The Mazzer Mini Electronic A has been on the market as an espresso grinder for many years. And let's start by saying this: it will continue to do solid work for many years to come. With a purchase price of around 750 euros/860 CHF, it is one of the more expensive espresso grinders in our comparative test. You can find out how the espresso grinder performs, how it is built, and how the espresso tastes in our espresso grinder test.
Robust, heavy and sluggish
The Mazzer Mini Electronic A has an operating weight of 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 is a disadvantage when it comes to adjusting the grind size. Despite the metal rod, the adjustment wheel is difficult to turn, even with great effort. Once the wheel is loosened, it often rotates past the desired target position.
That is annoying. It turns what is actually a stepless grind adjustment into a somewhat laborious process of adjusting back and forth. Greasing the thread helps a little – but it's far from perfect. And adjusting while grinding also leads to a finer adjustment possibility. Solutions are in sight, but none of this contributes to the grinder's ease of use.
The delivery includes a metal tray that catches the falling grounds. In our tests, however, the Mazzer Mini hardly scattered at all and didn't clump much. The centering funnel did a good job here. The portafilter holder on this espresso grinder is exemplary – some manufacturers could learn a thing or two here. The grinder holds portafilters with spouts in both directions. Only slight vibration of the grinder and the resulting slippage of the portafilter disturb the picture.
Ease of use of the grinder
The Mazzer Mini Electronic A has two programmable quantity buttons that can be programmed via a time setting. This is reasonably intuitive. The grind size adjustment, on the other hand, is much more difficult to control. The reason for this is the difficult adjustability of the grinder described above. It is almost impossible to return precisely to the same point after adjusting. Noting or marking reference points therefore becomes a game of chance.
The curve shows the grinding curves of the Mazzer Mini Electronic after adjusting back and forth to the same grind position as possible.
Many comments we received under our video test point in this direction as well. Many users set the grinder once and then do not change beans or grind size. That is one way to solve it, of course, but it negates the possibility of trying different coffees. Many experienced home baristas also want to further adjust the grind size through gentle readjustment. This is not easily possible on the Mazzer Mini Electronic A.
This leads us to rate the grinder as "rather poor" in terms of ease of use.
We like the portafilter suspension. Most conventional portafilters fit into the Mazzer Mini. Portafilters with an "inverted" spout, such as those from Rocket, can also be placed on the holder.
During grinding, a vibration occurs that moves the portafilter. However, this should be held anyway to catch the ground coffee evenly.
Speed and noise level
The noise level of the Mazzer Mini Electronic A was in the mid-range for us. There were grinders that were significantly louder and grinders that were significantly quieter. We measured a noise level of 82.8 decibels.
In terms of speed, the Mazzer Mini was among the slowest grinders in the test field. It achieved a grinding performance of 16 grams in 10 seconds. For the desired coffee quantity of 18 grams, the grinder took 11.3 seconds.
Temperature and consistency of grinding
In terms of consistency, the Mazzer Mini was in the lower midfield of the grinders. 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 the coffee. Although many samples showed results of around 18 grams of coffee, some outliers were +/- 1 gram away 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 coffee powder heats up during grinding, especially if several shots are pulled in succession. In our test, a shot was made every 30 seconds. The first and last samples were also used for particle distribution measurements. The Mazzer Mini showed only a minimal temperature increase and remained at an overall low temperature of 30.4 degrees on average. This made the Mazzer one of the coolest and best grinders in the field. Due to the temperature of the grounds, no change in taste is to be expected. Although the particle distribution varied, this was within the standard variance of the grinder.
Is the Mazzer Mini suitable as a single-dosing grinder?
Single portions are in. Especially if home baristas like to change beans, the single-dose principle is very practical. For this, the desired amount of coffee is weighed by hand in a measuring cup and placed in the grinder. The grinder should then grind these beans as completely as possible, one-to-one. In English-speaking countries, this is called "single dosing".
