I'm writing this review because I found next to nothing about the H63 online so I'm hoping my review will help people who are on the fence about purchasing this grinder. I got this grinder yesterday and ran about 50 grams through it for a little bit of seasoning and to get the grind close for espresso. Note, I just got this so take everything I write with a grain of salt. I own many grinders, both electric and hand grinders. This grinder is well made and it is easy to adjust. It weighs quite a bit more than my other hand grinders. The handle is a bit tough to put on top of the grinder because the fit is tight, but the nice part about this is that the handle doesn't come off when grinding which can happen on other hand grinders, especially when hand grinding light roasts for espresso which is what I do daily. The handle is shorter than my other hand grinders, so I thought it would be difficult to turn, but surprisingly, this grinder takes less force to turn even when using it in a completely vertical position. I was attracted to this grinder because of the unique burr set, the built-in blind shaker, and the sweepers that are supposed to clear loose coffee grounds from around the burr. I have multiple blind shakers, including a Weber blind shaker. For my first shot, I shook the grinder (to shake the grounds) after grinding the coffee and rotated the handle afterwards to use the sweepers to clean around the burr, but there was a ton of grounds stuck to the bottom of the burr. I even tapped the whole grinder including the catch cup on the table to try to shake these loose and they still stuck. I also sprayed the beans prior to grinding to try to prevent static and clumping. From now on, I will be using the regular catch cup and a separate blind Shaker because the built-in shaker on this grinder is not worth the hassle to me and honestly the sweepers just make the bottom of the burr harder to clean. The worst part of this grinder is that even though it takes less force to grind, it takes many more rotations for a given dose. For reference, my Kingrinder K6 and 1zpresso Jmax take 110-125 rotations for a 20g dose, this grinder takes about 260-280 rotations for that same dose! Now you are probably wondering why I gave the grinder 3 stars with all the negative things I've said about it. By the time I tamped my first shot I was hoping I wouldn't like the result so I could set this grinder aside to collect dust. For reference, my favorite grinders for light roast espresso are the K6 and the DLC burrs on my DF83V as they both do a good job of producing shots that are well balanced and complex with good body and reasonable clarity. The only burr I've ever had that didn't seem to need seasoning was the 83mm DLC burr so I had low expectations for my first few shots. The first shot I ground too course at a grind setting of 17 my flair 58 hit 3 bar and the shot was 10-15 seconds using a 20g Weber unibasket. Typically this shot would be underextracted and astringent, but to my surprise it was decent. It lacked a bit of body likely due to the low peak pressure, but had good flavor and little astringency. For the next shot, I ground at setting 11 and the shot peaked around 7 bar and pulled in 20 seconds with 20 grams in and 45 grams out. Since I use a manual lever, my pressure profile varies based on what I am trying to achieve. This shot was a typical lever style shot with gradually declining pressure. It was a light roasted anaerobic coffee. This shot was amazing. The texture was silky and juicy, the flavor was complex, and there was very little astringency. The difference between this shot and a similar shot from the K6 is that this shot seemed to have less astringency which allowed me to appreciate the flavor and texture more. Despite the pain of using this grinder, that last shot was good enough to keep me using it. I hope future shots are as good as the last one I pulled. Like I said at the beginning, this is just an initial impression since I haven't used the grinder much. So take everything I wrote with a grain of salt. If you are in the market for a hand grinder that does a good job with light roast espresso, this one may be worth considering.
