First announced during the spring of 2007, and first demo’ed in preproduction format at the May 2008 SCAA Conference in Minneapolis, the Vario Grinder from Baratza LLC, (based in Bellvue, Washington) will finally hit North American retail and online shelves in January 2009.

At first glance this grinder shares similar design looks with Baratza’s three other grinder designs: the Maestro, Maestro Plus, and Virtuoso. However, based around a completely new ceramic burr set designed, developed and produced by Mahlkonig, this flat burr, digital grinder is a radical departure from these other models.

The grinder features a built in digital timer, accurate down to 0.1 seconds, and multiple controls and settings including the ability to program in three preset grinding times.

The grinder also features an entirely unique dual cam system for selecting the grind fineness - presenting both a macro and micro grind adjuster.

The Vario comes with a full grinds catcher bin, as well as Baratza’s newly designed “Portaholder”, a grinds catcher replacement that lets you use a portafilter directly with the grinder.

We have a very early first look at one of the first production models available for the North American market. As usual, this is not a review of the grinder, but an initial look at the product, how it works and what it is capable of.

See more at: CoffeeGeek - Baratza Vario Grinder.

Tags: Coffee, grinder

This entry was posted by arizonius on Monday, February 9th, 2009 at 9:02 pm and is filed under Product Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.