The Rocket Fausto is an espresso grinder in the transitional price bracket between home grinders and professional catering grinders. With a retail price of over 1000 Swiss francs in Switzerland and 800 euros in the Eurozone, this grinder from Rocket signals its premium quality. Our video test shows whether the grinder delivers its class into the cup across all categories.
Heavy, fast, powerful - Rocket Fausto
The Rocket Fausto also bears a visual resemblance to many espresso grinders typically found in catering environments. At 17.2 cm wide, approximately 44.5 cm high, and 28.2 cm deep, it weighs 11.5 kg. This makes the Rocket Fausto one of the heaviest espresso grinders in our test series. It is all the more surprising, then, that the grinder shifts slightly every time it starts up. The motor power when starting seems to exceed the grip of the rubber feet.
This power is evident in its speed. The Rocket Fausto grinds 30.5 grams of coffee to espresso fineness in 10 seconds. This makes the grinder one of the fastest espresso grinders in our test series. On a positive note, the temperature of the grinding discs and the ground coffee does not rise significantly. Over six draws, we observed a temperature increase in the ground coffee of 0.8 degrees Celsius, though it remained within an average range of 31.6 degrees Celsius. This low temperature has no impact on the taste of the espresso.
The consistency of the grinder also proved to be good. With a standard deviation and fluctuation of 0.21 grams over ten draws, the Rocket Fausto mostly remained within the target range. The deviation from draw to draw must also be seen in the context of the high grinding speed. We found that faster grinders consistently had greater difficulty achieving constant ground coffee quantities.
Large retention of the Fausto
Unfortunately, the Rocket Fausto 2.1 is representative of old-school grinders that exhibit a very high retention. 10 grams of coffee remain in the absolute retention of the Rocket Fausto Nuovo. That is quite a lot! When drawing a double espresso, the retention therefore fills more than half of the portafilter. We have provided many tips in our article about retention on how to deal with such amounts. Among other things, the coffee should be purged before every draw. However, this leads to wasting coffee.
Single dosing is the solution for many grinders with high retention. However, the Rocket Fausto performs poorly here as well, with a single dosing retention of 2 grams of coffee. Specifically, this means that even when grinding a full dose, the grinder holds back 2 grams of coffee; for example, if 18 grams of coffee are put in, only 16 grams are ejected from the grinder without using a brush or other aids. On this basis, the Rocket Fausto cannot be used as a single dosing grinder.
Great espresso!
The espresso from the Rocket Fausto, on the other hand, is really good. (Provided that the old coffee in the grinder is purged or the grinder is used frequently enough that grounds do not settle in the first place.) The particle distribution also points in this direction. With a main peak of 225, we are narrow and very precise at the desired grind size. Incidentally, this was also evident when adjusting the grinder. In terms of adjustability and precision, the Rocket Fausto does a very good job. Even if the grind size is changed between grinds, a noted grind setting can be found again relatively easily, and the result of the grind is exactly the same as the previous one. That is excellent! The fine peak is also relatively low and, as expected, led to low bitterness in the espressos.
Conclusion on the Rocket Fausto
The Rocket Fausto excels in its core areas: performance, speed, espresso quality, and operation under load. This makes it well-suited for setups such as small cafés or shared apartments with high espresso grinder frequency. In single-person households, the grinder tends to show its weaknesses, including the large retention and the poor single dosing performance.
As always, however, it depends on the way you use it. The Rocket Fausto clearly has its strengths and offers a lot of robustness and good workmanship for a higher entry price.
