Varia Brewing - VS6 Grinder

The Varia VS6 for espresso seems promising too. The 58mm flat stock burrs seem to have a balanced profile and there are a wide selection of burr choices. Ability to control the RPM and easily chang over to conical is appealing as well.

This is what I would do in your position: get a bambino plus and a Varia V6. Here is my logic: I think you would love the Profitec Go (I do), but it will take a bit more time than you have right now to get it heated up and pull a shot. The Go is known for its fast heat-up time, but that’s “fast “ for people who don’t have toddlers. You could use a smart plug to heat it in the morning, but if you leave it on and let it go into Eco mode during the day it will take a couple of minutes to get to temp every time you go back to use it. For me it’s no big deal, but the Bambino will be more immediate. Once your kid(s) is a bit older you might want to upgrade your machine. By then you will have a better idea of exactly what you want. For the grinder I would skip the DF series for two reasons: 1) lack of consistency, and 2) tariffs. Get a grinder right away that you won’t feel the need to upgrade. I have a DF 54 and it is easy to use and pretty quiet, but I’m not happy with the consistency. I’m looking at Lagom Casa or more likely Varia V6, and I am hoping the new grinder I get paired with my Go will be my end game. All the DF machines (and anything labeled Turin or MiiCoffee) are from the same factory in China. The tariff situation is likely to make them much less economical than when I bought mine. Given you already know what you like in terms of espresso taste/quality, I would skip the built-in grinder. You’ll want something that will get you better tasting shots than what you can get with the quality of the built-in.

Varia VS6. WAY better than a Timemore 078 or 078S

Tom’s grinder labs did an exhaustive video on it (one of the main reasons I took a risk on it) after two months of daily use - and his review is glowing, he calls it a end game grinder and that it can go head to head with any $5k grinder. I would disagree on the Pietro getting positive reviews though. The overwhelming consensus is that the burrs are good and the in cup product is great (agreed) but it’s one of the worst, if not the worst grinder over $100 to actually use. Some reviewers have even done entire videos simply complaining about how unpleasant it is to use, and the creator (Lance) even modified his to use a drill on it, obviously because it sucks to use. I put up with the Pietro, because of the stellar cups it produces and it’s way smaller and less messy than my former EK43 - so it was worth it. I also think the cups it produces are superior enough to an 078, that it’s also worth putting up with the unpleasant operating experience. Now that I have the VS6, after the initial head to head I did with it over the first few days, I’ve used my Pietro only once, and it was yesterday - just to circle back on it and compare it to the VS6. It only validated my opinion that at least for me, the Varia was substantially better tasting and far more pleasant to use. I’ve since found 800 rpm to be my sweet spot with most beans on the Varia where I get the perfect amount of silky body. Some folks bought VS6’s based on my review - based on the time it took mine to arrive, some of them should be getting theirs later this week - so hopefully this weekend we’ll hear more opinions.

Well, if you’re based in the US, you probably shouldn’t do anything until this tariff BS settles. You don’t want to buy something and find out you’re stuck with a huge import tariff tax. If the above were settled - I’d say just buy a $200 ZP6. For the coffee I prefer (ultra light single origin washed coffees) the Pietro is better, but for naturals and processed coffees, I personally like the lower bodied presentation of the ZP6 more. That said, the ZP6 is downright fun to use, and grinds lightning fast, and while the Pietro IS better for washed coffee’s on my palate - it’s not worlds better and given the ZP6 is less than 1/2 the cost, more fun to use, faster grinding (you won’t mind it’s not electric) and still better than 64 SSP’s - it’s kind of a no brainer. The Varia VS6 with gold burrs is the best pour over grinder I’ve ever used/tasted - and at least for me, is a big step up from a Pietro. That said - if the tariffs come into play, it’s a several thousand dollar setup and it’s a lot larger/heavier than your Ode 2 and makes it largely moot.

