You’re the kind of person who packs a thermos for a perfect mountaintop view and scours hotel reviews for good coffee. Enter the Orphan Espresso Fixie—a travel grinder promising to be your on-the-go barista. But does it live up to the buzz?
Built specifically for travel, the OE Fixie is lightweight yet sturdy, featuring titanium and carbon fiber construction. It weighs around 330 grams, making it portable without compromising on performance. The 47 mm conical burrs are wear-resistant, crafted from hardened steel, ensuring durability.
The Fixie’s capacity is modest at about 30 grams, sufficient for an Aeropress or a small pour-over. It’s also user-friendly, easy to disassemble, reassemble, and clean. A simple towel and brush can dry-clean the burrs, and its low grind retention ensures that if you put in 30 grams of beans, you get almost 30 grams of grounds.
Where the Fixie shines is its versatility in grind settings. It’s a stepped adjustment grinder with 19 settings across three disc levels—fine, medium, and coarse. These settings offer an acceptable consistency, suitable for manual brewing methods like Aeropress, Chemex, and French press. However, for hardcore espresso lovers, its precision might not measure up to more premium options.
If you care about grind consistency, the Fixie generally does well but isn’t extraordinary compared to top-tier hand grinders. It’s perfect for travel but may not replace your high-end home grinder if you demand exceptional precision. The steps in its adjustment system are about 100 microns each, which is larger than the adjustments available in grinders like the 1Zpresso J Max.
On the go, the Fixie is unbeatable. It comes with a waterproof Tyvek travel bag and an adjustment disc storage tin, suitable for even rugged outdoor adventures. It’s designed to withstand bumps and drops, so whether you’re camping or biking, this grinder can keep up.
Comparing it with the Lido 3, another Orphan Espresso grinder, the Fixie is better for travel due to its lighter weight and compact size. While the Lido 3 offers superior grind control with its step-less adjustment, it’s heavier and more cumbersome. For day-to-day use, especially on the road, the Fixie is more practical.
However, if you brew large batches of coffee or need precise grind control, the Fixie might fall short. With its limited 30-gram capacity and larger adjustment steps, it’s not the best for espresso aficionados or those who drink a lot of coffee daily. For such needs, grinders like Comandante C40 or 1Zpresso K Max might be more suitable.
That said, for the average user who wants a reliable, portable grinder that performs well with manual brewing methods, the Fixie is a great choice. Its sturdy build, low grind retention, and ease of use make it a standout, especially when traveling.
The Orphan Espresso Fixie is a fantastic travel grinder that doesn’t disappoint. While it may not provide the precision needed for daily espresso perfection, it excels in portability and overall performance for manual brewing. If you need a dependable grinder for on-the-go coffee adventures, the Fixie is a solid pick.