We're bench testing the Fellow Opus Gen 2 grinder right now... I've literally made four coffees with it...
... full review next week.
But it got me to thinking. I managed to dial it in by the second shot (a bit of good luck never hurts)... and the Opus Gen 2 produces shots which taste fabulous, all from a ~$400 48 mm conical burr grinder.
Modern coffee equipment continues to astonish and delight. I started making espresso many years ago in the dark ages. Grinder burr alignment was poor, espresso machine water temperature management was hit and miss, the results in the cup were highly variable! Now all of the key issues that reduce quality and increase uncertainty have largely been dealt with. Grinders now use well aligned high quality burrs, espresso machines have much more accurate temperature management processes and it's happy days.
And here is my controversial thought for the day... traditionally it's been thought that larger grinder burrs produce significantly better tasting shots... I'm not convinced any more. What does a larger diameter burr give you? I can think of two things: (1) larger cutting surface area - which is equivalent to grinding speed and (2) larger amount of thermal mass - this is because there's more grinder burr mass and therefore the heat arising from grinding friction is dissipated across that mass. Are either of these components necessary for those of us making a relatively small number of coffees in the morning for our family? I'd argue not! For a café pumping out hundreds of coffees each day it's a different thing altogether, seconds of speed difference per shot matter, and having greater thermal mass means that the need to adjust grind settings is reduced.
Modern home grinders use the same burr surface finishing technologies as larger grinders, and I think that they produce brilliant quality coffee with a remarkable value proposition. We'll be testing out the Opus Gen 2 grinder for the next week and then working out if we want to stock it going forward. This would nicely round out our grinder portfolio adding a conical burr option to the existing small (Turin 54 mm) and large (Turin 83 mm) flat burr options.
Let's change subject a little... we've just finished packing all of the Fermentation Project tasting kits and it was an enormous effort which made me think about some of the elements of our business which make it a little less scalable! There are certain customisation elements which mean that we operate in a specific way and I was wondering if you'd mind letting us know how important these elements are to you?
(1) We print the customer's surname on every single coffee label;
(2) We offer six different bag weight options which multiplies the number of SKUs (stock keeping units) which this business runs; and
(3) We have 36 products on our website... is this too many and just overwhelming?
Finally, our confectionary homage series is proving super popular... these coffees pay tribute to the confectionary treats of my childhood - Coconut Rough, Cherry Ripe, and Turkish Delight. To try these delicious and unique coffees please click through on the below links.
Have a great weekend!!!
To understand the anatomy of a coffee cherry click here
To learn about the coffee taster's flavour wheel click here
To learn about the genetic basis of taste click here
Purchase Garage Roasters coffee here