Home-Barista.com

Saw this earlier:

http://dailycoffeenews.com/2017/08/22/b ... nd-behind/

Looks like a super solid competitor for the home market. Some user reviews popping up on some UK forums.

Thoughts?

The Kony burr is 63mm conical; and that is one sweet grinder. If that's what this grinder has; it's extremely impressive at a $700 price.

As usual, the devil will be in the details. Big conical burrs require big motors; the Kony's is 600 watts, for instance, and runs very sweetly. Macap also had a 63mm conical, but with a 300 watt motor, it was huffing and puffing. The ergonomics will also be important; if this grinder imitates the Monolith, they'll have picked well.

I'll be interested to hear what the early adopters have to say.

What, you mean we overpaid for the Monolith??

Interesting grinder for sure. Would be a great feat if they manage to pull it off. The burrs alone are almost a quarter of the retail price! It will likely come down to the durability & maintaining QC. Given the small motor size, the motor rating is an immediate concern particularly for popular light roasts nowadays. Hopefully the dark shiny beans in the demo is just a coincidence. It's super impressive how little static it has (assuming it was grinding for espresso)!

As a concept, it certainly works and not that radically different to existing grinders (except with big conical burrs and sans hopper & static screen). A Baratza Vario will also contain very little retention when used for single dosing. The adjustment mechanism seems to be using spring-loaded threads like the Mazzers.

From looking at their video its targeted to be a multi purpose grinder that can do espresso for beginners rather than a dedicated single doser for the HB market. The grind adjustment dial shows espresso through to filter in around 180 degrees of rotation so may not have the precision of adjustability that we crave. If they are reading this hopefully a dedicated espresso grinder is somewhere on the roadmap?

63-64 mm burrs are priced in the $50-80 ballpark as spare parts, so significantly cheaper in 1000 units batches...

Another unique design to obsess over.

Where can I preorder one?

From their video showing the dose before and after it is showing a .02 difference in grinds left behind. Grinding also looks sped up in the video. That's not a huge deal to me though.

Stating the obvious, that's an ad, not proof. If someone wants to prove to me their retention claims, they're going to have to provide a video with no camera cuts, from beginning to end.

Still might be a good option for folks who don't want towers for espresso grinders on their countertops.