Selecting the perfect grinder depends on a number of factors such as personal taste, budget, level of coffee expertise, and level of consumption. An expert barista living with a large family would probably need a higher performing grinder compared to a beginner level coffee lover living alone. That’s why it’s important to compare different products before making your purchase decision.
When it comes to home grinders for espresso lovers, Macap and Mazzer grinders top the list of the most favorites. Mazzer grinders are more popular in the US while Macap coffee grinders are extremely popular in Europe and Asia. One of the main differences between the two is the grind adjustment mechanism.
Macap Brand Vs Mazzer Brand
Both grinder makers are very comparable and so are their coffee grinders. Here’s a brief description on both brands and their grinders.
Macap Company
The Macina Caffe Petiziol, or Macap company, was founded in the 1930s by Ottorino Petiziol. The company’s products are shipped to over 70 countries globally.
Macap has a much wider range of products than Mazzer and their coffee line is subdivided into four categories.
Studio Instant
- Features the M2M and M2D models.
- Have 50mm flat grinding blades.
- One programmable dose.
- Bean hopper capacity of 250g.
- Height-adjustable fork.
Pro Instant
Features the following models:
- M42M
- M42D
- M6D
- MXD
- MXD Extreme
- M7D
- MXDZ
- MXDZ Extreme
- M7DZ
All have flat grinding blades except M7D and M7DZ which have conical grinding blades.
The flat finding blades come in 58mm, 65mm, and 75mm. The conical burrs are 68mm.
Most models in this category are digital and are three doses programmable.
Bean hopper capacity of 1.4kg.
Have stepless adjustment systems.
Pro Dose
The Pro Dose features the following models:
- M42
- MX
- M7
- MXK
M42, MX, and M7 all use flat grinding blades while the MXK and M7K use conical grinding blades.
Blades range from 58mm to 75mm.
Bean hopper capacity of 1.4kg
Doser capacity of 200g with a dose range of between 5.5 and 8.5g.
Pro Shop
The Pro Shop range features:
- MC42
- MC6
- MC7
They all use flat grinding blades.
The MC42 has a 58mm blade, while the MC6 has a 65mm blade and MC7 has a 75mm blade.
Mazzer Luigi S.p.a
Mazzer is an internationally acknowledged leader in the manufacture of coffee grinders, grinder-dosers, and coffee-making accessories. The company is based in Scorze, Venice (Italy). They have a factory in Gardigiano, Italy. Mazzer products are available in over 90 countries worldwide and they’re renowned for their durability and quality.
Mazzer was founded by Luigi Mazzer in the 1940s and started as a precision-engineering workshop. Today it’s a state-of-the-art factory creating precision specialty coffee grinders for home, office, and cafe use.
Mazzer is the only coffee grinder manufacturer who, since 2007, produce all their burrs in-house. The company currently offers four different grinders for home and small business use. They are:
ZM
The ZM features:
- Flat burrs
- Low coffee retention of less than 0.45 grams.
- Low speed grind for precision grinding at 900 and 1050 RPM.
- Micrometrical digital grind adjustment mechanism.
- On-demand grinding capability.
- Up to 20 grind speeds.
- Standard fitted filter
- Bean hopper capacity of 320g (0.7 lbs.)
Super Jolly
The Super Jolly features:
- Flat burrs
- Grinding speeds of 1,400 and 1,600 RPM.
- Micrometrical digital grind adjustment mechanism.
- Bean hopper capacity 1.2kg (2.7 lbs.)
Major VP
Works at grinding speeds between 1,400 and 1,600 RPM.
Bean hopper capacity of 1.8kg (4 lbs.).
Macap MXD Extreme Vs Mazzer Super Jolly
If you’re looking for a commercial-grade coffee grinder for home use, office use, or a cafe setting then the two brands, Macap and Mazzer offer some great options. For this comparison guide, we chose to compare one model from each of the companies. From Macap, we will review and compare the MXD Extreme against Mazzer Super jolly.
Macap MXD Extreme
The Macap MXD Extreme is made for precision and consistency. The unit features:
- Titanium-coated 75mm flat burrs for reliable grinding at 3g/s.
- Blades have a lifespan of approximately 2,000Kg.
- Stepless grind collar for perfect particle sizes without limitations of predefined settings.
- three programmable dosing timers which can be set at 0.05 second increments.
- Backlit LCD display
- Powerful 480W low-speed motor grinding at 1,400 RPM
- 1.4kg (3.1 lbs.) bean hopper
- Dimensions 230mm by 370mm by 600mm height. Weighs 11.5kg.
- One year warranty
The model can produce consistently uniform particle sizes at 3 grams per second. Within the stepless grind, you can easily find your perfect grind size without being limited to setting options. Using the LCD digital display, you can count shots and adjust the timer in 0.05 second increments.
The standout mark of the Macap MXD Extreme is the digital dosing system. The backlit LCD enhances the look of this sleek machine while also making it very user friendly.
The Macap MXD Extreme grinder has a one-button control which allows simple programming. The user-friendly feature enables coffee brewers to switch to and from single and double dose function, continuous dose, dose counter, and language choice in four languages. These are English, Italian, German, and French.
The Macap MXD Extreme can be used in the home and in busy cafe environments. The grinds can be used for fine and creamy expressos to filtered coffee.
Mazzer Super Jolly
The Super Jolly is probably the most famous and most popular of the Mazzer family of coffee grinders. It produces incredible grind quality, is affordable, and highly durable. Because of these advantages, it’s a prime choice for many American small and mid-sized cafes and for home use for many espresso lovers.
