Game changer: San Remo Revolution Grinder

The ultimate grinder of choice for coffee pros since Matt Perger’s ubiquitous performance in 2013 at the World Barista Championships in Melbourne has undoubtedly been the Mahlkonig EK43.  Largely, this is due to its huge 98mm flat burr set and almost perfectly unimodal grind distribution.  However, one thing that has scuppered its wider adoption for espresso service is the fiddly process required to make it fast enough to use in a busy coffee shop.

Although grinders such as the Victoria Arduino Mythos One Clima Pro (quite the mouthful) handle espresso much better with excellent quality to boot, the particular qualities found in the grind of the larger EK43 burr set are still considered by the top coffee bods to be unmatched in blind testing when it comes to the cup.

The grinder that promises to do it all — and more

Enter San Remo into the fray: they’ve have had a grinder in the pipeline for some time now since a concept was brought to them by multiple UK Barista Champ John Gordon several years ago.  The intention was to create a grinder with automatic weighing and multiple hoppers.  Some consider this point to be the holy grail in grinder design that would help to spark the next revolution in coffee shop service.  Having said that, such ideas have been visited by grinder companies in the past using different formats.  This includes the domestic Baratza Sette and the beast that is the EKK43.  However, the idea in its entirety has never been fulfilled successfully on a commercial level.

The Revolution grinder in its largest configuration, the REVO3, has 3 different hoppers.  This enables the barista to have access to 3 different coffees at the same time.  Here are more of its feature billing:

• 700 or 1800RPM grind speeds to switch between speed/quality (from heat reduction)
• Touch display to access the plethora of options including realtime blending (!!)
• 98mm burrs to match the EK43 in size — exact burr quality and grind distribution needs to be seen, but looks promising
• Pre-set grind size (!!)
• Pre-set weights (!!) – courtesy of Acaia (the insanely priced but brilliant scale brand) tech that’s baked in
• The potential to quickly and easily switch between house and more varied offering, such as natural coffees

A more efficient coffee world

Alongside bringing features to fore that could change the entire way that coffee shops deliver coffee drinks, the REVO3 also provides what could theoretically be a replacement for 3 or more grinder set-ups found in many coffee shops.

Along with the feature set listed above, the time-savings made could be huge for both dealing with volume in busy coffee shops.  The REVO3 could also prove to enable baristas to carry out even more innovation during the day by providing them firstly the time, and secondly the function, such as via real-time blending.

Where customers currently customise their orders in Starbucks with 1 gallon of milk, 3 espresso shots and 4 pumps of Vanilla essence (or whatever it’s called).  In future they’ll be able to order a 43% Brazil Pulped Natural, 57% Ethiopian Guji to cater for their exacting body and fruity needs.  (I think this is what the grinder could potentially do, but don’t take my word for it!)

There is a potential darker side of things if this grinder does what it intends.  Could it even end up replacing actual barista hours with its efficiency benefits?

Who knows? But stay tuned for its launch in 2018.  This could indeed be a true Revolution in the coffee industry.