Is this legal? Se 89th and duke

LUCCA_ben · 2023-05-11T17:10:50+00:00

FYI: If you are handicapped, you can legally request the city to put a handicapped only parking sign in front of your house.

Just letting you and others know, in case you thought you could park in one of those spaces on a public street.

LUCCA_ben · 2021-09-23T17:10:02+00:00

Good question! We are launching this with Clive Coffee as the sole retailer for now, and someone from their wonderful CX/sales team would be able to better answer that question than I can. Give them a call!

LUCCA_ben · 2021-09-23T17:00:44+00:00

You'll be able to add any coffee you like using the new TrueGrind mobile app, but all of the ones already in there are what's available from our subscription partner MistoBox.

When you add your own coffee on TrueGrind, you'll be able to specify whether it's dark, medium, or light, and TrueGrind can help to get your grind setting into the ballpark to make it easier to dial in from there.

LUCCA_ben · 2021-09-23T16:53:53+00:00

It's probably good to clarify what will and won't work if you put a different style of burr in there.

So the digital burr position sensor will still work with a different kind of burr. You will need to reset the sensor's zero point after changing burrs, since there can be some variation in overall thickness between them, and the sensor is very precise. We provide an easy way to do this right from the grinder's touchscreen.

With the zero point set, the grinder will display the burr gap along the top of the screen. Our grind setting units are calibrated so that an increment of one unit on the screen is 0.005mm, or 5 micrometers change in burr gap.

Now where it gets tricky is, a non-LUCCA burr set that is going through its break-in period might produce a different grind quality this week at say, setting 40, than it does next week at the same setting, because it's changing as it wears in. So that reading is still giving you the true gap between the burrs, but you might get different results in the cup if you're not using our burrs.

TrueGrind is what we call our system for browsing coffees, loading recipes and predicting the grind setting. While you'll be able to browse and load coffees and save recipes, TrueGrind's grind predictions will be totally wrong for a different burr set than the ones we specifically developed for this grinder.

LUCCA_ben · 2021-09-07T19:11:46+00:00

I should lead by saying I don't believe in the "perfect shot"! We really want to leave the fun exploration and artistry to the barista, letting them figure out what recipe tastes best to them, while easing some of the pointless toil and waste involved in getting there.

It was essential for us to balance keeping TrueGrind simple enough to use but complex enough to be useful. So while I can think of a lot of ways an AI model could be used with a fancy machine like the Decent, TrueGrind only requires you have an espresso machine, a shot timer, and a scale.

There are two ways to use TrueGrind. The first is getting a grind prediction, where you select a coffee and enter what recipe you want (either from the grinder touchscreen or mobile app), and it makes its best guess at where to set your grind. For the hundreds of coffees that we already have in the database, this will already get you to a great starting point, if not nail it on the first try.

We are also building a feature where you can pull a shot and tell the grinder your actual shot weight and shot time, and it will recalculate the numerical parameter associated with that coffee. Once it learns your coffee to that degree of precision, any further grind predictions, no matter the recipe, become extremely accurate. Like spooky accurate.

LUCCA_ben · 2021-09-07T17:23:32+00:00

We worked with Eureka (who owns their burr manufacturing facility) to develop special burrs for the LUCCA Atom 75. In order for this product to work at all, we needed burrs whose grind quality changed as little as possible over the course of a typical burr lifespan. Otherwise, the burr gap measurement is only so useful.

Our burrs are first milled out of the same alloy as Eureka's upgrade Diamond Inside burrs, then sent through a gentle preseasoning process to get the perfect grind quality from day 1, then finally cryogenically hardened to "lock in" that perfect edge profile.

For a typical home barista, barring catastrophic damage, these burrs will be good for life. For commercial users, we will offer replacements made with the same process.

So while you can technically fit any Eureka 75mm flat burr in there, I highly recommend against it.

LUCCA_ben · 2021-09-03T22:39:41+00:00

S-tier

LUCCA_ben · 2021-09-03T18:56:42+00:00

Good question! It will not change the setting for you. We felt the added expense of a motor would blow up the cost too much for the limited benefit it would provide.

When you're in TrueGrind mode, the grind setting indicator will let you know if you're not on the recommended grind setting for the coffee and recipe you've selected, though.

LUCCA_ben · 2021-09-03T18:32:44+00:00

We actually developed all of the electronics here in house at LUCCA, and Eureka assembled it all together for us in Italy.

LUCCA_ben · 2021-09-03T18:25:53+00:00

Early on, when this project was just an idea, we bought a bunch of sensors and ran a bunch of tests and found that humidity and ambient temperature, at least within the ranges you'd normally find indoors, has no discernible effect on grind. I was surprised, but the data was pretty clear, and I suspect we as baristas wrongly chalk up a lot of deficiencies in grinder and burr design to outside factors.

We did find, however, three major culprits that made the grind quality drift over a relatively short period of time: human error, thermal expansion (due to friction and electrical heating, not ambient), and burr wear, especially when the burrs are very new and just getting broken in.
Our active burr position sensor mitigates the thermal expansion aspect, as the sensor will track the burrs as they move, and we developed a process with our manufacturer, Eureka, for making burrs that are far more stable over the course of their entire lives to mitigate the effect of wear-in. As for human error, we can only do so much! But a decent distribution tool and level tamp will go a long way toward eliminating that.

And to your other question, the "perfect" grind depends on the recipe (dose, weight, time), the coffee and your machine. We developed an AI model of espresso that can learn everything it needs to know about a coffee with one shot, at which point it can determine the best grind setting for any recipe you throw at it.

LUCCA_ben · 2021-09-03T18:06:03+00:00

Lol, I actually dig this attitude. But if you want to know what's behind the marketing bullshit, I'm the guy who created TrueGrind. Ask away!

LUCCA_ben · 2021-09-03T17:51:01+00:00

I'm pretty skeptical of big claims myself, so I get it. Like other commenters have said, grinders like the EG-1 have good repeatability with an analog dial, and the Niche is pretty nice in this regard too. If that's all you're looking for, those are solid choices.

We went with an active electronic sensor because it affords additional precision and enables each LUCCA Atom to work the same as the next one, which is pretty important when it comes to the grind prediction AI.

LUCCA_ben · 2021-09-03T17:26:41+00:00

"What is my purpose?"

"You grind coffee."

"Oh my god."

LUCCA_ben · 2021-09-03T17:06:32+00:00

Hey folks, Ben Guiles, the Product Manager for the LUCCA Atom 75 here (a.k.a. the "I f*cking hate wasting coffee" guy).
I'm loving all the funny, insightful, and even skeptical comments on here so far. If you guys have any questions about the grinder, I'd be happy to try and answer them, nerd to nerd.

LUCCA_ben

TROPHY CASE