The first Niche Zero espresso grinder found its way into our academy accompanied by a coffee enthusiast. John Buckmann, the founder of the Decent espresso machine, had the grinder in his luggage as a counterpart to his portable Decent. At just 4.1 kg, the grinder is a lightweight, especially compared to professional espresso grinders, and is travel-friendly – yet with the clear ambition to grind at a high level.
We bought our first Niche Zero in white for an initial test in March 2020. Back then, the crowdfunding-financed espresso grinder came to us via Indiegogo for 617 CHF/580 € . We were very optimistic at the time, and our first test video reflected that.
As part of our major espresso grinder comparison, the Niche Zero, this time in black, made its way back onto our table. And once again, the grinder performed very well, outperforming the ECM S64, the Mazzer Mini Electronic A, and the Eureka Mignon XL in its group in a direct price comparison.
This test report, originally published in 2020, has been updated with findings from our comparative test of 24 home espresso grinders.
NEW: Now online, our test report on the Niche DUO, the Niche Zero's big sister.
We compared 10 single-dosing grinders in the 500 to 1000 Euro price range. More on this in our article on the topic.
Niche Zero grinder – the single-dose grinder at a glance
The Niche Zero is a grinder that wears many hats. It grinds espresso-fine. That is exactly what it was designed for. In fact, we have also brewed very good filter coffees with coffee ground by the Niche Zero.
The grinder is a lightweight, measuring about 12 cm wide, 31 cm high, and 21 cm deep. Controls consist of a single lever switch and one grind setting: single-dose grinding and "off". Conical burrs with a diameter of 63 mm made of hardened steel form the Niche Zero's grinding mechanism. The body of the grinder is made of aluminum.
The Niche Zero is designed to grind single portions. The bean hopper itself barely holds 30 grams of beans. The concept of single-dose grinding is primarily known from professional catering grinders like the EK43. While grinding individually or pre-portioning can slow down workflows in a professional catering context, this is less of a problem in everyday life at home.
The advantages are obvious. Only as much coffee is put into the bean hopper as will be used immediately. Coffee exposed to light and oxygen ages quickly and loses its flavor complexity. The coffee oils begin to oxidize – not nice! This problem does not exist with the Niche Zero.
You weigh the coffee, put it into the grinding mechanism, and close the lid. In single-dose mode, the grinding begins automatically when the lid is closed. A clever safety precaution!
A big question is: how many beans come out if, for example, I put in 18 grams of coffee.
The "Zero" of the Niche Zero – retention measurement
Retention is the amount of coffee that remains stuck in the grinder once the desired portion of coffee has been ground. Basically, every coffee grinder has retention. There are larger or smaller gaps in screw holes, between the burrs, and in the spaces that can take in coffee. This residue remains when the grinding stops.
If you grind more coffee right after, this is less problematic. The "retained coffee" is then exchanged and the aging processes don't start. It is more problematic, however, when no coffee is ground for a longer period, or even for a day.
In its ground state, coffee loses a large part of its volatile aroma components within minutes. This is because the surface area of the coffee has been multiplied many times over by the grinding process. Imagine an apple you cut in half. While only the outer skin was initially exposed to air and sun, these now act on the two inner halves. It is similar, only multiplied many times over, with coffee.
The coffee that has aged in this way has two consequences. Firstly, it tastes different, often not good, but quickly rancid. It also clogs the grinder more. Secondly, it extracts differently, which can lead to different extraction behavior when pulling an espresso.
The severity of this effect depends on how much coffee remains in the retention of the grinder and is therefore part of the next brew. With many grinders, this is several grams. For the Graef CM800, we easily measured 4-5 grams, and even higher peak values.
This means that a single espresso prepared with 8–10 grams is brewed half from retained coffee (old coffee). With a double espresso of 16–20 grams, we are still looking at a quarter of the coffee quantity.
View into the opened grinding mechanism without the outer burr.
We disassembled the Niche Zero, removed the burrs, and scraped out the grounds. When measuring retention, a distinction is made between coffee that remains permanently stuck in a grinder and coffee that is replaced with every grinding process. Only the exchangeable grounds are truly problematic. In total, using a precision scale, we arrived at a maximum of 0.82 grams of coffee from the retention. About 0.35 of that does not exchange.
So, according to our measurement, the retention is 0.47 grams. That is really, really low! Anyone who knows a grinder with less retention is welcome to write to me.
We are happy to keep the "Zero" in Niche for a zero-point-something number.
In our second test of the Niche Zero, we measured the retention compared to conventional grinders differently. Grinders that are not designed as single-dose grinders constantly have coffee in the bean hopper. They do not grind empty. We tried this with the Niche Zero as well and arrived at 1.1 grams of ground coffee that remains stuck around the burrs when the grinder stops. Following the concept of the grinder, however, this is ground out if you grind long enough. With "classic espresso grinders," this is not possible because beans are constantly pushing through.
Grinding and workflow with the Niche Zero
When working with the Niche Zero, I quickly established a workflow. Anyone who works professionally with an EK43 will love the workflow with the Niche. I myself am not an EK43 disciple and have even preferred working with a "classic espresso grinder" like a Mahlkönig K30 at barista championships. But I quickly warmed up to the Niche.
- The coffee amount is weighed in the Niche Zero's included metal cup.
- The grinder lid is open. I put the coffee into the bean inlet, which resembles a funnel more than a bean hopper.
- I place the metal cup under the outlet and close the lid.
- Closing the lid starts the grinding process and the coffee output.
- The metal cup can then be placed directly onto a 58mm portafilter to deposit the coffee powder.
- By "shaking" and carefully removing the cup, the powder distributes well in the portafilter.
The Niche Zero is powerful, but slow. The slow speed is certainly one reason why the grinder is relatively quiet. It takes a good 16 seconds to grind 18 grams.
