Niche Zero Espresso Grinder in Test – In the Fast Lane

The first Niche Zero espresso grinder found its way to our academy accompanied by a coffee enthusiast. John Buckmann, the founder of the Decent Espresso Machine, had brought the grinder along as a companion to his portable Decent. At just 4.1 kg, the grinder is particularly lightweight compared to professional espresso grinders and travel-friendly – yet with the ambition to grind at a high level.

We purchased our first Niche Zero in white in March 2020 for an initial test. At that time, the espresso grinder financed via crowdfunding came to us via Indiegogo for 617 CHF/580 € . We were very optimistic back then and our first test video reflected that enthusiasm.

As part of our comprehensive espresso grinder comparison, the Niche Zero, this time in black, found its way to our table once again. And once again, the grinder performed very well and prevailed in direct price comparison within its category against the ECM S64, the Mazzer Mini Electronic A as well as the Eureka Mignon XL.

This test report, originally published in 2020, has been supplemented with findings from our comparison test of 24 espresso grinders for home use.

NEW: Now available online our test report on the Niche DUO, the big sister of the Niche Zero.

We compared 10 single dosing grinders in the price range of 500 to 1000 euros. More information in our article on the topic.

Niche Zero Grinder – The Single Dosing Grinder at a Glance

The Niche Zero excels at multiple things as a grinder. It grinds espresso-fine. That was primarily what it was designed for. In fact, we also brewed very good filter coffees with coffee ground using the Niche Zero.

The grinder is a lightweight with roughly 12 cm width, 31 cm height, and a depth of 21 cm. The controls consist of a single button lever and a grinding setting: single dose grinding and "off". Conical grinding burrs with a diameter of 63mm made of hardened steel make up the grinding mechanism of the Niche Zero. The body of the grinder is made of aluminum.

The Niche Zero is designed to grind single portions. The bean hopper itself holds barely 30 grams of beans. The concept of single dose grinding is primarily known from professional commercial grinders like the EK43. While in commercial settings, individual grinding or pre-portioning slows down the workflow, this is less of a problem in everyday home use.

The advantages are obvious. Only as much coffee is placed in the bean hopper as is immediately needed. Coffee exposed to light and oxygen ages quickly and loses flavor complexity. Coffee oils begin to oxidize – not good! This problem doesn't exist with the Niche Zero.

You weigh the amount, feed the coffee into the grinding mechanism, and close the lid. In single dose mode, grinding starts automatically with the closing of the lid. A clever safety feature!

One big question is: how much coffee comes out when I, for example, add 18 grams of coffee.

The "Zero" of the Niche Zero – Dead Space Measurement

Dead space is the amount of coffee that remains stuck in the coffee grinder after the desired portion has been ground. Fundamentally, every coffee grinder has dead space. There are smaller or larger gaps in screw openings, between the burrs, and in the spaces between components that hold coffee. This residue remains when grinding stops.

If another coffee is ground immediately afterward, this is less problematic. The "dead space coffee" is then exchanged and aging processes don't begin. However, it's more problematic if a longer time passes or even a day without grinding.

In ground form, coffee loses the majority of its volatile aroma components within minutes. This is because the surface area of the coffee has been greatly increased through grinding. Imagine an apple that you cut in half. Initially, only the outer skin was exposed to air and sun, but now these elements act on both inner halves. Similar, though multiplied many times over, is the case with coffee.

The coffee aged this way has two consequences. First, it tastes different, and often not good, but quickly rancid. It also gums up the grinder more. Second, it extracts differently, which can lead to different extraction behavior when pulling an espresso.

How strong this effect is depends on how much coffee remains in the grinder's dead space and thus comes into play on the next pull. With many grinders, this is several grams. With the Graef CM800, we easily measured 4-5 grams, and even higher peak values.

This means that a simple espresso made with 8 – 10 grams is brewed half from dead space coffee (old coffee). With a double espresso of 16 – 20 grams, we're still looking at a quarter of the coffee amount.

Blick in which the opened grinding mechanism is shown without the outer burr.

We disassembled the Niche Zero, removed the burrs, and scraped together the ground material. When measuring dead space coffee, a distinction is made between coffee that permanently sticks to a grinder and coffee that is exchanged with each grinding. Only the exchanged material is really problematic. Overall, with a precision scale we came up with a maximum of 0.82 grams of coffee from the dead space. Around 0.35 of that doesn't get exchanged.

So according to our measurement, the dead space is 0.47 grams. That's really, really little! If you know a grinder that has less dead space, feel free to write me.

We're happy to keep the "Zero" of the Niche at a zero decimal figure.

In our second test of the Niche Zero, we determined the dead space differently compared to conventional grinders. Grinders not designed as single dosing grinders constantly carry coffee in the bean hopper. So they don't grind empty. We also tried this with the Niche Zero and came up with 1.1 grams of ground coffee that remains hanging around the burrs when the grinder stops. Following the grinder's concept, this is ground out if grinding continues long enough. With "classic espresso grinders," this isn't possible because beans constantly feed in.

Grinding and Workflow with the Niche Zero

Working with the Niche Zero, I quickly settled into a workflow. Anyone who works professionally with an EK43 will love the workflow with the Niche. I myself am not an EK43 devotee and have preferred working with a "classic espresso grinder" like a K30 from Mahlkönig at barista competitions. But I quickly warmed up to the Niche.

1. The amount of coffee is weighed in the included metal cup of the Niche Zero.
2. The grinder's lid is open. I place the coffee in the bean entry, which looks more like a funnel than a bean hopper.
3. I place the metal cup under the outlet and close the lid.
4. Closing the lid starts the grinding process and the discharge of coffee.
5. The metal cup can then be placed directly on a 58mm portafilter to add the ground coffee.
6. By "shaking" and carefully removing the cup, the powder distributes nicely in the portafilter.

