Welcome to our Baratza VARIO Newbie Blog!!!
We use hand grinders in our home setup.....Conti Comocafe and NONAME wall grinder through the morning (which is afternoon for some). We have a commercial lever machine in our workshop and have been using a Mazzer Rio grinder. Between the UPS guy who always "wouldn't mind a cup", the occaisional drop by friend, or even the mailman if he hits when the machine is hot, the shop setup gets a lot of use. We tried handing out a hand grinder and get mostly blank stares. They want free espresso, not a workout!
We are using an older Astoria 2 group lever commercial machine, running mostly on 220v, although it is set up for gas as well (you really do need good ventilation on the gas power mode).
This portafilter has a deep double basket which holds about 21 grams. The lever is pretty forgiving and seldom fails to produce thick crema laden shots, and big ones....we spit the shots and each split is likely 1.5 oz. We have the machine on a big A/V cart with the drip tray drained into a jug and the machine fed by our water line through a hose using a quick connect fitting so the whole thing is mobile, depending on how we need to use the space.
Our Mazzer has been working fine with no complaints...it has a doser and on/off switch. Total simplicity. We do not store beans in the hopper but rather scoop in the 3 rounded coffee measures as the machine is running, dose the portafilter, push the coffee down with the heel of the hand, dose some more, tamp to level and a spin to polish...no additional tamping. The Mazzer is set at 2 clicks above burr touch, and we generally leave it at that setting, one click tighter gives a choke, two a burr touch....one click looser the pour is too fast. So that's where we have been on this setup for about 6 months or so.
So why change a thing?
Our espresso business has become a full time obsession and we have made various observations over the past year or so.....everyone likes the good hardware, we do, that's for sure, and we think that we are fairly representative of the home espresso world....somewhere between the newbies and the totally immersed, but we do drink a lot of espresso and between testing machines and grinders go through a lot of coffee...very little goes to waste. We agree with the observations that a good grinder is as important, if not more, than a top espresso machine, and many people, like us don't have the kitchen space for a commercial unit. Some of us do not have a willing domestic accomplice to encourage our obsessions, and we, like many people, have budget limitations that just won't allow an investment grade commercial grinder, particularly a new one. We have had a couple of Rockys over the years, doser and doserless, they work fine as far as that goes, but both of the Rockys that we got had some little issue that gave us some less than great feeling about the QC on the machines, and the doserless actually was difficult for us to use...the switch seems to be on the wrong side for a right handed person...little things like that. We thought the Le Lit PL53 seems like a good entry leverl espresso grinder, but in general espresso only, and we had some trouble getting one to even try out. So when we read about the Baratza VARIO grinder, it all seems very good....long lasting ceramic burr, timed presets if you use your grinder in that manner, the ability to go directly from espresso to drip to press and back without dialing through the range with the many revolutions of the sometimes hard to turn collar of a commercial machine, small footprint, quiet operation, and the price....not too bad. We observe that many people switch back an forth between espresso and drip or press and want one grinder to serve all these functions. Once we get an esprsso grinder set as we like it we are loth to change the setting, but don't have either the room or the budget for two or more. We agree with others in wishing it was just a shade below 400 but if it delivers anywhere near the specs then it seems a good value. So we are giving it a try and offering them for sale at the same time.
The objective of this blog is to attempt to relay our observations and experiences with the Baratza Vario. It is a new product on the market and there are but a few reviews and user comments out there at present. We are dealers, yes, but also consumers and customers. This will be written from the standpoint of a customer, a newbie, and someone who, perhaps like you, would like to get some information on this grinder before you part with your hard earned cash. So welcome to the Baratza Vario Blog!!!
3/19/09 Out of the Box
We ordered our grinder 3/17 and got it UPS two days later....a new record!
The machine is packed very well with no styrofoam but has inside the main box two heavy cardboard boxes, one contains the machine base and the other the top hopper and the large grounds hopper. the portaholder is installed in the machine at shipment. Instrcution booklet present but of course ignored since this is after all a new toy so on to play.
By the way, we are not really used to having NEW equipment. Most of what we get is used, vintage, preowned, and often screwed up and in neew of repair. this is all pretty different and axciting. Nice to have a new grinder, not just new to us.
Took base out of box and noticed immediately.....no right side lever!!!! Also one of the words on what we learned was the MACRO control had dropouts in the lettering. Shades of Rocky.
We found the little hard rubber knob which runs the macro range in the portaholder tray and installed it but wondered about the rubs on the word "Drip" in the middle of the macro range. Called Baratza and they are immediately sending out a new unit. First report of this issue. They are most concerned and grateful for user input as they work through the kinks in this new product. Actually thanked us and are issueing a call tag for the machine. All communications we have done are by email (we prefer email to the phone as a personal quirk). Our emails were answered within minutes. We really like that.
