Let us, for a moment, imagine: you’re camping alone in the woods; like, really roughing it out there—just yourself against the elements. What would you rather have with you, a folding knife or a swiss army knife?
Do you want your tools to do one thing, or many?
The answers to these kinds of questions are the foundation on which Varia Brewing was built. If you read my conversation with Ramsey Gyde, Varia’s founder, you know a little about their ethos: they make extensively modular brewing equipment, designed to adapt to a wide range of situations so that you can prepare extraordinary coffee and espresso at home, no matter how you choose to do it.
When it comes to modularity, they really pulled out all the stops when developing their newest grinder, the VS6: an all-purpose, variable-RPM grinder with the ability to use either flat or conical burrs. This is a truly remarkable achievement. Very few grinders in existence are capable of this sort of transformation, and (to my knowledge) none of them offer the extensive range of burr options the VS6 does.
I’ve been brewing exclusively with coffee ground by the VS6 for a few weeks now, and I’ve got thoughts. Read on for my full review of this shape-shifter of a single-doser.
The VS6: An Overview
I usually start these sections by saying something along the lines of “right out of the box…” But in the case of the VS6, we actually need to talk about the box first. And by “box,” of course, I mean the TSU-1 hard-resin carrying case the grinder comes in: this thing means business like a two-piece suit and a martini at lunch.
From the outside, you would expect such a stalwart case to contain something earth-shattering, like a phial of deadly virus or a thumb drive with the nuclear launch codes. When you open the case, however, you won’t find any sinister concoctions of prototypical doomsday devices. Instead, tucked away safely in the cutout carbon-fiber inserts, is a grinder that’s just as earth-shattering (though maybe not in exactly the same way).
Even before taking the VS6 out of its case, you start to appreciate its quality. Removing it requires a small effort—the thing clocks in at 23.5 lbs thanks to its solid, space-grade aluminum construction and heavy, steel motor. Holding it is akin to hefting a lead brick—it’s dense and sturdy and rough. It honestly makes you wonder: is the military-grade carrying case even necessary?
Despite being relatively compact, the VS6 is monolithic, almost imposing on the countertop: the slight-forward angle of the housing gives the impression of some sort of ancient obelisk, rising mysteriously out of the sand. And yet, it’s also stylish and chic. The round hopper, dosing cup, and power knob provide interesting visual contrast with the soft edges on the grinder’s body, and the powder-coated aluminum housing is clean and modern.
OK, so this thing looks awesome. But how does it work?
Stepless grind adjustments are made by rotating the hopper, which is a fairly pleasant experience, overall: it turns smoothly and easily, yet it keeps your grind setting well (i.e. I’ve had no issues with the burrs drifting while the grinder is running). With the stock burrs in place, each notch on the hopper represents a burr shift of 5 microns. That’s pretty dang precise, though it does mean you’re going to be making multiple revolutions of the hopper to move from espresso to filter sizes. This process is made somewhat easier by the inclusion of small, dotted markings that reveal themselves as you adjust coarser. Now, as you can see here, these dots don’t exactly jump out and make themselves obvious. You can use them to check how many revolutions you’ve made, but it requires at least one of the following: excellent eyesight, a magnifying glass, or painful squinting.
The grounds chute is removable, which makes it a bit easier to clean, but the more exciting feature is the spring-loaded knocker that’s built in to help ensure every single coffee particle ends up in the magnetic dosing cup when you’re done. A quick note on that dosing cup: it’s really nice. It’s got a pleasant heft to it, the same powder coating as the grinder’s housing, and the rim is sized to fit perfectly into a 58mm portafilter for easy grounds transfer with no mess. This is the same dosing cup you can buy as a separate purchase, but with an exclusive black ring (on the black grinder anyways). And the magnet is strong—strong enough that you can hold the grinder up-side-down and the dosing cup stays attached (not that you’d ever need or want to do that unless you’re creating some sort of odd, grinder-based workout routine).
On the right of the base is a knob you can press to start and stop grinding, or rotate to adjust the motor’s RPM between 500 and 1600 in 100 RPM increments. (I’ll talk a bit more about why you would want to do this in an upcoming section.)
And that’s basically it: as a single-doser, the VS6 is a relatively simple grinder. You weigh your beans, give them a spritz or two with the included RDT sprayer, load them up top, press the button, and a cascade of pillowy grounds falls into your dosing cup.
Philosophy of Modular Grinding 101
The main selling point of the VS6 is that it’s modular: you can adjust the RPM and swap the burrs out to tweak flavor outcomes and produce the perfect flavor profile for the coffee and brew method you’re using.
The weeds I would need to get into in order to explain scientifically how adjusting RPM and burr geometry impact the flavors you experience in your cup are a bit too tall and dense for this grinder review blog. So, for now, I’ll be sticking to the well-manacured lawn of general principles. We can gaze into the weeds, consider them from afar, and perhaps even plan a future expedition into their depths…but we’ll save that adventure for another day.
Let’s start with burr type.
When a bean passes through a conical burr, it tends to get spun around multiple times before exiting out the bottom. Flat burrs, on the other hand, basically just shoot beans straight through. The result is that, compared to flat burrs, conical burrs produce more fines (i.e. particles that are smaller than 200 microns). This, of course, makes sense: the more you grind something, the smaller it gets.
