Scott_G wrote:I know the Gaggia MDF (new style), Jura Capresso, and I believe the Kitchenaid Proline & Baratza grinders use universal motors with gear reduction.

Given the orientation of grinding head to motor, I'm hoping it's direct drive without any gear reduction. If there are gears I sure hope they're not plastic.

I've looked all over and send out a few emails, but I can't find out what kind of motor is in this grinder. I fear any labels on it will be written in Japanese.

The grinder arrived today. It is smaller than I thought it would be; perfect for my application. Here it is compared to my Sette:



I received the step down transformer as well. Just in time for market day tomorrow. I think I'm going to leave my Forte and big Bunn at home and hope for the best.

I just ran some old beans through it on the finest setting and it tore through them in short order. The grind looks very nice. I'll have 6 hours to play with it tomorrow.

Da Burrs.....



Not a lot of room in there for retention.

Almico wrote:Da Burrs.....

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Not a lot of room in there for retention.

How many MM? Maybe they could be swapped for dittngs or other..

I wouldn't bother, especially with a new grinder. These ghost burrs do a spectacular job at the coarser range of the drip grind.

RyanJE wrote:How many MM? Maybe they could be swapped for dittngs or other..

77ish. You can get this grinder with machined cutting burrs that supposedly make it usable for espresso, but I wanted these burrs. I have a Grindmaster 825 with similar burrs and the GM 890 with Mahlkonig burrs. I've brewed 100s of gallons of coffee with both and really couldn't say one was better than the other. They are different flavors of the same brand of ice cream.

Breaking it in with some older coffee:
On the coarsest setting:

I had the R-220 out for a spin at the market today and I must say, the big Bunn and Forte were not missed. I had to grind 2 bags of coffee for customers, and although it takes a double fill of the hopper to grind 12oz of coffee, it went pretty smooth.

As far as the pour overs, dialing in was quick. I settled on and average setting of 3 for the best result. Half a click finer for lighter roasts and half a click coarser for dark. Cups were sweeter and rounder than my Forte, but maybe a tick less body. It might be the result of less fines. Time will tell as the burrs break in more and more.

I ran it with the step down transformer and it just hummed along as quiet as could be. It's a very satisfying grinding experience when you can hardly hear the motor and the only sound comes from the beans when the hopper trap door is released. It sucked down 19g doses in a blink.

Overall, so far so good. tomorrow is another day.

So...I'm fairly floored by this little grinder.

I make about 80-100 pour overs every weekend at local farmers markets using my own coffee so I have a pretty good handle on my brewing technique and the taste in the cup. I also bring a 1-1/2 gallon Luxus pot for people that just want coffee and don't want to wait.

The Luxus/Fetco batch brewed coffee is always wonderful, and usually the best I can hope for doing individual pour overs is to equal the taste, but I usually fall a bit short. I've been using a Grindmaster 890 for the batch brew and a Baratza Forte for the pour overs.

Until now I believed it was the homogenizing affect of batch brewing that made the difference. But this little Fuji Royal grinder punches way above its weight and has opened my eyes. My pour overs this past weekend were every bit the equal of the batch brew, and I dare say, even better.

I was hold off until this morning's home Chemex brew to confirm my suspicions. I also use the Forte every morning to make 750ml to take with me to work. Lately I've been brewing a C+ roast of the Panama Elida natural from Klatch. I'm down to the last of a 20# batch and know this coffee very well by now. I know how to roast it and I know how to brew it. I've tweaked it six ways to Sunday and believed I squeezed everything possible out of it.

But this morning I used the Fuji Royal instead and it's almost like I'm enjoying an entirely different coffee. It's at least an order of magnitude sweeter, with a keener separation between floral/fruit and toffee/almond notes. Fruit notes are less sharply acidic and more like dried fruit than fresh fruit, but that's a welcome trade-off for me.

It seems this little kitchen-sized grinder does a pretty good impersonation of a full-sized bulk grinder. The Forte has been replaced.

Anyone know if this grinder is available in a 110 version?