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I'd be surprised if the Sage only holds a quarter of a gram.
I measured it by shaking the grinder out and collecting what fell out after grinding my morning coffee. Is that an unreliable way of doing it?
Stonehedge-
I'd imagine so (granted, I've not done it that way myself so couldn't give an informed opinion), especially if you want to compare grinders. I think most of the numbers reported against grinders are either:
- Starting with a completely cleaned out machine, run a shot through and measure how much is retained (not sure how representative this is of the actual day-to-day retention but it's an easy figure to compare)
- Starting with a completely cleaned out machine, running a fixed amount of coffee through it (normally quite a few shot's worth), then completely cleaning down the machine measuring all coffee held (again, arguably not representative either as coffee that is caked along the inside of the grinder will have a much smaller impact than coffee resting in the chute)
Like has been said above, as machines accumulate caked in grounds their retention will improve so it's not unexpected that a machine's weight-in vs weight-out retention could drop from a few grams to zero as it's used.
Basically what I'm trying to say is, the easy to compare methods aren't representative (IMO) and the valuable ones are hard to measure (again, IMO). Not sure if I can offer much in the way of actual valuable insight but for me I just picked a machine with a design that I figured would minimise the retention (very little caked in build up due to small burrs and nowhere else really for to rest, and coffee passing straight through top to bottom meaning no chutes or similar to hold grounds), so I can basically not have to think about it.
Apologies for the wall of text with basically no meaningful conclusion
- Starting with a completely cleaned out machine, run a shot through and measure how much is retained (not sure how representative this is of the actual day-to-day retention but it's an easy figure to compare)
mmccarthy
Maybe not a tablespoon, but a few grams (between 2-3 I'd guess) is the norm in the sorts of grinders I worked with in coffee shops. It's a tricky thing to measure directly and I'd be surprised if the Sage only holds a quarter of a gram. That's lower than both the Niche Zero & Baratza Sette which are the go-to for low retention grinders without spending ridiculous money.
There's also the point that not all retention impacts the coffee equally. The stale grounds left in the chute will have a much bigger impact than the stale coffee that ends up getting compressed and caked in all the nook & crannies. Given that the former will be stale coffee that ends up in your new shot, the latter will not.
I found this to be a pretty decent overview: https://clivecoffee.com/blogs/learn/grind-retention