In line with the release of the London Coffee Virtual Event, where I was invited alongside Ollie Sears from North Star Coffee Roasters to talk about how we faired with the new Pro XGI grinders from Fiorenzato. The sections below explain what we got up to when we were in the studio and what you can get out of these grinders.
Detachable Burrs
The first thing you'll notice with this new model is the standout function of being able to remove the burrs directly from the chamber. This means you won't have to fuss about taking your grinder apart to get into it, a very fiddly and annoying task to say the least.
By having this ability, you can clean inside the chamber everyday with no excuses and easily change burrs when they have become blunted. When training new baristas, you are weary to not let them take grinders apart to clean them, be that because you may lose warranty or that you know it will slow service down dramatically. You can now instantly take it off, it's a huge benefit to all those using it. I recommend you try it for yourself as it is seamless in function.
Alignment
When realigning the burrs through the threading the dial back on the grinder, you will find yourself going through a lot of coffee to get back to the point you were at when you took it off. Now you will not have to worry about that, as the detachable burrs will go back in the exact same position you took them off from. Saving you time and coffee.
Clump Crusher
One part of a grinder that goes unnoticed is what is inside the chamber and that is this item we have the on the right. What this does is it works as an anti-static barrier for the coffee. If we were to remove this, we would find coffee spraying out all over
our counter and creating quite the mess to clean up.
Fiorenzato have introduced the ability to take this out and even change the size of the clump crusher. With different roast profiles, you may get more or less static, so you would have to change the size of the clump crusher to accommodate this, but now with the easy access to the chamber you can change it with each new coffee you choose to grind.
No prejudice to light or dark roasts here, you're all invited.
New Burrs
With a new grinder comes new burrs. What strikes me first about the new burrs is that they are the first in the world to be certified food safe a big and logical step forward.
The teeth of the burrs have been made narrower which have been tested to improve extraction percentage of light roasts by up to 1%, a noticeable upgrade. I'll be testing this model out myself to see these improvements in a real-life setting.
If you purchase the red speed burrs these are made with a material (Titanium Aluminium Carbon Nitride) that makes them last for 4 times as long, so can grind up to 2,400 kg of coffee before you will need to change them.
With the introduction of the new burrs it will see the total retention down by 50% on the bigger models. So, when you start up in the morning you will only have to purge through a very small amount of coffee to get started, as well as when you make new grinder adjustments.
Grind by Weight
A feature on the previous model but one that can't go unnoticed is the grind by weight. This is a revelation for baristas looking to save time on the bar. By grinding by weight, it will remove the process of weighing each new shot, giving you more time to care about espresso preparation.
Another plus is that with timed grinders (ones that grind based on time) you find that after adjusting the grind you will need to pull around 5 shots to get back to accurate shots. With the new technology, this will only take 3 shots. A small difference but with constant grinder changes this will go a long way to saving your coffee and profit margin.
In the image above, you can also see the grinder chute, this can be unattached and cleaned. No more putting brushes up the chute (please don't do that) and now you can clean any coffee residue or oil off it in a simple manner.
This breaks down the most important aspects of the new models and I was fortunate enough to have some time to play around with them and see the technology up close. If you get a chance head over to Fiorenzato website to see for yourself or message me if you want to speak to them directly.
What do you think of the grinders?
Can you see them on your coffee counter?
What is the most important part of a grinder to you?
Thanks for reading, happy grinding.
Jon Townsend