The Vario W+ from Baratza is designed for anyone who values the highest precision when preparing their coffee. With its built-in scale and accuracy to 0.1 g, the portion size is controlled directly in grams. With other coffee grinders, including the Vario+ without the W addition, this is only done via a timer. This makes the Baratza Vario W+ ideal for anyone who knows exactly how much ground coffee they need for their preparation. Compared to the normal Vario W, the Plus model offers an improved control panel and display, as well as grinding discs made from steel instead of ceramic and specialized for filter coffee from the Swiss manufacturer Ditting. In addition, the grinding chamber is now made of metal and the ejection area is illuminated by LEDs.

The Vario W+ workflow

The Vario W+ is operated via the clearly laid out control panel on the front. Three portion sizes can be saved and called up here. A large play and stop button starts or stops the grinding process. The display shows how large the selected or ground portion is. To the left and right of the control panel are the notched slide controls for adjusting the grinding level. The right slider makes rough changes to the grinding level in steps from one to ten. The left control handles fine-tuning with 22 levels from A to V. A total of 220 different settings are available.

Tip: To ensure that the grinding results remain consistent - or to adjust the range of grinding levels even more individually - an Allen screw for calibration is installed next to the ejector. By default, the grinding discs should start to make grinding noises when set to 1M. For orientation, the following settings are recommended as a starting point for the various preparation methods:

Espresso: 1Q
AeroPress: 3M
Hario V60: 5M
filter coffee machines: 6M
Chemex: 7M
French Press: 9M

Best grinding results, easy cleaning

The Vario W+ is equipped with 54 mm steel grinding discs as standard. The grinding discs from the Swiss manufacturer Ditting are particularly suitable for filter coffee, but also for modern espresso. The reason for this is that the proportion of fine particles (also called fines) is particularly low. This ensures a particularly transparent taste in the cup. The upper grinding disc can be removed without tools, including its attachment, in order to easily clean the grinding chamber, ideally with a brush. A 130 watt motor drives the grinder at 1350 revolutions per minute. The relatively low speed means that the grinder is comparatively quiet.