Out of the BoxUniform Grinder
The Wilfa Uniform comes in a rather fancy, full colour graphic box, that goes a bit against the grain of easily recyclable materials. The disappointment grows as you open it up, and see EPE dense foam (laminated closed cell packaging foam) as the main protective shell for the grinder.
You might see EPE discussed as a more environmentally friendly version of styrofoam, as it is more recyclable, but the truth is, millions of pounds of this stuff is in landfills, and will not biodegrade. In this day and age, this is just no longer acceptable, and we will call this out every time.
When more and more companies are rightfully moving towards 100% environmentally friendly and sustainable packaging, I hope Lardera and Wilfa take a serious look at this and make the appropriate changes.
OK, rant out of the way, when you open up the Wilfa Uniform box, you’re greeted with black dense EP foam with a few cutouts noticed, but only one in use, holding a grinder brush. Slide out the foam cocoon and you see the grinder underneath, wrapped in LDPE 4 type plastic. There is literally no assembly required with this grinder. Remove the plastic, and it’s good to go.
Once fully out of the box and set up, my first impression is that the Wilfa Uniform is smaller than I imagined. Seeing photos of it online, I imagined it was this large monolithic tube that sat on your counter, similar in size and height to a Baratza Vario+. In real life, it’s a lot smaller.
The outer body is a granular black plastic material that seems to pick up fingerprints and oils very easily. Fortunately, it’s also easy to wipe down clean.
The main selling point of the Wilfa Uniform is its simplicity of use. There are no digital readouts, no preset buttons, no extra fancy timers and controls. It has one control point: a round power button up front. Grind fineness is selected by rotating the top of the grinder.
European versions of this grinder come either with a normal lid, or a built in scale that doubles as the lid of the grinder. On paper, an included, incorporated, and removable scale seems a great idea. That said, almost every online review of the scale-equipped Wilfa Uniform was very negative on the scale as a whole. We’ll get a bit more into that down below.
The version imported by Lardera has the standard black plastic lid. This serves to keep the grinder noise down under operation (with the lid on, it’s below 80db which is very quiet for a coffee grinder), and to prevent the rare bean popcorn effect.
One of the killer features of this grinder is the auto off function. Because it’s a single dose grinder, it has a resistance sensor built in that knows when it is no longer grinding coffee: this triggers a stop to the motor within a few seconds. Every single dose grinder should have this feature. Most do not. The Wilfa Uniform does.
The control button turns brighter when the machine is in operation; when it is done grinding, it will pulse-glow at a lower brightness for a few minutes to show you it’s done grinding. The Uniform then goes to ‘sleep’, with the button’s ring LED turning off. It is an instant on grinder once you press the button again.
The grinds bin is stainless steel that is painted black on the outside. It is not one solid build though – if you pour water into the bin (when washing it out), water will leak out of the bottom. This may lead to some minor grinds retention in the bin, but we’re talking less than .1g of coffee.
The grind bin’s lid is a bit tricky to put on at first, but I found I got used to it very quickly. The lid has a depression on the left side that I thought at first triggered a microswitch inside the machine to allow grinding coffee to take place when the bin is inserted in the machine. Nope, the depression is for a spring loaded tab inside, which has the sole purpose of keeping the grinds bin in place and immobile during grinding. You can activate the grinder without the bin in place, which would create quite the mess.
The heart of this grinder is its burr set, which is impressive. They are 58mm machined, hardened steel flat burrs with a very good range of grinding ability with a good uniformity across the grinds at almost any setting.
It’s not just the burrs though. The entire housing and setup for the burrs to eat coffee and spit it out into the grinds bin is well engineered. When the ground coffee evacuates from the pair of burrs, it goes into an internal dosing channel that sits 360 degrees around the bottom burr. Inside, there are little metal tabs that constantly sweep the coffee towards the exit chute, which flows a very short path down to the grinds bin lid. This is part of the “zero retention” design of the grinder.