People love to focus on the hot item of the moment, and the Pietro is just that. People also tend to like to justify their purchases and make a bigger deal out of gains than reality. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great grinder - and for minimally processed washed coffees where you want to focus on the flavor of the terroir, the Pietro is the best hand grinder I’m aware of. That isn’t to say the ZP6 isn’t spectacular for that same coffee, but the Pietro will best it, and the amount it will do so depends on the particular coffee. Now, and this is really important - at least for me, the ZP6 is almost universally superior to the Pietro for fruit forward, heavily processed coffees. Cups are much juicier, and the lighter, more tea like body lends itself are better to those flavors, and generally won’t get to a point of turning foul - where as the Pietro can often make some of those same beans unpleasant. If you only drank ultra light washed coffees from Sey - perhaps the Pietro is your Goldilocks hand grinder. If you only drank processed, fruit forward coffee’s from roasters like Hydrangea and Luminous - then the opposite would be true and I’d actually steer you towards the ZP6 OVER the Pietro. If you just want to explore lots of light roast coffee’s, I’d say you’re going to get a hell of a lot more enjoyment from the ZP6 and $300+ of premium coffee. Even with a $200+ per pound ultra rare coffee, I’d never feel like I wasn’t getting my money’s worth out of the bean if I “only” could use my ZP6. If I could only have one grinder, it wouldn’t be a ZP6 or a Pietro, but if I could only have one high clarity grinder - it would be a hard choice, but it just might be the ZP6… but I value it’s haptic feedback and pleasurable use which heighten my daily routine, it’s vastly superior portability, it’s much faster grind time, and it’s better range covering more types of coffees well, at least for my palate.

Not really I don't have df64, I use a varia vs6. It's mainly used for espresso but sometimes I like to use it for pourover for a week or so before. If I don't clean the burrs the fines from my espresso will clog my filter making draw time wildly unpredictable we're talking 2:30 to 3:10. And sometimes it just clogs. Even if I run a bunch of beans it requires a cleaning. After cleaning it would get a consistent draw time 5-7 seconds difference. Then I get bored and go back to my zp6 and the circle begins again...

Once you can bump up your budget, I highly suggest the Varia VS6. At the risk of hyperbolic evangelism, it's almost unicorn like. A single grinder that does high-clarity filter (w/o the sharpness of ssp mp) and modern espresso in one burr set (gold). Although, the stock burrs do filter very well while also doing a better job with traditional espresso. The burrs take less than a min to swap, and there's about 8 options to choose; all relatively inexpensive. If you pick it up, I'd start with the stock burrs. It's completely likely that you'd be satisfied with them for both filter and spro. You can always try more burrs in the future.

I’m about 2 weeks in with the Varia VS6. So far I’m enjoying it. Relatively quiet operation, easy burr swapping and cleaning (although could be improved), retention is getting better the more it is used, popcorning isn’t an issue, built like a tank. Every grinder out there has its flaws, this one is no exception but they are very minor.

Varia vs4 is great for being a budget grinder . it does espresso very well and decent pour over. Maintenance on the unit is so quick and easy without needing tools to remove burrs .But vs6 for sure if your budget really does extend into the 800 dollar range. Larger burrs with plenty of upgrade options and you can swap between flat and conical.

If you dont mind hand-grinding, I'd say the Millab M01 is definitely an all-around upgrade from the K6. The M01's burrset was designed to mimic a flatburr profile in a handgrinder, like the Pietro, but the ease and build quality of a Kinu at about 2/3rd the price. If you do decide to go electric, i wouldn't bother with Varia's VS3. Their VS6/is one of the best electric grinders on the market and its extremely versatile; its also on sale for a deep discount, around $600. If that's above your budget, then maybe consider the DF54 at around $200.

I really like the Varia VS6. It’s under 1500 even with upgraded burrs if needed. I have the gold burrs for light roasts, but they make really good medium roast too as long as you grind finer. I wish it was a little bit cleaner, but it’s pretty good all things considering, and it’s built like a tank.

For this budget I’d recommend Varia VS6 with a conical and flat burr to emphasize both espresso and filter. Watch this review: https://www.tomsgrinderlab.com/varia-vs6-review/ I have VS3 and I am very pleased and impressed with it.