The Mazzer Mini Electronic A has been on the market as an espresso grinder for many years. And to tell you upfront: it will continue to perform solid work for many years to come. With a purchase price of around 750 euros/860 CHF, it belongs to the more expensive espresso grinders in our comparison test. How the espresso grinder performs, how it is built, and how the espresso tastes—you'll find out in our espresso grinder test.
Robust, heavy, and cumbersome
The Mazzer Mini Electronic A weighs 10.2kg. This weight is distributed over a height of 440mm, a width of 150mm, and a depth of 340mm. This makes the Mazzer Mini one of the heavyweights in our test. While the robustness of the grinder is an advantage in terms of stability, it is a disadvantage when it comes to adjusting the grind setting. The adjustment dial is difficult to turn even with considerable force, despite the metal rod. Once the dial comes loose, it often turns past the desired target position.
This is annoying. So what is actually a continuously variable grind adjustment becomes a somewhat tedious back-and-forth adjustment process. It works better if you grease the threads—but that's not ideal. And adjusting during grinding also allows for finer adjustment options. Solutions are in sight, but none of this contributes to good usability of the grinder.
The package includes a metal tray that catches the falling ground coffee. However, the Mazzer Mini barely scattered in our tests and didn't clump much either. The centered hopper did good work here. The portafilter suspension of the espresso grinder is exemplary—some manufacturers could learn a thing or two from it. The grinder holds portafilters with spout in both directions. Only a slight vibration of the grinder and the resulting slippage of the portafilter disturb the picture.
Grinder usability
The Mazzer Mini Electronic A has two programmable amount buttons that can be programmed via a second setting. This is reasonably intuitive. The grind setting adjustment, on the other hand, is significantly more difficult to control. The reason for this is the difficult adjustability of the grinder described above. After adjustment, it is hardly possible to hit the same point precisely. Noting or marking reference points becomes a guessing game.
The curve shows the grinding curves of the Mazzer Mini Electronic after adjusting back and forth to the same grinding position as possible.
This direction is also pointed to by many responses we received under our video test. Many users set the grinder once and then neither change beans nor grind setting. Of course, this can be solved, but it prevents trying different coffees. Also, many experienced home baristas want to fine-tune the grind setting by gentle adjustment. This is not well possible with the Mazzer Mini Electronic A.
This leads us to rate the grinder as "rather poor" in terms of usability.
We like the portafilter suspension. Most conventional portafilters fit in the Mazzer Mini. Portafilters with "reversed" outlets, such as from Rocket, can also be placed on the bracket.
During grinding, vibration occurs, which moves the portafilter. However, it should be held anyway to catch the ground coffee powder distributed.
Speed and noise level
The noise level of the Mazzer Mini Electronic A was in the mid-range for us. There were grinders that were significantly louder and grinders that were significantly quieter. We measured a noise level of 82.8 decibels.
In terms of speed, the Mazzer Mini was one of the slowest grinders in the test field. In 10 seconds, it achieved a grinding output of 16 grams. For the desired coffee amount of 18 grams, the grinder took 11.3 seconds.
Temperature and consistency in grinding
In terms of consistency, the Mazzer Mini was one of the grinders in the lower middle field. We measured a standard deviation of 0.74 grams over 10 grinds. We put 18 grams into the grinder and checked the output coffee weight. While many samples showed results around 18 grams of coffee, some outliers were off by +1 gram from the desired amount.
| 17.0 | 17.3 | 17.9 | 17.8 | 18.4 | 18.6 | 18.3 | 17.7 | 18.8 | 19.5 |
With many smaller grinding discs, the coffee powder heats up during grinding, especially when multiple shots are pulled in succession. In our test, a shot was pulled every 30 seconds. The first and last samples were also used for particle distribution measurements. The Mazzer Mini showed only minimal temperature increase and remained overall at a low average temperature of 30.4 degrees. This made the Mazzer one of the coolest and best grinders in the field. No taste change is expected from the temperature of the ground coffee. The particle distribution varied, but within the standard variance range of the grinder.
Is the Mazzer Mini suitable as a single-dose grinder?
Single doses are in. Especially when home baristas like to switch beans, the single-dose principle is very practical. For this, the desired coffee amount is weighed by hand in a measuring cup and added to the grinder. The grinder should then grind these beans as completely as possible one to one. In the English-speaking world, this is called "single dosing."
