A little birdy told me Varia failed to pay the last installment of payments to its first Chinese manufacturer - due to non-specified reasons - and the manufacturer decided to sell the last batch of VS3 under different brand names to recoup their lost, hence the ridiculous amount of VS3 knockoffs on Aliexpress. This is also why Varia came out with a gen 2 less than a year after gen 1 hit the market: they got another manufacturer and made minor adjustments, such as switching "from 38mm burrs to 48mm burrs (wink)"

that is one of the best Varia VS3's reviews I have seen on KZfaq! thank you so much! I'm getting one after watching this.

thanks for pointing out the reddit forums. this is so true. i have vs3 gen1 and 2, fellow ode, timemore sculptor, and df64v. they all make good cups of coffee. in terms of just longevity and build quality , fellow is the way to go. my gen1 broke when i started doing more espresso. you save 50 dollars with the varia but you need to be fine with having a useless brick and brick on your countertop in a year or two. i took gen 1 apart. it's cheap inside compared to the fellow ode and even df grinders. going to sell my gen2 soon.

13:51 oh man that power supply is a deal breaker

Great review! I really appreciate that you include more budget friendly options in your reviews. You mentioned the DF54 but didn't bring up the SK40? Why not? It's virtually a direct competition, and it would be great to see them compared head to head.

Justin, I bought this grinder along with my Ascaso Duo after watching your great review of said machine. I'm loving both and think they each represent a very good value proposition in today's coffee world. I have been using the grinder for both filter and espresso coffee. With espresso I'm finding that RDT is really only necessary with darker roast beens which is what my wife drinks. I drink light to med roasts and find that I can get any bean dialed in for a 30 second shot within about 3 trys. It's very interesting how far the spread can bee from roast to roast. For light to med I find I'm between 3 and 3.7. For my wife's dark roast I'm dropping down to 2.5. I bought Black in both machines and I just hide the power block of the Varia VS3 behind the Duo so there is no unsightliness on the counter. I'm thinking I might try one of the better bur options to see if I can get an even better espresso shot. Thanks for your work on this channel. I'm very happy that I discovered Daddy Got Coffee. Cheers from Vancouver.

Approaching 1 year now with my Gen 2 VS3. Works just as good as the day I got it. It’s never stalled and I pretty much exclusively drink light roasts. I use it on average twice a day for both espresso and filter (v60). Clean it once a month. If you get the black model like me then none of the discoloring issues he mentioned are a problem, plus the bellows matches so it looks more aesthetic when it’s on the grinder. RDT is definitely necessary, thankfully Varia includes a tiny spray bottle with the packaging. If I had to pick a gripe, it would be that the catch cup doesn’t fit the rim of a 58mm portafilter, but they do have a separate catch cup on their website you can buy that does fit if that matters to you. All in all, I think it’s best budget or entry level grinder on the market. And if you ever get the itch to switch things up they have different burr sets to upgrade to which do make a BIG difference, and save you from having to go buy another grinder. If you’re on the fence like I was when I purchased a year ago I’d say go for it. You won’t regret it.

I've been watching numerous coffee grinder views over the past months and I'm no wiser off. What I need is an App where I can enter my requirements and it'll rank the grinders accordingly. Failing that, please, please, please.... What would be the recommendation for a coffee grinder that best meets these requirements:- 1. Top results for sweet, fruity and textured expresso but also providing plenty of adjustability if I try different coffee bean types, etc 2. Great for pour-over as well but a priority on expresso if a choice has to be made 3. Doesn't make a banshee noise when grinding 4. Excellent retention, preferably no bellows. 5. Relatively compact - not too big either in footprint or height 6. Single dose 7. Excellent design, good engineering + lifespan 8. Easy to clean/maintain 9. External power transformer/block involved as with the Varia 10. Under $1200 ish Thank you in advance!

I have owner a Varia VS3 since June 2023. The motor died last week, two days before the one year mark and I’m working with Varia and they are going to send me a replacement unit. (I will use it as a secondary grinder because I just purchased a Fiorenzato AllGround Sense). The Varia looks amazing, made great coffee (mainly medium roast espresso and some filter), the magnetic accents around the dosing cup and chute are satisfying to use. The biggest issue I had with it was the ground size selectors drifts towards a coarser setting with every grind. If I set to setting 3 by the end of 18g espresso grind it will be at 3.05, so I had to constantly readjust to keep things consistent. Otherwise it’s a great grinder for the price.

