Dropped by the Baratza booth to see what has been described to me as a "new hot shit grinder". I don't know if that's actually good or not, so I had to find out for myself. Turns out "hot shit" isn't adequate - it's super hot stuff.

The grinder is the new Vario grinder. It's not going to be cheap. But you can see some amazing innovations in this grinder that no one has even come close to.

Let's start with the burr set. Flat burrs, custom mounting plate, designed by Mahlkonig. These are ceramic burrs, but not the cheapo kind seen in some superautomatics. This is a serious piece of engineered hardened material that was specifically designed for this grinder.

Let's move to the control panel next. Definitely not an "Apple" designs (ie, no buttons) - this thing's got buttons coming out of the ying yang. It's an electronic timer dosing / bin grinder, and you can preprogram in three different grind timings for espresso, drip and press. You can also grind on demand, with the timer counting up, or set any specific grinding time and have it count down, 1/10th a second at a time.

Lots of other goodness going on. It's a belt driven grinder (no heat issues at all); they designed it so very little residual grounds stay in the grinder between uses; it comes with two bins, a "portaholder" for using a portafilter, effectively turning into a doserless espresso grinder, and a normal catch bin; and a lot more. I grinds 2 grams per second, making it very speedy.

But what's possibly the most cool thing about this grinder is the dual cam grind selection. On the right is the "macro selection", going from Press (around 1400 microns), all the way down to espresso, fine (around 250 microns or less). Then on the right side is the "micro selection" side where you fine tune the grind down to scant microns difference. Quite a sweet setup.

This grinder should be available in late summer. Keep an eye out for it. The innovations are extensive.

Vario Grinder

Vario Burr Set

Fine Adjustment Side

Macro Adjustment Side