1Zpresso X-Ultra Manual Coffee Grinder - Pacific Blue | Premium Stainless Steel Burr, Adjustable Grind Settings, Magnetic Catch Cup | Portable & Durable for Travel, Camping, Home Brewing & Espresso

I bought a black X-Ultra during black Friday '24 and spent the month of January traveling with it, so it's gotten a lot of use already. After getting back home, I found that the experience and grind quality is so good, that I favor it over my motorized burr grinder. I never write reviews, it just takes too much of my time. But this product deserves it, so here we go:User experience: 5 stars- The burrs are ridiculously sharp, the movement is smooth and solid, and the leverage from the handle is generous, so it just tears through beans. It takes me less than ten seconds [see edit] with minimal effort to grind a single cup for pour-over.- I don't have a way to measure grind size distribution, but my subjective experience is that it doesn't create excessive fines at all grind sizes that tend to clog filters. The small step size also allows you to really dial in the grind for every new roast.- The grounds cup doubles as a dosing cup and its clever magnet arrangement makes it super easy to remove with a small twist that doesn't risk spilling beans or grounds.- It is very easy to do a quick clean: the included brush with hard and soft bristles is fantastic for brushing sticky grounds off the burs and then wiping away the fines. The air blower is also handy to clear out most fines from the hopper chamber.- It is also very easy to do a thorough clean, since a clever shaft retention feature makes removing the cone burr tool-free, allowing you to clean every last bit of the grinder quickly and easily.Quality: 5 stars- Build quality is just incredible. Entirely made of aluminum and stainless steel precision machined parts, there's not a single part that they cut corners on.- The design is nearly flawless in my opinion. In case you've read this far, you won't be surprised to learn I'm a product design engineer. I can't remember the last time I tore a consumer product down and didn't immediately find anything I'd want to improve or change.Value: 5 stars- This isn't a cheap grinder, but given the materials, build quality, and accessories, I'm honestly shocked it isn't more expensive.- In an age of extremely cheap products from China that ship to your doorstep in 4 hours, it is great to see a product where quality and attention to detail were obviously important to the designers/manufacturers, and will actually last you a lifetime.Tips:- If you like a clean grinder, don't get the black color. It's the only thing I regret about this purchase. It looks great, but it makes it difficult to see when surfaces are clean of grinds. If you don't care much about grinder cleanliness, get the black color.- The first time you grind you want to put your hand up near the top, but then the bend in the crank arm hits your hand as you rotate it. So you adjust your hand lower, and maybe a little too low so when you start again, you accidentally pull off the magnetically attached grinds cup. This happens once, and then you learn where to put your hand and it never happens again. Let me assure you that it is a very good thing they put the bend in the arm, since it means grinding doesn't put off-axis torque on the shaft that would make it take more energy to grind and cause excess wear on the bearings.- You may get annoyed at first that there is no absolute scale to the grind size setting, since it takes multiple revolutions of the adjustment ring to span the entire range. I found that it doesn't take much time to get used to it; if you ever are unsure of the setting, it's very quick to rotate the ring until the burrs contact and then back off to zero it out. Most of the time you are just leaving the grind setting where it is after dialing it in anyway.- Don't be surprised when you find marks on the finish from contact with the counter, the brush, or anything really. This is a reality of aluminum finishes, embrace it. There's no way to avoid wear on the finish without adding coatings that you don't want in a food-safe product.- There's enough room in the case for my GreaterGoods pocket scale, which slips nicely into the mesh pocket on the cover. You can even fit some filters and a folding dripper if you want to use the case as your coffee go-bagEdit: I actually timed how long it takes me to grind my typical 20g of coffee and it's just over 30s on average