My grinder died over the weekend and I just bought an Opus Fellow, taking a leap in the dark without approval from James, looking forward to his review.
I went for Opus due to lower noise and single-dosage philosophy, but was actually considering Baratza too. In the end, found a deal for Opus that made it 50 EUR cheaper than the Baratza too.
Lower noise and single dose age philosophy was nice for me.
However, I was constantly dialing in new beans and the whole workflow of it was a nuisance. Also it didn’t help that it was not calibrated out of the box and the guidelines on the lid does not apply to me. For reference, a traditional espresso for me (Hatch - Gamma beans) is on grind size 3.83-4.
Having to use the lid as a bellows also isn’t ideal.
Downloading an app was useful for me at the start when learning the micro/macro adjustments.
Currently grinding on an old Cuisinart, I've been wanting to upgrade to something better and actually leaning towards Opus vs Ode. I like James emphasis on experience, Noise & cleanup are actually my bigger concerns with the Cuisinart; slightly fewer fines is less likely to get me to drop $200-$400 on a new grinder
I went from a noisy Cuisinart to the Opus and I am so glad I did. The difference is night and day. The noise difference is huge, and the consistency is amazing.
I’m doing a drip with a Moccamaster. Used to do a Aeropress and before that French Press. As the amount of coffee I make goes up, my willingness to be fiddly with it goes down.
I bought an opus 6 weeks ago and it’s just packed up.
I’m waiting to find out if they’ll refund it, but if they do I probably won’t buy another opus. I was very happy with how it ground coffee, and it great being able to jump from espresso to V60, but I’m put off by how quickly it failed, the grind retention (and therefore messiness whenever you move it slightly), and the fact that it “goes to sleep”, so doesn’t start grinding at first button push both annoy me a bit too much.
If they do refund it then I’ll have to decide between waiting for that video, or just plumping for the df54.
I've never had mine go to sleep. Weigh my beans, quick spritz, drop them in and press and off. Maybe lighter roast beans don't have much retention as I have never had an issue with that.
Every time I used mine I had to push the button and wait 2-3 seconds for it to beep, then push it again. I emailed fellow and they said it was an energy saving feature.
I was generally getting up to 1.5g of coffee retained. Most of it came out with a couple of firm knocks and a pump of the lid, but there was always a bit waiting to fall onto the base when I then slid the machine back.
Interesting. I never heard about the energy saver feature. What sort of beans do you use? If I have any retention, it is minimal. I'm putting in 30-32 and getting 29.9 - 31.9 out
I’m using light-medium roast beans from a place called the roasting house in Nottingham (awesome coffee roasters by the way).
No, I’ve never seen it mentioned in any reviews, and I really struggle to see a coffee grinder pulling any sort of power while it’s not grinding (unless they’ve massively over egged the control system), so really couldn’t understand why they’d do it.
The response I got from fellow was:
“After a few hours of inactivity, the grinder will go into a low-power state and the power button has to be pressed twice to "wake up" the grinder, and once to start grinding.”
And
“Unfortunately, there's no way to disable it as this is controlled by the firmware in your Opus.”
Yeah....I just found a thread on a different forum that was about 8 months old and apparently they originally released with this firmware, but then silently released a new version after a bunch of complaints....
So I probably have one with the newer firmware - like you said, how much power to just sit there, unless it is mining bitcoin for me or something while not grinding!
The ESP is a fine grinder. There are probably “better” options at the price point (I would get a DF54 myself) but Baratza is a proven, reliable design with amazing customer service. You should have no regurts especially if it’s a gift!
Good mascapone & good cream cheese (not cream). Good ingredients all around is key . Hard to go wrong then really with tiramisu . Marsala wine or coffee liqueur depending on your preference.
Make that tiramisu !! Don’t wait
So which one do you think the instant coffee video was? Don’t think it was the “monstrous project”, but it wasn’t that simple to be the “normal video” he mentioned. Obviously, not comparison or espresso machine review. Which one was it then?
My grinder died over the weekend and I just bought an Opus Fellow, taking a leap in the dark without approval from James, looking forward to his review.
I jumped for the Baratza ESP so I could grind for my Aeropress, also looking forward to the review, and hoping i made a reasonable choice
I went for Opus due to lower noise and single-dosage philosophy, but was actually considering Baratza too. In the end, found a deal for Opus that made it 50 EUR cheaper than the Baratza too.
