Note that this is the first grinder I have bought for myself (being fairly new onto the serious coffee drinking scene), so bear that in mind with this review. I should also point out, though, that I'm a bit of a cynic and not normally a 'I bought one of these so it must be the best' type of person.
I can't help thinking that the poor old ProLine (marketed in Europe as the Artisan) grinder has been a bit unlucky in having its overall CoffeeGeek average dragged down by some rather unforgiving reviews. Most of these seem to have been due to faulty machines.
I had a similar experience to the CoffeeGeek reviewer, in that on full fine I clogged my machine. Actually, having read the earlier user reviews of this machine on this site, complaining about the inadequate espresso grind, the first thing I did after unpacking it was adjust the grind to max fine, using the 'one notch back from touching burrs' method (it sounds like this had already been done by the importer in the case of the CoffeeGeek review machine). Result: My Elektra MC Semi-automatica blew the filter into the portafilter after about 20 seconds of huffing and puffing, which I guess says something about the power of Elektra diaphragm pumps. OK, it wasn't a fully roll-edged official Elektra filter, but it had been fine up to that point. I still can't get the filter out of the p/f, fortunately the machine came with a spare p/f. So, if you need finer than that, well, I'm not sure what sort of machines you guys have!
So, one notch back, I compared the output with the pre-ground espresso which I had in the kitchen. I noticed that the grind was quite even, but had the hint of fluffiness noted by the CG reviewer, which may well be due to the different configuration of the burrs.
Subsequent experimentation suggests that the grinder works well with the slightly oiler beans (Waitrose espresso roasted are quite good in this respect, no don't laugh, try some (UK only)). Either way, I am drinking better coffee now than I was with shop ground.
I don't drink a lot of non-espresso, but have tried coarser grinds for French presses and vacpots once or twice and the results have been quite acceptable.
Only other point is that I have developed a habit of rattling the bin under the spring loaded grinder output seal just prior to withdrawing it, otherwise some grounds drop out onto the baseplate, which is noticeable as I went for the cream coloured version. And, yes, beans do hang up occasionally in the hopper, but not particularly often. |
