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Gday Bramps and welcome.
I did a quick search and I could only seem to find 12 volt grinders in America and they were whirly blade types, which are to avoided like the plague for espresso use.
Zassenhsaus (hand grinders) have a good repuation for quality, but are fairly expensive.
I dont know where youre located, but you could try one of your local site sponsors and see if they sell hand grinders. Otherwise, google up hand+coffee+grinder and you should come up trumps.
Good luck with it.
Be aware of its limitations though, that the unit wouldnt be designed to operate at high speeds. I found best results were on a low rotation speed as the flutes on the burrs werent big enough to pull the beans in when it was spinning too fast.
Does anyone know if/when some new Zassenhaus might be available in Australia. I remember a little while back some one (may have been one of the CS sponsors) suggesting that a shipment was likely to land in July.
Anyone purchased a Zassenhaus from overseas? If so would/could you recommend an online shop?
Anyone got a Zassenhaus 175M (Turkish) they want to sell?
Just revisiting this thread as Ive just purchased a Zassenhaus 175M (Turkish) grinder from Sweet Marias (sorry site sponsors). They currently have a limited stock of 3 Zassenhaus Mills and with the current strength of the Australian dollar they are a similar price to those I could find listed as out of stock items in Australia, shipped to your door from the US.
Note, to see them you have to go into the Shopping Cart System, as they are still listed as being out of stock on the main page.
If I had thought a little bit, I should have asked and could have done a bulk order :-[ sorry, Ive been looking for one for a long time and just jumped at the chance.
To answer the question at the start of the thread, I have an Italian Made Tre spade hand grinder I purchased at a coffee speciality store in Sydney. It wasnt cheap at $120 but cheaper than the Zassenhaus. There is a distributor in Australia for this device if you Google the Trespade or (Tre spade) and seems readily available unlike the Zassenhaus which obviously has run into some sort of difficulty as a company.
There is some history around Trespade in the mountains at the back of Turin producing guns and stuff during the first world war, but then started producing coffee grinders for troops in the trenches and then dropped the weapons making section after the war. There may be some knowledgeable CSers out there who can expand on this bit of coffee history.....
Not that I have seen a Zassenhaus for real but the burrs look suspiciously identical in design - very high quality tool grade steel. Would the Italians be purchasing stuff of the Germans or vice versa?
Anyway I tightened the burrs as tight as they go and, after a little wearing in, it grinds pretty fine and consistently, although may not be up to scratch for the average coffee snob. I shall buy some pre-ground stuff from the coffee shop and compare.
My Presso is giving me pretty good shots with the Trespade grind. Pulling the shot fairly quickly gives me a ristretto that isnt bitter and seems fully extracted, with some crema but not alot of crema. A few robusta beans into the blend helps here.
The Trespade grinds pretty quickly too. I think the Zass turkish grinder has the additional bearing holding the burr in place below which means there is less wobble so a more even grind is resultant.
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