The Super Jolly Grinder
This is to me the ultimate bargain in espresso gear. The Super Jolly is a grinder that was never intended to be used in a home environment. It is one of the most common commercial grinders in the world. It is almost certainly too big to go in any sane person’s kitchen, but it creates great espresso.
A beautiful thing happened a few years back. Starbucks decided that they could no longer train their baristas to pull shots and converted to super automatics. Perhaps they were right because they had gotten so big that training the number of baristas they need was simply impossible. Starbucks no longer employed baristas, but instead employed people trying to make a buck. As a result they dumped their grinders. They figured there could be no buyers for them on that scale so they sold their Super Jollys for Scrap.
The company that bought them for scrap then realized that they could in fact sell them on craig’s list to home users. It may have in fact happened by accident when a coffee enthusiast found out they had them when visiting the scrap yard and bought one for almost nothing ($100 or so). They then realized that there was a demand and that they should not be used for scrap and started selling them.
Buyers loved them. For less that $300 they were getting one of the world’s best grinders and getting it at a small fraction of the price they go for new. Even though Starbucks had used them, Mazzers are bomb proof so these were functionally like new if not aesthetically so.
I got mine from a shop that closed up after less than a year and because the market price was dictated by a booming supply that outpaced demand I also got mine cheap even though it was essentially like new in every way.
It is crazy that grinders that are not nearly as good, such as the Mazzer Mini (a great grinder, but not on par with the Super Jolly) cost much less new, but quite a bit more used because of the lack of supply on the used market.
A beautiful thing happened a few years back. Starbucks decided that they could no longer train their baristas to pull shots and converted to super automatics. Perhaps they were right because they had gotten so big that training the number of baristas they need was simply impossible. Starbucks no longer employed baristas, but instead employed people trying to make a buck. As a result they dumped their grinders. They figured there could be no buyers for them on that scale so they sold their Super Jollys for Scrap.
The company that bought them for scrap then realized that they could in fact sell them on craig’s list to home users. It may have in fact happened by accident when a coffee enthusiast found out they had them when visiting the scrap yard and bought one for almost nothing ($100 or so). They then realized that there was a demand and that they should not be used for scrap and started selling them.
Buyers loved them. For less that $300 they were getting one of the world’s best grinders and getting it at a small fraction of the price they go for new. Even though Starbucks had used them, Mazzers are bomb proof so these were functionally like new if not aesthetically so.
I got mine from a shop that closed up after less than a year and because the market price was dictated by a booming supply that outpaced demand I also got mine cheap even though it was essentially like new in every way.
It is crazy that grinders that are not nearly as good, such as the Mazzer Mini (a great grinder, but not on par with the Super Jolly) cost much less new, but quite a bit more used because of the lack of supply on the used market.
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