The Mazzer Super Jolly (SJ) is an excellent grinder and if you can fit it into your kitchen, you are good to go for years without the need for upgrading (maybe!!). The SJ produces a better and more consistent grind than the Mazzer Mini E and is often cheaper. In fact the SJ plays well in competition with the large and much more expensive conical grinders. As the Mazzer SJ is the defacto standard espresso grinder in small to medium sized café's, there is a large volume of Super Jolly's around making it possible to get very good second hand deals. If the grinder has not been totally abused (e.g. check if the drive shaft is bent) then just change the burrs and it's as good as new.
However the SJ has a couple of issues which becomes a bit irritating for home-use. The doser doesn't sweep the doser reservoir clean from coffee. Secondly when distributing into the portafilter the doser throws coffee to the left of the portafilter fork often leaving a mess on your kitchen counter, not to mention the waste of coffee. There are well known fixes to these issues and I have applied a couple of these.
Modifications to the Mazzer Super Jolly:
- The Short Mazzer Mini Hopper. Using the after-market Mini hopper will take down the height of the SJ to 46 cm which is about the same as the Mazzer Mini.
- Replace the standard burrs with Dura-Mill "Duranium" burrs. This will cut down the grinding time for a double (17gr) from 9 seconds to 7!!
- The Sweep Modification by Teme. See Espresso Passione by Teme: http://temesblog.blogspot.com/2005/07/mazzer-mod-no3-sweep.html
- The "Elvinator". Mess-free distribution directly into the portafilter: http://www.home-barista.com/grinders/elvinator-mazzer-mod-t10908.html
- Photo timer/Dark Room timer to cut grinding after a desired amount of seconds. Further - as my SJ is an Automatic, I have disabled the doser auto switch.
For the lack of better reference you can see most of my mods in the following video:
