Casadio Ermes Dual Grinder Review: Micron Precision Meets Italian Design

 I still remember the first time I encountered the Mahlkönig EK Omnia grinder in person—it gave me the impression that coffee grinders across major brands have now entered the era of “micron-level automatic calibration.” Honestly, technological advancement never ceases to amaze me. It also makes you realize just how intense and competitive the coffee equipment space has become. This pursuit of machines that are faster, smarter, and more consistent is clearly shaping the future of commercial grinders.

Not long ago, I came across a coffee equipment brand called Casadio. Having spent years around coffee gear, I was surprised that I had never really paid attention to this brand before. Naturally, it sparked my curiosity, and I decided to dig deeper.

As it turns out, Casadio has quite a long and rich history. Its founder, Nello Casadio, was born on January 1, 1907, in the Imola region of north-central Italy. From a young age, he showed a strong interest in mechanical engineering. In 1948, during the post-war recovery period, the company established its first production workshop at 84 Via Massarenti in Bologna. You might notice that the Casadio logo resembles a trident—this design originates from a trademark registered in 1950, inspired by Giambologna’s famous sculpture Neptune. From that point on, the brand focused exclusively on manufacturing professional espresso machines and grinders.

By the 1960s, with steady economic recovery and growing demand for coffee equipment, Casadio—together with C.S.A.S. Bar—built a new headquarters in 1968. At the time, all production was still done by hand, with around 30 employees handling turning, machining, and assembly. However, in August 1975, Nello Casadio passed away unexpectedly at a relatively young age. The company faced a critical restructuring phase, but thanks to the efforts of his wife Angela, their three children, and the entire team, they reached a significant milestone—launching an integrated grinder with automatic programming capabilities, which was quite advanced for its time.

Casadio’s journey hasn’t been without challenges. In the 1990s, the company was sold to ISA S.p.A. and relocated to Umbria, before eventually returning to Bologna in 1999. Then in 2009, a familiar name entered the picture—Casadio joined Gruppo Cimbali, the renowned Italian coffee equipment manufacturer. Under Cimbali, the brand underwent a transformation in product design, market positioning, and technology. You may notice that some of the machines released after this period share design elements with classic Cimbali equipment. Within the group, Casadio operates as an independent sub-brand, continuing its legacy.

Now, let’s talk about the Casadio Ermes Dual grinder. This model builds on Casadio’s deep expertise in grinder design, combined with the engineering heritage of the Cimbali Group. The result is a new-generation grinder that balances precision with ease of use. It features an advanced micron-level adjustment system and is equipped with 75mm conical burrs, allowing users to switch between espresso grinding and coarser settings suitable for methods like Chemex.

The Ermes Dual comes with a 550g hopper, which conveniently matches standard 500g coffee bags—both practical and visually pleasing. It’s particularly well-suited for home use or small independent cafés.

In terms of design, the grinder has a clean and minimalist look. The lines are smooth and well-proportioned—it’s the kind of machine that looks good at first glance. Honestly, it’s just a good-looking piece of equipment.

The design itself also has an impressive pedigree. The Ermes Dual was designed by Flechtner, the renowned designer behind the iconic Slayer espresso machines. His design philosophy blends modern innovation with handcrafted elements, achieving a harmonious balance between form and function. The body is made from high-quality aluminum, with optional black or white side panels, giving the grinder a sleek and natural finish. Visible screws, exposed bean pathways, and a zero-retention integrated lever all evoke a sense of craftsmanship, reimagined with a contemporary edge.

User experience is enhanced through a full-color display, where every detail of the grind settings is clearly visible and easily adjustable. The screen provides real-time micron-level feedback on burr distance, and you can save your preferred grind parameters with recipe memory functionality. This level of precision ensures consistency across every cup.

Grinding is the foundation of great coffee—it shapes the flavor, sweetness, and overall balance of each cup. That’s why many seasoned coffee professionals will tell you: a great grinder is even more important than the espresso machine itself.

Can You Grind Spices in a Coffee Grinder? Why You Should Never Do It

 After talking with plenty of coffee enthusiasts, I’ve noticed that this seems to be one of the biggest curiosities people have about grinders: If it can grind coffee beans, can’t it grind other things too? And that’s usually when a few “mad experimenters” begin a series of questionable trials—only to fall into complete silence afterward…

Let me put it plainly: please don’t use your coffee grinder to grind anything other than coffee beans, especially if you actually care about it. Seriously. 😄

To be honest, no matter which stage of my coffee journey I’ve been in, I’ve never even considered this question. To me, a grinder is a tool with a very clear, single purpose. Trying to repurpose it for other kinds of grinding just doesn’t make much sense. Sure, in theory, anything softer than the burrs might get crushed—but from a practical and safety standpoint, it’s a very bad idea.

First, let’s be clear about one thing: the heart of any grinder is the burr set. Whether it’s flat burrs, conical burrs, or ghost burrs, these are precision-engineered components designed specifically to cut brittle coffee beans. When people try to turn a grinder into a kitchen appliance—grinding star anise, cinnamon, or even rice—they’re actually feeding it materials that are often harder than coffee beans. This dramatically accelerates burr wear. Once the burrs become dull, they can no longer grind coffee evenly, producing excessive fines that lead to uneven extraction. The result? Coffee that’s bitter and harsh. At that point, you might as well consider the grinder half-ruined.