The Niche Zero is powerful, but slow. The slow speed is certainly one reason why the grinder is relatively quiet. For 18 grams, the grinder takes about 16 seconds to grind.

Niche Zero from the front and from the side.

The grind size can be adjusted steplessly. Very fine grind size adjustments can be made effortlessly. From espresso-fine to grain sizes suitable for filter coffee, the grinder can be adjusted. The grinder's burrs are explicitly not suitable for Turkish coffee – so don't overdo the fine setting.

The grind size adjustment from espresso to filter coffee is rarely found even in professional grinders. As a rule, a grinder must be calibrated for one beverage category.

The design of the Niche Zero is such that you can turn the grind adjustment beyond the endpoint of the coarse marking. It's then simply important to remember how many rotations you opened the grinder.

In our case, we had very good espresso results in the grind size range of 25 to 15, which corresponds to approximately the 6 – 7 o'clock clock position. For filter coffee, I ground in the grind spectrum 11 – 1 o'clock, where no grind size markings are applied.

How Does the Espresso Taste and How Consistent Is the Niche Zero?

We brewed very good espressos with the Niche and were particularly impressed by the consistency. Even over many pulls, we had many good-tasting shots. On 10 espressos we had maximum coffee powder fluctuations of 0.2 grams per shot. The powder comes out of the grinder without lumps.

In particle comparison, the Niche Zero, regarding the coarse peak, lies between grinders with flat burrs (M2D, Eureka Mignon) and the two grinders with conical burrs (Graef, Sette). The curve is similar to the particle distribution of the Sage Smart Grinder Pro. The extraction yield wasn't as high as the Sage Smart Grinder Pro, but it was much more regular over many pulls.

Partikelverteilung of the Niche Zero.

In the following table you can see our espresso pulls with various grinders. The grinders were each adjusted so that around 50 grams of espresso were extracted in 24.5 to 25.5 seconds. The concentration of dissolved coffee particles (TDS % measured) and extraction were calculated for each. For the test we used our Brazilian Espresso Henrique.

With the Niche Zero we measured a strength of 7.14%. The coffee was very balanced and especially sweet. The Graef CM800 and the Sette 270 wi fell short in terms of taste. Interestingly, these two grinders also showed lower extraction yields.

Vergleich of the particle distribution of 6 espresso grinders under 600 €.

Precision in Forward and Back Adjustment of the Niche Zero

Especially with single dosing grinders, an important question is how well they adjust from one grind setting to another and return to previous settings. With the Niche Zero, this should even be possible from filter to espresso, since the grinder is designed for both.

In our test, the Niche Zero performed very well here, particularly in comparison to the other three test grinders in its price category (ECM S64, MAZZER Mini Electronic A, EUREKA Mignon XL).

The curves show that with measurement T4 we set the Niche Zero to espresso grind size. Then with T5 in yellow we pulled a ristretto, followed by a café crème with T6 in blue. We then returned the grinder to the original grind setting, based only on the previously marked position on the grind marking. As you can see, the curve in the main peak is nearly identical.

Removing the Burrs and Cleaning

Thorough cleaning of an espresso grinder should be done more often rather than rarely. However, we understand that it's not something people like to do. It's usually complicated. With the Niche Zero, the outer burr can be removed without tools, allowing cleaning of a larger part of the grinding mechanism. The grinder's grind setting is opened toward coarse until the grind adjustment can be removed. The outer burrs can then be removed with two fingers.

With a fine brush, coffee residues can be easily removed. Anyone who also wants to remove the inner burr only needs a wrench or ratchet. Important: especially when reassembling, don't tighten the central screw too much.

After cleaning, the bean funnel can be screwed back on. We twisted it until it stopped, then opened it halfway again. This returned it to the grinder's original setting and we could use the previously used grind settings.

Conclusion on the Niche Zero

The Niche Zero is my current favorite grinder. It simply does so much well and in a simple manner. Single portioning is very practical for me at home. Little stale coffee and I can quickly switch between coffees. In everyday use, I brew the espresso I like for myself, a decaffeinated coffee for those sensitive to caffeine, and natural café for my father – with three different beans and grind sizes.

Grind size adjustment is intuitively precise. After a few attempts, you develop a feel for how much finer the Niche Zero goes, for example when grinding two markings finer. This makes switching between different coffees enjoyable and is strongly reminiscent of the EK43.

The grinder is so compact that I can quickly put it away or even take it on the next trip. The fact that the grinder delivers so much performance in such a small stature as many larger grinders is something I appreciate.

I have little to fault with the Niche Zero. Some visitors to the coffee academy didn't like the design. I find it functional and am not bothered that to some it looks like a kitchen appliance.

For me, the Niche Zero fits equally well next to a professional home espresso machine like the La Marzocco GS3 as next to a Rocket Appartamento or a DeLonghi Dedica EC 685.

Wishes for Improvement for the Niche Zero

• Grind size markings around the entire circle.
• Counter showing how many rotations you've opened the grind ring.
• Cup options for different portafilter sizes, not just 58mm
• When using hard beans, the last ones sometimes jump around above the grinding mechanism for a while
• On our model, the central screw was optically misaligned upon delivery. It didn't negatively affect the grinding, but it was annoying.

With positive test reports, questions often arise such as:

"Are there any economic ties between the author or the coffee makers and Niche?" Clear answer. No! We don't sell the Niche, we bought it ourselves, at normal terms. The test report reflects my personal impression.

Supplementary Image Material and Measurements for the Niche Zero