First issue, put on the hopper and hit the switch and it did not work. Read manual a bit. Properly install the hopper by inserting the tabs on the hopper collar properly and turning to the right, somewhat forcefully actually but it gave a firm "SNAP" and the lights came on and the motor whirred.
The portaholder as they call it does snap in and out of place quite nicely with a firm click both ways. Same with the volume hopper. There were no grounds in the machine or signs of use of any kind.
So now it is time to make an espresso!!!
Drop in my 3 scoops of beans, push the manual button, blue light comes on, hit the start button and.....oooh yes very nice sound!....very deep powerful grinding sound, not high pitched like the Mazzer but low and not unpleasant at all....actually able to continue conversation and hear the radio while it is grinding!
At this point I realize that the portafilter is still on the group of the machine and I have ground 21 g into the portaholder and all over the counter. I am sure used to that Mazzer doser.
Try again....set the macro on Espresso and the micro setting at the finest it will go. This is surely the way to go here since it is not going to grind nearly as fine as the Mazzer....no burr touch on that finest setting but the little lever gets a bit harder to move as you go up toward fine. Does not seem possible to buzz the burrs.
Portafilter in place this time....button to Manual on, beans in, hit start button, once again nice grind sound.
When the last beans are ground there is a whirring sound and a fluff of grinds poof out the front on the grinder, mostly to the left....some grains on the counter. Very fluffy appearance in the portafilter and mounded high.
Corral it all with the tamper and give the usual leveling tamp and polish....much lower level in the basket than with the Mazzer.
Lock in the pf, pull down lever for preinfusion, no drips, 30 seconds or so no drips, this does not look good, release lever....total choke. At about 5 minutes the lever has returned to the top and thubs into place....spouts continue to drip for another 5 minutes. thick vile and nasty syrup, not to mention cold. Return to the Mazzer and make a couple of shots to think it over and get serious next time....maybe read the manual. Machine working perfectly, operator not.
3/21/09 Time to get serious
First decommission the Mazzer. Revove hopper and doser lid as not to drop and crack them. Huff the big unit off the counter....had forgotten how heavy that thing is. Take outside and clean out with compressed air....whoa, what a lot a old coffee in that doser. Good pile on the skirt as well. All blown out and on the ground...hooft up agian...should have set it on a table or something, bad for the back those ground lifts. Go searching for a storage spot. Note, when decomissioning a commercial grinder, prepare the spot BEFORE you have the thing in hand. Mazzer now sitting on floor in corner.
Vario in the same spot as the Mazzer....what to do with all that new found counter space. Looks small. Mazzer had to sit on the counter with the front skirt at the front edge of the counter dropping coffee onn the floor. No problem here. Really like the small footprint.
Astoria hot and ready, 3 scoops of beans in the hopper, manual running, hit start, portafilter in the holder. Macro set at espresso all the way up and micro set about halfway...should have counted the clicks (you can feel them when you move the slider...there are 20). think I had it 7 from the top.
Once again a bit of coffee on the counter at the end of the run. Tamp lock and choke. Sink shot.
Move Micro slider down 2 clicks to I think about halfway through the range. Repeat process, slow but drinkable shot.
Decide to adjust the portaholder without reading the instructions so loosen the top portafilter holding hook by turning the screw. Not a good thing to do as it turns out the top hook is not adjustable, only the arms. Loosen the screw which holds the arms to find out it is all the way up. I really do recommend reading the manual before doing ANYTHING with this machine. The big commercial portafilter fits about 1 inch under the dosing spout and sits at an angle with the handle downward, not exactly flat but tipped downward.
As my brain gets a bit more focused I realize that one should count the adjustment from the bottom of the range, the coarse end rather than the fine end. This gives a more accurate count. I set it a 10 from the bottom, mid range, go into house and get some fresher beans, and with the beans change this means I am learning NOTHING here about getting it dialed in. Choke the machine again at 10 from the bottom. While running on manual the timer reads 21 seconds or so when rinishing the grind. Translates to about 1 gram per second but I am not weighing the dose, just estimating. Seems a bit slower than the advertised 1.9 grams per second. Still plenty fast.
Set at 7 from the bottom since I really want to get a good shot this time, and it is a bit fast, but drinkable good crema. An hour or so passes, time for an espresso, but as I cannot recall if I set it one click finer before, I set it one click finer now , slow pull, turns out in all my concentration about putting the pf in the holder and setting things just right and thinking about this blog and all I did not turn the water on to the machine so 5 minutes later we enjoyed a short bitter disastrous cup and called it a night.
