Review: New Wilfa Svart Uniform

New Wilfa Svart Uniform

looking positively sexy in brushed stainless steel

First impressions are very positive. It’s beautifully packaged, having taken a leaf out of Apple's book opening it for the first time is kind’ve exciting. Once out, it’s cleanly designed and pleasingly cylindrical in that Scandinavian sort of way. It feels solid, like a slam-able german car door and fits nicely under the kitchen cupboards.

Unusually for a domestic grinder the Uniform doesn’t have a timer, just a start/stop button. Load the beans, press start and walk away... when everything's ground it stops itself, which is kind’ve cool. This feature, along with the rather small capacity hopper encourages better brewing. I’m not sure it could hold 250g of your finest pacamara, but then again it shouldn’t have to, should it?*

The grind size adjustment is ample, 41 small steps from espresso fine (which I’ve yet to test) all the way to very coarse, and there’s a handy guide in the box to help you dial in ballpark before finding your sweet spot.

The best bit, the most important part in any grinder and a good enough reason alone to buy the Uniform, is the burr set. Most domestic grinders use small conical burrs, like a big pepper mill. These do the job far better than an old fashioned blade grinder, but are tricky on the finer grinds that you’d use on a mocha pot or espresso machine.

Wilfa have gone all in with a proper set of 58mm flat, steel burrs, the type you’d find in a decent commercial grinder and the quality of the resulting grind is excellent. You’ll taste it in the balance of your brew, and that’s the only bit that matters.

The last notable feature is the metal grounds collector. It feels lovely, but It’s got a close fitting plastic lid which can be a tad challenging to put back on. Grinding coffee produces a lot of static, the metal collector helps reduce static, which I suppose is a good thing.

And on the down side?

It doesn’t sound as sexy as it looks…. although my wife described the somewhat screechy high pitched whirr as ‘cute’, I find it a little jarring at 6am.

It’s also quite slow, which means you have to listen to it for longer.

No doubt I’ll get used to both pretty quickly and focus on just how damned good it makes my morning coffee taste.

*Best brewing practise is, obviously, to weigh your coffee and only grind what you need, thereby keeping the rest of your beans whole, in the bag, staying fresh, innit.