Coffee Talk: What, another grinder?! Timemore Sculptor 064s

What, another grinder?! Timemore Sculptor 064s

December 13, 2023 6:05 PM (5 months ago)

As much as I appreciated my Sette 270, there were a few things I didn’t like about it:

The fine adjustment mechanism is weird and unpredictable (due to the dual-ring thing)
It is incredibly loud
Grinding for espresso usually took 3-4 cycles due to popcorning
The dang felt pretty huge (relative to my tiny kitchen)
It’s built for keeping stuff in the hopper rather than single-dosing

I was considering a number of other grinders (most notably the Option-O Lagom Mini) but then in April, Timemore announced the Timemore Sculptor series, in a number of sizes and grind profiles. And the requisite Kickstarter had it on a pretty deep discount.

So anyway, I backed the 064s (64mm stepless variant) and expected to wait.

And wait I did! But the lovely new grinder arrived today.

So, I haven’t particularly “put it through its paces” just yet, but I’ve used it to grind and pull a few espresso shots.

The actual workflow is very nice. The manufacturer recommends turning it on before pouring the beans in, which means you’ll need some sort of dosing cup separate from the catch cup, and you can’t really use the hopper’s lid either (as I did on my Sette). I ended up finding these cute dip bowls at Target and they’re just about perfect. (Of course, James Hoffmann fans already know about the Tens Hundreds Thousands dosing tray, which I wouldn’t turn down if someone wanted to buy me one as a gift, hint hint.)

One slight annoyance with the Timemore is that there isn’t really any good indicator of how your grind setting is lined up. Thankfully, there’s a 3D-printable indicator which is very easy to print. I modified it a little bit to add a black “reticle” stripe, and I’ll probably modify the design further down the road. Attaching it just took some double-sided tape.

Anyway. Grinding coffee on it is a joy, and it’s also nice and quiet. Here’s a comparison of the noise level of the Sculptor 064s vs. the Sette 270:

It was pretty easy to dial in my espresso; for my home-roasted coffee I’m finding a grind size of around 0.5 to be ideal. I’m not sure how sensible it will be to do ultra-fine adjustments, or how the fine adjustment steps on the Sculptor compare to those on the Sette.

The coffee I’m getting has a nice texture and a nice sweetness to it. I suppose that I could say something about it having a flavor profile that indicates its flat burrs compared to the Sette’s conical, but I’m not so pretentious as to think that I have the palate to pick out such differences.

So far I haven’t been doing RDT when I grind (although tomorrow I will definitely be doing a comparison for James' current project).

Also, there are two more slight annoyances; first off, I opted to buy it in white, which has a somewhat predictable result:

Second, the included power cord pushes it rather far from the wall, increasing its overall footprint. Fortunately the cord is a standard IEC modular plug and there are angled alternatives out there (and even more available if I’m willing to buy one in black instead of white).

Anyway. I’m quite happy with this grinder so far.