The upper burrs (which don’t rotate during operation) are mounted on a thick metal column which is also designed to feed all ground coffee down into the exit chute. This is not a stepless selection grinder, but the threads used to mount the upper burr assembly into the grinder are very fine, which shows each step, or “click” via 3 spring loaded detent ball bearings) is a fairly narrow adjustment in grind fineness.
To get to the burr group, you simply unscrew the top bean hopper area. Quite a bit: I’m talking dozens and dozens of revolutions. You should do this periodically with most grinders, giving it a good cleaning every month or so at a minimum. Re-seating the burr group is pretty easy, but you want to make sure the burr housing threads are 100% clear of any coffee grounds or coffee dust before doing so.
Wilfa Uniform Grinder Specifications
Here’s some of the pertinent details on this grinder.
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Grinder Total Weight: 3.35kg (7.4lb)
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Grind Bin Weight: 291g (10.25oz)
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Height: 29cm (11.5")
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Width/Depth: 15cm (6")
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Power Draw: 120V - 60Hz, 80W max
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Safety Listing: ETL US listed
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Grind Speed: 0.8g average
Very slow
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Grinder noise (tested): 78.5db average with lid on
Quiet!
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Grind Settings: 40
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Burrs 58mm flat burr, hardened steel
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Bean capacity: 100g (single dose)
High volume Single dose
This is certainly a unique looking grinder. Also unique in features, with simple controls, auto-off, and large capacity for single dosing, including full batch brews on auto drip machines.
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First UseUniform Grinder
The standout two features of the Wilfa Uniform that I knew about going in were the incredibly uniform grind output, and the auto-off feature. But there’s nothing like experiencing things first hand…
So I measured some beans using a scale, and added them to the grinder. Lid back on, and hit the round button up front. The button glows bright ust as the grinder starts. Very first thing I noticed was how pleasingly quiet this grinder is. Though I will do much more detailed testing, right out of the gate it seemed like one of the quietest coffee grinders I’ve ever tested.
The second thing I noticed was how slow this grinder was. My first batch was 21g for a 300ml siphon brew, and the grinder took over 30 seconds to grind that volume. That’s Rancilio Rocky slow. And it’s apparently on purpose, because the grinder’s main consultant, Tim Wendelboe, wanted it that way.
As an aside, Wendelboe apparently feels fast grinders generate too much heat and damage coffee. In reality, the jury is entirely divided on that, and to be honest, I just don’t buy it myself. And I’m not alone: there’s been plenty written and discussed (this is a video discussion well worth watching if you like the science of coffee and grinders), that say slower grinders actually generate and deposit more heat into the ground coffee than faster ones. But that is something for another debate, in another article.
Bottom line: The Wilfa Uniform may be the quietest grinders I’ve ever tested, but it is also one of the slowest. I feel it could have been at least 50% faster without any heat issues, and it is perhaps something Wilfa should explore when they decide to update this grinder in a few years.
Back to the review process, I like to put about 2.5kg of coffee through a new grinder before really doing any hard core testing, so that’s what I did with the Wilfa Uniform. I brewed pretty much every non-espresso brewing method with it, just to taste things from the start. This included siphon coffee, press pot, Chemex, Hario V60, Espro Bloom, auto drip (lots of that), even an Eva Solo full immersion brew.
During that time, I remarked at the cup quality and evenness of the grind, even in those first sessions. In a word: impressive. I can’t recall another grinder I’ve tested that produced this kind of even grind from the very start. And it only got better.
Wilfa Uniform with Wilfa Performance
The Wilfa Uniform is an excellent single dose brewer for almost any brewing method, but is a match made in heaven when paired up with the Wilfa Performance auto drip coffee maker.
Using theUniform Grinder
Once 2.5kg of coffee had been through the Wilfa Uniform, some serious testing started.
I used the Kruve Sifter quite a bit to check the grind levels and evenness of distribution of the particles. I did side by side tests with other grinders including the Breville Smart Grinder Pro, the Baratza Virtuoso+, a Knock Aergrind, the Etzinger ETZ-I, and one of the closest competitors we have to this grinder, the Baratza Vario+ series (it also has a flat burr design, but a ceramic burr).
