Fellow - Ode Brew Grinder Gen 1

I have had great coffee from a coffee shop running a Wilfa CGWS/Svart Aroma. Also had great coffee from coffee shops running the first gen Ode. Gear is not what brings great coffee. This equipment aimed at consumers might break down faster than professional gear, but depending on number of coffees served and type of coffee on the menu, "lower rated gear" can still work out great. You might hit diminishing returns on the cups faster, but it is still 100% possible to serve great cups. (The Wilfa was a temporary solution they told me)

It’s been mentioned but Fellow Ode really is a great grinder. Might have some decent deals with Black Friday. I bought a refurbished gen 1 Ode and it’s been great. Recently upgraded to the gen 2 brew burrs and it’s even better. Before this my grinder was a 1Zpresso JX. Which I still love my hand grind but not having to hand grind every time I want coffee is nice. But hand grinders will punch above their weight for similarly priced electric grinders. Can’t really go wrong with any of the 1Zpresso ones from what I’ve read and my experience with the JX

Thank you for your reply. I agree, outside of maybe an EG-1, its looking like its going to be two separate grinders for us. Will probably focus on an espresso grinder since the Ode 1 makes great cups but is more of a grievance on the UX side of things. The search continuous!

He said all around. Ode (I have and love it for the price) is not for espresso.

Get an ode on sale and then buy an espresso focused hand grinder.

On my bar currently is a Fellow Ode, Baratza Vario, and a Timemore 064s. Had SSP cast in the 064 but probably swapping them to the Ode now. All that to say, I could have just one of any of these and be perfectly happy. Timemore is probably my favorite as far as quality and workflow, plus it can genuinely pull double duty. Ode is great but obviously you’re not getting espresso there. Vario is an old design with clunky workflow but the burrs are great—in fact, the Mahlkonig X54 is essentially just an updated Vario. All these are great grinders.

And because you mention that you’re looking for a better grinder to help you explore more coffees, I think that’s *exactly* what the Ode is geared toward. The downside is that it is considerably more expensive than the hand grinders (at least, in USD).

So I have that (skerton pro)and a ODE and I actually like the hario more… for $300 less lol as it turns out conical and flat burr really do taste different. It just takes forever if I’m making 2L of cold brew

The fellow ode grinder (flat burr)

I’ve owned the Baratza Encore, Fellow Ode and now the 078. They clearly to me are bottom, mid and top in that order. The 078 is wildly good. 

Fellow ode is a solid option

You can feed the Ode with beans for more than one dose. I like it. It's much better than the Baratza. There are mods to make a hopper. you can also put whatever you want for the catch cup.

I am one of those people who went down the rabbit hole and got a Lagom P64 + unimodal v1 burrs. I will first say that it is amazing — the build, team support, everything. Could I get something close to that much cheaper? Probably. My brother has the DF64 with unimodal burrs and, while the polish is not there, it can probably do close to what my Lagom does. As long as you pick a grinder that 1) is generally reliable, 2) has okay customer support, and 3) lets you swap out burrs, that is pretty great! I've had many cafe filter brews from the Ode that impressed me. Your main limitation will probably be grind adjustment — depending on how "unimodally" your burrs are, 5-10 microns makes a huuuge difference because the sweet spot window is much narrower. Soooo Ode is great, but at that price point you should also consider DF64!

If she is ok with two devices that will just work honestly not sure you can beat ode and mocca master. Xbloom is neat (I want one!) but durability is tbd. The above have been reliable for years and will make a killer cup.

The slightly larger hopper on the Ode is kind of an underrated quality of life feature. Its the perfect size for doing a 60g batch brew, the catch cup is also appropriately sized to catch all of it. I have the 078S as my espresso grinder and it is def a single serve focused design. You'll be grinding 15g 4 times because you also want to cover the hopper while grinding or else the popcorning can be annoying. Also the catch cup I don't think would hold 60g so you'll be using a different one or also be doing that part in sections. Taste is king but these little things matter too!

One thing that’s not as discussed about the 078 is it’s build quality, esp. compared to the Fellow Ode. It’s miles better and feels far more sturdy. Only issue really is the popcorning in the hopper but that’s not too bad if you take some extra care during feeding