Niche Zero grinder

The staff has immediately dubbed this little grinder “The Droid”. However, it is a lot more than super cute…

Crowd funded, built in England, and marketed in the US at SlowPoursupply.com, this little grinder is a dream come true. And it sells at a very affordable price.

First, the cut…turning a 40mm conical burr at 330 rpm the grind is optimal and the wee grinder makes super thick, full flavor espresso coffee. It takes about 12 seconds to grind 20g, which is 1.66grams/second. Along with minimum powder retention, this is the key feature to produce espresso with full flavor and viscosity. As I have repeatedly said, grinding faster than 2 grams/second, even with conical burrs, produces thin, weak espresso. The shots the Niche Zero makes are as flavorful and thick as any I have ever seen and tasted. And the powder is super fluffy and light, leading me to believe that the percentage of fines is greater than the DRM hybrid-burr machines.

The retention…about 0.5g of powder and bean bits remain in the grinding head. So no big purge required to move the desiccated ground coffee out of the machine. Just flip the switch and let it grind. And with almost no trapped powder the flow rate of the espresso is super consistent.

The grinder is also whisper quiet. We are using it for our single origin Sidamo Dcaf which is a super star at Vivace. Of course this is a home grinder so no heat controls are in place. So far it handles ten shots/hour quite well with no heat issues however.