Comparisons
We compared the Wilfa Uniform to five grinders (4 are pictured): the Baratza Vario+ series and Virtuoso+, the Breville Smart Grinder Pro, and two hand grinders, the Knock Aergrind and the Etzinger ETZ-I grinder.
The Wilfa Uniform became my “daily driver” for three months for all my non espresso coffee grinding. On top of direct tests, about 125g of coffee was put through the grinder at various grind levels, every single day.
I found the workflow with the grinder was pretty decent. Next to it was a basic 0.1g scale and a small metal catch cup I used to weigh and dose coffee beans. I’d weigh up my selected dose, lift the lid, add the coffee, and press the grind button.
Simple Setup
The Wilfa Uniform with a cheap $15 scale and a basic metal cup for measuring and dosing coffee. You could also just use the grinds bin from the Wilfa.
The auto off feature is quite nice, but in my three months of daily use, I found the grinder would sometimes stop before it got every stray bean. This required pressing the button again for it to grind for another 10 seconds or so, and that usually caught the last bits of whole bean.
I don’t believe Wilfa advertises this as a zero retention grinder, though I have seen some European based reviews that label it as such. But it is a single dose grinder, which implies every gram you put in comes out into the grinds bin.
In my testing, this is not a true zero retention grinder if you just use the grinder at its most basic level: pour beans in, press the button, let it do its job and shut off, and remove the grinds bin. Use it this way, and you can have as much as 1 to 2 grams of coffee left inside, somewhere.
Part of this is from stray beans just not being ground; part is from a bit of ground coffee remaining in the exit chute from the burr area to the grinds bin.
There’s an easy fix for this though that can turn this into a defacto “zero retention” grinder. It is a trick someone came up in the CoffeeGeek forums a long time ago with their Mazzer Mini grinder. Towards the end of grinding, start “flapping” the lid on the bean hopper area. You’ll create air pressure that does two things: it pushes any stray whole bean bits into the burrs to be ground; it also forces any ground coffee inside to evacuate into the grinds bin. Sure, it’s a bit goofy, but it is effective.
When I do this with the Wilfa Uniform, every .1g of coffee I put in comes out into the grinds bin. A defacto zero retention grinder.
Static has never really been an issue with the Wilfa Uniform, but being a flat burr grinder, it does what a lot of flat burr grinders do: it produces a lot of bean chaff in the grinds bin. That stuff stays in the bin when you pour out your grind coffee. Some people think of this as static cling, but it really isn’t because the actual ground coffee doesn’t exhibit any real static issues: just the papery chaff does.
I actually think this is a good thing. I’m convinced that bean chaff (it’s the remainders of the bean’s silverskin that you’ll find in the middle of a coffee bean) is detrimental to a cup of coffee. One day, I’m going to save enough chaff to brew 100ml with it, and test that theory. Just not today.
Pouring with the Uniform’s grind bin is problem free for the most part, thanks to the rounded 90 degree angles of the steel bin. Well, except for one area: pouring into a 54mm portafilter is a bit tough. This is where a dosing collar for portafilters comes in handy. Pouring the ground coffee into most other filter holders is easy peezy.
Uniformity of Grind
As far as the grind output quality? It’s quite brilliant. I had some of the best “range tests” ever on the Kruve Sifter with this grinder. What’s a ‘range test’ you ask?
Say I’m aiming for 600 micron particle size. In the Kruve, I’ll put a 800 sieve and a 400 sieve in place, add 20g of coffee, and shake the bejeebus out of it. I’ll repeat this test changing the grind settings to finally find my ‘sweet spot’ to get max volume between the two sieves. It’s a bit of a labour intensive process, and time consuming too (not to mention coffee consuming). The test is also not perfect: all that shaking creates friction which could break up the strands and particles of coffee into smaller pieces.
