Well I think that it must be about time for a true barista post. Hailing and celebrating technology and ideas to make making coffee easier and more consistent, the qualities baristi hail and love.

Awhile ago, I had the privilege of going to a good friends house round Chesterfield way, to pick up an espresso machine he kindly offered me. Whilst there, I got the treat of seeing a rare grinder timer prototype, and whilst I didn’t understand it at the time, a grinder timer with a very different concept than most… Following chatting to Jon about this grinder timer, and the pros and cons, He kindly offered to make me a prototype for me to use and evaluate, but with the fantastic option of a footswitch to enable hands-free grinding, great with a doserless grinder.

Tonight was the night I got to see this fantastic prototype timer. It works on a simple, but well executed concept. Baristi don’t want to be messing around with timings, and how they relate to the grind. And unfortunately a lot of after-market, and infact built-in grinder timers have this issue, everything is displayed in time, and it takes guess work to really dial it in initially. But with this grinder timer, you calibrate it to roughly match the grams/second measurement of the grinder. Of course this comes with various assumptions, you do have to re-calibrate the grinder if you are aiming to use a coffee with a very different roast style, density of bean etc. however this is very easy, and also if you calibrate it with the grinder cold, it will need re-calibrating a little when it warms up.

But once calibrated its fantastically simple. You have a pot on the front of the timer (which is a 6×4 inch metal box or so) which adjusts the grind across a 10g range or so by changing the time. However due to its ability to be calibrated, it means that regardless of the grinding speed of the grinder, or the beans you are using, it can be easily re-calibrated to offer the same range and control across a range of grinders and coffees. There is also a button with a light on the front that flashes when grinding. Also a great feature is that if you just press the button, it will grind the set dose, however, if you press the button before the end of the shot, it cuts the dose short, which is great for purging grinds etc.

The other thing that I love about it, is that with my request, Jon also added a guitar style foot switch to the grinder, to enable the same operation as the button on the box, but with a foot switch connected via jack cable. A great addition for a coffee shop, where we need more than two arms to get everything done fast enough.

Finally, and also importantly, is that this is not an addition to the grinder so much. It does not need to be wired in, and can be implemented or removed in a second. Which is very important in case of a problem or malfunction. It works by having the 3-pronged plug from the grinder, plugged into a cable that converts it to a kettle-lead, which goes into the timer, then a kettle lead goes from timer to wall. So if there’s an issue, the kettle lead comes out, and grinder does straight in, no down time, no swapping grinders, and no quick fixes.

I’ll post more, and with pictures once I’ve put it through its paces, needless to say, I’m excited.

Chris Weaver

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