- noisy - fragile bean storage compartment - tendency to retain some coffee in chute
Detailed Commentary
Six months the Ascaso is now flanking my Poccino machine, providing my guests and me with proper coffee. The machine was recommended to me by the king of espresso in the Netherlands, the former owner of the Koffie Cultuur Centrum in Amsterdam. He told me to forget the Rancilio, pass the Demoka and pay the 300 euros or so to get a proper system with conical burrs, ready for the 21st century.
The Ascaso I1 grinder has not disappointed me. Surely, it has downsides, especially its potential to wake my flatmate when grinding a pre-commute coffee around 07:15, and the tendency of the chute to retain some coffee, but overall I cannot come up with any serious complaints. The machine is robust, heavy, lacks rattling plastic parts and produces a perfect grind. Unlike binary adjustment in other grinders the Ascaso has a analogous grind modifier. This enables perfect tweaking of the produce.
Hopefully the Ascaso will continue to help me serve proper coffee for many years. Of course there are some people that have an unlimited access to resources and slave labor, but for normal human beings the Ascaso is definitely a good choice.
Buying Experience
The Koffie Cultuur Centrum just outside the west wall of the Nieuwe Kerk in Amsterdam is a great place for well-informed advise on coffee machines and grinders. The former owner helped me choose the Ascaso, carefully avoiding to push me into buying a certain machine. The fact that they use the Ascaso grinder for demonstrating their coffee machines to customers helped me decide. The packaging is excellent. The manual could be more informative, but some advise from the dealer upon the best way to start using the machine will take away the need of a better manual.