At their best sweet spot, most good grinders will deposit about 55-60% of their volume between the 800 and 400 sieves. If they hit 65%, that’s really good. Also, most good grinders will only have about 10-15% of the volume above the top sieve (so larger than 700 microns) and 25-30%+ below the finer sieve.
So the Wilfa Uniform? 70-75% average. Like, wow. This means you’ll get better overall extractions with less surprises. And the taste in the cup proves this.
Particle Size Testing
Testing the grind size of the Wilfa Uniform with a Kruve sifter. I did a lot more of this "off camera" which can get a bit messy.
There’s an amazing clarity with the Wilfa Uniform. I did side by side brews of Social Coffee’s Colombian Praga Anaerobic Natural coffee, comparing it to three different grinders, all producing more or less the same level of grind fineness
The Wilfa produced the best cup across the table, with noticeable taste notes of raspberry and cocoa that the most of the other grinders struggled to present in anything more than a subtle way. The closest in my testing is the Etzinger ETZ-I hand grinder, which ranked a close second to the Wilfa for paper filter brewing.
The Etzinger is a beast, and was really close, if not completely even, to the Wilfa Uniform's "uniformity of grind".
The uniformity of the grind produced by the Wilfa Uniform is especially noticed when brewing in all metal filter brews. I’ve been working long term on a guide to get the most out of Espro’s Bloom brewer without any filter paper, and find the large filter area combined with the 1500 micro-etched holes can clog up fast with fines from most grinders. Not so with the Wilfa Uniform. Grinding at around 800 microns average produces a nice 3.5 minute steep and brew time with the Bloom, producing a very clean (in context) and full cup without a hint of overextraction.
The same goes for using the Kone filter with a Chemex brewer, or the Kone Mini with a Hario V60. Or Hario’s all metal filter for its siphon coffee makers. The Wilfa Uniform simply performs better in these setups.
The Espro Bloom is moving up in my testing regimen because it is kind of demanding and unforgiving of bad grinders. The Uniform grinder just kind of laughs at the Bloom.
Espresso
Oh boy. The big dawg. Let’s keep in mind here, the Wilfa Uniform is a brew grinder first and foremost, but one that can do espresso. It’s not an espresso-primary grinder like the Niche Zero is (another single dose grinder).
But yep, the Wilfa can grind fairly well for espresso brewing. Its achilles heel is adjustment of grind. The steps on the grinder adjustment are just a bit too big for fine tuning espresso.
If you read other reviews on CoffeeGeek, you know our baseline for espresso, using Social Coffee’s People’s Daily Blend, is 18.5g for a double dose, producing 45g of coffee liquor and crema in 35 seconds, including 10 seconds preinfusion.
I couldn’t get that tight with the Wilfa Uniform. It’s sweet spot for our test is a grind setting of 3, but that produced the 45g in 32 seconds on average. Bumping the grind down to 2 and the shot time was 43 seconds. Dialing up to 4 produced a bit of gusher at 28 seconds (including preinfusion). To hit my target of 35 seconds for 45g output, I had to set the Wilfa to 3, and dose 19g (0.5g) more.
So who cares about all that.. How does it taste?
A nice 45g (finished) double shot made from about 19g of coffee from the Wilfa Uniform, set to "3" and using Social Coffee's People's Daily blend.
Just like with my pour over tests, the espresso tasted excellent with the Wilfa handling the bean chopping duties. Serious clarity and nuance in the cup. Perhaps a tad lighter in body as compared to our usual espresso grinder (Sette 270Wi), and the crema exhibited less tiger-flecking (the more uniform the grind, the less tiger striping and flecking you’ll get). But the taste was fantastic, with an extra level of sweetness I didn’t expect.
Bottom line? The Wilfa Uniform can do espresso. Just don’t expect much in the way of fine tuning the grind. You’ll have to fine tune your dose and prep method to compensate.
If you'll note, there's almost no "splatter" or evidence of pinhole extraction issues - the grind's super even, and delivers a superior shot of espresso.
