The grinder is quiet, easy to use and fairly easy to clean. The quick grind button at the front is a convenient feature.
Negative Product Points
For a 200 CAD grinder, I expected the housing to be made out of something more durable and heavy and shiny. The dial could use some measurment numbers that tells you exactly how much you have grinded.
Detailed Commentary
I received this grinder from Baratza (thanks guys!) after winning it from the grand opening contest at coffeegeek. I personally do not have much experience with grinders. The Maestro is my first grinder that I "own". The one I used before, was this very loud old Braun grinder. By comparison, the Maestro has a nice soft "burr" while the old braun one had a high pitched "finger nails on the chalk board" grind. The "good" thing about the old braun is that it had numbers on the dial that showed how many cups you are grinding for. Unfortunately, the dial was not accurate at all. I was hoping that the Maestro would have this friendly feature but of course, being accurate. The Maestro does not even have these numbers so you need to pick it out with a measuring spoon and consquently, you'd have extra grinds that often gets thrown out. However, the Maestro has a very nice friendly button at the front for one to push and grind to your heart's content. Coffee grinds can now be directly deposited into those expresso saucer things to make expressos (yeah i dunno what it is called heh..i'm still a newbie).
Compared to the old braun one I used, the Maestro is way easier to clean. Part of the blade could be removed and cleaned. The old grinder I used encased the whole blade part and thus, could not be cleaned at all.
Buying Experience
I didn't buy this product, i won it ;O) . Baratza was very nice! Only thing I didn't like was canadian taxes and duty!
