Hello all!

This is long overdue, but I wanted some time with the Nautilus to get some good ideas about it. True, you won't find many Nautilus players around here, so I figured this might be a good time to post a review of it, something solid and something that people can find useful when looking for their grinders. Possibly a one-stop place on this forum for the Nautilus, specifically. As some have done in other posts, I think it's best to probably split this into more than one post on this thread, lest I become too long-winded. The first post is to just paint a clear picture of where I'm coming from, and of the Titus company since it seems one has to piece it together otherwise.

About me: I'm certainly not an amazing taster or barista. I am fortunate to have the means to invest in well built (you might say lovingly when it comes to Titus) coffee-making equipment. But, over the past year and half, using my incessant need to experiment daily and the love of pursuit of better flavor, I think I have enough experience to put in a solid opinion. So far the coffee I make is FILTER ONLY with this grinder, though I do have a pair of SSP HU burrs to go with it for espresso.

Why I bought the Nautilus over other options: Before purchasing the Nautilus last summer, I was (like many) looking for a very high end grinder, and I spent hours looking at the various higher end Baratza's (Flat Burrs), Kafatek (as he was rumored to "possibly" be offering coarse burrs), Weber EG-1 and KEY, Versalab, EK43, P64, Levercraft. However, after realizing that I was only wanting to do FILTER coffee at the time, my options started to slim a bit as there were few grinders that were high-end that were designed SPECIFICALLY FOR filter and NOT for espresso or being hailed as an "all-rounder." I was very interested in Kafatek, but options for coarse Shurikens were not yet available, and I simply was unwilling to wait 6 months (which is when they were starting to be offered with purchase of a MAX, the April 2022 batch).

About Titus: The Titus company is primarily comprised of but TWO people (as of this writing): Frank Durra and Markus Liepertz. This company goes by the saying "Pars Pro Toto" (A part taken for the whole), as they pay attention to every detail of engineering they can, and as a result, they're always tweaking and making adjustments, so that not every batch of machines they build is EXACTLY the same. That said, they build to your specs (Color/coating, burr set, even special cosmetics [see some of their IG posts]), but they're always looking to improve. Rest assured, the sum of all those details/parts, results in an amazing grinder.

As the company is small, Frank (well frankly) doesn't like to use much time trying to build and maintain a website, so most of what you'll see is what he posts on social media (Instagram works for me, @titusgrinding) and that is probably the best way to get ahold of him, or by email, but being in the US, I still found that somewhat difficult. That being said, he is timely in his responses to queries about his products, and you can tell he loves what he does and is excited about it.

Doing business: In my line of work, I really abhor the whole "customer experience" surveys. That said, the reason I'm saying anything is that I was quite pleasantly surprised: Frank and team love their work, are eager to show it to you, and they are eager to discuss it. They stand behind what they're doing, and doing business with them, even if most discussion may be done via social media or telephone, is enjoyable. Just seems that I don't run into that kind of people these days.

The Nautilus: The name for this grinder came from its design being inspired by the design of the Bowers and Wilkins Nautilus Loud Speakers:

https://www.bowerswilkins.com/sites/def ... k=Tx9e1ysy

The primary purpose of this grinder, as Frank declares, is for FILTER coffee. And more specifically, it is designed for the light and light-medium roasts. Brewing dark roasts may be more of a challenge on this grinder: "Darker roasts will taste totally over-extracted, whereas light roasted beans really benefit of the extreme narrow particle size distribution."

One may take the filter brew burrs out and replace them with the offered SSP HU burrs, but Frank built the Titus Grinder specifically for the Espresso-heads. Briefly, that grinder is designed similar to the Versalab, but the engineering is taken up several notches, like comparing a Volkswagen Golf to a Bentley, as he states. All the pictures and vids you could want on BOTH of the grinders can be seen on IG.

I think that about does it for the background!

Next Post, The Nautilus: Options, Cost, Receipt of Grinder with Pictures, Parts, and overall use with pictures (if I can learn how to embed them on this site!).

I hope this helps y'all.

Tyler