Nuts, rice, and spices often contain oils or moisture, much like coffee beans. These substances cling to the grinder’s internal channels, burr surfaces, and tiny crevices, making them extremely difficult to clean completely. Residual oils can go rancid and seriously compromise the purity of future brews. This is exactly why we constantly emphasize the importance of regular burr cleaning.

Even more critical is the issue of flavor contamination, which is by far the most fatal problem. Coffee beans are rich in oils, and their flavor compounds are highly active and fragile. Once your grinder has processed strongly aromatic ingredients like star anise, Sichuan peppercorns, or sesame seeds, those smells can become almost permanently embedded in the machine. From that point on, every cup of coffee you grind may carry an unwanted hint of spice.

This is actually very easy to understand. I rarely drink extremely dark-roasted coffee, and one major reason is this: if my grinder ever processes beans roasted well into second crack—those shiny, oily, black “little coal balls”—the smoky smell can linger in the grinder for a very long time. It’s a grinder’s worst nightmare. That’s also why in more meticulous coffee shops, you’ll often see separate grinders for different roast levels, or even a strict “one bean, one grinder” setup. Many cafés would rather invest in multiple grinders than risk flavor crossover.

Some people place their hopes in burr cleaning to solve these issues. But whether you’re using grinder cleaning pellets or fully disassembling the machine, these methods are really just forms of maintenance—not a complete solution. With home grinders especially, the tools and techniques available are limited. Many people rely on nothing more than a brush or a small vacuum, which simply cannot remove 100% of the residual oils and flavor compounds. If you’ve ever ground something with moisture in it and failed to perform a professional-level deep clean, trapped moisture in hidden corners can even lead to mold growth—clearly unhygienic.

So in the end, let’s put curiosity aside. Whether your grinder cost a few hundred dollars or several thousand, cherish it while it’s with you. “One machine, one purpose” is the best attitude when it comes to specialty coffee equipment. For the flavor of your next great cup—and for the lifespan of your grinder—let it focus on doing the one thing it was designed to do: grinding coffee beans, and nothing else.

Mahdi Relaunches the Xenia Espresso Machine: A New Era of Smart Home Coffee Gear

 Mahdi certainly wouldn’t miss a market opportunity like this. In the past, they had already released several mid-priced grinders designed for home users, but those products alone couldn’t fully create a complete at-home coffee-making setup. So earlier this year, they made a strategic move: Mahdi’s parent company, Hemro Group, acquired Berlin-based Xenia Espresso. The purpose of this acquisition was to relaunch Xenia’s flagship espresso machine under the Mahdi brand.

Xenia Espresso was originally founded in 2012 by members of a German online coffee enthusiast community. In many ways, it was a product born from collective wisdom—a machine designed entirely from the perspective of hobbyists, hitting all the right notes of what home enthusiasts expect in a coffee machine. The original Xenia already featured a dual-boiler system, a quiet pump, pressure sensors, and PID temperature control for its advanced heating system.

Beyond these foundational components, the newly redesigned machine—now under Mahdi—had to stand apart from the past. And that difference comes from integrating Mahdi’s innovative engineering. The new Xenia espresso machine features a dual-boiler system and four separate heaters: one in the coffee boiler, one in the steam boiler, and two embedded directly in the brew group. The goal is to maintain highly stable brewing temperatures and enable rapid switching between extraction and steaming.

Inside the Xenia, additional sensors and control mechanisms allow users to create extraction profiles based on pressure, flow rate, temperature, and output weight data collected from the built-in scale. This dramatically enhances data visibility and increases the machine’s appeal to coffee geeks, aligning perfectly with the core demands of today’s home-brewing enthusiasts. According to Mahdi, the machine’s powerful steam system also delivers 50% more pressure than typical home espresso units. On top of that, the machine includes Mahdi’s built-in Sync system—a technology that allows it to pair seamlessly with Mahdi’s E64 WS grinder. Using extraction time and weight recorded by the Xenia, the E64 WS can automatically adjust its grind setting coarser or finer based on the programmed target outcome.

This part alone is already exciting—and the auto-adjust grind feature immediately reminds me of Mahdi’s commercial-grade EK Omnia grinder, which previously impressed me. Its biggest advantage is the ability to automatically micro-adjust burr spacing and dose calculations as soon as you select a recipe, enabling precise alignment with the chosen parameters. Without relying on personal guesswork, the grinder uses micron-level burr positioning to achieve ultra-fine tuning. While the E64 WS may not match the EK Omnia’s commercial-grade precision, it carries the same core technological philosophy into the home-use category, which is incredibly promising.

At this point, Mahdi’s forward-thinking market strategy becomes crystal clear. They aren’t blindly chasing the home-espresso trend just to join the competition—they’re building an entirely new product ecosystem. Grinder precision, machine stability, and intelligent extraction control are being seamlessly fused together, offering home users an unprecedented level of professional-grade performance. As of the time I’m writing this, Mahdi has not yet announced the machine’s final retail price. They have only stated that sales are expected to begin next year. When that happens, we’ll definitely keep an eye on further updates. It’s absolutely something to look forward to.