But what does that mean in terms of how you’d experience the coffee you brewed? Because fines are so…well, fine, they often slip through your filter basket—paper filters, too—and end up in your coffee. So, broadly speaking, if you enjoy coffees with more body to them, conical burrs will help realize that. For cleaner cups, flat burrs are your friend.
The speed at which you grind has a similar effect: the faster you grind, the less consistent the grinder is going to perform, which (generally speaking) means more fines. Alternatively, slower speeds give you a more consistent grind, therefore fewer fines. So, as a general rule, grinding more slowly is best-suited for filter brewing, as it will give you a more uniform particle size, and therefore a more consistent extraction. On the other hand, grinding faster may be optimal for espresso brewing, since you need some fines to achieve the restriction necessary for espresso brewing.
The ability to swap your burrs out for conical ones and adjust your motor speed means the VS6 gives you a lot of control over the flavor and mouthfeel of your coffee. I haven’t even touched on how the various burr upgrades use different grinding geometries and coatings to produce distinct flavor profiles (hello weeds!)…but they do.
The TLDR here is that the VS6 lets you play around more with the way your coffee is going to taste than just about any other grinder out there.
Espresso Brewing with the VS6
To test the versatility and performance of the VS6 I brought two of them back to my workstation in the video studio and each up with a different pair of flat burrs. On the first, the Supernova Gold Titanium set, which elevates aftertaste, acidity, and sweetness. On the second, the Kilonova Diamond Like Carbon set, which reduces acidity and emphasizes balance.
The first thing I learned is that all of the flat burr upgrades for the VS6 require the addition of a spacing washer in order to be able to grind fine enough for espresso. This washer is included in the equipment pack that comes with the VS6, and it’s easy enough to install (just slide it over the drive shaft before you place the bottom burr)…as long as you know you need to do it.
With the burrs installed successfully, I cracked open a fresh bag of our Ethiopian Limmu single-origin (my favorite of our coffee offerings) and got to work.
The Americano I made using the gold Supernova burrs was absolutely delightful: an intense blueberry aroma lured me in for a sip, which delivered a burst of fruity flavors on my tongue. It really did taste sweeter than I’m used to getting from this coffee, and it resolved into a light acidity that lingered pleasantly on my tongue.
The second Americano, made using the Kilonova DLC burrs, was completely different, but not in a bad way. The fruit was dialed back significantly, though you still got some of that telltale blueberry aroma. The flavor was more floral-forward, almost caramelly, with a jammy aftertaste.
Look, I won’t lie to you: going into writing this blog, I was skeptical that changing the shape and coating on a pair of burrs would result in noticeably different flavors revealing themselves in a coffee brewed exactly the same way. My skepticism has been utterly demolished by this experience, and even though I didn’t have the time to test out all the different burr options available, I’m fully convinced that the VS6 is a true masterpiece of flavor engineering.
Filter Brewing with the VS6
Of course, the VS6 is an all-purpose grinder, which means it grinds for pour-over, French press, and cold brew just as well as it grinds for espresso.
To test performance at coarser settings, I set one VS6 up with a pair of conical kilonova burrs and left the gold supernova flats on another. I used the gold flats to increase the brightness when brewing lighter roasts as pour-over and the kilonova conicals to boost sweetness when brewing medium-dark roasts in a French press.
I drank some of the best pour-over and French press coffee I’ve ever had while testing for this blog: our Columbian Tolima was light, bright, and fruity as a pour-over, while the Crema Wave I prepared in a French press was honeyed, sweet, and full-bodied.
Now, for those seeking a super-deep dive on how the VS6 performs brewing coffee, stay tuned for next week’s blog, where I discuss pour-over, French press, and Moka pot, all prepped on the VS6.
For now, however, suffice it to say: the VS6 impressed me with its ability to highlight promised flavors in all sorts of coffees when brewed at filter size and coarser.
Final Thoughts
When it comes time for my daily coffee intake, I’m not much of a fusser. I want good coffee and I want it easy. So, I use a hopper-fed grinder that delivers consistent, serviceable results.
All that is to say, I think, for me personally, the VS6 involves a bit more tweaking and tinkering than I would want to do in my own free time. Don’t get me wrong: it’s not a difficult grinder to use. Installing new burrs is quite easy (you only need to remove a single lug nut), but I did have to spend some time getting the grinder dialed in after each burr swap. I honestly just don’t see myself wanting to swap burrs out with any sort of regularity.
For most coffee or espresso aficionados, this wouldn’t be a problem at all—you’d probably even have fun doing it. And you definitely get paid off for that work in that you gain the ability to craft a wide range of flavor experiences, which is truly remarkable.
So, no: I probably won’t be getting a VS6 for myself…but that’s because I’m lazy. If you want a single grinder that allows you to set sail on the vast and shifting seas of coffee flavor, and you’re willing to put in a little work to make sure its ship-shape, the VS6 is about as worthy a vessel as you could hope for.
The photographs in this blog were taken by Grace Walker.
