Not a new discovery, but a topic that has been scattered amongst various grinder threads here for a while; I thought it would better serve people looking for tips on grinder burr break in, without clogging up the various specific grinders threads i.e. K-10, HG-One, Versalab, etc. Hopefully users will post here their findings using this method of burr seasoning, regardless of grinder type they have. Here's my experience.

My HG-One (71mm original non-coated) grinder has only seen about 7-8 lbs of espresso, at best that I can guess. I don't make espresso every single day, and I often meter out 100g jars from the deep freezer that last over a week. On my days off I'll make more, but my average over the week is one shot a day. Prior to attempting this method of break in tonight, I verified my rotation count for my generally standard 18.5g dose using one of my favorite espressos Moka Kadir. It took 66 rotations, with my normal, moderate level of resistance, to pull my typical ideal shot. I used to report grinding times, but those are so subjective based on work applied that it's not entirely relevant.

I grabbed a 2lb, 10oz box of pre-cooked dried rice at the store this afternoon and spent about 40 minutes running it thru. I started out a tad bit coarser at first, to make sure my arm didn't fall off from too high of resistance or force required. after about a cup and a half or so, I dialed it down to my typical espresso range. Cleaned up afterwards, and test run with a few different City roast coffees I had sitting around getting close to their expiration date, I was absolutely floored to see how much easier it was to grind. It was never "hard" before, but the difference now is just staggering. I could grind hard, high altitude light roast beans with just two fingers on the handle, and I didn't even need to hold the grinder down. I was pretty eager to see where I'd land when I transitioned back to my Moka Kadir that I roasted into a Full City espresso range.

Popping the Moka Kadir back in to the HG-One, I was able to grind the same 18.5g dose with such little resistance, it felt like I was grinding softened butter. The resistance was so low that it was almost imperceptible from rotating the grinder empty, no exaggeration. The overall time was much faster, but I didn't time that, since it's variable due to independent effort. But the total rotations dropped from 66 down to a very impressive 34.

I can't help but think the lower amount of force required, benefits the espresso even more, since less friction is transferred to the beans and the grinds should stay cooler. The resulting shot poured like mousse on the Strega. It reminded me of the best shots that the Cremina is capable of, when the shot is so thick, it's almost custard like. The shot tasted phenomenal.

Before this, all my beans that were getting close to going stale were destined for the new burrs in the Ditting 1203. I will likely buy another 3 boxes, ( a total of $15) for both grinders. I'll run one more box thru the HG-One, to see if it brings the total rotations needed down to an even lower number, and save the other 2 boxes for the Ditting 1203. I previously bought a bag of raw rice and gingerly ran about 2lbs of it thru the Ditting very slowly, but I think the pre-cooked dried rice is a safer option. I have no first hand experience using either type on coated burrs, but some folks are sharing positive experiences. Please feel free to share your own. It certainly works, brilliantly simple and very, very affordable. I think the 71mm burrs can be broken in perfectly with no more than $5 worth of rice.

I've been seasoning my 83 mm HG one with TiN coated burrs with par boiled rice. Used 1 kg (2.2 pounds) at espresso grind and reduced number of revolutions required to grind 20 g from ~90 to ~50. The grinder has always had very low resistance. I put a second bag through a few days ago and saw little to no reduction in number of revolutions for the same coffee dose.

The lack of resistance is nice. Now I can teach my girlfriend to use the grinder to make her own capp's. Like I said before, I don't even have to hold the grinder down unless I want to. It's pretty stable.

Interesting thread. Do you think it is worth a try for my Pharos? My grinder has always been aggressive and I grind 15g in about 15 to 19 turns of the handle--so definitely fast but it requires too much force. Even with me holding the grinder base with two hands, my gf cannot turn the handle. I've also stopped home roasting since I prefer light city roasts, but as soon as I finish these darker beans (I bought online too much to save) I want to roast again. Perhaps this rice trick will make it easier? Ps I already have all the Voodoodaddy mods and it is still quite a feat each time I grind.

I have had a Pharos for five months now. I did not ever run massive amounts of instant rice through it, but I have run loads of perhaps 15 grams through it from time to time. It is very hard to turn the Pharos with even instant rice. It would be a bad idea, I think, to try normal rice.

Energy is required to grind coffee, and that energy has to be supplied by the person turning the handle!

The stock Pharos does not have any hand holds. If one cut a piece of aluminium rod the (exact) width of distance between the top plates and drill and tap the ends of this one can replace the original grind adjusting tool holder with a decent handle!

As we all know, its VERY important that the rice be "instant/reconstituted" ala "Minute Rice."
You'd be surprised the # of folks on CG I had to head off before they threw in copious amounts of raw rice into their Mazzers and such.

This will be a good place to post this. After having some issues with the Mazzer Major we bought from La Marzocco I called them to speak about it. They recommend running rice threw to solve the issue, I then asked if he was referring to minute rice. He said, no. You dont need to use minute rice, just use a cup or two of uncooked rice. He actually got kind of upset when I mentioned minute rice, like he was annoyed with hearing that.

(p.s. after running 2 to 3 cups of uncooked rice threw the Major, it ground much faster but didn't fix the issue we were having)

That somewhat mirrors what I found on the big Ditting. Raw rice resulted in processing the beans faster, but in my case, I can't be absolutely certain that it decreased the fines production. Like I mentioned before, I had used raw dry rice, trickled thru like a teaspoon at a time while the grinder was running. The results were much, much faster grinding and a visible difference in the grinds (looked more even sized), but this was around the time that I got the sieves, and I hadn't documented specific measurements from the start.

After the amazing improvement with the HG-One using minute rice, that's when I made the decision to open up the Ditting and feel and examine the burrs for any noticable change from the raw rice before preceeding with running any minute rice thru. The burrs weren't visibly different at all, but I could run my fingernail along the edge of each tooth and it felt like it had extremely fine micro serations, small enough that I couldn't even see them, and barely felt them, but they were certainly there.

After running just shy of 5lbs thru the Ditting, I pulled them again, to clean everything and examine them. The seratted feeling was gone, the edge felt honed and still sharp, not dull. Then I sifted 20g of coffee again (same roast as a done on a previous test grind batch) and did indeed find much fewer fines.

Sounds like the rice helps to hone the sharp edges somehow?

Wow, this goes against just about everything I've ever heard regarding rice.
I'd want to speak with Kyle at Baratza before trying this with my Vario-W!



EDIT..as my burrs are already well seasoned, not sure this would be useful?