PIETRO Manual Coffee Grinder

Is this grinder perfect ? Nop, you've probably read or heard that the grinder is not quite stable when grinding, the seasoning takes a good 2kg of coffee to peak. Add to that the pre-breaker blocks you during grinding.

What do you get?

A superb grinder. It's quite the Alpha Romeo. You love it with all the flaws. The clarity and separation of flavour is unmatched in my view.

I have and use ZP6S and it is above that. I use the Lagom P64 High uniformity and it beats that too for filter.

I do trendy turbo shots with Ultra Light roast and love it all that much.

I definitly would recommend to anyone looking to explore the possibilities of new and upcoming coffee.

All along my espresso journey, I’ve used conical grinders. A few years into the hobby, I wanted to try a flat burr grinder, but I didn’t want to spend thousands on a well-designed, high quality flat burr grinder just to satisfy my curiosity! The Pietro manual flat burr came onto the scene a couple of years ago & provided the less costly option, but even at that, it was a considerable outlay, so I continued to resist. I almost gave in last year when they offered a great deal that included both burr sets, but talked myself out of it, for the umpteenth time! However, when I saw the sale price this month, I thought ”Right-o, enough with this waffling back & forth, bite the bullet, take the plunge.”
The Pietro arrived today. And, wow! I cannot believe what a delight it is to hold & admire, and the cup result really does deliver. I should not have waited so long to buy it!

First shot from the grinder:
Using Dak’s “Cinnamon Roll”, set the Pietro at “2” for a 15 gram dose of espresso, pulled on the Flair (previously dialing-in on the Niche at #10). The manual grinding process is what you’d expect… not super quick & easy, but definitely not as hard as so many have stated. I am a senior with arthritic hands, and I didn’t force the grinder one bit, just let it grind at a calm pace, backing off on the handle if a bean snagged in the burrs, then resuming forward again. No real effort involved as long as you aren’t trying to force the process. Slow & easy wins the race. My hands aren’t huge, so clearing the counter with my fingers is not the problem others have described. Still, I suspect I’ll go with a sitting-down mode, grinder on my lap/fishing reel style, more often than not (with lighter roasts, anyway). And, yes, the hopper lid is vacuum-tight, but easily lifted using a thin-ish wooden popsicle/ice cream stick (Haagen Daz😉): give it a twist when slid into the provided side gaps & the lid pops right off the hopper. (The wooden pry tool won’t scratch the surface. You wouldn’t want to use metal!)

The grinds are BEAUTIFUL coming out of this thing, so even, fluffy & perfect. There was fair bit of static initially (no, I didn’t RDT) & I think I lost a bit of my dose as a result, either that or more likely due to some grinds retained in the burrs… but this was my first go using the Pietro, so I will become more familiar with what to expect in due course. (I may end up dosing a bit higher to compensate, need be.)

I poured grinds direct from Pietro grinds cup into a Weber Blind Shaker, easy-peasy, as there’s lots of room with the blind shaker to accommodate the grinder cup’s odd shape. I can see it might be awkward if dosing directly into a smaller diameter portafilter, and more so because the interior of the grinder cup is black & hard to see if all the grinds are out of there. (The Pietro cup has a convenient “thumb hole” to aid when tipping out the grinds.)

The AROMA was incredible! Dak beans have beguiling aromas, but they literally sing out of the Pietro, & that aroma spills over to the brewing process, too! Big plus there.

The flavour: Right off the bat, I notice the SMOOTHNESS & the ROUNDEDNESS of the shot. I regularly grind with a Niche Zero, and while the Niche does yield a very nice shot, it can tend to give slightly sharper notes at the end, whereas Pietro had none. The complexity may be more blended with these multi-purpose burrs, not sure yet, & I’ll have to try the Pro brew burrs at some point, to compare. But, again, it’s early days & this was my first shot. The flavours were all there, even & rich, without dryness or sharpness. Lovely.

I am DELIGHTED with this grinder. It’s massive, quite heavy, and not what everyone would want because of that. I really don’t find the weight or effort involved off-putting. And there’s a delight in something so solidly built & appealing in design. The taste in the cup is everything, and this delivers. Very, very happy with this purchase & my coffee indulgence.

Even before seasoning the burrs, the pro brew burrs has given me some of the cleaning balanced cups for filter. Super worth it

Ok what can we say, the results speak for themselves
We purchased the " Pastel Blue" version with the B" Modal" burr set, predominantly making espresso. The play of of the black dial and black stand with the blue is very snazzy
The flavor profile that comes out in our espresso is wonderful, the so called " notes" are distinct and clear, the brew is not as " bulky" as our electric grinder, huge difference.
We purchased the so called " stand kit", it comes with the stand, a brush and a cover that fits both the top and bottom that allows you to both pour in the beans and pour out your grinds without making a mess. Fits perfectly into the portafilter.

Lets go over the gripes that people have spoken about on the video reviews , some that go into sarcasm.
Yes the grinder is heavy and has a narrow footprint . with the stand this issue as well as the clearance of the fingers is resolved
The top lid is sticky, but if you look carefully on the back is a small thumbnail groove that allows you to easily pop the lid free
Grinding a dose of 18grms takes 1 minute of easy hand grinding, also not an issue( medium roast for espresso)
The cleaning of the burrs is a breeze, all you have to do is carefully watch the alignment as you put it back together

The assembly of the stand and grinder is not explained or illustrated anywhere, so let me explain how the stand works.
The bottom cup is removed from the grinder, then the grinder is inserted from the top into the stand where it is firmly gripped by some rubber gaskets
The cup is then inserted through the bottom where the magnets " click" it into place. There are some smartly made cutouts so that insertion and removal of the cup is easily done
.
That's it, apart from the packaging and boxing which is over the top quality
We love this little grinder, for us it was a purchase for our " non electric"/ power outage/ off grid espresso setup, this beautifully engineered product fits the bill.
Highly recommended, but you must get the stand if you want it to be hassle free
Yes its up there in terms of price, but Fiorenzato has absolutely gone above and beyond in this one.

I have had the Pietro with the multipurpose burrs for a few weeks now and can say it performs as well, if not better than the reviews. The build quality is better than I anticipated. I use it to grind for my Alessi 9090 moka pot and the coffee it produces is outstanding. While the price point is on the high side, the quality of the grinder and the coffee can’t be beat.