Reflecting though, my dose seems a bit short each time. No beans left in the hopper but LOTS of grounds in the portaholder tray. Next up, get some light down there and see just what is happening as the basket fills....seems this may take more hands on monitoring than my simple method of hanging the pf in the bracket and walking away.
Overall impressions first time out....nice fluffy grind. Certainly will grind FINER than the old Mazzer. Also, I begin to actually think about it and plan to experiemtn a bit more with that macro setting, wondering what will happen if I set it one click down from the top and manipulate the micro slider farther up. also, one wonders just HOW this slider mechanism works, but I'm not going to take it apart to find out, at least not yet! Still haven't gotten a great shot with it but it looks very promising...looking forward to the next session.
3/22/09 Dialing in...Success!
Before going out to the shop this afternoon I had been thinking about what was causing my messiness and waste issues with the grinder. Since I am dosing by adding only the amount of beans for the dose to the hopper, I reasoned that at the end of the grind the empty, or nearly empty burr was acting as a small fan, blowing the grounds around on to the counter...I reasoned that this would not happen if the hopper had beans remaining and I stopped the grind before the hopper emtied.
In practice testing these hypotheses was quite simple and turned out to be true. Since I am using a 21 gram dose, and had timed it at about 21 seconds I added 4 scoops of beans to the hopper instead of the customary 3. I got some good light in the pf holder area, and using the manual setting, hit start. Watching the pf fill and moving it around I stopped the grind when the pf was almost full to redistribute. Returning to the dose I found that the timer had reset to ZERO thus I now had no idea of the time remaining on my 21 second dose. I had learned that the grounds did not blow out on to the counter , so this part of my theory seems correct.
I dumped the grounds and started again, this time using my 3 scoop dose only, set the micro lever at 8 from the bottom (2 less than the night before, as the same fresher beans are in use), hit the start button and stopped it to reditribute the grounds in the pf then finished the grind. Tall fluffy mound, and I had been careful to not spill out the back as I had previously. So a more careful monitoring seems to solve that problem as well. So to my knowledge I was using the approximate same dose of beans as with the Mazzer, and had caught 99% of them this time, but when I tamped, the level was much lower in the basket than before....I had been dosing to about 5mm from the top and now I was at least 10mm down. I went with it and the result was a very fst preinfusion but when I pulled the shot it was about 25 seconds, and likely the best shot I have ever pulled on the machine. Very dark and speckled on the top, and deep long lasting crema.
The next shot, thinking I could improve, I left the micro setting at 6 and put in 4 scoops of beans, ground the whole thing, stopping to distribute and check for spillover (which there was some but I was shooting for perfection)....tapped and tamped lightly to get my 5mm headspace, locked in the pf, very slow preinfusion , very slow shot, thin crema, nothing like the previous underdosed shot. So is it the grinder, the dose, hit the machine temp just right....don't know yet.
Since the manual method of running the grinder does not allow for my stopping and starting and keeping track of time to monitor the dose I decided to get the presets worked out and go for a 22, 23, 24, etc dose to really get it worked out as what exactly I should be dosing and not just using this shotgun approach to overdosing.....I had done something right to get that great shot.
Followed the instructions for setting the timer, went like clockwork...set the espresso dose at 24 seconds...added 4 scoops of beans to the hopper and hit start, the timer counted down and I stopped it at about 12 seconds to redistribute, put the pf back into the holder with the intention of running out the remaining 12 seconds to find that the timer resets back to the original timed dose, 24 seconds, Made a reasonable shot, not as good as that first one.
So that was the day's result. I have the grind settings pretty well established, 8 clicks from the bottom on the micro setting side, macro all the way up at the top. I have pretty much gotten the spillage and flyaway under control, made a great shot and a few not so great but passable, and realized that the timer is a timer, not much of a memory function. My next plan is to fully dose the pf by using presets of 12 seconds and 12 seconds, or 3 sets of 8 to give the time to remove the pf and distribute and at the same time keep track of my exact dose. That will be for next time.
3/23/09 Getting Closer
We got an early start in the Workshop today and once again I had thought about the dosing and grinding through the morning. Fisrt time out I ran my planned test of 3 cycles of 8 seconds, set with the micro 8 clicks from the bottom. First 8 seconds, removed pf and tapped on counter, second 8 seconds, removed pf and pushed grounds down a bit with finger, third 8 seconds, the pf overflowed and nearly filled the portaholder bottom. As I had now learned very little but that 24 seconds was too much for my dose, I dumped it out and cut my time back to 3 grinds at 7 seconds each, and of course changed the setting on the micro to 7 from the bottom (one click coarser----just kindof a feeling I had).
