Comments on: Baratza Grinders

By: Eddie Wang

Eddie Wang — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 12:47:23 +0000

The Baratzas are all built in Taiwan now except the Vario (the one labelled Mahlkonig is actually assembled in Germany and both versions have the burrs by Mahlkonig/Ditting and internals designed by Mahlkonig). The difference between the Maestro/Maestro + from the Virtuoso is that the burrs in the Virtuoso are of commercial grade material and quality. The Precisio has a different burr from the Virtuoso as well and should be the highest grade commercial burr from Baratza.

Besides the talk of manufacturing, I am still curious to see what Baratza has to say about these findings. Will the Maestro/Maestro + make better grinders for drip filter than the Virtuoso despite their less burrs? Does the Virtuoso only excel in the espresso category and lesser in the coarser grinds? I’d have to ask the sales to see how they respond.

By: Experiments: Re-evaluating the Hario V60 — Bitter Press

Experiments: Re-evaluating the Hario V60 — Bitter Press — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 15:02:27 +0000

[...] This was not. Irish cupping savant and scientific researcher David Walsh had some issues when he tested the Baratza lineup. First, he found that the Maestro series could not grind a good espresso size. Next, he found that the Virtuoso could not grind a good filter size. BUT! He found that the Maestro filter grind was superb, and the Virtuoso espresso grind was superb, which meant that I had ended up with the wrong grinder, apparently. [...]

By: MARCO ÜBER PROJECT » Baratza does Europe

MARCO ÜBER PROJECT » Baratza does Europe — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 00:47:32 +0000

[...] few related links -Dave Walsh’s Baratza review; Mike Philips tips on choosing a home grinder and Coffeegeek’s openforum [...]

By: Kupe Ovics

Kupe Ovics — Tue, 18 May 2010 21:28:14 +0000

I wanted to echo your experience with the skerton. When I’ve set it coarse and made a French press with it, I can see very few fine particles on the bottom of the screen after use, even when compared with my shop’s Ditting. I also agree on the uneven grind and muddiness though.

I never got to try out the Maestro or Virtuoso, unfortunately, but I am currently experimenting with a couple of conical hand grinders for the v60. It may be that I just have less experience with them, but I feel the results so far are inferior to my Rocky (Flat burrs) in the same range. I’ve gotten some pretty sour and muddy extractions so far with the skerton and Peugeot I have, but both have a fair amount of burr wobble. The differences have been really interesting, but I still have lots of experimentation to do and more grinders to test. However, I’m starting to think the Rocky is better for mid-range grinding than I ever realized before.

By: Jesse Raub

Jesse Raub — Mon, 17 May 2010 18:43:55 +0000

I recently ran a non-scientific experiment with my Virtuoso versus a Hario Skerton.

I used to have a KitchenAid ProLine (a cheaper model broke, and they upgraded me at no cost), which was a fine grinder, but wasn’t performing to my liking.

So I bought a Virtuoso, since I work at Intelli, have been using them in store at Intelli, and got a discount on what I thought was a fantastic grinder. But after I brought it home, I’ve been having a pretty hard time getting a nice setting for my V60 dripper. Anything much coarser than what I’m doing now, and the water flows right through the coffee without taking enough time to extract.

Either way, I appreciate your post and the scientific tools you have to confirm my tastebuds’ suspicions.

And then I saw this. So I did some test grinds with the two side by side, and it looked like there were significantly more fines in the Virtuoso than the Hario, but also a more uniform grind. What that translated to, however, was a more muddled cup, but still pretty nice.

I’m finding that a coarser grind for my Chemex/Cafe Solo is outperforming the KitchenAid hands down, but it’s the finer grind for the V60 that’s giving me trouble.

By: Kupe Ovics

Kupe Ovics — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 03:36:16 +0000

You might be interested in this discussion from a couple of months ago:

http://www.home-barista.com/advice/which-baratza-grinder-for-drip-press-t13408.html

I also linked this post in that thread. There’s even someone from Baratza with some data showing that the Virtuoso is bimodal at fine settings, but unimodal at coarse settings and supposedly superior to the Maestros in every way. I don’t really know what to make of it, but I ordered a Maestro Plus earlier today, so we’ll see what my results are.

By: David

David — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 19:23:00 +0000

Hey Marc – I didn’t receive a portaholder, but they are available for the grinders. If you do a lot of espresso, I’d say yes they would be useful as somewhere to rest the portafilter.

By: Marc

Marc — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 10:05:26 +0000

Hi David,

thanks for the review, I have a couple of questions:
did you find the Virtuoso to be messy? did it have the portafilter option, and if so did you find it useful?

Thanks, Marc

By: Kupe Ovics

Kupe Ovics — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 01:22:39 +0000

Coolness. Thanks again. I’ll have to look into this more and do some testing of my own.

By: David

David — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 15:36:35 +0000

I’ve never had a Rocky, so can’t say for certain. I have had several grinders that would be considered comparable to the Rocky, like the Gaggia MDF, Macap M4, Anfim Haus etc. I would rate all of these as being comprable for filter – ie not great. I can’t really say how they compare with any great assurity unless I had them for side by side tests. The Maestros did surprise me though.