Baratza’s New Sette Grinder Gets Horizontal

Consumer-focused grinderlords Baratza introduced their new Sette model this week at SCAA in Atlanta, adding a new—upside down and sideways—twist to grinder engineering.

The grinder boasts dramatically increased speed and efficiency through a streamlined design owed to a straight-through grinding mode wherein the outer, not inner, burrs rotate. The mechanism turning the grinding gear is moved to the rear of the burrs, rather than driven from below them, opening up space to brew directly into a device with increased speed.

“When you turn the outer burrs, it breaks all these paradigms that people think they’re living with with conical burrs,” Baratza co-founder Kyle Anderson told Sprudge. They turned their grinder game upside down with the help of Swiss engineer Christian Etzinger.

“We reconfigured what and how the grinding mechanism even looks like, and in so doing it opened up all this real estate because we’re hanging it, not supporting it from underneath like before.”

So, too, hangs the coffee receptacle—whether it’s a grounds bin or the portafilter, V60, or other dripper, adjustable arms beneath the burrs allow the user to mount the brewer of their choice to recieve a speedy, 3.5g per second dose of espresso-ground coffee or 5.5g per second dose of filter-sized grounds. (An adapter to hold an AeroPress within the Sette—we’re guessing not inverted—is also in the works.)

And with all that dangling in mid-air, you might think: but can it also weigh my coffee? Yes, as a matter of fact, the sette can. Utilizing an Acaia load cell and Bluetooth-enabled Acaia circuit board, the Sette-W model will auto-tare whatever receptacle is mounted and weigh it with precision. And if you’re a user of the Acaia app, it will communicate with that, too.

While Sette doesn’t replace comparable higher-end model Baratza Vario, it offers a speedy, sexy alternative with conical burrs. (“Some people will always prefer flat ceramic burrs,” said Baratza’s Joyce Klassen of the Vario. “It’s a personal choice.”)

The Sette’s burrs are forged of hardened high-carbon tool steel, from the same supplier in Liechtenstein that produces burrs for the Encore, Virtuoso, and Preciso. The crucial outer burrs are mounted in a 50% glass-reinforced plastic housing that Anderson tells us is the same material used for car exhaust manifolds. He’s confident their parts will back a long-lived, superior grinder.

And it’ll look pretty good on the kitchen counter, too.

Liz Clayton is the associate editor at Sprudge.com, based in Brooklyn. Read more Liz Clayton on Sprudge. 

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