"Welcome to Five Senses Coffee"

Every industry or field of work has an elite group of people known as ‘lead users’. The lead users are the guys who constantly search for new and better ways to do things. It’s their endless quest for continual improvement that drags the rest of the industry forward.

In the world of specialty coffee, David Schomer of Seattle’s seminal Espresso Vivace, was an early lead user who had a huge impact on the whole industry. David endeavoured to quantify all the major factors affecting espresso quality and worked on the links between temperature stability and shot consistency. His archives may be starting to look a little dated, but even so, there are not many people in the industry who haven’t used these principles at some stage of their journey.

A little closer to home, Australia’s very own Nolan Hirte has done a little experimenting of his own, trying to build a grinder that is better suited to the needs of top baristas than those he has encountered previously. After touring the west coast of North America, visiting the top cafés along the way, Nolan discovered Anfim grinders, which were being championed by Phillip Searle at 49th Parallel in Vancouver.

The beauty of the Anfim lies in its very accurate dosing, which ensures that coffee falls directly into the centre of the portafilter, even during rapid-fire activation of the dosing lever which typically occurs when grinding to order. The inclusion of a timer to control grinding time is another of the Anfim’s stellar features.

Nolan filed this information away, and when the time came to install grinders in his Hawthorn cafe, Liar Liar, two Anfim grinders took pride of place. Over time, Nolan noticed that his Mazzer Robur shots were always better in appearance and taste than those he made using the Anfim, even though the Mazzer had an annoying habit of spraying coffee all over the counter.

Nolan decided that if he could marry the Anfim dosing mechanism with the Mazzer Robur body, he would have created the perfect beast. As with most great ideas, the devil lies in the detail, and Nolan had to get a little creative… With the help of some of his caffeine-addicted and technically-orientated buddies, he managed to make it happen.

Many shots later, the ‘Anfobur’ has impressed everyone who has used it. Its unique combination of accurate dosing combined with perfect shot quality cement its place as Top Dog in the world of the grinder. Word has it that Nolan is now working on a way to integrate his turntables into the Cyncra. Stay tuned!