The Mini E! Finallee!

[Raf]

Well, I'm off to The Hague this afternoon to buy a Mini E (or a regular Mini, not sure yet, but inclined to go E). I'll be in touch (probably tonight, wired from dialling in the thing!).

[phil]

(... grumble, grumble .....)

Nice one Neku! Let us know which you choose - I'm in two minds about the "E" at the moment.

<Forced smile>

(... grumble, grumble ...)

[alans]

From the discussion on a.c I'm starting to think the benefit of the E may not be as great as I first guessed, so I'm very interested to hear what you think!

[phil]

Me too! Maybe I should just get a brand new Super Jolly?

C'mon Neku, we're all waiting man?

(Mass asphyxiation of coffee fans across Europe, holding their breath waiting for Neku's response .....)

[phil]

(... grumble grumble .... am I going to be the only one here without a Mazzer? .... grumble grumble ....)

[Danny]

Personnally I cant see how a super jolly would make any difference in a home.
It's all about the quality of the grind for me and the Mini is as good as the SJ there I feel....

[phil]

I was just trying to wind him up Danny, making him think I was trying to "top" him!

[Danny]

Missed that, it was too late in the evening and since my kitchen guys decided it was a good idea to connect my washing machine and espresso water outlets to the hot water circuit, I didnt have the espresso to prop me up...

[Raf]

Sorry guys, came home last night and the batteries in my wireless keyboard were gone. Then I tried to charge some batteries, but suddenly the rapid charger got fried!

Okey, so I got the Mini E, I'm trying to dial it in right now, which isn't easy. If you adjust the grind, you get more volume, so it's a delicate balance. I already blew through 500 grams of coffee! But it's a beauty, and the grind is visibly better than the Rocky's (which Henk, the guy from ESW justly called "a toy" compared to the Mini - sorry Phi!l ). I'll be in touch later!

[EricC]

Hi Neku,
As forum members might recall, i had a used "Mini Mazzer" sent to me by a UK dealer, however when it arrived it turned out to be a "Super Jolly", wow way too big.
The dealer at the moment is trying to source a Mini Mazzer for me.
It looks as though a used one is out of the question, so new will have to be the way to go, and i am in a quandry wether to get the Mini or the Mini-E.
The doser would not be any use to me at all, and the Mini-E does appear to be the ideal machine for myself, providing it is not too much more expensive.
What do you think of the Mini-E, and if you do not mind me asking, how much more was it than the Mini.

[Raf]

It's quite a bit more expensive (I paid 579 euro inc VAT) than the regular mini (370 inc VAT). Differences: it has the Super Jolly (or Major, I'm not sure) burrs instead of Mini burrs, and you get two timers and no doser, but instead a stainless steel funnel.

The timers are for single and double shots, but I think I'll adjust them for fresh beans and less fresh beans. There's also a button to grind manually. The reason I got the E was: 1. I didn't like the mess with a doser (lots of spillage), 2. I like the idea of having a fixed amount of coffee every time I want to pull a shot. I would have liked a volumetric/weight control better than the timer, but according to Jim Schulman, the variation in coffee volume is well within the 1 gram range, and that's good enough for me.

I haven't managed to pull a decent shot yet (I got some beans with it, but they were shipped in Italy god knows how long ago and De Boe is on holidays), but I'm out to buy some fresh beans now in some remote corner of town (better get me two kilo's while I'm at it!).

I'll be in touch.

[EricC]

Thanks for the quick reply, it sounds ideal, only hope the price difference over here is not so great.

[phil]

But it's a beauty, and the grind is visibly better than the Rocky's (which Henk, the guy from ESW justly called "a toy" compared to the Mini - sorry Phi!l ).

I've no doubt that you're right, although my stainless Rocky just doesn't seem to be the same machine as yours (having seen both). I confess that I'm sorry that I didn't go the whole hog and get a Mini originally when I binned my old "Grossag" a little over a year ago and bought a Rocky . I was influenced by Mr. Prince's assertion that the grind on the Mini wasn't really that much better.

Certainly the grind on my Rocky doesn't seem too bad at all - my reason for wanting a Mazzer is the controllability of the grind. Often I pull a shot and one click gives too short a shot and the next one too long for the beans I'm using. Perhaps I'll also appreciate the improvement in grind quality too, but actually when my Rocky grinds the right fineness I'm pretty happy with the shots from my TD.

Sorry matey, don't mean to sound like this is sour grapes, but everyone knows your Rocky was an extremely bad sample and I've been much luckier in that department. As a journalist I'm sure you understand "balance"?

[Raf]

beware overenthusiasm when you buy new stuff: turns out I've been dialling it in in the wrong direction! Instead of going finer, I was grinding coarser and thinking to myself: this is one finicky grinder. Once I turned it a notch in the right direction, tough, boy did I get great shots.

I started off trying to get the fineness of the grind just right, while grinding manually. Once I got what seemed like an acceptably fine grind and a somewhat okay shot time, I then proceeded to adjust the double shot timer.

I think I'll be playing around with it a bit more in the next couple of weeks (more coffee, coarser grind - less coffee, finer grind), but I can see already that the "E" was a good choice: in a few weeks, it'll just be "hit the button" and get repeatable shots every time, so I can finally concentrate on roasting, tamping and dosing. And no messy dosers to clean out!

[phil]

But won't you need to change the adjustments when you change coffees?