The most important factors to assess here are the retention, the easy adjustability of the grind size and, depending on the perspective, the amount of coffee between the bean hopper closure and the grinding discs.
With a retention of 5.3 grams, the Mazzer Mini has too much retention to be convincing as a single-dosing grinder. The roughly 5 grams must always be ground out first – that is simply not practical. The difficult adjustment possibility also makes it harder to precisely select the grind size for a different bean.
The coffee beans under the slide are another factor that makes changing beans in the bean hopper difficult at best. There are 40.9 grams of coffee under the closure. So if we remove the bean hopper, there are still a lot of beans underneath. These beans must be removed before all the coffee can be changed. All this speaks against the Mazzer Mini as a flexible espresso grinder for single doses and against changing coffee often.
Espresso and taste
We mostly drank decent espressos with the Mazzer Mini Electronic A. It convinced us more often with darker espresso roasts. The ground coffee was soft and ground out without clumps. In terms of taste, however, we repeatedly had espressos that were not brewed to the point.
This may also be related to the fact that the Mazzer Mini generally produces a relatively large amount of fines, but with some curves, it produced significantly more of the smallest particles. These tend to over-extract and contribute to a dry, bitter cup.
This diagram shows four shots at the same grind size. The curves fluctuate and in some cases relatively fine particles are produced. The proportion of particles under 100 microns was over 23%. In some cases it was lower, but it always fluctuated.
At the same time, the Mazzer Mini has a relatively narrow coarse peak of 214. The highest point of the curve is used for the determination and then cut. Particles 30% on both sides of the cut are taken into account. In other words, due to the narrow peak, the Mazzer Mini is relatively accurate here 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 as well as the large retention minimize the reliability.
The curve shows how the Mazzer Mini performs in the field of other grinders.
About the test procedure - what was investigated?
The diagram above shows all the particle distribution curves we recorded. The Mazzer Mini Electric A was listed as grinder 19 in our test.
- T1 is a measurement of the particle distribution in the factory setting. This can vary from grinder to grinder. In this case, the Mazzer Mini was set to the ristretto range at the factory.
- 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 through the grinder to remove residual materials from production, etc.
- T3 is a check of the particle distribution after an espresso was pulled 6 times in a row every 30 seconds. The heat of the grounds was recorded each time.
- T4 was taken after the original recipe was set again.
- 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 long coffee. 18 grams of coffee were used and an extraction of 120g in 25 seconds was realized.
- T7 shows a curve that arises when an attempt is made to reach the same setting as in curve 4, based solely on the marking. In curve 4, the grind setting was photographed and with curve 7, it was reset according to the image.
More about the protocol here.
The detailed test report will be published during Wednesday, December 8, 2021.
How do the Mazzer Mini A and Mazzer Mini B differ from each other?
In terms of inner workings, the Mazzer Mini A and Mazzer Mini B do not differ significantly from one another. It is mainly the exterior that differs. The controls for the Mazzer Mini Electronic A are located on the centering container of the grinder. The controls for the Mazzer Mini B are located below the dosing container. The grinding discs and other construction are the same. The Mazzer Mini B closes with a plastic cover over the centering container.
Conclusion on the Mazzer Mini Electronic A
Let's start with the potential. A second metal pin to adjust the grind size would be a useful addition. Anyone who doesn't have one can also use a threaded screw. Doesn't look as nice, but it works too.
And with that, we are in the middle of a problematic area of the grinder. Its adjustability and the associated flexibility and usability. The Mazzer Mini is a long-established grinder and is correspondingly robust and solid. With its performance, it does not recommend itself for the top places in our test.
Even though there were decent and also good espressos time and again, we also tasted some unpleasant outliers. That is why it is difficult to recommend the Mazzer Mini Electronic to the experienced and experimental home barista today. The high price is another counter-argument. The biggest pro is probably the proven longevity of the grinder, which modern and cheaper grinders have yet to live up to.
