Mazzer Goes Filter On The SCA Showfloor

Sometime in our twenties, we come to the conclusion that we cannot live off of beer and pizza alone and should probably add some salad to our diet. In the same spirit of doing what’s healthy for you, Mazzer— an Italian grinder brand best known for their work in the espresso realm—has expanded into manufacturing filter coffee grinders on a smaller scale, but with big possibilities. Showing out and looking fresh on the Global Coffee Expo floor were the new Mazzer Mini Filter, plus the Mazzer ZM, a grinder unlike anything Mazzer has put out to this point in design and functionality.

The Mini Filter, available now, looks almost exactly like a Mazzer Mini espresso grinder. It has the standard grind collar adjustment and touch settings to calculate dose based on time. What’s particularly special about the Mini Filter is that in comes in pretty colors! With shiny yellow and red options, it’ll match that KitchenAid stand mixer your boyfriend got you before he gave you that engagement ring. (I didn’t get one. My marriage is doomed.) Or it could match your flashy car. “They look like Ferraris!” chirped Marketing Manager Cristina Scarpa. “We are Italian.”

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The ZM, which will start shipping in September, is named after a grinder that Mazzer used to manufacture in the 50s. Like the kid named after his grandfather, this new grinder gets the legacy name with all of the pressure of doing the family proud. It doesn’t look unlike a Mahlkonig EK43, but the clear difference here is the LCD display and programming options. You can program up to twenty settings and name them, while four settings can be programmed on buttons for frequent use. The retention, or lack thereof, is pretty sick. The chamber holds on to less than .45 grams of coffee. Toss one bean in there and get one ground bean out. Damn, girl.

The decision to start producing filter coffee grinders was one Mazzer took seriously from the outset. “We started from scratch,” Head of Global Sales Luca Maccatrozzo told me. “We asked SCAE to educate our palates and to show us how many brewing methods there are. Once we learned that, we started to design the grinder.” When I asked Maccatrozzo what inspired the nearly eighty year old company to shift gears and move toward filter coffee grinders, I expected some pre-programmed thoughtful answer about integrity, innovation, and the future. Instead, he smiled and simply answered, “Business.” That’s so real, Luca.