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ComparisonsUniform Grinder
In many ways, this is an entirely unique coffee grinder without any real competition, and both price point and features. The closest machines out there that could compare is the Niche Zero (which costs a whopping $620USD plus another $100 in shipping, as it’s only available for sale in Europe), or the Baratza Vario+ grinder ($530USD). The Wilfa Uniform is $299.
The Wilfa Uniform is very much a non-espresso brewing method grinder that can also grind for espresso. That could describe the Vario+ as well. The Niche Zero is the opposite: it’s an espresso primary grinder that can do small batch non espresso brewing method grinds. But unlike the Wilfa Uniform, the Niche Zero can only grind small volumes. The Uniform can grind up to 100g of coffee in one go.
But we’re getting ahead of ourselves.
Compared to the Niche Zero
The Niche Zero grinder is grinder we’ve never been able to formally test at CoffeeGeek, and it’s also one of the few consumer grinders out there I have very little personal face time with. I have used one for about 3 weeks in total.
Part of the problem is, Niche have no North American representatives or vendors, so if you want a 110V version, you have to order it direct from Britain.
We’d love to be able to put one through its paces, because it’s quite revered in several circles. Everything in our comparison here is based on my own very limited time with the grinder, and also heavily based on other reviewers’ comments.
The Niche Zero is an espresso-primary grinder with a relatively small single dose hopper. It has a simple on/off switch for operation, and a wide range of grind settings. From the get-go it was designed as a zero retention grinder and primarily for espresso use, but it is quite capable of grinding for siphon, V60, and Chemex.
The Niche Zero’s main limitation is how much coffee can be ground at one time, so you won’t be grinding for big batch auto drip with this grinder, or larger Chemex or Bodum press pots. The grinder is also very quiet, and has by all accounts and excellent, evenly distributed grind output.
The Niche Zero is also a roughly $700-$750USD purchase for most in North America, once the machine cost (which includes British VAT!) and shipping are factored in. That is nearly 2.5x more expensive than the Wilfa Uniform.
A few European reviewers have put the Niche Zero up against the Wilfa Uniform for non-espresso grinding, and it’s interesting that most seem to give a slight nod to the Uniform grinder. This is even though Niche has a cozy relationship with a lot of the Euro-based reviewers.
The Wilfa Uniform seems to come ahead in offering more clarity and flavour profile notes in a coffee when both grinders are used with nearly identical grind fineness levels and are brewed in an identical manner.
The Wilfa Uniform definitely comes ahead of the Niche Zero in terms of pricing ($300USD vs. $750USD), the auto off feature (it’s lovely); and the max volume of coffee ground (100g+ vs 30-40g). I would also argue that the Wilfa’s flat 58mm burrs are a better choice than the Niche Zero’s 63mm conical burrs for non-espresso grinding.
Between the two, if your primary grinding needs are non-espresso brewing methods, the Wilfa Uniform is the clear choice.
Compared to the Baratza Vario+ Series
To me, this is the closest comparison for North American coffee folks, even though the Baratza Vario+ ($530USD) is $230 more than the Wilfa Uniform ($300USD). We’re talking almost double the price here.
I could have compared the Wilfa Uniform to the Baratza Vario W+ model, which uses Baratza’s “BG” (brew grinder) hardened steel 54mm burrs, the same used on the Baratza Forte BG grinder. Indeed, in my early photos of the grinder comparisons, I have a Baratza Vario W+ sitting next to the Uniform.
Mid review, I opted instead to go with the Vario+ with its ceramic burrs because it’s $70 cheaper than the W model, is better suited for espresso than the Vario W+ model, and it comes with more options and accessories. Baratza believes the Vario+ is the more full purpose of the two Vario grinders. That said, I may include the W+ model for our full review of the Uniform grinder.
In comparing the Wilfa to the Vario+, both are flat burr grinders, though as mentioned, the Vario+’s burrs are ceramic and 54mm vs the hardened steel 58mm machined burrs in the Uniform.
