Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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158 of 162 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Best espresso grinder under $200, December 13, 2004
Real espresso is a combination of freshly roasted beans properly ground and pressed at high pressure using 200 degree water. When you do that, you produce something so delicious it'll blow your mind if you love coffee. When purchasing equipment to do this at home, the most crucial of these three factors is in many ways the grinder. You need to be producing a very exact, very fine grind that doesn't include larger chunks (it'll mess up the pressure, because water will "channel" here) nor coffee dust (which will end up in your cup). And you kinda' want a grinder that won't break.
There are surprisingly few grinders sold that meet these requirements. Some espresso drinkers try to get by with one of the only two grinders under $150 which can sometimes manage this: the Solis Maestro and the Capresso Infinity. Whether you succeed will depend a lot on whether you got lucky, and you got one that happens to be put together well. Both make use of plastic parts which will fail over time. Some people buy the Solis Maestro Plus for $150 -- it's heavier than the Maestro, but otherwise no better: you're really wasting your money. The next step up is the Gaggia MDF. It usually sells for around $200, and the Amazon price tends to fluctuate, actually coming in under $200 some of the time with promotions, which makes it a wonderful bargain, though that may be hard to fathom for folks used to a $20 whirly blade grinder. The MDF used semi-commercial grade steel burrs in a semi-commercial (and hence longer lasting) burr set. It will produce the even, fine grind necessary for espresso, and when paired with another Gaggia, or a Solis or Rancilio or FrancisFrancis machine, you're ready to be a home barista and blow the minds of your friends. If you've got a bit more money, I'd recommend the Rancilio Rocky, which typically sells for $280: it's quieter and more rugged, but uses the identical burrs to the MDF. Up from there would be the Mazzer Mini for around $360, which should last you 20 years if not a lifetime. Most people who get into home espresso eventually end up with a Mazzer someday, and you could save yourself some time and money by just starting out with one. But the MDF is probably the best bargain going for being a true home barista. If you're terribly on a budget, Vaneli's Maximo is inferior but useable, and sometimes sells here for low prices.
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35 of 37 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great size, good quality, nice price, takes a bit of work to clean though..., September 12, 2005
The Gaggia MDF fills a small, yet demanding space between the cheap and typically terrible $30-$100 burr grinders and the $500 Mazzer Mini. It's only real competition is the Rancilio Rocky and the Innova (if you can find one).
The main complaint about the MDF is that it is not continuously adjustable, which is true, however I have been able to position mine easily in the middle of two settings. This effectivly doubles the available settings and--with variations in tamp pressure--allows me to get really decent shots fairly consistantly.
I use this machine with my vintage swiss Elespresso machine (a Solis SL70 in disguise) and am consistantly pleased. It compares favorably with a Mazzer Mini on most days (I've got one of those too--as well as a La San Marco/Rossi) and for the price is a great buy. If you see a Rocky for the same price, that might be a better choice because of the larger number of settings, but only just.
For those not wanting to drop at least $300 on a grinder, this is a great choice. It fixes all the major faults of the Solis at only a few dollars more and is solidly made, reasonably consistant, and compact enough to sit next to most home machines on the market. Now if only it were a bit easier to clean...
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35 of 37 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Consistently good grind, but takes experience to dose, November 27, 2006
I've had this grinder for over two decades and it has performed well. When I first got my machine, I wondered which setting number would be good for cappuccino, or any particular grind. The manual said that since coffee can vary from variety to variety, or even from one roast to another, it's a matter of adjusting to each batch of beans. Perhaps with 34 settings, people have found that to be helpful, but I have found my beans to be consistent enough that adjustments are necessary for type of coffee, but can be left alone for a particular type of coffee and a particular variety of beans from a source. At the time I got the machine, I got my beans from Peet's back when they had five stores and no other distribution channels. Although they are a larger chain now, they are still small enough that roasting can be well controlled, and they can still buy beans from a single source for a variety to meet the needs of the chain. For beans from other sources, where roasting is done at a variety of locations, or from beans from differing sources, you might need to pay more attention to adjustments.
A much bigger issue that affects strength and everything else is the dosing. From reading the other reviews, it does not seem to have changed since I got my unit. The top of the unit can be filled with beans, and the part over the dispensing area will fill up with a remarkably consistent grind. That round area is divided into six sections, like a wheel with spokes. Five of the sections get filled with grounds. One section is empty, and is above the dispenser. Each time the lever is pulled, the wheel rotates one position clockwise, and one section gets dispensed through the empty section. In theory, if the unit were full, the amount of coffee in each section would be consistent. Chances are that in real life, you would not want to fill the unit up for home use, since the grounds would not be fresh by the time you use them. If you grind just enough for a few cups, then the coffee will not end up in the compartments evenly, and dosing by counting pulls will not work. If you lift the lower lid, you can see where the coffee is, and you will likely see a small mound in the back and partly filled areas toward the front if you grind smaller amounts. You could redistribute things with a brush, but even that way, some areas would end up more compacted than others. Or you could merely gain the experience to know how much was dispensed compared to how much you need, and pull the handle accordingly. Another option is to gring with the lower lid off. As you watch grinds fall into the compartment, you can rotate as each compartment gets filled, dispensing as you go along. Then you can become consistent once you develop a good eye for it.
Whether you want to consider the dispenser poorly designed is a matter of perspective. If you believe that this unit was designed to grind beans for two cups of coffee, then it would be a fair conclusion. If you believe that this unit was designed for people who prepare 6-12 cups an hour, you might think that it's just fine. If you believe that it was designed for a higher level of fairly constant use, you would probably not be disappointed. But since this unit is most likely for home users, it's hard to claim that the dispenser is ideally suited to the task.
Experience will let you know how high the grounds are supposed to be when you put them in the filter basket, and it's not going to take you long to learn. While this unit is not fool proof, chances are that you are not a fool, so things will work out.
For me, the bottom line is that once you know the correct grind setting for your beans, the unit is more "set it and forget it" than what the instructions said, at least with consistent beans, but the dispenser is a lot less "set it and forget it" than what the literature implies.
Personally, I prefer a unit that takes the guess work out of getting the grinds to be the right consistency, since it's easy to get the amount dispensed right by eyeballing it. This unit does very well in that respect.
I use this in conjunction with a Gaggia Coffee (now known as Gaggia Classic; the new Gaggia Coffee is a different machine) and the two make a good pair. Learning how much coffee to dispense is a minor part, compared to learning how long to hold the switch on the espresso machine, or how to froth milk perfectly, but ultimately, it boils down to knowing how to make a proper espresso. If you can tell when to stop the water based on the color of the coffee coming out, then a bit more or less from the grinder will affect how full the cup gets rather than the taste of your brew. You can't automate a perfect espresso, but you can use the correct tools to allow you to make one with experience.
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