Sage by Heston Blumenthal the Smart Grinder Pro, 165 Watt - Stainless Steel ,186 euro

j4vier

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sage-Heston-Blumenthal-Smart-Grinder/dp/B00P81AQUU?ie=UTF8&keywords=sage%20grinder&qid=1459624571&ref_=sr_1_1&sr=8-1


Excellent coffee grider from sage, I personally have one to go in tandem with their duo temp machine and can say it is worth the price tag.

I paid the normal price of 180 pounds for it though, the sage products are never really reduced by much so a 40 pounds discount is quite rare.

It works out at 186 euro delivered, harvey norman sells this for 280 euro

j4vier

Still at this price and now it's in stock!

mrcheez

Yowza, 186 euro for a grinder? Bargain? The one I got in Lidl for a tenner does the same job (albeit without the dials). What's particular about this one to warrant spending that much?

Fr_Dougal

mrcheez wrote: »

Yowza, 186 euro for a grinder? Bargain? The one I got in Lidl for a tenner does the same job (albeit without the dials). What's particular about this one to warrant spending that much?

Proper grinders actually grind the beans(burr grinders), if your 'grinder' has a blade; it's not a proper grinder.

Grinders with blades have a tendency to burn beans as they cut them, regardless of how good your beans are, the coffee won't taste as good as it could. With blade grinders you can't really adjust how fine you want the beans, so you'll end up with a mixture of fine and coarse coffee grind.

You can buy cheaper burr grinders than the Sage, starting at around €40, but some of them won't last very long.

j4vier

mrcheez wrote:

Yowza, 186 euro for a grinder? Bargain? The one I got in Lidl for a tenner does the same job (albeit without the dials). What's particular about this one to warrant spending that much?

Buy it, try it and if you don't like it return it so you will see how your lidl 'equivalent' performs in comparison

11214

mrcheez wrote: »

Yowza, 186 euro for a grinder? Bargain? The one I got in Lidl for a tenner does the same job (albeit without the dials). What's particular about this one to warrant spending that much?

As said above a burr grinder is what you want to be grinding beans with, you don't have to spend that much if you don't want to.
Amazon also sell the KG79 for under £40, excellent value IMO.

mrcheez

Fr_Dougal wrote: »

Proper grinders actually grind the beans(burr grinders), if your 'grinder' has a blade; it's not a proper grinder.

Grinders with blades have a tendency to burn beans as they cut them, regardless of how good your beans are, the coffee won't taste as good as it could. With blade grinders you can't really adjust how fine you want the beans, so you'll end up with a mixture of fine and coarse coffee grind.

You can buy cheaper burr grinders than the Sage, starting at around €40, but some of them won't last very long.

Fair enough, just seemed an extraordinarily high price for something that essentially creates coffee powder when for a little extra you could get a coffee machine with an integrated burr grinder

http://www.amazon.co.uk/DeLonghi-Magnifica-Espresso-Cappuccino-ESAM4200/dp/B001EOMZ5E/


But if that's the going rate then I guess it's a bargain

crabbypaddy

Are replacement burrs available. Stainless steel is a fraction of the hardness of any ceramic or tooling steel etc., I would wonder about the life expectancy

Pique

There's a ton of Burr Grinders on Amazon for way less than a 'Heston Blumenthal' branded one.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Best-Sellers-Kitchen-Home-Electric-Burr-Coffee-Grinders/zgbs/kitchen/3544814031/ref=zg_bs_nav_kh_4_3544812031

This is like the Beats headphones for coffee snobs really.

Krusty_Clown

I've had this grinder in daily use for over a year now, and it's worked great, without any problems. Mine, by the way, isn't Heston Blumenthal branded (it's also sold as Breville in the US and Gastroback (42639) in Germany and some other countries), so I'd ignore that endorsement, which is likely just a sticker to try to shift more units. I read all of the reviews I could get my hands on before taking the leap, and in terms of value per euro, this one came out very positively among the mid-range grinders. Price-wise, I think I paid around the current Amazon price, so it pays to shop around. Yep, there are cheaper grinders and if you can find one that suits your needs (allows you to dial in the specific grind needed for your coffee machine/coffee making method), then go for it. But if you've outgrown that grinder need something that allows you to very easily switch between different types of grind for different coffee-making methods), then this one comes in a good bit cheaper than some of the higher end grinders, with the same level of functionality. The Rancilio Rocky is the model usually compared to this one. The Rancilio offers better fine-tuning (more steps), but less functionality (more espresso focussed), and it's about twice the price.

Warning, pretty annoying chirpy voices:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8cZZA3nzDA

Latest comparison:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sS54YGJbMT

September1

It is a good option for Aeropress and Hario users? Can it grind for turkish coffee? It seems to designed towards espresso, according to Amazon.

Johnny_Fontane

if it can grind espresso (very fine), it will have no problem grinding for aeropress or any other filter types.

Krusty_Clown

September1 wrote: »

It is a good option for Aeropress and Hario users? Can it grind for turkish coffee? It seems to designed towards espresso, according to Amazon.

Yep, I bought it to replace my hario for Aeropress. I then picked up a second hand Gaggia Classic, so use the grinder for both espresso and aeropress. Not sure about Turkish coffee, but that second seattle coffee review suggests it may not be, so you may need something that will grind finer than the sage can manage.

crabbypaddy

Pique wrote: »

There's a ton of Burr Grinders on Amazon for way less than a 'Heston Blumenthal' branded one. Grinders/zgbs/kitchen/3544814031/ref=zg_bs_nav_kh_4_3544812031[/url]

At the full price yes the blumenthal endorsement is adding probably €75.

Theres not a ton of low speed high torque conical burr grinders for much less than this though, most of the cheap ones can't grind true espresso or need modification to grind a true espresso and they are high speed, super noisy, low torque, plasticy yokes with wobbly burrs that the motor burns out on or the gearbox strips its teeth or the burr wears out just outside the warranty period for the average user or in a few months for a heavy user..

Credit to the op I didn't relise this was the breville grinder had written it off when I saw blumenthals noggin. In its other incarnations breville, gastroback, catler its no cheaper even if you order from abroad:
http://de.camelcamelcamel.com/Gastroback-42639-Mahlgradeinstellungen-Bohnenbeh%C3%A4lter-Siebtr%C3%A4ger-Adapter/product/B005KOJW0A

http://camelcamelcamel.com/Breville-BCG820BSSXL-Grinder-Brushed-Stainless/product/B00OXGXW8O

Even without any of the bells and whistles you'll still pay 70%-80% of this price for anything with similar mechanics.

Johnny_Fontane

I picked up a baratza Virtuoso on Amazon.de delivered for €232 in January. Again very good burrs that are easily replaceable. Its a fine machine.
http://www.amazon.de/Baratza-Virtuoso-Elektrische-Kaffeem%C3%BChle-Kegelmahlwerk/dp/B006MLQHRG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1460977165&sr=8-1&keywords=baratza+virtuoso

Theres really no way around paying somewhat decent money for a ceramic burr grinder. I'd spent 6 years with my Hario Skerton, but my arm was bollixed, so finally fronted up.

Digital Society

Silly question. Do i just grind it up and its then instant coffee or do i need to do something else?

mrcheez

Digital Society wrote: »

Silly question. Do i just grind it up and its then instant coffee or do i need to do something else?

Not silly if you're new to coffee

The ground coffee is used in coffee-making devices like an Aeropress or Moka Pot (my personal favourite), or coffee machines.

Instant coffee are coffee crystals that you essentially rehydrate with boiling water, not something you can generally make yourself.