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Home > Baratza Virtuoso Preciso User Review
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Baratza asked us to test their new Virtuoso Preciso (VP) grinder as a lead up to their current product release of the VP. Full disclosure here....we may or may not have gotten a free grinder out of the deal as we are not sure how this works, and were fairly chagrined at the prospect of giving a possible negative review of a product from folks that we like and appreciate. We have fallen head over heels with the Baratza VARIO and would not trade it for all but a few very lusty grinders, and then likely not, as it performs perfectly for us in our espresso system and were a bit dubious about the VP.
The packaging of the VP is very stout and there are no Styrofoam inserts in the box....all deftly folded cardboard and the grinder arrived well protected. Included with the VP is an instruction book and a burr cleaning brush. After a lot of procrastination we finally set up the VP next to our VARIO in our kitchen coffee setup and still could not break our habits from the VARIO to the VP out of the usual resistance to change of course, but once we got on the project this is what we found.....
We had underestimated the grinding capacity of the VP, thinking that as it was more of an entry level espresso grinder.....and we grind mostly for espresso....so we assumed that we would have to turn the setting WAY down for a good espresso grind....WRONG! The manual states a setting on the macro collar of 1 to 14 for espresso and so of course we began with 1....big mistake , as this caused the motor to nearly seize when using some pretty stale test beans. This gave us a good experience in the cleaning out the burrs and grinds passages on the machine, which turns out to be very easy to do. We use a commercial lever espresso machine on a daily basis and our various dosing funnels and slap shot technique so this simplified dialing in a new grinder quite a bit. After a lot of trial and error we finally realized that we were grinding WAY too fine and began to get some good shots at about 10 on the macro setting....the pulls a bit slow and oily.....and 11 macro a bit fast and thin and yes, the micro range came into play for a very nice dial in of shot on par with the VARIO.
 
When grinding the VP exudes a good fresh bean aroma (assuming you have fresh beans) and the speed is very good. The sonic qualities of the burr on the grind are overall pleasant with no harsh edges and the sound of the burr on the grind can be used as an indicator of proper grind or over tightness of the burr with a particular bean....listening to a grinder is perhaps a bit extreme to some but when a burr sounds good it grinds good. The conical burr is quite reminiscent of the old German hand grinders which we love and it is a pleasure to find such a high quality burr in a low priced grinder. To clean, one simply turns the hopper to 40 and lifts it off. There is a silicone collar which seals the burr to hopper on top of the outer burr which one pulls off and then grasps and lifts the outer burr off the assembly....now comes what may or may not be a sticking point. Below the inner conical burr are a series of nylon blades, which act to direct the grinds to the drop port located in front of the grinding chamber, much like many commercial espresso grinders...of course this setup can lead to grinds retention, which may be particularly aggravating if you dose with a scale...."on the numbers" as we like to think of it.
This is the standard Virtuoso burr pictured below.
 
As we have become more and more analog in our espresso prep, we dose volumetrically and not stoichiometrically and so our routine was this:
- dose by volume, one shot, into hopper
- insert portafilter under drop port using either tall dosing funnel or short, either one works quite well
- activate grinder by turning side knob half way or more
- after the last bean has been ground hold the portafilter in place for additional time to clear the drop port and the majority of the grounds in the grinding chamber....there will be a bit more coffee expelled during this clean out period when the grinder just basically whirrrs along seemingly empty
- proceed with portafilter prep and shot as usual
We were unable to evaluate the Portaholder as our test model did not have one included, but as we are funnel centric with all of our grinders this may not have been a game changer anyway. The shots seemed very bright as compared with our VARIO using the same beans and machine.....we do not have enough experience to fully analyze the taste of the shot and this is highly subjective anyway, so we will leave this one alone. The VARIO was an extremely good learning tool for us during a phase of our espresso journey when we were putting together a lot of parameters that lead to a good and consistent shot. Much of our experience with the VARIO was applied directly to the VP and at this point we could easily substitute the VP for the VARIO as our main grinder. The MICRO settings do give one the feeling of having a very good range of control of the grind and once set up for a particular bean we found no wandering or variance of the grind.
