The on/off button is another brilliant feature. It means that you can set your beans to grind and leave them to it. The burrs simply stop grinding when there are no beans left. There’s no need to set a series of timers or mull around the coffee grinder whilst it’s on. It really is designed to make your coffee routine that bit simpler. Speaking of going about the rest of my coffee prep, this is where you might find cause to criticize the Wilfa Uniform grinder. It is SLOW. 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). Wilfa Uniform Scales have a high capacity, up to 2kg and offer responsiveness and accuracy down to 0.1g so you can measure your ingredients with precision. The LED display is easy to read at a glance and the scales can even connect via Bluetooth to our useful app. 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.

The use is incredibly simple: There is just an on/off button, but with the automatic shut-off you rarely have to press it more than once. It has an automatic off function, so it will stop grinding when the hopper is empty. This is my favorite feature because I can start grinding and go about the rest of my coffee prep without thinking about it.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. That’s a substantial amount of cash for a home user, so it’s difficult to say whether the extra money is worth it to you. We give people a weight of beans and say ‘adjust your grind,’” explained Sam. "You can't do that with this machine."

The Wilfa Svart Uniform is a stellar grinder. I feel like my morning coffee tastes more like ‘coffee shop’ rather than homebrew compared to before. I can go for a higher extraction percentage without getting undesirable flavors. 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. We’d love to be able to put one through its paces, because it’s quite revered in several circles. Everything in our comparison is based on other peoples’ comments on the grinder.If you’re serious about espresso, it’s not an ideal grinder. However, if you want to have an occasional shot, it will probably work for you. The Ode Brew Grinder Gen 2 focuses on getting the very best from your filter coffee. Its burr set and motor means that unfortunately, it's not suitable for espresso brewing. The new Fellow Opus takes on that responsibility instead, as well as being adaptable to a whole range of other brew methods. We'd also recommend the Eureka Mignon Specialitaas a great all-rounder which handles espresso very well. If espresso isn't on your mind, the Ode Gen 2 is a step up for folks who really want to experience all that a premium coffee grinder can offer. Even though this model is equipped with a set of 58 mm flat steel burrs it is designed specifically with manual brewing in mind, rather than espresso. This is rather uncommon in the world of home coffee grinders where smaller (and often cheaper) conical burrs are the standard for brew grinders. The collaboration has previously resulted in some solid coffee makers, as well as the highly praised entry-level grinder known as Wilfa Svart Nymalt. In keeping with the spare Scandinavian design style, there are no extraneous features or settings to learn. Just this four-step process:

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. 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. 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. 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. That said, I do own a single dose grinder I spent a ridiculous amount of money on: a Versalab M3. Handbuilt, kind of wonky (that belt drive is stubborn), but arguably the best espresso grinder ever made. The grind output it produces is uniform, distributed evenly, and very fluffy. In the visual department, the M3 looks like a steampunk-kinda work of art. I guess I do like that grinder. Maybe I do like single dose grinders!?

To test this, I prepared three cupping bowls with the Lido 3, Helor 101 and the Uniform. I enlisted the help of my girlfriend who cupped the bowls blind.

In addition to outstanding grind quality, the Wilfa Uniform + grinder features integrated, very accurate scales and is made of stainless steel and the build quality is a big step up from the more affordable Wilfa Svart grinder. The Wilfa Uniform coffee grinder is a 58mm flat burr grinder designed for home use. Most coffee grinders at this price point use conical burrs. While these are great and more affordable to produce they tend to produce a less even particle distribution. 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.USB-C charging cord included. The battery has a duration of approx. 20 hours when fully charged, and it takes approx. 2 hours to charge the battery. 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. After getting this grinder, I have found myself gravitating towards a different brewing style and brew ratio. 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). When inspecting the grounds visually, the difference between this model and high-end hand grinders such as the Lido 3 and Helor 101 isn’t striking. My impression is that the amount of fines is roughly the same. The real difference is when it comes to boulders (the bigger particles). The Wilfa grinder, due to its flat and bigger burrs, produce fewer.