Video Overview | Option-O Remi Hand Grinder
The Helor 101 is back as the Option-O REMI, a stylish manual grinder that includes all the beloved features of its predecessor with a few notable user-friendly improvements like the magnetic grinds-catch seal and roomier hopper. Watch Steve highlight why this is one of the most innovative grinders in its class.
Transcript
Hi, I'm Steve with Prima Coffee, and today we're going to take a look at the Option-O REMI Manual Grinder. So this is a follow-up and an update to the Helor 101 that was released a couple years ago. This one has a slightly slighter build, a little bit roomier, hopper, and an innovative grinds catch/seal. Let's take a closer look at the inside. So, it has 38-millimeter conical steel burrs just like the Helor 101 had and they are cut for drip and immersion. Really good from Aeropress through French press. Unfortunately, you can't grind for espresso with this. The upside of that is it produces very few fines, and we find that the mid-range has exceptional grind quality, very uniform. So, what else is in here? It has two steel bearings on either side of the central column that facilitate a really smooth rotation. And it also has, like the Helor 101, a stepless grind adjustment wheel.
So this one has 12 dots around the perimeter of that wheel so that you can remember where you were and, because it's stepless, you can make really minor adjustments to find that perfect brew. In order to actually turn this dial here, you will need to attach the lid so the axle is stable and then you can rotate to the right for finer and rotate to the left for coarser. Really simple. One drawback to this is that it does tend to retain about 0.2 grams of the coffee you're grinding in this little recess outside of that adjustment wheel. It's a very simple fix. All you need is a brush so I would recommend buying a brush. Just brush that out the end of every time you grind, and then it's ready to go. Our favorite part of this is this magnetic grinds catch/seal. So there are nine dots here around the perimeter of the grinds catch, and these are magnetic dots that match up with the nine dots in the bottom of the body here.
So you just hold them near each other, and you hear that really satisfying click. And because they are dots and not rings, you can rotate it just a little bit and it releases from the body, so you will not spill any of your grinds. It's very simple, very satisfying to use. The other big change from the Helor 101 is that there are two struts inside of this main body instead of three. We find that the advantage to that is it gives you a little more clearance to pour your beans in but remember this is a little smaller so you can only fit 35 grams into the hopper. Whereas, in the Helor, you could fit about 40. So how does it work? Really well. As with any hand grinder, you need to be careful when you're filling the hopper so that beans don't spill out. But once they're in there, this thing is easy to hold. Nice, smooth rotation. Takes about a minute if you're going to grind a full 35-gram capacity, and that's just nice and easy, smooth motion, not pushing yourself.
But how does the grind work? So, once you get to zero, it takes about one and a half full turns before you'll start seeing coffee come all the way through the burrs into the grinds chamber. And that's about Aeropress. Another one full turn from there, so two and a half full turns, is when we get into sort of V60 range there. And a little bit more, you'll find Kalita Wave. We brewed a 22-gram batch with a V60. It took about 45 seconds to grind all of those 22 grams nice and easy, and it tasted really clean, really acidic and sweet. And there was none of that bitter astringency you might get if there were tons of fines coming through through the grind. So that is the REMI from Option-O. Really beautiful, clean design, easy to adjust, clever, magnetic grounds catch, and exceptional grind quality. You can find it online at primacoffee.com. Thanks for watching.
