Yes, it’s finally here; the Baratza Forte has arrived in Australia.
Suffice it to say, we are more than just a little bit excited about the arrival of the new Forte from Baratza. Awarded ‘Best New Product’ at the 2013 Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA) awards, this long-anticipated grinder is quite honestly amazing with its ground breaking, in-built grind-by-weight feature. No other grinder has yet dared to attempt in-built scales, but Baratza have managed to create a grinder that delivers consistent and accurate dose weights to within 0.1 of a gram — booyah! The Forte is the first flat burr grinder from Baratza that we’ve introduced to Australia and it produces an incredibly fast and accurate grind, with a 14g dose taking about 7.5 seconds. All our Forte grinders come fitted with 54mm ceramic burrs, which are ideal for espresso as they are more resistant to heat and they also grind 200 microns finer than the steel burrs. As a gift to every customer, we’ve also decided to include a set of steel burrs with every purchase. These are interchangeable with the ceramic burrs and more suitable for use with filter coffee. You’re welcome!
The Forte also has a very user friendly interface and utilises a touch screen. The touch screen interface is seamless and guides you through different programming options and pre-sets without confusion. Both sides of the intuitive touch screen feature a manual sliding adjustment; 10 macro settings to the right and 26 micro settings to the left, providing 260 steps of minute grind particle adjustment.
For use with espresso machines, the Forte also comes with an attachment which holds your portafilter extremely close to the dispensing chamber. This enables hands-free grinding and absolutely minimal mess. It also has this really cool feature called ‘smart dose’. Whilst the exceptionally innovative ‘grind-by-weight’ function only works using the hopper bin (the portafilter attachment does not work with the scale), Baratza has developed a simple way of converting ‘grind-by-weight’ into ‘grind-by-time’ for use with espresso brewing. Check out this video for a step-by-step explanation of: how to use the ‘smart dose’ feature
This really is the next level for Baratza. The Forte is an attractive choice with a tiny footprint. Its rock-solid build quality means it is best suited to both the home barista looking for a one-stop grinder (with a truly innovative in-built scale feature for every brew method), and cafés who want to run a filter programme with an emphasis on deliverability and consistency for a sub-$1000 investment in the grinder.
In short, this grinder is awesome. It introduces technology that we haven’t seen before, while ticking the ’I’m super sleek, built to last, accurate, smart and intuitive’ boxes. Thumbs up Baratza … you just nailed it!
