For a beverage most individuals take pleasure in within the early morning, espresso is usually a noisy endeavor. Even if you happen to handle to keep away from the espresso machine pumping out photographs of espresso and the steam wand screaming right into a whirlpool of milk, there’s nonetheless the earsplitting shriek-crunch of the grinder. On most mornings, I’ve to attend till my companion wakes as much as brew my first cup.
Until I attempted Fellow’s new grinder, the Opus. I assumed having a quiet burr grinder was mainly inconceivable: Pulverizing espresso beans between toothy steel disks requires a robust (noisy) motor, after which there’s the din of high-velocity espresso bean shrapnel. But this one is so quiet, I can grind espresso with the bed room doorways open and nonetheless not wake anybody up.
The Opus can also be the jack of all trades of grinders. It’s highly effective sufficient to grind beans super-fine for espresso, however it may well nonetheless make a rough grind for a French press. It has a comparatively small footprint, seems cute on the countertop, and is pretty cheap for its high quality. All of this, mixed with its astounding quietness, has made it a morning routine game-changer.
Perfecting Your Daily Grind
Photograph: Fellow
For a grinder that appears easy on the skin, the Opus is an infinitely fine-tunable machine. It has 41 grind settings and an inner ring for even additional adjustment. For instance, if you happen to’re utilizing it solely for espresso however discover that one click on towards coarse feels prefer it makes issues too coarse, and one click on towards high-quality makes issues too high-quality, you need to use the inside ring to make a fair tinier adjustment. (Fellow has a video that shows how this works.) It’s not too dissimilar to what you may discover on grinders just like the Baratza Encore ESP.
The inner ring characteristic can even turn out to be useful because the grinder ages. I’ve been utilizing the Opus as my every day driver for about six months and it nonetheless produces grounds as high-quality because the day I unboxed it. But as you utilize any grinder over time, the burrs will put on down a bit, which may make your super-fine settings really feel solely kinda high-quality. The inner ring helps you to regulate the grinder to carry issues again to true, like honing a knife after it’s began to really feel a bit uninteresting. Basically what you’re doing is bringing the burrs nearer collectively to compensate for his or her put on and tear.
The Opus additionally needs to make your espresso expertise as tasty and hassle-free as attainable. It options anti-static know-how so that you received’t have grounds flying round and sticking to issues. The grinder is timed to auto-stop at 30-second intervals so that you received’t by accident over-grind your beans while you’re sleepy or distracted. Plus its low-hopper dimension means you’re solely grinding what you’re going to make use of, which is an efficient behavior to get into for the freshest, tastiest espresso.
Stacking Up to the Competition
Photograph: Fellow
Price is likely one of the Opus’ biggest promoting factors, however, at simply $195, I used to be initially doubtful that it might be something however mid. A very good burr grinder can be at the least $100. You can discover a number of uncommon standouts under that value, however in order for you one thing you received’t have to exchange each few years, $100 is the minimal. That’s why the Opus is so spectacular: It’s a $195 grinder that grinds like a $500 grinder.
