The Mazzer Mini Electronic A has been on the espresso grinder market for many years. And to be upfront: it will continue to do solid work for many years to come. At a purchase price of around 750 euros/860 CHF, it ranks among the more expensive espresso grinders in our comparison test. How the espresso grinder performs, how it's built, and what the espresso tastes like, you'll find out in our espresso grinder test.
Robust, heavy, and cumbersome
The Mazzer Mini Electronic A weighs 10.2 kg. This weight is distributed over a height of 440 mm, a width of 150 mm, and a depth of 340 mm. This makes the Mazzer Mini one of the heavyweights in our test. While the grinder's robustness is an advantage in terms of stability, it's a disadvantage when it comes to adjusting the grind size. The adjustment wheel is difficult to turn even with great force, despite the metal rod. Once the wheel comes loose, it often turns past the desired target position.
This is annoying. So the supposedly stepless grind adjustment becomes a somewhat tedious back-and-forth affair. It works better if you lubricate the thread - but that's not ideal either. 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. The Mazzer Mini barely scattered in our tests and didn't clump much either. The centering funnel did a good job here. The portafilter holder of the espresso grinder is exemplary - some manufacturers could take notes. The grinder holds portafilters with a spout in both directions. Only a slight vibration of the grinder and the resulting slipping of the portafilter disturb the picture.
Usability of the grinder
The Mazzer Mini Electronic A has two programmable dosing buttons that can be programmed via a second timer function. This is fairly intuitive to do. The grind adjustment, on the other hand, is much more difficult to control. The reason is the difficult adjustability of the grinder described above. It's hardly possible to precisely return to the same point after adjustment. Noting or marking reference points becomes a matter of luck.
The curve shows the grinding curves of the Mazzer Mini Electronic after adjusting back and forth to as similar a grind position as possible.
Many feedback messages we received under our video test point in this direction. Many users set the grinder once and then neither change beans nor grind size. This can certainly work, but it limits the ability to try different coffees. Many experienced home baristas also want to fine-tune the grind size with gentle adjustments. This is not easily 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 holder. Most conventional portafilters fit into the Mazzer Mini. Even portafilters with a "reversed" spout, such as those from Rocket, can be placed on the holder.
During grinding, vibration occurs which moves the portafilter. However, it should be held anyway to catch the ground coffee being dosed in a distributed manner.
Speed and noise level
The noise level of the Mazzer Mini Electronic A was in the mid-range in our tests. There were grinders that were significantly louder and some 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 during grinding
In terms of consistency, the Mazzer Mini was among the grinders in the lower middle range. We measured a standard deviation of 0.74 grams over 10 grinds. We put 18 grams into the grinder and checked the output weight of ground coffee. 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 ground coffee 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 makes the Mazzer one of the coolest and best grinders in the field. Given the temperature of the ground coffee, no change in taste is to be expected. The particle distribution did vary, but within the framework of the grinder's standard variance.
Is the Mazzer Mini suitable as a single-dose grinder?
Single dosing is in. Especially when home baristas want to switch beans frequently, the single-dose principle is very practical. For this, the desired amount of coffee is weighed by hand in a measuring cup and fed into the grinder. The grinder should then output these beans as completely and one-to-one as possible. In the English-speaking world, this is called "single dosing."
The most important factors to assess for this are the retention, the easy adjustability of the grind size, and depending on your perspective, also the amount of coffee between the bean hopper closure and the grinding discs.
The Mazzer Mini has a retention of 5.3 grams, which is too large to convince as a single-dose grinder. These roughly 5 grams must always be ground out first - that's simply not practical. The difficult adjustment capability also makes it difficult to precisely select the grind size for a different bean.
The coffee beans under the slider are another factor that at least complicates switching beans in the bean hopper. 40.9 grams of coffee are located under the closure. So if we remove the bean hopper, there are still quite a lot of beans underneath. These beans must be removed before you can switch the entire coffee. All of this speaks against the Mazzer Mini as a flexible espresso grinder for single dosing and against switching coffee.
Espresso and taste
We mostly pulled decent espressos with the Mazzer Mini Electronic A. It impressed us more often with darker espresso roasts. The ground coffee was output soft and without lumps. However, taste-wise, we repeatedly had espressos that weren't quite right.
This may also be related to the fact that the Mazzer Mini generally produces relatively many fines, but with some curves it produced significantly more fine 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 produce relatively fine particles. The proportion of particles under 100 microns was over 23%. In some cases it was lower, but it always spiked 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 at 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 retention minimize reliability.
The curve shows how the Mazzer Mini performs in the field of other grinders.
On 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 particle distribution measurement 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 setting of a standard recipe of 18g coffee in, 45g espresso out in 25 seconds. Previously, 500g of coffee was ground on the grinder to remove residual materials from manufacturing, etc.
- T3 is a check of the particle distribution after pulling 6 espressos in succession every 30 seconds. The temperature of the ground coffee was recorded each time.
- T4 was taken after the original recipe was reset.
- T5 shows the setting of a strong, 1:1 brewed espresso/ristretto with 18g coffee in and 18g espresso out in 25 seconds.
- T6 shows the setting of a lungo. 18 grams of coffee were used and an extraction of 120g in 25 seconds was achieved.
- T7 shows a curve that results when attempting to return to the same setting as in curve 4 based only on the marking. In curve 4, the grind setting was photographed and with curve 7 we reset based on the image.
More on the protocol also here.
The detailed test report will be published on Wednesday, December 8, 2021.
What are the differences between Mazzer Mini A and Mazzer Mini B?
The Mazzer Mini A and Mazzer Mini B don't differ significantly internally. It's mainly the exterior that differs. The control of the Mazzer Mini Electronic A is located on the centering container of the grinder. The control of the Mazzer Mini B is located below the dosing container. The grinding discs and other components are the same. The Mazzer Mini B closes with a plastic lid over the centering container.
Conclusion on Mazzer Mini Electronic A
Let's start with the potential. A second metal pin for adjusting the grind size would be a useful addition. For those who don't have one, you can also use a threaded screw. It doesn't look as nice, but it works.
And that brings us right into one of the grinder's problem areas. The adjustability, the associated flexibility and usability. The Mazzer Mini is an established grinder and accordingly robust and solid. With its performance, it doesn't recommend itself for the top positions in our test.
Although we did get decent and even good espressos time and again, we also encountered some unpleasant outliers. That's why it's difficult to recommend the Mazzer Mini Electronic to today's experienced and experimentally-minded home barista. The high price is another argument against it. The biggest pro is probably the proven longevity of the grinder, which modern and cheaper grinders have yet to prove.
