Wilfa 605775 Coffee Grinder, Steel, Silver

Product Information

A contentious point when it comes to the Wilfa Uniform is the inclusion of the built-in Bluetooth scale in the lid.

As for the cup quality, we'd say that the Fellow Ode Gen 2 just pips it, by the smallest of margins. The extra research that has gone into creating Gen 2 really shines through, and what you lose in its inability to grind for espresso, you gain in clear and nuanced filter brews. That's not to say the Wilfa Uniform is bad in any way, though! For the vast majority of 'prosumer' coffee aficionados, the Wilfa Uniform really is an end-game upgrade. However, at the moment the Wilfa Svart is only available in Europe so until we know anything about retail price and availability the whole discussion is theoretical. Performance They also grind right down to 250 microns (down from Gen 1's 550 microns and up), which means you can dial in your finest pourover recipes for even more extraction.The closest in terms of uniform grind seems to be the Etzinger ETZ-I, which is a bit of a wunderkind in the manual grinder world. The output from its unique burr set and how it is mounted gives the Etzinger a very even (or dare I say it, ‘uniform’) grind output. I did not run Kruve tests on it, but did visually inspect. (ed.note – in the two days before I published this review, I did some initial Kruve tests with the ETZ-I and Wilfa Uniform: the numbers were very similar).

Yet for as much fussing as we would have had to do to make espresso, pour-over, which Reyna refers to as “the second hardest kind of coffee to make” was one and done. Wilfa recommends grinding it between steps 14 and 28. Sam ground on step 24 to use with a Kalita Wave dripper, and the coffee came out perfect, measuring 20.36 percent extraction (they like between 18 to 22 percent), and with total dissolved solids (TDS) of 1.40 percent. For French press peeps like yours truly, the grind was plenty coarse, and when I made some at home it was deeply flavored and not too sludgy. Easy peasy. The Ode Brew Grinder Gen 2 focuses on getting the very best from your filter coffee. Its burr set and motor means that unfortunately, it's not suitable for espresso brewing. The new Fellow Opus takes on that responsibility instead, as well as being adaptable to a whole range of other brew methods. We'd also recommend the Eureka Mignon Specialitaas a great all-rounder which handles espresso very well. If espresso isn't on your mind, the Ode Gen 2 is a step up for folks who really want to experience all that a premium coffee grinder can offer. If you’re serious about espresso, it’s not an ideal grinder. However, if you want to have an occasional shot, it will probably work for you. Here you can take a look at Wendelboe’s detailed product description video if you need any more convincing! The auto off feature is quite nice, but in my three months of daily use, I found the grinder would sometimes stop before it got every stray bean. This required pressing the button again for it to grind for another 10 seconds or so, and that usually caught the last bits of whole bean.You sacrifice some for this. First, the Wilfa Uniform is less than half the speed of the Vario+, at around 0.8g/sec output. There’s no timers, no presets, no nothing, but given that it is a single dose grinder, this isn’t a big issue. The auto-off feature also makes up for this. The Vario+ comes with a lot: a dedicated Portaholder for grinding directly into portafilters; a micro / macro adjust function which is valuable for espresso grinding; digital 0.1 second timer with three presets; fast output at over 2g/second for most grind settings; a large 10oz bean hopper; and most importantly, a completely industry leading after sales support system, even out of warranty. The Vario+ can easily handle any grind requirement from espresso on up to finer press pot grinds.

I have used a borrowed Ode in a few situations, enough to see the grinder’s benefits and failings. There’s also plenty of Youtube reviewers out there who have a lot to say about the Ode. Most of it is pretty bad. Although this grinder is designed mainly with filter coffee in mind the burrs are able to grind fine enough for espresso making this an excellent all round grinder. If you mainly grind for espresso we would still recommend a dedicated home espresso grinder like the Baratza Sette 270.Grinding for espresso isn’t just about finely ground coffee; you also need to precisely dial in the grind size for each new coffee to optimize extraction. The gap between the 41 grind settings on the Wilfa Uniform is too large, and you won’t be able to nail the perfect grind on every coffee. Then there is the slow grind speed, which is significantly more frustrating at finer grinds. The Wilfa Uniform coffee grinder is a 58mm flat burr grinder designed for home use. Most coffee grinders at this price point use conical burrs. While these are great and more affordable to produce they tend to produce a less even particle distribution. The heart of this grinder is its burr set, which is impressive. They are 58mm machined, hardened steel flat burrs with a very good range of grinding ability with a good uniformity across the grinds at almost any setting.