Mazzer Super Jolly Grinder Review: Just What Your Café Needs?

Do you make a lot of espressos and need a high-capacity grinder that can keep up? Whether you have a small cafe or a busy household, the Mazzer Super Jolly fits the bill. This well-made grinder produces consistent, fluffy grounds that will have you swooning.

In this review, we’ll look at the details of both models of this espresso grinder, the electronic and the manual, so you can decide if it’s the ideal grinder for your home or business.

Summary: The Mazzer Super Jolly Grinder

• Home or commercial coffee grinder with 64 mm flat stainless steel burrs and 1.2 kg bean hopper capacity
  
• Available in either a manual version with doser or an electronic version
  
• Renowned for its durability, this grinder is built like a tank

I’m amazed at how my espresso shots have improved over previous grinders. The grinds are fluffy and result in thick, sweet, crema-filled espresso.

– Customer

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The Full Mazzer Super Jolly Grinder Review

The Super Jolly is considered a bit of a living legend in the realm of commercial coffee grinders. You’d be hard-pressed to find a professional barista who hasn’t worked with one at some point. There are two versions of the Super Jolly, the original manual timer version with a doser and the newer and significantly more expensive electronic model. 

This Super Jolly review will discuss both models in detail, from their design to their user-friendly features to the quality of their grind. Read through it, and you’ll know whether the Super Jolly is the grinder for you!

Mazzer Super Jolly Grinder Review

• Design
• Durability
• Ease Of Use
• Grinding Capability
• Value For Money

3.9

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Design – 3.5/5

The Mazzer Super Jolly grinder was designed to be practical rather than beautiful, but that’s not to say it isn’t a nice-looking grinder. The sleek polished aluminium exterior, also available in black and white, and smooth curves make it attractive without being attention-grabbing.

The most noticeable design feature of the Super Jolly is its size. While more serious home espresso enthusiasts are investing in one of these machines, Jolly was clearly built with a commercial setting in mind. While its footprint is a relatively modest 42 cm deep by 24 cm wide, thanks to its high-capacity 1.2-kg bean hopper, it measures a whopping 61 cm tall! You definitely won’t be sliding this under your cupboard. It will even tower over most espresso machines.

Durability – 5/5

Burr grinders built with a commercial setting in mind are universally well-made to withstand high-volume settings. They need to keep up with far more heavy-duty use than a home grinder — hour after hour, day after day. But Mazzer coffee grinders, in particular, are known for being built like tanks. If you’re upgrading from a domestic grinder like a Baratza, you’ll really notice a difference in the quality of materials.

That means you can expect many years of loyal service from your Super Jolly, but it’s still essential to prolong its lifespan with regular maintenance and cleaning.

If you’re buying this model for a commercial coffee shop, you should plan to keep track of how many pounds of coffee beans you’re grinding. In general, a set of stainless steel burrs should be good for about 500 pounds of coffee. And this coffee grinder is so well made that you’ll likely need to replace the grinding burrs long before any part of the machine breaks down.

A nice final feature I should mention regarding the longevity of the Super Jolly is its thermal overload switch. This automatically turns the machine off if it’s overheating, preventing any damage.

Ease of Use – 4/5

Since we’re talking about two somewhat different burr grinders here, it’s a bit difficult to give an overall score for Ease of Use, so let’s get right into the details about the two versions.

One nice user-friendly feature on both grinders is the wonderfully named “hopper stopper.” This simple design means you can remove the bean hopper without having to empty the coffee beans inside. This is handy when swapping out beans or performing cleaning and maintenance.

The electronic version is the easier to use of the two, which should come as no surprise given that it is significantly more expensive. With this model, you can pre-program doses for both single shots and double shots or run it in continuous grind mode. So once programmed, using this espresso grinder is as simple as inserting the portafilter and pressing a button.

The non-electronic version offers no programmability, which means it’s marginally less straightforward. Instead, you run the grinder using a manual timer, and the ground coffee is dispensed into a doser.

Wait, what’s a doser? Let’s take a quick detour to discuss their pros and cons.

Doser: Pros and Cons

The manual version uses a doser, whereas the electronic version, in which you can program the dose, is a doserless grinder. Dosers are commonly found on commercial espresso grinders rather than home models because the main advantages of a doser come into play in high-volume situations.