Again, I did the dosing the same way in 3 equal intervals and found that the first two worked fine if I just let the pf hang in the holder leaning with the handle a bit downward. After the second interval I removed the pf and redistributed to make sure I had room for the last third of the dose. On the third interval I held the pf level by hand and made sure the grounds were piling up right in the center....carefully removed pf, gathered the tall pile to the center, and leveled it all into the basket with the tamper. I had hit my target dose at light leveling tamp 5mm from the top.
Locked in, preinfusion drops at about 20 seconds, a little slow, but the pull was about 30 seconds and was crema to the bottom of the cup. The best pull I had ever done on the machine.....Barb asked me if I had changed the coffee!!!! What a question since she is the one who writes the check for it....raves all arouned for sure.
Now the big question, can I repeat this amazing success, and the second big question, is it the grinder? The answer to the first is yes yes yes and the second? I am beginning to think yes. Late in the pm the UPS guy comes in with his truck loaded to the rafters with fresh roasted coffee....there is a coffee roaster who moved up here to rural Idaho from California and two times a week ships out a full UPS truck full of fresh roasted beans to their shops on the coast. You can smell him coming on those days. He arrived demanding coffee as it was driving him crazy, so I repeated the process as before to the letter and lightning stuck twice in the smae place....perfect to the bottom of the cup!
By the end of the day I had changed the time to three runs of 7.2 seconds each (the time is very easy to set) and had tried 6 clicks from the bottom which was a bit too fgast, but a sweeter cup, and ended the day on 7 clicks from the bottom on the micro. This all caused me to begin thinking about the Vario and trying to separate what it was doing and what it was making ME do.
3/24/09 More of the same, but that ain't bad!
My repeatability of these great shots is surprising me. I have the dose and grind nicely worked out and am beginning to be able to predict the behaviour of the shot from my changes on the grinder. One click coarser gives a faster preinfusion and pull, and a sweeter shot. 7 from the bottom brings up the thick complex tones. This is great!
I am getting my spillage and grains on the counter under control, mostly by paying attention to the last part of the pf fill and watching to make sure the pile of fluffy grounds is centered in the basket. There is some tumble out over the sides, but I have come to think that this is unavoidable, as I do not want to actually compress the coffee too much after the second interval to make room...in essence tamping twice. In any event any spillage is easily handled by removing the portaholder unit and tapping out the grounds into the wastebasket...or, bright idea, back into the portafilter!
I have been thinking about just what is going on here.....my theory is that the Vario has forced me, or conveniently allowed me to manipulate both the grind and the dose at the same time....one click coarser and .6 seconds less dose, for example, and continually observe both the dose and the grind and then the result. Maybe I am simply focusing for a change rather than just pitching in my 21 g, clakking it out on the doser locking and drinking.
One thing is that my initial plan was to spec out the Vario then return the Mazzer to service and sell the Vario as a used unit and when I mentioned this to Barb I got "that look". Time to reevaluate.
3/25/09 And now time to make some espresso!
So now I feel like I'm all dialed in. I have figured out what works for me to get the dose I want and am grinding right around where I want it as far as pour rate and have had some great shots. I changed beans today to a little fresher and got a slow pull so moved the slider one step coarser and got back to perfect. It seems like hovering right around my setting on the micro one click either way gives just enough incremental change to correct what I might feel is a bit too fine or coarse, but just a bit as it is all good right around this setting.
The Vario now is just doing service....the new toy aspect has worn off and now I have EXPECTATIONS....unfortunate since it was more fun to have no expectations but lots of surprises. Nonetheless I did a test for general educational value and ground a bit on the Macro setting of espresso, drip, and press to see what it looked like. We don't drink much drip or press (gives us the jitters even though we can drink espresso all day and still be unwound enough for an occaisional nap) but you can see from the grinds that one has to dial in for the coarse setting just like for the fine (the press is on the right and it looks a little uneven and chunky). The thing is that you can go to these other settings from the espresso on the macro and go right back to where you were before.....kindof gets around the hesitancy to change any settings at all from the ideal espresso once you have it dialed in.
So we did our first videos of this whole process and plan to do some more with other machines. This is our current setup with the lever on wheels.
And by the way, we are keeping the Vario in service as we have had some of our best shots using it. The Mazzer is good, and for a commercial setting, no problem, real macho with the roar and clakking of the doser, but when we factor in the space we are saving and the shots we are getting from the Vario it is a win win situation.
Baratza Vario Espresso Grinder Demonstration Video
Pulling the Baratza Vario ground shot with the Astoria
We hope that this short user's diary has been of some use......we enjoyed doing it and look forward to adding any information as it comes along.
