Made in Transylvania, the Ousia Coffee Grinder

The new Ousia Coffee Grinder in the glossy finish. The grinder also comes in a matte finish. All images courtesy of Ousia/Yume Coffee Roasters.

The owners of Romanian specialty coffee company Yume Coffee Roasters designed, developed and recently brought to market their own high-end manual grinder called the Ousia Coffee Grinder.

The grinder was presented for the first time at the World of Coffee event in Copenhagen, Denmark, earlier this summer. Given its own brand and website, Ousia is selling the units for €445 ($481 as of this writing), with shipping worldwide through DHL.

Aside from its Transylvanian oak knob, the Ousia Coffee Grinder is made entirely of steel. The knob is gripped at the end of a crank handle, angled for a low center of gravity that the company said improves stability and ergonomics.

Its stainless-steel body is available either in “Contemporary Matte” or shiny “Vintage Glam” finish, and it houses a set of custom 47-millimeter steel burrs made of steel alloy with a Rockwell scale (HRC) hardness rating of 63. The burrs are aligned along a 10-millimeter-thick axle with ball bearings for smooth rotation.

Stepped grind adjustment provides 300 usable clicks, from Turkish coffee fineness through cold brew coarseness.

“We developed and produced a premium manual coffee grinder that we produce in our own metal shop, here in Romania’s region of Transylvania,” Răzvan Roșu, co-founder and head roaster for Yume Coffee Roasters, told Daily Coffee News. “The Ousia coffee grinder is everything you need, nothing you don’t.”

Founded approximately 10 years ago as a specialty coffee roaster in the Romanian city of Cluj-Napoca, Yume Coffee Roasters been working on the grinder project for about three years. Prior to that, the Yume team collaborated with German coffee grinder-maker Kinu in the development of he M47 grinder, which came out in 2016.

“We helped Kinu with the research and development of their first M47 Classic coffee grinder, especially in terms of coffee science and performance,” Roșu said. “That stopped some seven years ago. This being the case, we have ultimately found a highly skilled metal craftsman that could help us design and produce the best manual coffee grinder of this type.”

Through small batch production, each Ousia grinder will include its own serial number, a five-year warranty and an EVA foam case for storage and transport. Its warm, almost coffee-like color is achieved without paint.

“We would like to keep the coloring process as a part of our undisclosed know-how,” Roșu said. “We don’t plan to produce other coffee related products, or another grinder model. Other colors or finishes may be available in time; however, our aim is to focus solely on one superlative grinder model.”

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