Baratza Vario 885 Coffee Grinder

I purchased this Vario after the Preciso I had bought just wasn’t cutting it for espresso brewing and I have been more than happy with the product. The sticker shock was a bit to get over but having a reliable, accurate and repeatable grinder has made that worry dissapear in a very short period of time. I’ve used the timing feature more than I thought and it has become a welcome upgrade in my espresso brewing procedure.The whole machine feels much sturdier than the Preciso, not to mention the burr assembly makes the preciso look like a childs toy. I haven’t gotten to use the 885 model with the weaker portafilter arms but the new updated arms (while increasing the cost) are one of the most professional feeling portions of the machine. the Vario retains very little grounds but if you ever feel the need to clean the portafilter holder it is easily removed from the grinder as it is held in place with a slot and a sprind loaded detent.

Excellent coffee grinder for busy kitchen where different family members make espresso and filter coffee several times a day. I took us couple of days to arrive at optimal settings for each type of coffee but it was worth it. Coffee is now excellent. The size of the unit is perfect for home use and Baratza Vario is not nearly as noisy as the previous grinder. The three memory buttons have been programmed to deliver right amount of coffee for 4 cup filter, 8 cup filter and double espresso which covers 90% of our needs. Overall, very well designed grinder offering excellent quality and performance. Did I say that it is also very fast?

Pros:-Solid construction-Looks great on the counter top-Portafilter holder is convenient as you can prep other things while you grind-Abundance of fine tune settings to enable dialing in of espresso shots-Consistent grinding once broken in-It has programmable timing pre-sets which I imagine could be helpful but don’t personally useCons:-Takes a bit of time to break in (~1lb of coffee) before clumps go away and consistency kicks in-It’s a little bit loud, a consideration when grinding really early in the morning-ExpensiveThe Review:I recently replaced my older espresso machine (Delonghi pump) after realizing that it wasn’t the real deal and couldn’t quite make what’s considered real espresso. After much research, I decided to go big as I’ve found that quality products, while more expensive up front, generally tend to last much longer and therefore make for a much better deal in the long run. This was no exception.I read a ton about different grinders and decided to go with the Baratza Vario. I would highly recommend reading up on grinders and taking into consideration what you intend to use it for. If you’re mainly going to grind for espresso, I think this is a great grinder.First off, the construction on this product feels great. It’s not light and flimsy at all – the pieces are hard plastic (the front display) and metal on the sides and the portafilter holder that it comes with is solid metal and quite heavy. Really gives you that feeling that if taken care of, will last a long time.Setup was very easy. The burrs were already installed so all I had to do was install the hopper basket (simple place and twist) and then it was ready to go.On to the most important part – the grinding. To begin with, this grinder takes a little bit to get broken in. By that, I mean that during the first ~1-2 lbs of coffee, the grind can be a little bit clumpy and not as even as it ends up being once broken in. Though I had read this in my research, I kind of forgot about it as I began to try and dial in the espresso I had first bought. I ran into some difficulty with this and I was a tad bit worried that I had bit off more than I could chew with regards to espresso making. Well, turns out I just needed to break the sucker in and after going through a bit of coffee, it really started to shine and now grinds beautiful, consistent espresso every time. To avoid this, I would recommend either running some Grindz through the machine (Grindz is a cleaner that you should consider buying – it’s a fake coffee bean that you just toss in the grinder and grind as normal, but it removes residue from your burrs and grinder and cleans it well) to get the burrs broken in or run ~1lb of old beans that you don’t care about through it. This will save some money and some frustration as it’s much easier to dial in your shots after the grinder has gone through some beans.*TIP* I only grind what I drink each morning as the freshness of the espresso is very important. I would consider doing this if you only brew 1-2 shots per day as having a lot of coffee sitting in the hopper will not keep it as fresh as a mason jar, for example.The fine tuning available on this machine is incredible. Espresso making is a sensitive activity – too coarse and it splashes out the portafilter and tastes sour. Too fine and it chokes the machine or comes out too slow and is bitter (these are generalizations – definitely ready into it! :D). Once broken in, there is no such problem with this machine as the fine tuning options are numerous.As you can probably see in the picture, the left side contains steps from A-W while the right side contains steps from 1-10. The right side steps are considered macro steps (they each equal a full A-W change in coarseness) and the left side is for fine tuning (micro steps) in between each macro step. Therefore, you can adjust the fineness of your grind 23 times (A-W) for each change in your macro setting.An easy way to think of it is this: Step 1 on the right is the finest you can get. Put the left setting on A and you have 1.A, the finest setting the machine has. To coarsen up your grind, you can either do so in tiny increments by moving up the left side (up to 1.W) or, you can increase a full step by using the right side (going to 2 in this case), until you reach your desired coarseness. Once you feel you’ve found the right macro setting (1-10), use the micro settings on the left to get it just right. Also, keep in mind that each grinder differs a bit and can also be calibrated individually, so my 3.L might be very different from somebody else’s Vario 3.L.Overall, I’m really happy with this purchase and with proper care, I imagine this will last me a long time. It grinds incredibly consistent coffee, which is critical to making good espresso. Before I started, I had read in many places that the grinder is actually more important than the machine. I wasn’t convinced of this as it sounded counter-intuitive, but after several months with my new setup, I believe it. Espresso making is sensitive – everything from the grind, to the tamp to the temp of your machine’s water to the extraction time, all make a difference in the end result. Therefore, getting the proper grind size and consistency at the beginning of the process is very important in my opinion.

Great product