Niche Zero Coffee Grinder Review

Here we take a look at the new Niche Zero Coffee Grinder and review what use it can have for the barista at home or in a cafe. The Niche grinder uses conical blades as opposed to flat burr and apparently retains or holds very little coffee in between grinds - 'ZERO' retention! Joel found the grinder could hold potential as a secondary grinder in a cafe to grind individual doses of single origin or decaf coffee for example.

Take a look and let us know what you think of the grinder and if it's something you could see yourself using.

Video Transcript:

G’day everyone! Joel from Artisti Coffee Roasters here.

Today we're shooting a video on brew recipes and we're using the Niche Zero Grinder. We've had the Niche for about a month and a half now using it in several different settings and environments and we kind of really like this little guy. If I break it  down, it's a very specific grinder that suits a specific style of person. The main pros about the Niche compared to other comparable grinders is its size and also price. It's got 64 mm conical burrs, which is for this size grinder, quite large burr sets. The other thing is it doesn't actually have a hopper per se, that sits on top to dose the beans. You're actually weighing those beans before you grind them and putting them straight in the top and grinding them per dose let's say. This is what they call the straight through grinder which means that it has basically zero or very little grind retention. Niche is saying that holds point two of a gram per grinding dose. So that means that you can grind different coffee through this grinder each time without having residual left over that you have to clear out.

The other thing that I liked about this grinder is aesthetically it is very pleasing. It's a beautiful little thing! We've got beautiful timber finishes. This particular version is the white version, it also comes in black but everything about it is just ergonomically, I suppose appealing and visually appealing. The other good thing about this is for a home user that it is actually quite short and operates in a lot of small footprint. This means that you can have it on your bench and it's not taking up a huge amount of space. Other grinders that have similar burrs in it are almost twice the size so this is a really small compact option.

 The other really great thing for home use and even a little bit for you know when you take it out of that domestic setting is the actual sound that it makes. This is a very very quiet grinder. So I’m going to switch it on now so you can have a listen. Super-quiet! We could have the conversation all day long while this grinders running and it's not really affecting our conversation. So, again Niche say that it's 78 decibels which is very very quiet compared to other grinders.

 Another few really nice touches is the dosing pot that's provided with the Niche. Now this is a 58 mm dosing pot. So that means for a standard handle or a E61 with a 58 mil basket and portafilter,  is that that will fit straight in so your dose doesn't gets spilt everywhere. It's a very very intuitive easy to operate you know little tool that comes stock standard. I know a lot of you may have seen in our videos a little a little plastic cheat that we that we get from the supermarket. Obviously the stainless steel version is much more, you know it's nicer to use and it looks really good on the bench as well.

 So the Niche will grind up to 50 grams per dose, which if you're just doing single espresso grinds is not a problem at all. It does it quite adequately. One advantage or one positive that I found on this grinder is the really easy to read dial on the top here. We can make adjustments super quickly and super easily. So in a small cafe I actually think this is a great little grinder because you can do your decaf, offer different Single Origins but also do filter coffee and you know pour overs and that sort of thing with just an easy adjustment of the collar up here and then go straight back to your espresso setting for your decaf and add beautiful fresh ground decaf for espresso or your single origins as well. So that's one thing that I really do like about this. In the same way that we use a deli grinder this can be used to grind different grind settings, very quickly, very easily, very efficiently and getting straight back to where you want to be to continue, you know to grind for espresso or something along those lines.

So here in Australia the price of the Niche is around twelve hundred and fifty dollars. So that is really actually for what you're getting with those large burr sets and the amount of I suppose playing features and the look of it I believe really good value for this grinder.

Now I'm going to talk about a few of the mmm negatives or little hang-ups that I have about this grinder. One of the main things that I suppose concerns me about this grinder is that it's probably not suitable for most home users. I know my wife for example, when she goes to make a coffee she kind of just wants to press a button and have that dose control for her and have ground coffee on tap if you will very easily. It’s a little bit dicky the process of actually pre-weighing your beans every single time and getting those accurate every single time out of the bag.  I know myself I'm always over filling or under filling when I'm when pouring the beans out of the bag or even scooping them to weigh the dose before they go in.

 The other thing that I want to address I suppose, if you're looking to use it in a more commercial sense or you want to make coffee quickly it is a very slow process. When you're weighing those beans out it can take a lot of time. Not only that, when you're putting them into the Niches grinder burrs here and turning it on, that actually takes quite a long time for a 63 mm burr set to grind through. We’ve timed this, it's somewhere between 20 and 25 seconds depending on your grind setting, for around 20 grams of coffee, which is quite a long time. For some people this isn't going to be a problem, you don't actually need to be holding it while it’s grinding. The other thing and look I suppose everyone's going to compare this to something along the lines of an EK 43 or another deli grinder which we use in a similar way, we can't grind large amounts of coffee in this grinder. As I said before it only holds 50 grams per dose, so if you're looking to pre-ground some coffee to take with you on a camping trip to use in your AeroPress or other mobile device this really doesn't have the capability to do that well.  I did actually time on and off, how long it took to grind 250 grams at espresso. It was more just for my curiosity more than anything. It actually took over three and a half minutes of grind time alone, let alone me having to re-dose it and change out the dosing cup at the bottom just of grind time. So if you're looking to grind larger doses than single espresso doses or something else then it's probably not the grinder for you.

 So, for me I absolutely love the niche! For me personally being a coffee geek I really want to be weighing my dose every single time.  I really want to have that super fine control over the grind settings and I want to have that flexibility to be able to do a filter coffee and then do an espresso coffee because I do a lot of different things at home. For someone who really just wants to press a button and have their dose kind of sorted, they they're not making huge adjustments on the grind setting on a day to day basis, you're not using different coffees and playing all the time. This probably isn't the grinder for you. You won't enjoy the experience of using it if it's not something that you want to spend time doing. As far as cafe use goes, I'm a coffee roaster so I'm always thinking about how things can be implemented in cafes. Well though I don't think this was designed for cafe use, it's more for domestic use, I think it will work really well as a secondary grinder that you could grind your decaf, to your single origins, to fresh to order instead of having pre-ground or having another large  expensive grinder like an EK 43. This will do a similar job on a very small volume and you know small bench space as well, which you know espresso bars and cafes, that really helps. The other thing that I can see is a real advantage with this is the ease of just adjusting the grind every single time doing a  pour over going back to your espresso.

 So for me I really think that this is a great grinder for someone at home who really loves to play with their coffee. You have several different types of coffee and you want to be playing all the time, you're happy to spend time when you make coffee, you don't need something quick and just super simple but you're willing to spend the time. If you do I believe that you are going to get great coffee out of this grinder.

 I hope that was helpful for you. If you have any questions on the Niche make sure you leave me a comment below and I'll make sure that I answer that is to the best of my ability. Like this video, subscribe, hit the bell icon so you get updated every time we release a new video.

 Thanks for watching!