Niche Zero from the front and from the side.
The grind size can be adjusted steplessly. Very fine grind size changes can thus be made without any problems. The grinder can be adjusted from espresso-fine to grain sizes suitable for filter coffee. The grinder's burrs are explicitly not suitable for Turkish coffee – so don't overdo it with the fine setting.
The grind adjustment from espresso to filter coffee is hardly to be 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 end point of the coarse marking. It is only important to remember how many revolutions you have opened the grinder.
In our case, we had very good espresso results in the grind range of 25 to 15, which corresponds roughly to the 6–7 o'clock position. For filter coffee, I ground in the 11–1 o'clock grind spectrum, where no grind markings are provided anymore.
How does the espresso taste and how consistent is the Niche Zero?
We have brewed very good espressos with the Niche, and above all, amazingly consistent ones. Even over many shots, we had many good shots in terms of taste. For 10 espressos, we had maximum coffee powder fluctuations of 0.2 grams per shot. The powder comes out of the grinder without clumps.
In the particle comparison, the Niche Zero, in terms of the coarse peak, lies between the grinders with flat burrs (M2D, Eureka Mignon) and the two grinders with conical burrs (Graef, Sette). The curve resembles the particle distribution of the Sage Smart Grinder Pro. The extraction evaluation was not as high as with the Sage Smart Grinder Pro, but it was significantly more regular over many shots.
Particle distribution of the Niche Zero.
The following table shows our espresso shots with different grinders. The grinders were each set so that about 50 grams of espresso were extracted in 24.5 to 25.5 seconds. The concentration of dissolved coffee particles (TDS %) was measured, and the extraction was calculated for each. For the test, we used our Brazilian Espresso Henrique.
| Grinder Name | Powder quantity | Time | Volume/g | TDS | Extraction |
| Sage Smart Grinder Pro | 18.00 | 24.5 | 49.8 | 7.50% | 20.75% |
| Graef CM 800 | 18.00 | 25.5 | 49.6 | 6.52% | 17.97% |
| Eureka Mignon Perfetto | 18.00 | 25.5 | 49.8 | 7.10% | 19.64% |
| Macap M2D | 18.00 | 24.5 | 49.6 | 7.64% | 21.05% |
| Sette 270 WI | 18.00 | 25 | 49.4 | 6.95% | 19.07% |
| Anfim Practica | 18.00 | 24.5 | 49.2 | 7.88% | 21.54% |
| Niche Zero | 18.00 | 25 | 49.7 | 7.14% | 19.71% |
With the Niche Zero, we measured a strength of 7.14%. The coffee was very balanced and, above all, sweet. The Graef CM800 and the Sette 270 wi fell behind in terms of taste. Interestingly, these two grinders also had a lower extraction evaluation.
Comparison of the particle distribution of 6 espresso grinders under €600.
Precision when adjusting the Niche Zero back and forth
Especially with single-dosing grinders, an important question is how well they can be set from one grind setting to another and back again. With the Niche Zero, this should even be possible from filter to espresso, as the grinder is designed for both.
In our test, the Niche Zero did a very good job here, especially in comparison to the other three test grinders in the price category (ECM S64, MAZZER Mini Electronic A, EUREKA Mignon XL).
The curves show that we set the Niche Zero to espresso grind size with measurement T4. Then a ristretto was brewed with T5 in yellow, followed by a café crème with T6 in blue. Afterward, we set the grinder back to the original grind size, only based on the previously marked position on the grind marking. As can be seen, the curve in the main peak is almost identical.
Removing the burrs and cleaning
A thorough cleaning of an espresso grinder should preferably be done more often than rarely. We understand, however, that people don't like doing it. It is usually complicated. With the Niche Zero, the outer burr can be removed without tools, allowing a larger part of the grinding mechanism to be cleaned. The grinder's grind size is opened in the coarse direction until the grind adjustment can be removed. Subsequently, the outer burrs can be removed with two fingers.
With a fine brush, coffee residues can now be removed without further ado. If you also want to remove the inner burr, you only need a wrench or a ratchet. Important: especially when reassembling, do not tighten the central screw too much.
After cleaning, the bean funnel can be screwed back on. We turned it until it stopped and then opened it halfway again. With that, it was back to the grinder's initial 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 many things well, and in a simple way. Single portioning is very practical for me at home. Little stale coffee and I can quickly switch coffees. In everyday life, I brew the espresso I like for myself, a decaffeinated coffee for those sensitive to caffeine, and a Café Natur for my father – with three different beans and grind sizes.
The grind adjustment is intuitively precise. After a few attempts, you develop a feel for how much finer the Niche Zero goes when you, for example, grind two markings finer. This makes changing different coffees a pleasure and strongly reminds me of the EK43.
The grinder is so compact that I can quickly stow it away or even take it with me on my next trip. I really like that the grinder performs as well as some larger grinders despite its small stature.
I have little to complain about with the Niche Zero. Some visitors to the coffee academy did not like the design. I find it functional, and it doesn't bother me that it looks like a kitchen appliance to some.
For me, the Niche Zero fits next to a professional home espresso machine like the La Marzocco GS3 just as well as next to a Rocket Appartamento or a DeLonghi Dedica EC 685.
Suggestions for improvement for the Niche Zero
- Grind marking around the entire circle.
- Counter for how many turns you have opened the grind ring.
- Cup options for different portafilter sizes, not just 58mm.
- When using hard beans, the last ones sometimes jump above the grinding mechanism for a long time.
- On our model, the central screw visually wobbled upon delivery. It didn't have a negative effect on the grounds, 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 do not sell the Niche, we bought it ourselves at normal conditions. The test report reflects my personal impression.
Supplementary images and measurements for the Niche Zero
