1Zpresso J-Max S Manual Coffee Grinder Silver with Coated Conical Burr,Foldable Handle, Magnet Catch Cup Capacity40g, Numerical Adjustable Finely Setting, Faster Grinding…

I bought it to improve my espresso shots and really exceeded my expectations. It grinds enough for a doppio in about 25 seconds. It’s also capable of grinding beans to a powder for a turkish style coffee. I had low expectations on that ability, and it was a nice surprise.

The J-Max is a solid choice for a manual espresso grinder. Will the number of adjustments available it’s relatively easy to dial in the grind for any bean. On a few occasions I’ve ground too fine resulting in the espresso puck choking out my machine.

The overall build quality is amazing. Comes with a brush and bulb for easy cleaning. 1zpresso has a good graph in their instructions with general settings for grinding everything from coarse french press to very fine Turkish.

Two issues that I’ve encountered so far. First is that the magnetic cup could be knocked off if not careful. I accidentally gripped too low while grinding which caused it to fall off leaving a mess of grounds everywhere. Second issue is that light roasts are a workout because of how dense they are. It can take double or triple the amount of time compared to a similar amount of dark roast.

Quick shot: amazing hand grinder – if you are at all on the fence about getting a hand grinder that can do espresso, this is a great one.

Background: I like coffee, a lot. Some people might say too much, but they are wrong. I like coffee in nearly all it’s forms and brew methods. I have an espresso machine (a Rancilio Sylvia modded with a PID – I know, it’s not end-game quality, but it’s been a solid performer for nearly a decade) that has been through a few different grinders (a Rancilio Rocky that was a workhorse as well, then started having electrical problems and a decided to go a different direction) now working with a Baratza Sette 270 (for the espresso) and an Encore for all other (more coarse) brew methods.

That’s all great when I’m at home, but what about on the road? I have historically used a collapsible pour over and/or Aeropress when traveling (with a collapsible kettle) but grinding has been “hit or miss” with a variety of different portable grinders. I have used some that were “ok” and some that were pretty terrible. My first manual grinder was a Hairo Slim and the quality of grind was ok, but it took forever to grind and it just turned me off to manuals. Enter in the Youtube rabbit hole of coffee afficionados (look up James Hoffman, Lance Hedrick and Kyle Roswell to name a few) and they convinced me to give it another go, given that I recently bought a Picopresso (I know, this isn’t a review for that…but WOW – what a great little travel espresso maker) I wanted it to be able to really get into the espresso ranges of grinds, not just pour-over and Aeropress.

I received the 1Zpresso J-Max S and there was only a card with links to websites to download the manuals…I might be a little old school, I didn’t love it – but it also wasn’t the worst thing in the world. After spending a couple minutes reading (it gives you ranges for specific brew methods, that seem pretty spot on in my research thus far). The only problem was that the “zero point” wasn’t at zero – it was more like 1.8. It was incredibly easy to fix (maybe a minute). From there I was able to grind away and at a recommended espresso range (which the “clicks” are easy to navigate – if you look online, you’ll see references of three numbers, often like: 1,2,3; where the first number is the number of rotations (there’s a handy pictorial reference on the device to identify rotations), the second number is represented by the large number on the dial, and the third number is the additional “number of clicks”. Very easy.

At my espresso setting for the Sylvia 1,4,5 it took me 65 rotations. I did it again at 1,4,0 and it was 70 rotations. That may sound like a lot, but my little Hairo wore me out and I tired of counting; let’s just say it was minutes and worth it to give up on espresso and focus on the Aeropress and battery operated grinders. 70 rotations could be done very quickly, but a slow steady pace gets me done in a minute (roughly) and pulled a glorious 1:2 espresso in 27 seconds.

I cannot say enough about the build quality, the user-experience, and the production of consistent grind thus far. Worth every penny.

I’ve been using it with my Flair 58 and it works great. I’m able to get amazing shots out of it with perfect dialing in.

If you use lighter roasts then just know it’ll be a workout grinding them. It’ll take a lot of effort but overall I’ve been satisfied with the results after the workout that it takes to grind it.

One other thing is that when it came, it wasn’t calibrated properly so a lot of coffee shots wasted. But once I calibrated it (YouTube videos available) then it gave me perfect results. I’m using it at 123 steps for my setup.