Niche Zero
Well my Niche Zero arrived two weeks ago and I'm really happy with it.
In the last ten years I've gone from a cheap Sunbeam, to a Breville Smart Grinder Pro, to a Mazzer Mini, to the Niche Zero, and this is the first time the taste of my coffee has improved dramatically. (I'm still on my Gaggia Classic for brewing.)
In addition to that, my workflow is waaaay easier than with the Mazzer, and I only need one grinder to grind three varieties of beans for any kind of coffee I want.
More thoughts.
Complaints (very minor)
Thanks for all the good advice, coffee snobs!
Well my Niche Zero arrived two weeks ago and I'm really happy with it.
In the last ten years I've gone from a cheap Sunbeam, to a Breville Smart Grinder Pro, to a Mazzer Mini, to the Niche Zero, and this is the first time the taste of my coffee has improved dramatically. (I'm still on my Gaggia Classic for brewing.)
In addition to that, my workflow is waaaay easier than with the Mazzer, and I only need one grinder to grind three varieties of beans for any kind of coffee I want.
More thoughts.
- I got it in white, and IMO it looks significantly better in real life than on the website.
- The burrs are from a Mazzer Kony. Not just similar to Mazzer Kony burrs, they are literally made by Mazzer, stamped with the Kony part number.
- It's relatively quiet, and the noise is lower pitched, more rumbly than any of my previous grinders.
- It's simple to use and clean. Taking the top burr out only takes a few seconds. Recalibrating is completely straightforward too. (Not that I've actually needed to clean it yet.)
- There's no mess when grinding.
- The dosing cup is the biggest thing to learn. Getting the coffee out of the cup and into my basket has to be done right so it sits evenly, or removing the cup and tamping can be messy. It's just technique though (mostly just a whack on the bench) and I think I have it figured out now.
- The dosing cup is probably responsible for some of the change in flavour too. I'm sure it changes the way the coffee ends up compacted in the puck.
- The dosing cup needs washing occasionally as it gets sticky. Makes me wonder how much my older grinders would benefit from some detergent wiped around in their chutes.
- The cord storage is excellent. Spare cord just vanishes inside the base of the machine.
Complaints (very minor)
- I wish the shiny funnel shape on the top was slightly steeper. About one shot in three I wait for some popcorning to slide back down into the burrs, and it would get done faster with a bit more slope.
- I wish the clear plastic lid fit snugly against the top of the shiny funnel instead of going right over it. As it is, the only place I lose any coffee (and it's a tiny, tiny amount) is when a shard pops out and goes between the top of the funnel and the clear lid, and ends up sitting on the dial where the numbers are.
- I wish there were different pips on the number scale at the '5' marks. As it is, with numbers at every ten, then 9 identical pips in between, it's sometimes tricky to read.
- I wish I had better scales. I have the Decent Espresso scales and I no longer believe they are anywhere close to 0.1g accurate. Dropping beans in one at a time causes the weight to go 17.6, 17.6, 17.6, 17.6, 18.3. Still, the coffee tastes good anywhere in that range.
- The timber pieces are not as nicely finished as I hoped. Everything else looks as good or better than the photos, but the timber looks worse.
- The shipping company tried to slug me with GST and a processing fee because the Niche people had included the shipping cost in the value of the unit on the shipping paperwork, which pushed it over $1000. It only took one email to sort it out though.
Thanks for all the good advice, coffee snobs!

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