Video Overview | Timemore Slim Plus Manual Coffee Grinder
The Timemore Slim Plus shares a diameter and texture with the brand’s NANO but is two inches taller and has a roomier hopper.
Transcript
Hey, I'm Steve with Prima Coffee, and today we're going to take a look at the Slim Plus from Timemore. So, if you've seen the Chestnut series from Timemore and the Chestnut Slim, you can probably recognize this grinder is the same package. So, the only thing that's going to change here is going to be the burr set, and that's going to be the E&B Burr Set that I'll talk here in a second. But first, let's just go through the materials here.
The body is still that unibody frame made of aluminum, which includes those two supports that are pretty deep set, so it allows you to load the hopper quite easily. You have an aluminum grind sketch that is threaded. And you have stainless steel crank arm, you have black walnut pomel here that's magnetic. So, it just snaps on and off. And the axle, the dual bearings, and your washers, that's all going to be stainless steel. So, the only thing that's going to be different here is going to be the burr set.So, on the original Chestnut Slim, Timemore released that one with these titanium-coated stainless steel burrs that were engineered for espresso. So, when you've gotten to the medium range, because these were for espresso, they produce just more fine, so your cups of coffee were not going to be as clean. And so, they wanted to change that, and so they created these E&B burrs, so espresso and brewing burrs, that are engineered to both do espresso grinding and mid-range and coarse grinding even, but not to produce too many fines in that middle area. We find that these actually perform really well at the fine range, much like these titanium-coated burrs, and also really well in the medium range, almost identical to the stainless steel burrs that Timemore had been using in the past.
So, the hopper here can hold about 20 to 25 grams, depending on the coffee that you use. So, I have 25 grams here just to give you an idea of how full this becomes. We are all the way at the top here. You can still fit the lid on, so you can still do your grinding right there, but 25...this is a light-roasted Colombian and Guatemalan blend. And we are sort of maxed out here at 25 grams. As far as grind speed, we find that it takes about 45 seconds, so certainly less than a minute, to grind for espresso here. I have it on eight clicks, which is what we recommend as a starting point for espresso. And I just want to show you, this is 18 grams at 8 clicks. And I want to show you how quickly you can grind with these new E&B burrs. It's even faster than the titanium burrs were on the Slim, that took a little over a minute to grind 18 grams for espresso. So, there we go. And let's go ahead and take a look. You can see there, that is very fine. Like all Timemore grinders, the Slim Plus uses the stepped grind adjustment, which is a dial under that center burr. And so, when you turn it clockwise, it fines the grind, and when you turn it counter-clockwise, it coarsens the grind. And you can take it all the way down to zero, and from there, you could count the clicks counter-clockwise back until you reach your desired grind size. Because this is a stepped adjustment, so even though these burrs here are really great for grinding at the espresso fineness, it still is a stepped grind adjustment. So, you're not going to be able to dial in probably as close as you might want to get. So, what you're going to have to do is adjust the dose. So, as with all Timemore grinders, it does come with a couple of extras, this brush to clear away any retention that happens to find its way between that dial and the center burr right in there, and also this canvas bag for travel.
So, that is the Slim Plus from Timemore. True to its name, it's a very compact grinder. It's not even two inches across in diameter when you take off the crank arm. It has that diamond neural pattern, which makes it really easy to grip when you're grinding. And it's large enough that you can fit in here most one-cup brews. You can find it online at primacoffee.com.
