A sensible question which many have been asking – which grinder? It would be somewhat self-defeating to put all this development effort into a precision water device and accompany it with a poor grinder. Here in the labs, we use a Mahlkönig Tanzania for testing the Über Boiler. It’s a good counter-top size and has a really nice single peak profile. This grinder comes from the Ditting wing of Mahlkönig, and is the same as the Ditting K805.
Mahlkönig Tanzania / Ditting K805
You can see in the plot below, there are an amount of fines in the Tanzania profile, but it is comparatively tiny, and the best we’ve seen so far.
As it is really is a shop grinder, having a clamping lock and vibration panel for bag filling, it is not operationally ideal. This isn’t really suitable for dosing directly into a French Press. In practice we grind into a vessel, then empty the vessels on the Über, using the built in scales to check dose. Despite this the consistency of grind on the Tanzania is top class. Thanks to Mahlkönig who provided me with and allowed me to publish the profiles, particularly Christian – top man.
Comparative grind profiles for the Mahlkönigs Tanzania, Guatemala and Vario.
We also include the Vario as it is being marketed as a Filter Grinder, so thought it might be interesting to compare profiles. In Marco we generally use a Guatemala to grind for filter, again from Mahlkönig. It’s a great grinder with presets and single peak profile. See the plot below.
Guatemala Profiles - note finer grind - more fines.
Malykke have been in touch about their grinder. It is a beautifully designed piece of machinery with gorgeous pressure sense control for French press dosage and clever clicky-clunk fittings which make me go ‘oooh’.
Malykke Countertop Grinder
I haven’t seen a grind profile yet but look forward to playing with one over the coming months. See the video here (if you haven’t seen it before).
At the WBC booth in Atlanta, a Mahlkönig will partner the Über Boiler, but I’m not sure yet which flavour.
James uses a Ditting 1203 in Square Mile.
Intelligentsia haven’t decided yet what to use in Atlanta. I know they have expressed interest in the Malykke and may be using it at the show, which would be interesting to contrast with the Mahlkönig.
The best we have seen from a grind point of view is the Mahlkönig Tanzania.
I will be asking Mahlkönig if a Tanzania with presets but without the bag clamp & vibration panel is available. That would be a great match for Über.
The Guatemala is great, although a little big for home use (I managed to sneak into the apartment though). Get yourself a plactic funnel to grind into, works a treat for a 3cup french press on the Guatemala.
I appreciate this is probably going to sound rather stupid…I can’t read the titles on the axis of the graphs and I really think a translation would help with my understanding!? Only yesterday I was looking up info on both the Tanzania and K501, I couldn’t work out which to get but I figure this should clear it up for me!
Hi Will. The vertical axis is “Verteilungsdichte” which means particle distribution and the x-axis is particle size (in microns). Hope that helps. (You can click on the pics to see a larger version).
[...] Uberproject has been keen to play with grinders and grind profiles since its inception. I did post earlier on this topic in April 2009. At Caffe Culture in London in May while working on the Uber [...]
Does anyone have a graph of the particle distribution from a Bunn grinder? Bunn uses the same 81mm cutting burrs across their line of bulk and portion-control grinders, as far as I can tell. They also claim to test their burrs against an “original factory screen sieve analysis” — so clearly they have a profile in mind.
I would love to see a graph to know what that profile is, and how it compares to Ditting and Mahlkoenig. Are the German grinders tuned for a more narrow unimodal peak? They certainly cost a lot more than Bunn, at least in the USA.
I asked the guys at Bunn if they publish their grind profiles. They don’t. Not much else I can say!
Paul