I absolutely love the Eureka Mignon Libra grinder with grind by weight technology. If you’re pulling multiple shots a day consecutively or want the capability to entertain a larger crowd without going into commercial machine territory, this is the grinder for you.
This grinder was sent to me by Eureka for review, but all thoughts and opinions are my own and I am not being compensated by Eureka in any way for this review. Review my ethics policy here.
BUILD QUALITY
This is a classic looking Eureka Mignon grinder with a bit of a taller design compared to other models I’ve tried like the Silenzio, Specialita, or Oro. My unit came in a very nice semi-gloss white finish and they’ve also got classic matte black, gray, ferrari red, and chrome options.
The Libra is a 55mm flat burr grinder with a touch display, a bean hopper, and most importantly, true grind by weight technology.
The grinder itself measures just over 12cm wide, about 20cm deep, and 40cm tall with the hopper. It weighs about 6.5kg, so it's relatively dense.
It has classic Eureka build quality, and I say that as a good thing. All of Eureka’s grinders, as simplistic as they may seem, have always had solid build quality from mostly metal components to proud switches and buttons that are satisfying to use.
One thing I wasn’t a huge fan of, but not really a big deal, is the touch display as it seems to utilize a semi plastic or acrylic sort of panels that covers the actual display, making it feel a little cheap [likely capacitive display]. I would have liked to see a glass display here, but maybe the vibrations of the grinder would cause a problem with that material. Overall, not a big deal.
The Libra uses a classic Eureka step-less grind adjustment where you essentially just need to remember clockwise for finer, counter clockwise for coarser. I would have liked to have seen that info printed on the dial maybe, even if it was as simple as a graphic in the style Comandante does under their hand grinders. In fact, Eureka does this on their Specialita grinder that we keep in the office!
PERFORMANCE
With the 55mm flat burrs, you’re going to get shots that are plenty juicy, drawing out nice characteristics from lighter roasts, yet retain a full body for something syrupy and rich.
If you’re serving up primarily lighter roast straight espresso shots, I’d probably recommend going with a larger flat burr set from one of their other models, but if you’re mostly sticking to medium to darker roasts and milky based drinks, this is going to be just fine.
I’ve been brewing up beans from Tiny Arms and even hosted a pop up a few weeks ago [more details on this coming soon]. During said pop up, I used this grinder with its excellent grind by weight technology.
Shots were consistent, doses were fast and accurate, and I saved so much time not having to manually weigh out each shot. In total, I pulled maybe 40-50 shots over the course of a couple hours and this grinder had absolutely no problem giving me the perfect 18g dose every time.
Now the portafilter holder / adjustment mechanism here does make it challenging to use with a bottomless portafilter, and while its possible, I did find that using a spouted portafilter just worked better and probably made more sense as well in the context of a pop up style booth to avoid any mess.
Grounds remained fluffy and consistent with minimal clumping, though as always, I do still recommend giving a little WDT before tamping.
I did use this grinder with a portafilter dosing funnel because it just helped contain the mess a lot more. Without it, I found that grounds can spill over the basket. Though if you decide not to use a funnel, you can program your single shot size to be half of the double shot, dispense say 9g, give it a little shake and tap, then dispense another 9g.
It’s a bit longer (workflow wise) so I’d recommend just using the funnel. There was one included with the grinder which works just fine, but I prefer one I picked up from Sworksdesign which has a really strong magnet to even better contain the grounds in the portafilter.
DISLIKES / IMPROVEMENTS
There’s not a ton to dislike about the grinder. If I had to change anything, I’d recommend maybe a UV protected hopper since my coffee bar does sit by the window. I'd also recommend a nicer material or display integration for the touch panel. Finally, maybe figuring out a mechanism to remove the hopper without a set screw, though I guess this one would apply to all their grinders really.
IS IT WORTH IT?
This is an excellent grinder that truly eliminates the need for single dosing if you’re serving up a larger crowd or family frequently.
While for just my girlfriend and myself, I’ll probably revert back to another single dose grinder, I’m definitely keeping this one in storage for when I decide to run more future pop ups or if I know I’ll be hosting a small crowd.
For $800, I think this grinder is well worth the money with the capability to serve a bigger crowd or even a low volume pop up or commercial space. It’s going to produce straight espresso shots just fine for most people, and excellent syrupy shots for milk based drinks.
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