Summary:
I’ve been using the La Marzocco Jay grinder for about a month or so and I’m enjoying it allot. It fits into the workflow I like to use, direct grind into portafilter, no single dosing. I was using a Compak K10 Fresh, 68mm conical grinder prior to this one. The Jay produces a wonderful grind that is fluffy, no clump, with uniform granularity. I’m only doing timed doses, validated with a scale, and the results are pretty consistent within a few 10th’s of a gram of my targeted 20gr. That holds true as long as you keep the hopper at a similar level of beans. I’ve been keeping the beans near the top of the black cover that is inside the hopper. As I said I don’t single dose, and top of the beans every day or two. I’m sure that may be sacrilege to some, but overall the tast…
Summary:
I’ve been using the La Marzocco Jay grinder for about a month or so and I’m enjoying it allot. It fits into the workflow I like to use, direct grind into portafilter, no single dosing. I was using a Compak K10 Fresh, 68mm conical grinder prior to this one. The Jay produces a wonderful grind that is fluffy, no clump, with uniform granularity. I’m only doing timed doses, validated with a scale, and the results are pretty consistent within a few 10th’s of a gram of my targeted 20gr. That holds true as long as you keep the hopper at a similar level of beans. I’ve been keeping the beans near the top of the black cover that is inside the hopper. As I said I don’t single dose, and top of the beans every day or two. I’m sure that may be sacrilege to some, but overall the taste of my espresso drinks are great and I get very consistent shots with this grinder. I not going to get into any more nuances on shot tasting... I’ll leave that to the experts on H-B.
**Specifications and thoughts on build quality. **
You can find more detail on La Marzocco’s website. But in short the Jay is a 68mm blind flat burr grinder. The burrs are set at angle to help reduce retention, LM says less than 2 grams, but I haven’t tested that. The burrs are LM’s own design and produced in house. Which also means you won’t be swapping burrs, at least as of today there are no after market burrs for this grinder. The grinder is unique in the commercial realm as it’s the first grinder I’ve seen that uses magnets to attach the top burr to the grinder making removal of that assembly tool less, for easy cleaning.
The hopper has a cool iris closure mechanism that aids in pulling it off without having to empty the beans. It’s also useful when making larger grind adjustments as you can close off the coffee beans, clear out what is in the grinder and make your adjustment.
The frame of the grinder is made of cast aluminum with stainless steel on the sides and back. The small section behind the magnetic portafilter mount is plastic, and the display and button panels are plastic. Overall it is a solidly built grinder.
The first image shows the tight clearance for the wipers and you can also just see the comb as the grind exits to the chute.
Operation and Controls
I liked LM’s analog approach to the Jay’s design. It’s very easy to setup the duration of time for your shots with the 3 buttons on the left. You select the button to program, hold it for a few seconds and then adjust the time up or down with the other two buttons. I’m using the default mode of the portafilter micro switch to initiate the dose. The portafilter holder is magnetically attached to the grinder and it uses a simple knurled nut to allow adjustment for the thickness of your portafilter. The grinds from the chute drop nicely into the portafilter and I haven’t had any static issues. That results in about 99% of the dose getting cleanly into the portafilter.
Tuning for a great shot is very easy. The upper burr is a contained in a single unit that is adjusted by a stepless collar. This is the part that magnetically attaches to the grinder as mentioned above. Once I’ve set up the optimal setting for a given bean / roast it consistently produces the same result in the shot. The grind adjustment collar does require some force to move and it’s tricky to do while pulling a dose as it goes pretty fast.
The grinder is relatively quiet, you can easily talk over it. One surprise though is that the fan in base of the grinder runs with each dose. It starts a few seconds into the grind and stays on for about 30 seconds. It doesn’t bother me and I hardly notice it anymore.
The grinder does support grind by weight if you buy LM’s connected scale and the portafilter holder for that setup. I’m not using that feature.
Note the color of the LED’s is red in real time, the camera shutter speed is making it appear more orange. The grind is fluffy!
**Value and should you buy it? **
Value is a personal decision based on allot of different needs or desires. I’ll leave it for you to decide. The grinder is $2400, and there are allot of competitors in that arena. I personally love the grinder and the style fits well with my GS/3. I’ve enjoyed 10 years with the GS/3 and plan on many more given the support and parts available from LM. That should apply to parts and support for the Jay as well.