The Vario+ comes with a lot: a dedicated Portaholder for grinding directly into portafilters; a micro / macro adjust function which is valuable for espresso grinding; digital 0.1 second timer with three presets; fast output at over 2g/second for most grind settings; a large 10oz bean hopper; and most importantly, a completely industry leading after sales support system, even out of warranty. The Vario+ can easily handle any grind requirement from espresso on up to finer press pot grinds.
When it comes to output quality, the Wilfa Uniform is the clear winner for us in terms of cup quality and clarity. It is a noticeable cup difference for siphon, pour over, and press pot. It just seems to grind more uniform and less clumpy than the Vario+, all of which translates to a better cup of coffee.
This isn’t to say the output of the Baratza Vario+ is bad. It is very good, and definitely a grinder we continue to recommend as a true all purpose countertop coffee grinder. I do have to give the nod to the Vario+ once you start grinding for espresso, especially in the ability to fine tune your grind. Once you get into brew grinds for siphon, pour over and aeropress, the Wilfa Uniform takes the lead.
You sacrifice some for this. First, the Wilfa Uniform is less than half the speed of the Vario+, at around 0.8g/sec output. There’s no timers, no presets, no nothing, but given that it is a single dose grinder, this isn’t a big issue. The auto-off feature also makes up for this.
There’s also long term after sales support to consider, which is up in the air with the Wilfa. It may last 20 years with minimal upkeep. It could break down in 5 years, and as good as Lardera Coffee wants to be, it will be a challenge for them to meet Baratza’s standard in after sales support and “at cost” parts replacements.
As an investment grinder and one where espresso is an equal priority to pour over and other brew methods, I might still give the nod to the Baratza Vario+ even though it’s $230 more. As a quality output grinder for non espresso brewing methods, I got to give it to the Wilfa Uniform.
The Wilfa Uniform next to the (larger) Breville Smart Grinder Pro and Baratza Vario W+.
Compared to Fellow Ode Grinder
Probably the closest competitor to the Wilfa Uniform, on paper at least, is the Fellow Ode grinder, We’ve never been able to test the original Ode thoroughly; we contacted Fellow a few years ago about reviewing their grinder but it didn’t pan out.
I have used a borrowed Ode in a few situations, enough to see the grinder’s benefits and failings. There’s also plenty of Youtube reviewers out there who have a lot to say about the Ode. Most of it is pretty bad.
On paper, the Ode appears to be similar to the Wilfa Uniform: big flat burrs (though housed vertically, instead of flat); single dose capable, big range of grind selections, and similar price.
The problems with the Fellow Ode are a) grind retention, b) static issues, b) bean feeding, and d) an inability to grind fine enough for most finer-grind applications. I’ve tested and seen this first hand.
The Wilfa Uniform doesn’t have any of these issues. It’s output is extremely uniform and fairly static free. It can grind down to espresso levels with no issues. Bean feeding is very good though we do have a slight issue with one or two stray beans popcorning inside and taking their time to be ground.
Given these grinders are at the same price point, it’s a complete no-brainer as to which grinder between the two “wins”.
Fellow has now discontinued the Ode and introduced the Ode II model; we have no testing experience with that grinder, though it apparently addresses some of the original Ode’s problems.
Compared to Other Grinders
We also compared the output of the Wilfa Uniform to three other grinders: the Knock Aergrind, Etzinger ETZ-I, and the closest in price, the Baratza Virtuoso+. These comparisons will be fully detailed in the Wilfa Uniform full review, but some salient points here.
The closest in terms of uniform grind seems to be the Etzinger ETZ-I, which is a bit of a wunderkind in the manual grinder world. The output from its unique burr set and how it is mounted gives the Etzinger a very even (or dare I say it, ‘uniform’) grind output. I did not run Kruve tests on it, but did visually inspect. (ed.note – in the two days before I published this review, I did some initial Kruve tests with the ETZ-I and Wilfa Uniform: the numbers were very similar).