4/29/09 A month in and very satisfied..
At a bit more than a month in to using the Vario on a daily basis we have become accustomed, let's say spoiled, by the ease of use of the grinder. We have noticed some variance in the dose (time) with changes in humidity, fresher beans and the like but generally a change of the timer one way or another, generally keeping our grind rate in mind and a tap up or down one or two notches keeps the shots within a reasonable range. Richard Penny managed to con a Vario out of us on a trade for some of his beautiful "Nekkids" and after a week of not being able to get the hopper on is becoming a Vario enthusiast as well. Spoke with him today about it and he has had some very problematic Congolese beans that he is fond of and was unable to make an espresso with them that wouldn't "pucker an elephant" and so with the Vario he "downdosed and upfluffed" which I take to mean reduced the timer and increased the grind setting finer, and the number of positive adjectives he used to describe the shot was pretty long....citrus, tobacco, and what I think him being from Wisconsin was some type of cheese but I can't swear by it.
Seriously though, now that we have settiled into the routine the Vario has performed very well....still a bit of spill on the very end of the grind which seems to be unavoidable. We have begun using a different commercial machine at home and by use of the timer we have bumped up the dose gradually to really get the perfect dose in a fairly short period of time. All in all at a month we are very satisfied and find that the Vario has become an espresso tool as much as a grinder. Very good all around.
7/02/09 Some random thoughts
We got our Vario mid March and now it is the beginning of August......hot and dry where we live. Hard on bean freshness....or is it the humidity that is worse? In the morning, or afternoon when we begin our day, as we keep odd hours, sometimes worrying over a sick espresso machine, I have taken up the following ritual....we all have coffee rituals after all:
Turn on the machine, take care of the morning necessities, address the coffee.....I mix a big jot of our "usual espresso blend" which is fairly fruity, and often about a week from roast, going on two, with some , what I consider, at least to me, "HOT" beans....a Central American single origin or some African, but roasted recently....in a way too close to reast......and s a bit of Ethiopian of some kind for the blueberries and to take the edge off the Stumptown SO, and pretty much fill the hopper. Seems somehow sacreligeous, but that is how the Vario works best for me and actually introduces a whole different variable into the mix.....the changes of the beans as the day progresses. With this dry weather here in the Pacific Northwest, always this way in August, the time needed to grind the same dose with the Vario changes rapidly. First pull at the 24 second dose is a little overdosed, requiring a finger sweep to level and polish tamp , but the subsequent grindings require a slow bumping up of the time to maintain the same dose. But here is where it gets moe intuitive.....setting the coarseness setting one click coarser will achieve the same or similar increased dose. Which to do, increase the time therefore the quantity or change the grind setting? The result in the cup is not the same. Then one can increase the time by a second or so and set the grind one click finer....what happens then?
I enjoy these considerations......from the beginning of the day to the end, near midnight when the once full hopper is now empty, the time can be increased as much as 2 seconds, translfating to 2 full grams change in the dose over the course of a day. So why not just keep the beans sealed, in the freezer, under vaccum rather than fill the hopper? First of all the Vario seems to work better with at least some beans in the hopper.....more than you will use for the dose. Say I am dosing at what I want to be 22 grams.....I am using an basket called "18 gram basket", and my goal is an updosed ristretto with good crema and loits of fruit....I need to put at least 30 grams in the hopper since the Vario burr actually acts like a small fan when it is nearly empty, it blows much of the nicel fluffy grind all over the counter and in some ways throws off the whold calculation. I don't need to prove over and over that the Vario has minimal grounds retention, I alrady know that, so the grinder needs beans above the burrs to work right, at least it seems to me. We all are conscious of the need for fresh beans, but a roast 7 days out will be only 8 days out at the end of the day having spent its time in the hopper, and for this convenience of not fiddling and opening and closing bags and jars and cannisters I am rewarded with some slivers of information, and sometimes insight into how the beans are behaving, how the shots are different through the day and the actions I need to take to work with this fairly inexact blend of beans in the hopper to keep the shots as good as I can get them. I have come to be able to now make changes to the Vario to get the grind and dose just as I want it as the day, and my hopper of beans progresses, and frankly, sometimes the last shot of the day is the best shot and that last shot rests on the intuitive responses to the day and the beans and using the Vario to tweak and change the grind and dose for just that one hopper that was today. Tomorrow will be a whole new hopper and a whole new taste and cup and the process starts all over.
On a practical note.....we have yet to clean the burrs and have noted no change in function.
Many Happy Pulls!!!
Barb and Doug
