Knock wrote:Better news still: rooting about it seems you may have an Anfim Superbest on your hands - a more powerful motor and a slightly larger hopper, sometimes with the cut-off plate. You shouldn't have too many problems getting parts so it was worth the risk after all.

There is a great deal of confusion about over the various Anfims as they share so many parts and the specs are so apparently close - eg the dosers (with or without the tamper) are the same on the Haus, Best and Superbest; the body of the Haus is only slightly different from that of the Best/Superbest but exactly the same height as the Best. Key differences are motor power and grinder plate size. I think Lance Goffnet has set out a table of the various differences somewhere on CG. The confusion then extends to the main rebranders - Pasquini, ECM etc. Mostly though the ownership experiences are positive - James Hoffman (current WBC champ) has often stated his enjoyment of using his Anfim despite, as he points out, it's lack of microadjustment - and presumably his access to a host of other machines

ideor wrote:do not have a launch date for the model but know it goes back as far as 1976 when pavoni was using it as a companion for the eurobar machine (current approx. 1976-81). the eurobar was offered in orange and in white. pavoni had the grinders finished to match. the last time i visited it there was a photo of one in museum section of the pavoni factory web site. http://www.lapavoni.com/

ideor wrote:my experience of the best: purchased one new in 1980 from fama sales co. of new york city. it came finished in a textured tan. i found the grind adjustment awkward to operate as it was necessary to remove the hopper first. the spring for the adjustment pin was very stiff and the button used to depress the pin was too small. the doser was worse. its floor was warped plastic and when the dosing lever was operated there was an unpleasant sensation of drag-slip, drag-slip, drag-slip. only owned it a brief time. in fairness this machine was likely manufactured in the late 1970's and numerous improvements have been made to the model in the interim. have seen the pasquini moka and the anfim haus in person. these units have a much better fit and finish than the example i owned.

the plastic nameplate panel on the back is held in place with a spring wire. if you lift up the bottom edge of the panel with something like the tip of a table knife you will see how to disconnect it, affording a view of the interior.

ideor wrote:anfim/anfin: perhaps the firm had a reorganisation at some point and the acronym changed.

Tea & Coffee Trade Journal, November 1, 1997 wrote: Espresso made small but beautiful.

... within small businesses, viewpoint is what counts. Viewpoint finds expression in the quality of the end product and in how well it serves its purpose in the everyday marketplace. Mario Monfrini knows this well. His viewpoint on the business of making and serving espresso is both panoramic and finely focused. The focus is on coffee bean grinders manufactured by ANFIM, the small company he owns and manages.

ANFIM is located in the basement of an apartment building in a working class quarter of Milan. This also shapes viewpoint. ANFIM looks more like a neighborhood workshop than an industrial activity.

Nevertheless, ANFIM turns out more than 5,000 professional coffee grinders each year, and although the line is austere - six models plus a dosing unit - it covers the basic requirements, small to big-volume, of bar and shop.

Monfrini's view of the coffee business is truly wide angle. It started from the work he did with his father, beginning as a boy. The senior Monfrini was a bar owner and famous barista in Italy, even winning national competitions for best barman. He started Mario out letting him help on weekends behind the bar, operating a classic Faema E61. In time, Mario became a professional barman himself.

Mario's father opened a chain of some 1,000 bars in the Milan region, including some of the best. When he sold these, it was in order to become a roaster. He created Caffe Nilo, which in only 10 years grew to be the largest roasting company in Milan. Mario joined the firm and became a roaster himself. When his father sold Nilo and retired, Mario chose to take a 50% share in the well established but quite localized grinder manufacturing firm called ANFIN; he then changed the name to ANFIM when he took full control of the firm in 1990.

Monfrini's particular view of coffee, as barman and roaster, has resulted in some key changes in ANFIM grinders. Since taking over the company, he has emphasized simplicity and versatility; the operator can exchange hopper bins, for example, to upgrade volume; the grinding blade is purposefully not conical, the industry standard, but rather in a special ANFIM design that allows for very simple blade replacement.

But Monfrini's philosophy of grinding is actually centered secondarily on performance - as important as he knows that to be from his years behind the bar. His first concern is to care for the coffee being ground. This comes from the roaster in him, and he admits his heart is still in the coffee itself.

As part of this, when he took over ANFIM, one goal he set was to produce a grinder that would not overheat, or even burn the coffee as it was ground. He'd seen this regularly in the busy bars where he'd worked and knew it adversely affected cup quality. This meant adopting motors powerful enough and durable enough to sustain high volume usage without heating up. As a result, he says ANFIM was the first grinder manufacturer to go to slow revolution motors.

The most basic grinder in the ANFIM line is intended for a small bar or as a side grinder for decaffeinated service. The hopper capacity is 400 gm. but can be fitted with a kilo size container. Monfrini notes with some wonder that this model is reportedly even selling for home-use in California - he's been told there are movie stars using his grinders in their kitchens, which he finds to be awesome. This is the 'Best' model, and, like all the other grinders, can be had in a range of six colors.

ANFIM's number one selling machine is the Lusso, with 40 HP, 800 rpm, and grinder blade at 64 mm. It handles the typical volume of an average Italian espresso bar. For high-volume bars, there's the company's top model, the Special 450. It's driven by a 1 HP motor and operates at no more than 450 rpm. The grinder blade is 75 mm. Monfrini says that many of the busiest bars in Milan use a single 450 to feed two machines, or six serving groups, and grind more than 20 kg./day.

Although ANFIM grinders sell well in Spain, Israel, and New Zealand - and are beginning to sell in the U.S., France, and Germany - most of the business remains at home in Italy. ANFIM is in fact still Milan's hometown grinder. Monfrini says, with genuine pride, that the company holds 60% of the city's bar grinder market.