0:10 Am I the only one having some artefacts in the image (not only at 10 seconds, happened sometimes in the video)? Changing the video quality doesn't seem to effect it. Maybe a rendering issue? Anyway, great review. Didnt know this grinder exists and now I'll maybe want one?!

Hi! Love to see burrs comparison of this grinder

i had the grinder for 1.5 yeaars and all i can say its that it was a fantastic grinder. However, 1 week after a year mark the grinder broke on me, gear stripped. varia CS is bad and do not offer a replacement but ask me to get a new motor which cannot guarantee will work (their words). thankfully my distributor is fantastic and fix the grinder on his own at his cafe and been using since. However, it is stalling more often these few days so might consider that its at the end of its lifeline

Good review but really wish you had done a deeper dive on those burrs. They do change the price and experience of the grinder very significantly in my experience.

Your videos are great! Can you tell me, which single dosing grinder is your favourite? Also, what do you think of the Ascaso Duo Steel PID Plus? Cheers mate!

Nice review - honest and succinct! As a 'mostly espresso' drinker, I find the very small wiggle room for grind fineness concerning. You ground it more coarsely than the mfg recommend (3-4), over their 1-2 setting. Likely insufficient for a variety of drinks or roasts or dosing sizes (say extra fine for 8g single-dose espresso or 22+g for 1:1 ristretto, 1:2 normale or a 1:3 lungo). These require significantly different grind settings on my grinder. Then there is Turkish coffee. Thanks for the review.

Brother, where is the full Mazzer Philos review?

I am returning my Varia for the grond dial drifting issue and I will probably go for the new Lagom Casa. Funny thing is that varia has not updated the manual for the gen2. You can tell that from the specs part and the rpm(they have changed the rpm in gen2) so maybe the light roast would not be an issue in the gen2. However, I still have concerns about the longevity and the grind dial drifting issue is also so frustrating. I also want to mention that Eightounce customer service is fabulous! If you wanna get it at lease get it from a trustworthy retailer such as Eightounce.

I’ve got the gen2 since November 2023 and I agree with everything you’ve said, about the powerbank, the Matt finish accumulating coffee etc but that’s all superficial, I quite enjoy the coffee it produces at a very affordable price point. Also, in my research before buying, most of the dead ones were gen 1, varia updated the motor in gen 2. Let’s hope it doesn’t die after a year. lol

I have a gen 2 for 6 months and the grind dial shifted a lot when grinding. It wasn’t consistent anymore. Varia customer support isn’t good they say they can’t do anything about it and i needed to contact my seller. I got a new one luckily but who knows for how long… i’m very happy with it it makes GREAT espresso but be aware if u want one buy it from a good seller

I saw you use the Avensi cups. Those are the BEST! Also if you are gonna get the Varia VS3 for 299 and the Option o Casa for 389. Do you think the $90 price difference is worth the bump to get the casa or is it only if you prefer light roasts. I typically grind light to medium coffees. Great review by the way as always. Yours have become some of my favorite reviews!

Hi.which the best coffee grinder for single dose?

While a good looking grinder, the external power supply is an unfortunate design choice. From your review and others, it seems to perform well all around which is what I want in a grinder. If they can fix the longevity problem and integrate the power supply into the body of the grinder, I would have one on my counter. Great review! Oh and who makes the bean dosing cup you are using? Love the look of it👌🏻

Hi, my vs3 is stalling after 30sec of grinding medium light beans, yet i do slow feeding

Great video, thanks. I was initially interested in this because of the good reviews but then i started to find the issues you have mentioned... Now im not sure I want to take the risk?! I have contemplated trying the non varia version for 1/2 the price from AliExpress/Alibaba 🤷‍♂️

Are you planing to review the Orbit? And maybe compare Orbit vs Zerno vs Philos? Thanks

I'm considering this grinder that's for the review DGC. I'm also considering the rancillio STILE. DGC CAN YOU PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE do a review on this grinder because there's not much out there that does the breakdown like you... Just my opinion. All the best!

Ive got mine since christmas now. Big issue for me is using the bellows being necessary and it makes a huge mess

Forget the power supply. It dying right on warranty time is THE deal breaker. As long as alignment is solid, I'd rather have hefty plastic grinder that keeps on chugging than fancy metal grinder that will break after a year. That's sad cause I was only hearing interesting things about VS3.

It’s -> its

O wonder if the"finger guard" is also an anti-popcorn accessory.

I really enjoy the juicy sweet taste profile of the varia. What would be a similar tasting grinder? Flat burr with ssp Cast?

actually, i'm wondering. can we replace varia burr with another manufacturer burr? e.g Timemore, Lagom mini, etc

First