Mazzer’s Super Jolly takes some of the most important features of a commercial-grade coffee and espresso grinder and makes them available to home users on a budget.
The Super jolly features:
- Micro-metrical stepless grind settings suitable for espresso, French press, drip coffee, among others. The adjustable system allows you to make adjustments that are as minute as you prefer.
- 64mm flat steel grind burrs grinding at a speed of 1,400 RPM.
- A 350W motor.
- A bean doser hopper with a capacity of 2.7 lbs.
- An optional smart hopper add-on.
- An adjustable dose of between 5.5g and 9g.
- A portafilter holder to hold ground coffee as you work on other tasks.
- Electronic dosing system which allows you to program either single or double doses into the machine
- One year warranty on parts and labor.
- Heavy duty aluminum casing.
- Dimensions of 9.5″ by 16.5″ by 24″ height weighing 31 lbs.
- Built-in timer
- Available in silver and black, providing two different aesthetic options to go with your decor.
The Super Jolly is a beast of a machine and can look intimidatingly massive in a regular kitchen. However, it has a performance to match its size and can be the perfect grinder for a busy cafe or a discerning coffee lover.
The metal casing is highly durable and can stay free of corrosion over its useful lifetime. The display has three buttons. Two buttons are for operating the programmable dosers for single and double espresso. A third button provides the option for manual dosing.
The bean hopper has a huge 2.7 lbs. capacity. With the micro-metrical stepless adjustment, you can easily adjust your grind to the perfect and precise particle size on the fly with just a simple twist of the dial. The adjustment ring can rotate to provide settings ranging from coarse to ultra-fine.
Just below the bean hopper you will find a porta-holder which holds and locks in your portafilter. You can grind your coffee straight to the portafilter, ready for brewing.
The Super jolly produces consistent grinds quickly, at around 1.5g per second. This is much faster than the Macap but comes with the risk of the burrs heating up and burning the coffee grinds, changing some flavor profiles.
The dosing settings are easy to set up and can be set to the 20th of a second. There is also a doserless model of the Super Jolly which lacks a dosing chamber.
Similarities Between Macap MXD Extreme and Mazzer Super Jolly
These two grinders are top quality appliances suitable for the home and busy cafes. The two units are manufactured by two of the industry leaders. Macap company and the Mazzer company are grinder manufacturers based in Italy. They both started as precision engineering workshops before World War II and now specialize in top of the range coffee grinders. Some similarities the two units share include:
- Doser grinders with on-demand design so you can grind one dose at a time as needed.
- Stainless steel burrs
- Low speed motors for clean, noiseless, low-heat grinding.
- Clear LED digital displays for ease of use.
Differences Between Macap MXD Extreme and Mazzer Super Jolly
The adjustment on the Mazzer is somewhat stiff. The adjustment on Macap is smooth and offers a better way to change to the smallest micro measurements.
The Mazzer has a timer while Macap has an on-off switch.
For the Mazzer, the doser has to rotate fully while for the Macap you can use a partial dose as per your requirement.
An important difference is market availability. Though both Mazzer and Macap products are available in most of the western world, the two brands are not always available in the same markets. Mazzer captured the American market much earlier than Macap, and hence will be found in most US retail stores and coffee specialty stores than Macap.
On the other hand, Macap has been a leader in Europe for ages and focused more on expanding through Asia and Australia more than the US. Hence, you’re more likely to come across a Macap than a Mazzer when you’re travelling through Europe and much of Asia.
Which One Is Better and Why?
The Macap and Mazzer units are comparable in most ways, including price. The two comparable units are leaders in the prosumer category of espresso grinders. However, one major difference is the grind adjustment mechanism and the doser.
The Mazzer has a stepless micrometric adjustment lever for a limitless number of grind adjustment settings. Nonetheless, the lever takes a lot of effort to adjust and can take some getting used to. Most people find they have to use so much force to move the lever and often overdo it and tend to go too far.
The Macap on the other hand has a stepped adjustment mechanism. Most manufacturers are dropping this design as the steps tend to be too big for fine-tuning your grins size to the nearest second. Nonetheless, some new Macap models have a worm-gear knob which narrows down infinite adjustment to precise microunits.
The Macap doser sweeps the grinder clean but the Mazzer may require some modifications for a comparable clean sweep. However, the Macap doser arm may make a loud clunking noise when you try breaking up any clumps of ground coffee.
The Mazzer’s doser works more quietly. However, both grinders don’t dose as evenly as commercial-grade grinders. So, users may have to do some Weiss Distribution Techniques (WDT) to get even extractions.
The Macap is worm-gear driven, which means it has an advantage over the Mazzer because of the ability of making micro-adjustments in the grind settings. You can adjust with an easy to turn smooth handle allowing you to find your perfect grind particle size.
The worm-gear advantage is especially useful if you will be grinding for a cafe business or an office setting. This is because these are the places where you need to change grind settings to cater for varied tastes and preferences. At home, you only need to set your perfect grind size once and may never have to change again.
One more advantage of the Macap over the Mazzer is the dosing system. With the Macap, you can do the conventional dosing making use of the pie-shaped chambers in the dosing area. You can also dose as you want by making smaller adjustments.
The Mazzer comes with the advantage that you can expand the bean hopper capacity. This is especially useful when serving many people regularly at a busy setting. Nonetheless, the default hopper has a capacity of 1.3 lbs. which is already much more than you would ever need for home use.