More importantly, I did a blind taste test comparison between the output of both. I couldn’t tell a difference in the cup, at all. This will be further tested later on, for the Etzinger ETZ-I review.
The Aergrind also has a decently uniform output, but couldn’t match the Wilfa Uniform in their respective sweetspots. Where the Aergrind trumps the Wilfa Uniform is in finer grind ability. The Aergrind is one of the few grinders I have capable of a near Turkish grind (under 200microns), and it has a much wider adjustment range for espresso grinds.
The Baratza Virtuoso+ is one of the closest grinders in terms of price points, and in some ways, is more versatile than the Wilfa Uniform. You can buy Baratza’s Single Dose hopper for the Virtuoso+ and turn it into a single dose grinder. You can put 10oz of coffee into it and use it as a traditional grinder. You can grind on demand right into a portafilter. And you can use a timer feature for repeatable doses with one button press. Other features like the lit-up grinds bin and fast grinding times are perks and benefits.
The Virtuoso+ cannot grind as well for espresso as the Wilfa does. It also struggles a bit to produce an even grind when grinding in the press pot range, both things the Wilfa does much better. Even at both grinders’ sweet spots – brew coffee grinds – the Wilfa does a better job with more uniform grinds and much more clarity in the cup.
ConclusionUniform Grinder
The Wilfa Uniform with another Scandinavian original: the Eva Solo coffee brewer.
I can understand why people like Jim Hoffmann really like the Wilfa Uniform, having it as his primary home grinder for several years now. If it is to be judged on output ability alone, it’s easily the best brew grinder I’ve used in recent memory, uncrowning the Orphan Espresso Apex manual grinder (which is out on loan at the moment, otherwise I would have included it in this comparison).
The auto off feature is really nice, but not quite perfect. I’ve seen European reviewers say it goes on far too long after all the coffee is ground. My experience is the opposite: I can still hear a few bean parts popcorning around inside when the grinder shuts off. My remedy for that is the lid flap during the last bit of grinding.
I don’t know why I’m so sold on the auto off feature: most modern grinders have their own “auto off” feature, it’s called a timer. But those aren’t single dose grinders. This one is, and a digital timer doesn’t make sense in single dose grinders.
Sitting on the counter, the Wilfa Uniform looks awesome and unique. We had a large dinner party over for Christmas, and everyone wanted to know what it was. It’s definitely Scandinavian modern with a nod towards Steve Jobs simplicity.
I also like and appreciate how quiet this grinder is. It even dampens the noise the beans themselves make while being chewed up. You can really notice this by grinding with the lid on or off.
The worst thing about this grinder? How slow it is. I find myself wishing it was at least 50% faster, and I know if it were 100% faster (grinding at 1.8g a second), there would be no issues with heat damaging the grinds. If you’re doing a full batch in the Wilfa Performance auto drip machine, waiting well almost 2 minutes for the grinder to do its job is a pain in the ass.
At $300 USD, the Wilfa Uniform is uniquely positioned in the coffee grinder market. Just based on grind output alone, nothing up to $700 or more can touch it for a “brew grind”. The uniformity and quality of the grind output actually does translate to better cups of coffee.
When you compare the Uniform to other single dose grinders, its ability to grind up to 100g in one dose sets it apart. It’s a capable espresso grinder, even though you lose some fine tuning ability compared to other grinders at a similar price point. The Uniform cannot do a proper turkish grinder (I haven’t tested a single electric grinder that could, in over a decade), but it can handle every other grind level, from espresso through press pot and cold toddy pebble sized grinds.
We don’t give review scores in our First Looks, but I’m pretty confident this will score as one of the best brew grinders you can buy right now. If you primarily make brewed coffee, with an occasional espresso at home, take a serious look at this model.
Lardera Coffee sent us this grinder to test and evaluate for a product review, with the complete understanding they have no editorial control over what we write or evaluate. It is now available from their website for $299, plus applicable taxes. This is not an affiliate link.
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Coffee Pulse
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