Ceado E6C Chameleon All-Purpose Single-Dosing Grinder Review

If there’s one thing I’ve learned since starting at Whole Latte Love, it’s that small, family-owned businesses tend to make superior products: ECM, Profitec, and Bezzera make some of the best espresso machines around, and Ceado grinders are about as good as grinders get. 

Ceado has been designing and building elite commercial bar equipment in the small town of Spinea, Italy, since 1952, and in the nearly 75 years they’ve been in business, they’ve gotten very good at building grinders. Most of them are designed for commercial use—they’re powerful, reliable, and generally more grinder than would be necessary for a typical home barista. Ceado grinders are so excellent, in fact, that we use the E37S as our go-to testing grinder: when we need reliable, consistent results, we turn to Ceado.

So, needless to say, when I heard we were adding a brand-new Ceado grinder to our catalog—one that was designed for home use and had the price tag to prove it—I got a little excited, and not just because they’re calling this thing the Chameleon. The E6C (the grinder’s less-fun, technical title) is a single-doser designed to truly serve all purposes. Everything from the specially-designed burr set to the grind adjustment knob is made to support every type of coffee brewing imaginable, from espresso to cold brew and everything in between. 

In the paragraphs that follow, I’ll give a full rundown of the Ceado E6C Chameleon, including a features overview, test results, and my personal thoughts after using one as my exclusive grinder for a week or so.

Introducing: the Chameleon

First things first, let’s get the disappointment out of the way: despite being called the “Chameleon,” Ceado’s E6C grinder is not housed in some sort of mood-ring-adjacent color-changing material. It’s not even green. (Devastating, I know.) But, there is a fun, little chameleon icon and, following Ceado’s example, we used chalk markers to add some helpful coloration to the grind adjustment dial in the video review (coming soon to our YouTube channel), so I’m willing to forgive the obvious transgression here. 

From the outside, the E6C looks a lot like Ceado’s business-first commercial-grade grinders: it’s housed primarily in powder-coated black metal with stainless steel accenting. Overall, the look is clean and formal, which, while not exactly what I was expecting from a grinder called “Chameleon,” definitely gives it the ability to blend in in a wide range of kitchen aesthetics. It’s got a power button and a grind activation button, a removable grounds chute (for easy cleaning), an LED light that activates during grinding, and a nice silicone bellows up top. Grind adjustments are made by rotating a large collar with a nice rubber grip (more on that in a bit), and you get the same exact grounds-catching tray as on Ceado’s other E series grinders, which helps keep your countertop clean in the event that any stray grounds miss the dosing cup.

All in all, it’s a simple single-doser: you put the beans in the top, press the grind button, and grounds come out the bottom. 

There are a couple of nuances worth noting, however. 

First, let’s talk a bit more about the grind adjustment. This is a multi-purpose grinder, equally capable of producing grounds for espresso as cold brew: that’s a very wide range of grind sizes. Despite this, that full range is accessible with a single rotation of the grind adjustment collar. In fact, the collar locks at both ends of the spectrum, so, in its default configuration, you can’t actually zero out the grinder or loosen the burrs past a certain point. Adjusting a couple screws underneath the grind-adjustment dial can unlock additional space at either end of the range, but this is mostly unnecessary and I wouldn’t advise you play around with it unless you’re swapping burrs out for commercial use.  

Again, for 99% of users, there is really no need to extend the grinding range in either direction. The finest setting should produce a median particle size below what you’d want for espresso, and the coarsest setting is far greater than you’d want for even cold brew. 

Inside the Chameleon, things get particularly exciting. First, the burrs. Ceado designed the included 64mm Opalglide X burrs especially for the Chameleon, and they’re optimized not only for grinding across the full spectrum of sizes, but for use with the RDT method, too. The X Series of burrs, initially introduced on the Life X grinder, achieve something rather miraculous: producing more fines at espresso sizes and an even distribution with fewer fines at filter sizes. 

Those burrs are powered by a hefty 460-Watt motor—that’s the same amount of power you get in Ceado’s E37S, a commercial grinder that costs more than twice what the Chameleon does. Given that the E37S is one of the fastest grinders we’ve ever seen (it’s got 83mm burrs after all), it bodes well for the performance we should expect from the Chameleon. 

