Good point John so lets get back on topic then... Great plug for Mazzer from Supertechnico, so lets have a closer look. This is not intended to offend so please lets not go there, however if someone makes a statement then it is there for discussion. So: "....Leading and most recommended grinder...". We hear statements like these all the time. There is no basis for this kind of outrageous statement. It conjures up in the mind of the unknowing, that this is a really "good" brand. It so happens the importer for Mazzer is the largest (or one of the largest) distributors of espresso brewing equipment in the country. He contracts to some of the largest coffee companies in this country, ergo "leading" could simply mean that it is a brand that has become very common in the market due to placement by some very large coffee companies with large market share... Yes this brand manufactures ( or badge engineers, it doesnt matter) good grinders, but there are many other good grinders that also do what they are intended / designed to do. End of story. They are just grinders, they do a job, they are work horses. Conical burrs...yeah so? If Mazzer will soon have titanium blades, or gold or platinum or made from peanut butter or swiss cheese, then so will other competing brands... The things I think we need to take a note of is that most if not all auto doser grinders irrespective of their ***brand***, or how common they are in the marketplace, do the job they are designed to do, whether thay have flat plates or conicals, and whether they have larger or smaller capacity for larger or smaller cafes. You will find the actual "quality" of grind (when compared between the commonly used coffee grinders in this country) could not be compared one from the other in terms of the coffee that will be produced from their grinds... The fact is if you have a large capacity cafe, you will be **loaned** a large capacity grinder and vice-versa....you are not asking for a grinder that meets some kind of grind quality specification...but you might perhaps ask that it not be one of the more noisy types! Realistically, most do not actually know anything technical about grinders and are simply relying on the supplier to provide one....any one. In addition, any reputable coffee supplier is very quickly going to sort out if his chosen brand / model of grinder is not reliable, and will make changes accordingly and very quickly... The differences lie in terms of the fittings (and I think this has already been said) so better "quality" grinders will have better quality dispensers that will not need service as often as a "lesser quality" unit. Yes in a large capacity cafe it is therefore important (for the reason just given) to have a grinder with a ***better standard of build*** and therefore its ultimate reliability in service, but in a regular cafe (say for argument sake 10kg per week and less) any of the miriad grinders available will suffice and will give years of good faithful service IF LOOKED AFTER PROPERLY BY THE CAFE CONCERNED. Unfortunately, most coffee grinders placed in cafe's are the "forgotten" piece of equipment. Never cleaned, never washed, never touched, never emptied, never adjusted. They usually have a build up of encrusted oily rubbery old coffee grinds inside and out, that stink of rancid, stale coffee oil. A clean, well looked after and well adjusted coffee grinder is a happy and most probably more reliable coffee grinder irrespective of its brand. As to "....most recommended....". Realistically, no one "recommends" a grinder. In most instances the grinder is placed on loan with the cafe by the coffee company. You get what that coffee company supplies. The coffee company will place ( if they have any sense) a grinder that will do the job, reliably, for the capacity of the cafe. End of story. I dont really believe it is up to the cafe client to "demand" a grinder of a particular type or brand, especially when the cafe is most unlikely to know anything about grinders in the first instance, and secondly whatever they get amounts to a freebie. What they might care to do however, is take better care of equipment that has been loaned to them free of charge and for them to derive income from. You dont work for one of the Mazzer agents do you? Cheers, FC.