We did not find the 'pulse' button on the front of the grinder to be of any great utility as it does seem to require a two hand operation and it is much simpler to use to time knob on the side. We did not attempt to use the grinder with the hopper full of beans as that is not our preferred method of approaching our coffee or espresso prep....and it would be more or less challenging to estimate an espresso, or drip or press dose with the analog turning timer dial....we are analog, but not THAT analog!
The VP seems made to be cleaned manually rather than using special cleaning products and the dis and assembly is simple and straightforward. Manual cleaning of the burrs is to us always superior to spending the money for special burr cleaning products.
So, yes - a few quirks to work around for the coffee geek, having to do with grounds retention mostly, but with the new precision micro adjustments the VP seems a good entry point for espresso enthusiasts on a budget who want a good, dependable grinder that they can really fine tune for the machine and the bean. Seems like a WINNAH!!!!
UPDATE NOTES:
After getting the Preciso fairly well dialed in Kyle at Baratza informed us that he was calling all the machines back to install a new improved burr....and of course, the phrase NEW and IMPROVED these days seems like the same old claptrap but when he brought us a test machine with this burr...WOW! The conical burr has been remachined with deeper bean scoops and a very unique set of small primary cutter teeth like small pointed blades spaced around the burr below the been feeder scoops. In our analysis these function to produce the first grind of the bean with a buzz saw like cutting motion rather than a crushing action, resulting in a very uniform bean fragment size entering the small grinding blades before leaving the burr. This is not a trivial matter....as an illustration, take a single coffee bean, a fresh one, good and dry, and a flat bottom drinking glass or other flat object on a hard smooth surface and CRUSH the bean....what you get is an assortment of fragment sizes, ranging from big chunks to a few fines. On the usual conical burr the large bean feeding scoops basically draw the bean downward and crush it against the side of the outer burr. Even though there are some large cutters in this region of the burr it still has a more or less crushing action resulting in a variety of fragment sizes, just like in your bean crushing experiment and one of the sizes are the fines. So one of the results of the new burr with the buzz saw effect is that the beans are cut into a more uniform fragment size before they have a chance to crush and fragment into an uncontrollable fragment profile (including particles finer than those which you are aiming for at your grind setting.
This burr, with its curved feeding scoops is much like the German hand grinder burrs, particularly the grinders with exceptionally fast feed and fine even grind.
This is the new Preciso burr.
The upshot of this is that there are very few fines in the critical press grind and the other coarse grinds, resulting in a very even grind profile and an even extraction when using coarse grind methods of brewing. This is a very large step forward in coarse and medium grinding as well as espresso and this may be that rare event when a grinder is designed for uniform coarse grinding rather than designing with espresso in mind and assuming that the other grind levels will simply follow as a matter of course.
The new burr is also quite fast, with time trials on a 22 gram dose of espresso in the 15 second range. Kyle reports 2 grams per second in the midrange grinds which is very very good. The increase in speed is also likely due to the small teeth cutters, producing a more uniform first-cut particle size, increasing the efficiency of the grinding. He also pointed out to us that the micro increment changes the burr to burr distance by .004 inches...very good control.
We are still hovering around the 10.5 range on the macro and using the micro as an adjuster to compensate for different beans and relative humidity, etc. The espresso shots are very clear and bright as one expects with a conical burr and in our opinion this new grinder brings out the fruits and high notes of a bean or blend, but we generally leave these types of analysis to trained cuppers and roasters (we are in the category of 'I know what I like when I taste it") and we have tasted some very good shots using the Preciso.
This new grinder , we predict, will be getting some pretty high marks for press, drip, vac pot, AND espresso. The new burr, the speed, the uniformity of grind, ease of use and cleaning, AND the price all make this a VERY good grinder.
Click here to go to the product page to purchase the Preciso: Baratza Virtuoso PRECISO Electric Coffee Grinder
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