Performance Test Results

The promises offered by the E6C are certainly exciting, but we’re not in the business of taking anyone’s word for anything—so, I unboxed a Chameleon and put it to work. 

As we expected (given the size of the burrs and the powerful motor), the Chameleon does its job fairly fast. Grinding at espresso sizes (with a median particle size of 261 microns) it delivers 2.5 grams per second; when grinding at filter sizes (800 microns) it outputs 3.75 grams per second. That certainly puts it in the upper echelon of grinders within its price range in terms of grind speed. 

I also tested the Chameleon’s grinding range, and, as promised, a single turn of the adjustment collar does give you access to the full spectrum of grind sizes. At the finest possible setting, the Chameleon gives you a median particle size of 211 microns, which is finer than you would ever want for brewing espresso (the general rule of thumb is that a median particle size within 10 microns of 250 is ideal for espresso brewing). At the top of the range, I got a median particle size of 1309 microns, which is much coarser than you would ever want, even for making cold brew. So, out of the box, the Chameleon is set up to deliver grounds for whatever coffee preparation you could want…except maybe Turkish. 

When it comes to grounds consistency, the Chameleon is equally impressive. Dialed in for espresso, the particle distribution graph looks exactly like what we’ve come to expect from prosumer-grade grinders: the majority of the particle sizes come in at under 200 microns, with a taper off as you increase in size. 

A quick note on the above graphic: grinding at espresso sizes is extremely unlikely to produce any particles larger than 600 microns. Everything that read 600+ microns on our light spectrometer was likely caused by clumps of fines, not boulders. 

For filter sizes, we got equally-exciting results, with the largest concentration of particle sizes hovering around the 600 to 850 micron range, with a sharp taper as sizes decreased. 

The fact that a single grinder is capable of producing ideal particle distribution graphs at two very different grind sizes using the same set of burrs is, in a word, remarkable. And, the best part (perhaps) is that switching back and forth between filter and espresso sizes is made unbelievably easy thanks to the single-rotation grind adjustment collar. We dialed in for espresso at 1.75 and for filter at 4—because of the way the collar is situated, those numbers will be consistent every time. Now, I can’t promise those exact numbers are going to give you exactly the same results on your specific Chameleon, but it will be quite close. And, whatever your actual numbers end up being, they’ll be the same every time you adjust the collar. 

Now, and I honestly can’t really think of many reasons you’d want to do this, but if you did decide that you wanted to grind finer than 211 microns or coarser than 1309, the grinding range can be shifted by removing and shifting the two screws that hold the grind adjustment collar in place. It’s worth noting, however, that this will only ever shift the grind range, not extend or condense it, sort of like shifting the octave on a digital keyboard: you can make it higher or lower in pitch, but you still only have 88 keys to play with. So, if you wanted to be able to grind finer and shift the grind adjustment range accordingly, you’re going to lose some of the top range (and vice versa, of course). 

The Chameleon's internal power has one minor downside: there are quieter grinders out there. Grinding normally, the Chameleon averages around 80 decibels with a peak just over 83. Now, sure: that's louder than a Mignon, for example, by about 10 decibels, but the Chameleon has a motor that's close to twice as powerful. Despite that, the Chameleon still doesn't unseat our Loud King, the Baratza Sette 270, which grinds at an average of 94 decibels. There's also a simple workaround to help dampen the sound: if you cover the bellows with your hand (or a dosing cup), the average volume drops to a perfectly respectable 74.5 decibels. Given that you're going to end up covering the bellows with your hand anyways in order to use them, this hasn't really tarnished my perception of the Chameleon. 

Ultimately, the Chameleon is every bit as impressive as it purports to be. It’s fast, consistent, and versatile. Is it louder than I’d prefer? Yeah, sure. But personally, that wouldn’t be a deal-breaker for me…it’s not like you have to listen to the grinder work for very long, given how fast it is.

Using the Chameleon

As I write this, I’ve been using the Chameleon to grind my coffee for about a week now. At home, I use a hopper-fed grinder, not a single-doser, and wasn’t sure I’d appreciate the need to weigh my beans for each dose. 

