As I was looking through some of the latest Ditting posts on the Lab Sweet burrs, there were several posts wondering about the differences between the varIous Ditting burr offerings - original Ditting 804 cast burrs vs Ditting 804 machined burrs vs the new Lab Sweet Cast burrs.

I currently have all 3 sets - the old style cast burrs came on my used KF804 grinder when I bought it. I later upgraded to the newer machined burrs when they came out around 2008 and just recently bought a set of the new cast sweet burrs.

I think it would be nice for somebody to do a comparison of the results using the different grinding discs. Problem is my palate is just not very refined. When I brew coffee, I either like it or I don't - I might like it a little or a lot and I might dislike it a little or a lot but that's about as much thought as I put into it. I also don't have a lot of patience and discipline to switch back and forth dialing in and noting small changes. Detecting and describing subtle differences isn't going to be my strong suit.

But somebody in this community would do a really great job at that experiment - somebody with a well developed coffee palate and the discipline to try out all the configurations. So is there somebody out there that already owns an 804 or 807 lab sweet grinder that would like to do the comparison and post your findings? I can send the old cast burrs and machined burrs to borrow for the test. Of course I'll need them back when you're done testing because I plan to sell them and just keep the new sweet burrs I purchased. I think it would be a benefit to the forum and may help those that are trying to decide if they want to upgrade their older Dittings to the new burrs. They are silly expensive and if the differences are minimal, it might not be worth it to some.

Message me if you're interested in being the tester.

Somebody has decided to take me up on the offer to test out the different burrs. Looking forward to the results.

The forum member that first took me up on the offer won't have the opportunity to test the burrs out for about a month from now so if anyone else wants to give it a go between now and mid July, let me know.

Very sublte differences between the original 804 cast and the lab sweet cast burrs. You can see how LS are more intentionally shaped with the oval cast teeth, versus original burrs having them sort of more out of shape. I've read somewhere (so might be an urban legend) that Ditting was selecting burrs and someone just brought out an old cast set and they've tasted them and called them Lab Sweet because of sweetness. Maybe the original 804 burrs were that set that the lab sweet was modelled after?

I'm very interested to taste the original 804 if I was able to purchase my own, I guess the only way would be to find an old 804.

acman8 wrote:Photo comparison of 4 sets of Ditting 80mm burrs.
From top to bottom:

1) Old style 804 cast burrs. Each burr has been resharpened once by Ditting - this can be seen by the date stamps on the back. Pretty light use since last sharpened in 2001. My best guess is these have from 1500-2000 lbs ground since 2001.

2) Brand new Lab Sweet/Peak burrs. Very similar profile to old cast burrs but obvious difference in metallurgy between the two.

3) Set of machined burrs originally made in 2008. I estimate they've run about 300 lbs of coffee through since I bought them in 2008. Identical to new machined burrs with the exception of part numbers and markings on the back.

4) Brand new set of machined burrs made in 2017 from new K804 lab grinder

Are mine the new 804 Sweet ones - see picture. I had Ditting switch out the standard burrs for these as part of order of a KR804. They kind of looked different, so wondering.

acman8 wrote:Photo comparison of 4 sets of Ditting 80mm burrs.

By the way, what range do you grind for pour-over, I usually grind around 4.5 to 5.5 but I think I might be going too fine, as others have stated 6 to 7, and a barista at popular coffee roaster just suggested 6 to 7. Sometimes when I go from ~5 to ~6 a coffee will actually drawdown slower which could be because under 5 might be too fine causing channeling which might increase flow - just a guess. So, I am curious what others are using??

Those look like sweet burrs to me. The metal in the old cast burrs is darker and rougher on the non-cutting surface in the middle. If you want to know for sure, pull one out and look at the back. The sweet burrs have a raised lip on the outer edge and center whereas the old cast burrs are completely flat. The markings will also be quite different. It's also unlikely you could even get a new old stock set of cast burrs by accident because Ditting stopped manufacturing them in 2007 or 2008.

I use between 6-6.5 for most pour overs. I am calibrated where the 1 on my dial is about 3/4 of a full number marking from touching. Sometimes I go finer or coarser but almost always end up back around 6.25 +\- .25

acman8 wrote:
I use between 6-6.5 for most pour overs. I am calibrated where the 1 on my dial is about 3/4 of a full number marking from touching. Sometimes I go finer or coarser but almost always end up back around 6.25 +\- .25

When I calibrated mine, I did a bar on my dial which is one half a setting between two whole numbers. So I guess mine is ~25 microns finer at same setting. Ill start around 6.5.