The Niche Duo is the second espresso grinder from Niche. With the Niche Zero, Niche essentially single-handedly developed the single dosing espresso grinder market at home. Now comes the Niche DUO with 83mm burrs. Can the British company raise the bar even further?
Instead of a conical grinding mechanism, flat burrs are now installed. Instead of one pair, there are two—one for filter and one for espresso. This is supposed to provide the home barista with flexibility and quality while building on Niche's proven performance. We test whether it succeeds.
We compared 10 single dosing grinders in the price range of 500 to 1000 euros. Learn more in our article on the topic.
A First Impression
The Niche Duo is "a penguin with an appetite," says coffee expert Michel Indelicato, who, together with Benjamin Hohlmann, took a close look at the Niche Duo. A charming description for the robust appearance of the grinder, which has gained a few centimeters compared to the Zero. It now weighs 5 kg, stands 35cm tall, 23cm deep, and 18cm wide.
That's not significantly more than the smaller Zero, but it is noticeable. Otherwise, Niche stays true to its own line. Good workmanship, glossy black or white metal, and an elegant curve that vaguely reminds one of kitchen appliances. In a past life, the Niche could have also been an orange press or a blender. Sharp edges are nowhere to be found, and the wood finish ensures that the Niche, while peculiar—like a penguin—certainly shines elegantly next to the espresso machine.
The only weak point of the grinder also appears to be the plastic lid and its hanging mechanism in the DUO. It's not very reassuring, though we must say that none have broken off on us yet.
Otherwise, we stick with what's proven. The grinder has no buttons, no display, and works only with an on/off switch or starts by closing the lid. And then the grinder works consistently vertically, which manifests itself in minimal retention.
Performance and Handling
The Duo hums at a volume of 77.6 dB, which is quite acceptable for its size and heavy construction. True, the smaller sibling Zero is quieter at only 72.9 decibels, but that was the absolute top value from our previous grinder tests. At 77.6 dB, the Duo is doing well.
With a retention of just 1.6g, the grinder ranks among the top tier, which is particularly impressive given the size of the burrs. Here too we measure the smaller sibling at 1.1 grams, though naturally there are fewer gaps in the circumference of the small grinding cone diameter. It's important to note that we measured absolute retention, which plays a smaller role in single dosing grinders.
Instead, the grinding is interrupted, the remaining beans are removed, and we observe what filling remains in the grinder. More important for single dosing grinders is the single dosing retention. Here the Niche Duo achieves 0.16 grams. We grind for 30 seconds and observe how much residue remains in the grinder. How many grams of the input coffee amount don't make their way out. 0.16 grams is a very good value.
In terms of speed, the Duo requires some patience: At 10.8g per 10 seconds, it ranks among the slowest espresso grinders. This is mainly due to the relatively slow rotational speed of the burrs.
A temperature increase of only 1.5°C during grinding over 6 consecutive grinds shows that the Duo was designed with consideration for heat generation. Despite the closed design, we remain consistently around 30.4 degrees on average, which is also due to the large diameter of the burrs and the low RPM.
Consistency and Grind-Size Repeatability
The consistency in grinding results with a standard deviation of 0.16g is good, though we see the smaller sibling with a slight advantage here (0.11 grams). The grind-size repeatability was excellent even after adjusting the grinder. It's entirely possible to set different recipes, switch between them, and return to the grind size.
This makes the Niche Duo a grinder that brings joy to anyone who likes to switch coffees and experiment with different recipes and methods.
Pricing and Additional Costs
The Niche Duo is offered at a price of 549 British pounds with one burr set or for 649 British pounds with both burr sets, plus import, shipping, and VAT. Thus, total costs must be expected that are significantly above the base price. Almost 900 francs came to our account for the package with both burrs.
Regarding grinder purchases: as always, we also purchased the Niche DUO ourselves and paid the full price for it. If that were ever different in a test, we would make it clear to you.
Particle Distribution and Taste Profile
Our espressos with the Niche Duo tasted good. They were relatively differentiated in nuancing the different aspects of the coffee, but exhibited a slightly less pronounced body than we know from the Niche Zero.
The higher clarity was not as pronounced that we would upgrade from the Niche Zero to the Niche Duo for that reason.
We also brewed delicious filter coffees with the filter burrs that had a lot of clarity and transparency. However, something was lacking in sweetness in our brews. But this can be worked on by varying the brewing.
We were surprised that the Niche Duo had a relatively high fine content and also a rather broad main peak. Flavor-wise, we would have expected the opposite.
Cleaning and Burr Test
Cleaning the Duo and changing the burrs is very easy to do. It's intuitive and can be accomplished in less than a minute. Even after switching, thanks to marking and calibration, we were able to easily return to the base recipe.
Conclusion on the Niche Duo
The Niche Duo is a very good grinder that impresses in almost every aspect. Only in terms of speed is it to be rated as slow; otherwise, it scores "good" to "very good" in all categories.
Nevertheless, the Niche Duo leaves us somewhat puzzled, as it's not really clear who the Duo is the right grinder for. If you own the Zero, you won't experience a real upgrade in the Duo. The option to switch from espresso to filter burrs is nice. But in everyday use, that doesn't seem really practical to us despite the easy handling. It remains simply effort, and in that time the filter coffee is already ground with a good hand grinder that costs just as much as the filter coffee burrs.
If you're especially looking for transparent, clear, and complex coffees, the taste profile of the Duo might appeal to you more. Otherwise, the Niche Zero remains a good choice for both espresso and filter, and reaching for the Duo is a nice option, but certainly not a necessary one. However, you won't make a mistake with it either.