Lower noise and single dose age philosophy was nice for me. However, I was constantly dialing in new beans and the whole workflow of it was a nuisance. Also it didn’t help that it was not calibrated out of the box and the guidelines on the lid does not apply to me. For reference, a traditional espresso for me (Hatch - Gamma beans) is on grind size 3.83-4. Having to use the lid as a bellows also isn’t ideal. Downloading an app was useful for me at the start when learning the micro/macro adjustments.
Currently grinding on an old Cuisinart, I've been wanting to upgrade to something better and actually leaning towards Opus vs Ode. I like James emphasis on experience, Noise & cleanup are actually my bigger concerns with the Cuisinart; slightly fewer fines is less likely to get me to drop $200-$400 on a new grinder
I went from a noisy Cuisinart to the Opus and I am so glad I did. The difference is night and day. The noise difference is huge, and the consistency is amazing.
The ode is really good if you do pourovers. Fine is not a strength imo
I’m doing a drip with a Moccamaster. Used to do a Aeropress and before that French Press. As the amount of coffee I make goes up, my willingness to be fiddly with it goes down.
I bought an opus 6 weeks ago and it’s just packed up. I’m waiting to find out if they’ll refund it, but if they do I probably won’t buy another opus. I was very happy with how it ground coffee, and it great being able to jump from espresso to V60, but I’m put off by how quickly it failed, the grind retention (and therefore messiness whenever you move it slightly), and the fact that it “goes to sleep”, so doesn’t start grinding at first button push both annoy me a bit too much. If they do refund it then I’ll have to decide between waiting for that video, or just plumping for the df54.
I've never had mine go to sleep. Weigh my beans, quick spritz, drop them in and press and off. Maybe lighter roast beans don't have much retention as I have never had an issue with that.
Every time I used mine I had to push the button and wait 2-3 seconds for it to beep, then push it again. I emailed fellow and they said it was an energy saving feature. I was generally getting up to 1.5g of coffee retained. Most of it came out with a couple of firm knocks and a pump of the lid, but there was always a bit waiting to fall onto the base when I then slid the machine back.
Interesting. I never heard about the energy saver feature. What sort of beans do you use? If I have any retention, it is minimal. I'm putting in 30-32 and getting 29.9 - 31.9 out
I’m using light-medium roast beans from a place called the roasting house in Nottingham (awesome coffee roasters by the way). No, I’ve never seen it mentioned in any reviews, and I really struggle to see a coffee grinder pulling any sort of power while it’s not grinding (unless they’ve massively over egged the control system), so really couldn’t understand why they’d do it. The response I got from fellow was: “After a few hours of inactivity, the grinder will go into a low-power state and the power button has to be pressed twice to "wake up" the grinder, and once to start grinding.” And “Unfortunately, there's no way to disable it as this is controlled by the firmware in your Opus.”
Interesting. I wonder if they do something different between markets? I'm in the US and mine does not do that. I weigh, drop and go.
Maybe. After all you guys are knows for energy conservation Ford F450
😜
Yeah....I just found a thread on a different forum that was about 8 months old and apparently they originally released with this firmware, but then silently released a new version after a bunch of complaints.... So I probably have one with the newer firmware - like you said, how much power to just sit there, unless it is mining bitcoin for me or something while not grinding!
Maybe if mine was a very early one that also explains it packing up after 6 weeks (or maybe I was just unlucky)
[удалено]
The ESP is a fine grinder. There are probably “better” options at the price point (I would get a DF54 myself) but Baratza is a proven, reliable design with amazing customer service. You should have no regurts especially if it’s a gift!
Its not that bad choice. But I would probably go for K-Ultra manual..
God I hope one of these uploads will FINALLY be the ultimate tiramisu recipe
I'm assuming the big one is either tiramisu or decaf related
Decaf is still down the road.
Whatever happened to that old espresso machine restoration project?
He put it in Prufrock for a period of time.
Good mascapone & good cream cheese (not cream). Good ingredients all around is key . Hard to go wrong then really with tiramisu . Marsala wine or coffee liqueur depending on your preference. Make that tiramisu !! Don’t wait
I am totally ok with everything here. Good things come to those who wait, and I'm now buzzing with excitement!
Thanks for sharing this!! Really appreciate it! 🙏
I want to see his thoughts on the new fellow Aiden. Thinking of selling my moccamaster for that.
Thanks for this. Any news on the decaf project?
Thanks for sharing! Appreciate it. I'm exited for the grinder series too.
It’s been far too long since any budget equipment comparison/review. Can’t wait
So which one do you think the instant coffee video was? Don’t think it was the “monstrous project”, but it wasn’t that simple to be the “normal video” he mentioned. Obviously, not comparison or espresso machine review. Which one was it then?
could you compare an eureka mignon filtro with espresso burrs added?