making the dialling in harder, but when I hit the spot - what a difference in cup.. I immediately noticed a much greater clarity to the flavours I have come to love from the Londinium - more resolute and distinct from eachother than before. The espresso was sweeter and the acids which I had previously had to search for in coarser grinding (thus losing some of the lower notes) were suddenly present, in balance. Most surprisingly, the espressos began to display the lively sensation I felt I was missing. My wife remarked on the sweetness and vivacity of her shots this morning - describing them as outstanding.

So the Faema lives to fight another day - with the burr aligment sorted and the resulting delicious espresso, I wont be in such a hurry to sort a new grinder. I think the moral of this story is that sometimes it pays to check the simple things before taking more radical steps......

Check your burrs for alignment if you can