I got to the show floor at around 9am, or one hour before it opened. Press credentials can be helpful. I ran into the guys from Urnex who are very excited about introducing a new line of consumer versions of their commercial cleaning products for Urnex and Purocaff. I wish I had more time to spend with them, but I do know that a consumer version of Grindz, Cafiza and other products are not only in the plans, but already available from some dealers. Grindz is especially good for home baristas and their multi-purpose grinders. I use it all the time myself in the Baratza Virtuoso, Solis Maestro Plus, KitchenAid Proline and other consumer grinders, and it works as advertised.

I headed over to the Baratza booth next where I had some additional questions for Kyle Anderson, the designer of the Virtuoso grinder. Most of the concerns about the grinder (aka static issues, etc) are being addressed, and existing customers of the product will be taken care of, according to Kyle. It's a kick butt grinder and in many ways the current standard other consumer grinders are going to be measured against. I took some photos of the internals of the grinder. You can see that the grind path is almost entirely vertical and that big beefy DC motor looks like it will last for decades. Last year I posted pictures of the conical burrs, so I won't repeat it here, except to say that they are not the same burrs found in most other consumer cony-grinders.

Virtuoso You can see the grind path (shrouded by the plastic cover) is near vertical from the burr stack area to the bin. DC Big DC motor inside the grinder, and a small circuit board connector for the microswitches. Kyra Kennedy Kyra, of Baratza, explaining products to a potential customer.