The most important factors to assess for this are the dead space, the easy adjustability of the grind setting, and depending on your perspective, also the amount of coffee between the bean hopper closure and the grinding discs.
The Mazzer Mini has a dead space of 5.3 grams, which is too large to convince as a single-dose grinder. Around 5 grams must always be ground out first—it's simply not practical. The difficult adjustment option also makes it difficult to precisely select the grind setting for another bean.
The coffee beans under the slider are another factor that at least makes changing beans in the bean hopper more difficult. 40.9 grams of coffee are located under the closure. So if we remove the bean hopper, there are still quite a few beans underneath. These beans must be removed before the entire coffee can be changed. All of this speaks against the Mazzer Mini as a flexible espresso grinder for single-dose use and against changing the coffee.
Espresso and taste
We mostly had decent espressos with the Mazzer Mini Electronic A. It impressed us more often with darker espresso roasts. The ground coffee was ground out soft and without lumps. Taste-wise, however, we repeatedly had espressos that were not brewed perfectly.
This could also be related to the fact that the Mazzer Mini generally produces relatively many fines, but in some curves produced significantly more finest particles. These tend to over-extract and contribute to a dry, bitter cup.
This diagram shows four shots at the same grind setting. The curves fluctuate and sometimes relatively fine particles are produced. The proportion of particles under 100 microns was over 23%. In some cases it was lower, but it always broke out again.
At the same time, the Mazzer Mini has a relatively narrow coarse peak of 214. To determine this, the highest point of the curve is taken and then cut. Particles are considered 30% on either side of the cut. In other words, with its narrow peak, the Mazzer Mini is relatively precise at the desired grind setting, but varies more with the fine peak.
But again: the Mazzer Mini Electronic A does solid work as an espresso grinder. However, some fluctuations in consistency and the large dead space minimize its reliability.
The curve shows how the Mazzer Mini performs in the field of other grinders.
About the test procedure—what was examined?
The diagram above shows all particle distribution curves we recorded. The Mazzer Mini Electric A was listed as grinder 19 in our test.
- T1 is a measurement of particle distribution in the factory setting. This can vary from grinder to grinder. In this case, the Mazzer Mini was factory-set in the ristretto range.
- T2 is a measurement of the first adjustment of a standard recipe of 18g coffee in, 45g espresso out in 25 seconds. Previously, 500g of coffee was ground through the grinder to remove residual materials from manufacturing, etc.
- T3 is a check of particle distribution after pulling one espresso six times in succession every 30 seconds. The heat of the ground coffee was recorded each time.
- T4 was taken after the original recipe was adjusted again.
- T5 shows the setting of a strong espresso/ristretto brewed 1:1 with 18g coffee in and 18g espresso out in 25 seconds.
- T6 shows the setting of a long coffee. 18 grams of coffee was used and an extraction of 120g in 25 seconds was achieved.
- T7 shows a curve that results when trying to achieve the same setting as curve 4 based only on the marking. In curve 4, the grind setting was photographed and with curve 7 was adjusted back according to the image.
More about the protocol also hier.
The detailed test report will be published in the course of Wednesday, December 8, 2021.
How do the Mazzer Mini A and Mazzer Mini B differ from each other?
Internally, the Mazzer Mini A and Mazzer Mini B do not differ significantly. It is mainly the exterior that differs. The control of the Mazzer Mini Electronic A is located on the centering hopper of the grinder. The control of the Mazzer Mini B is located below the dosing hopper. The grinding discs and other components are the same. The Mazzer Mini B closes with a plastic lid over the centering hopper.
Conclusion on Mazzer Mini Electronic A
Let's start with the potential. A second metal pin for adjusting the grind setting would be a useful addition. If you don't have one, you can also use a threaded screw. It doesn't look as nice, but it works just the same.
And that brings us right into one of the problem areas of the grinder. The adjustability, the associated flexibility and usability. The Mazzer Mini is an established grinder and accordingly robust and solid. With its performance, it does not recommend itself for the top positions in our test.
Although we regularly had decent and even good espressos, we also tasted more unpleasant outliers. For this reason, it is difficult to recommend the Mazzer Mini Electronic to the discerning and experimentally inclined home barista today. The high price is another argument against it. The biggest pro is probably the proven longevity of the grinder, which modern and cheaper grinders still have to prove.
