Coffee Data Science
Seasoning the Wave Burrs for Coffee
Trying new burrs
Recently, some new burr designs have come out that have been a break from tradition, particularly straight lines. I bought the Wave burrs which have a curved cut rather than a straight cut, and this gave me an opportunity to examine particle shape as I seasoned the burrs.
I aimed to look at the particle distribution and particle shape every 1 kg of coffee until around 10 kg. Usually, 10 kg of coffee is required to dial in a coffee.
My primary comparison was to the SSP burrs in the Zerno Grinder.
Thus started a lot of coffee grinding.
I examined the particle distribution using imaging. The cumulative curves had some variation, but it is hard to tell in this graph, so let’s change the graph.
We can look at a few key points along the curve, and now we can see that there is not a pattern as more coffee is fed through. I was expecting the particle distribution would change, but it did not.
Then I look at particle shape analysis. I looked at a few buckets of particle sides, 100 um to 600 um in 100 um. I looked at comparing the particle shape similarities as the grinder is seasoned. There seemed to be some differences around the 100 um size, but not the others. I didn’t see a particle pattern in similarity as the grinder became more seasoned.
Either the burrs were already seasoned or seasoning burrs didn’t have an effect on particle shape and particle distribution. I was expecting to see a change in both until the burrs became seasoned.
I reached out, and the makers said they used a post process that should have a similar effect as seasoning does, which is good because one primary complaint about new burrs is the need to season them.
For my next trick, I will compare these two burr sets in terms of coffee brewing.
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Further readings of mine:
My Second Book: Advanced Espresso
My First Book: Engineering Better Espresso