With the manual Super Jolly, you can pre-grind set doses of between 5.5 and 9 grams into the doser. Then it’s just the simple flick of a lever to release the grounds into your portafilter. You’ll be more efficient and waste fewer grinds. As a bonus, this grinder is also equipped with a built-in tamper. This dose-and-tamp system can be a real asset in a busy situation, as it ups the efficiency of your workflow. However, in my experience, most baristas prefer the more hands-on option of manually tamping.

Compared with simply grinding a dose directly into a portafilter, a doser adds a layer of complication. And that is why you rarely see dosers in home settings where speed is less crucial.

Grinding Capability – 4/5

The Mazzer Super Jolly is equipped with 64 mm stainless steel flat burrs and a powerful 350 Watt motor that spins them at 1600 rpm. While this is a lovely burr set, it isn’t remarkable given the price. For example, the programmable electric Eureka Specialita has a 65 mm flat steel burr set for the same price as the manual Super Jolly.

When you buy a Mazzer grinder, you’re paying for a perfect burr set and incredible build quality, not a unique burr set.

That said, the 64 mm flat steel grinding burrs are nothing to scoff at, especially for a home user. You’re going to get fluffy, clump-free grounds that yield beautiful espresso.

How to use it best?

Compared with conical burrs, flat burrs are known for their consistency. They yield fewer fines and a more narrow grind size distribution, though the trade-off is that they tend to retain a bit more than conical burrs (1). This consistency is vital for achieving the most flavourful espresso, according to Ollie Sears of North Star Coffee Roasters (2).

It also features an infinite step-less adjustment for grind size, which means you can dial in exactly the perfect grind. For this reason, I’d recommend this as a dedicated espresso grinder. If you only brew drip or immersion coffee, the infinite grind settings will likely be overkill and not worth the cost. If you like to drink both coffee and espresso, consider getting a second grinder for drip. Or look for a grinder which you can easily switch between the settings, like the Niche Zero.

It will probably serve you best as a secondary grinder if you’re getting this grinder for a busy cafe setting. While it’s perfectly suited to small coffee shops or busy homes, especially with the extra-large bean hopper, it just isn’t fast enough to be the primary grinder in a high-volume coffee shop. It takes up to 10 seconds to grind a double shot.

Also, note that this coffee grinder is quite loud, which could be disruptive in a cafe setting if you’re trying to interact with customers when combined with its slow speed.

Value for Money – 3/5

The value you’ll get from this Mazzer espresso grinder has a lot to do with what you want from your coffee grinder. I know, that’s a vague statement. Let me clarify. 

For home users, there are definitely espresso grinders with better specs available at similar or lower prices. And that statement holds for both the manual and electronic models, the latter of which is almost double the former price. If you have a home espresso machine and you pull 4 or 5 shots a day, I’d be hard-pressed to say the Mazzer Super Jolly is your best option.

However, the main selling point of the Super Jolly is its durability. They built it to grind all day — and to do that for years on end. This is crucial in a commercial setting, and compared to other popular commercial coffee grinders, the price of the Super Jolly is very reasonable, especially the manual version.

And of course, the longer any product lasts, the better your value for money, and Mazzers are built to last.

Don’t Buy the Mazzer Super Jolly Grinder If…

You only brew drip coffee: If you’re not making espresso, the Super Jolly and its infinite step-less adjustment will probably be overkill. Instead, consider the stylish new Fellow Ode or the tried-and-true classic, the Baratza Virtuoso. That’s not to say it won’t work for drip brewing, but you can just as effectively use something far less expensive.

You don’t need high capacity: The Super Jolly was designed for commercial settings, and only the most avid home user will really benefit from its large capacity. If you want something similar at a more reasonable size, take a look at the Mazzer Mini grinder, Rancilio Rocky, or Eureka Specialita.

You run a high-volume cafe: At the other end of the spectrum are the folks who need more speed and capacity than the Super Jolly can deliver. If you run a busy cafe with a frantic rush hour, consider investing in one of Mazzer’s higher capacity models, like the Kony S or Major V (3).

The Verdict

The Mazzer Super Jolly is an undeniably great grinder. It’s well-designed, durable, and yields consistently uniform grounds that are easy to dial in for espresso. If you own a small cafe, are looking for a secondary grinder for a large cafe, or are a member of a very enthusiastic espresso drinking household, the Super Jolly is a wonderful choice that will serve you well for years.

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