[adrian522]

Anyone heard much about this upcoming Grinder?

I'd love to see how the "Grind for weight" is and how accurate/repeatable it is...

http://www.mahlkoenig.de/en_products/VARIO-W.html#

[Gran Hermano]

Is there not a version of that out in the USA already under the Baratza brand?
I've a vague recollection of seeing it mentioned on homebarista or coffeegeek some months back when I was in the market for a Vario.

[adrian522]

Correct, there is...

http://www.chriscoffee.com/products/...rinders/variow

expensive, not sure I'd splash out but hopefully it will become a feature on lots of grinders in the future.

I've always found it strange that with precision being everything in espresso, we usually dial in a grind by time and each dose can vary by 1g, 2g or more and rather than adjusting by weight we adjust by time.

Unfortunetly you are still going to need to weigh the output until they start putting scales on espresso machines !!!

[donnacha]

Originally Posted by adrian522

Anyone heard much about this upcoming Grinder?

I'd love to see how the "Grind for weight" is and how accurate/repeatable it is...

http://www.mahlkoenig.de/en_products/VARIO-W.html#

it only mentions filter/french press as the weigh option. If it doesn't enable you to weigh dosage into a portafilter then it would be a fairly useless upgrade IMO. If I'm grinding for filter I tend to weigh before I put through the grinder as I tend to have different bags on the go so would never put a whole bag in the hopper.

[adrian522]

Yeah, not really much use if you can't grind into the portafilter.

Actually up until recently I was doing something similar for espresso, I'd only put in what ever beans I needed for the shot(about 18g) and then grind all that into the portafilter and then pull the shot.

Now I'm more leaning towards weighing the ground coffee, checking how long it takes to grind the correct weight and for future shots just grinding for the same length of time again. Neither method is perfect really. But either way I'd much prefer the grinder to do all this weighing

[arabica69]

Adrian552 & Gran Hermano are both correct. This new weight-based model is a Baratza innovation (to the original Mahlkonig Vario) and is already available in the US. It will be branded and distributed solely as Mahlkonig in Europe.

Following conversations with Mahlkonig in the UK, they have confirmed that the Vario-W is due to be released in April. Unfortunately no exact date or price has been provided - though I do expect it to be more expensive than the original Vario.

Although I'm sure that the build quality of the upcoming Vario-W (like the standard Vario) will be superb, I can not see that the addition of a weight-based-grinding feature is not going to be of significant relevance to those already comfortable with weighing their dose before dropping into the hopper.

[adrian522]

Thanks for that. Will be interesting to see how it works, hopefully it will be a common feature in the years to come.

I'd love to have a play around with it but I'll stick with the vario for the time being.