Honestly, I didn’t mind it at all. In fact, as a guy who went with a semi-auto over a super-auto because he genuinely enjoys the process of puck preparation, the single-dosing workflow felt more like an extension of that ritual than a hassle I had to deal with. Plus, whatever time I spent actually weighing my dose was more than made up for by how fast the Chameleon actually grinds. I’m getting 18 gram doses in just over 5 seconds, whereas the unnamed grinder I’ve got at home takes more than twice as long. 

With all things said and done, my personal experience with the Chameleon has been pretty excellent. Using the RDT method and hot-starting the grinder, I’m getting really nice grounds with almost no clumps or static. The Chameleon comes with an RDT sprayer and two dosing cups, so there's never a reason not to do an RDT hot-start. I will say, I did forget to RDT a couple times and the grounds stuck to the cup pretty badly, but that’s a non-issue if you just remember to make RDT a part of your process. 

As far as the noise is concerned, it hasn’t been bothering me. I do try and get my hand on top of the hopper sooner rather than later to dampen it a bit, but I was doing that anyway to pump the bellows, so it doesn’t really change the experience of using the grinder all that much. 

Tasting Chameleon Coffee

Now, onto the most important part: how does the coffee this grinder makes taste? To get a sense for how the Chameleon delivers flavors across its multipurpose grind spectrum, I used it to brew espresso for Americanos and also “pour-over” using Ceado’s Hoop brewer (I know technically it’s not a pour-over device, but I felt like most folks wouldn’t know what “radial infusion brewer” meant so, here we are).

Throughout all this testing, I was brewing using our Ethiopian single origin roast. It’s my favorite of our coffees, as it delivers a strong blueberry aroma and backs it up in the flavor department as well. Curious to see how the Chameleon did in highlighting these flavors, I dove in. 

Espresso

As an Americano, the Ethiopian ground through the Chameleon (at a 2.5 setting, in case anyone’s keeping score) was giving more jammy aromas than straight-up blueberry, with some vanilla in there as well. On the tongue, I got more of the vanilla than the promised berries, and maybe a little caramel in there as well. It was thoroughly enjoyable, even though my tasting notes didn’t exactly match up with what the bag proclaims. 

Pour Over

Even before I got my nose in the cup, the blueberry aromas found me, whispering promises of fruity sweetness in my ear…well, nose, really, but you get it. Tasting the coffee, however, the berry flavor became less specific, somewhere between a blueberry and a tart strawberry. The cup was clean and smooth, almost tea-like, and the flavors were similarly mellowed. This is exactly the kind of coffee I like to drink, though if you prefer a bold, strong cup I’d maybe recommend fining your grind up a bit.  

Overall, the Chameleon produced some delicious coffee, both as espresso and as drip. Of course, I was using an excellent coffee, so maybe that’s cheating a little bit…but we all deserve excellent coffee, especially these days, and it’s nice to know the Chameleon is more than capable of doing it justice. 

Final Thoughts

OK, so: Ceado built a fast grinder housed in black steel and named it after an animal known for being slow and vibrantly colored—clearly I’ll need to have words with their marketing department. This egregious oversight aside, I think the Chameleon is a big win for Ceado…not like they particularly needed one. 

The E37S is, as I mentioned earlier, quite simply one of the best grinders in the world. But, at nearly $2,000, it’s out of reach budget-wise for a lot of people. The Chameleon, despite being a single-doser rather than hopper-fed, does a pretty good impression of the E37S at less than half the price: it’s almost as fast and almost as consistent (though it is quite a bit louder). 

The icing on the cake here is that Ceado didn’t use the price of this grinder to skimp on build quality. The Chameleon has a pleasant heft to it (it weighs in at nearly 24 lbs) and feels like a solid piece of machinery when you use it—because it is. 

While the Chameleon hasn’t usurped the crown worn by its older brother, the E37S, it does fill an important gap in grinder offerings. Prior to its release, a prosumer-grade grinder that outputs fluffy grounds at close to 3 grams per second for under $1000 just didn’t exist. 

Well…it does now.