The Super Jolly has been the default cafe grinder for decades, and the V UP generation comes in two versions that share almost everything: 64mm flat burrs, a 350W motor at 1400rpm on 50Hz, a 1.2kg bean hopper, stepless micrometric grind adjustment, and 14kg of metal to keep it all still. The difference is how the ground coffee gets to your portafilter.
The Automatic: a doser
The automatic grinds into a doser chamber and stops when it is full, restarting every 12 doses. You pull the lever and a measured dose drops into the basket.
This is a workflow built for a rush. The doser is always charged, so the barista never waits for the grinder. It suits a busy cafe with one coffee on the grinder all day. The cost is freshness: ground coffee sitting in the doser is ageing, and if the cafe is quiet, that is stale coffee going into a shot. It also holds 280g of ground coffee, which is waste if you change beans.
The Electronic: on demand
The electronic grinds into the portafilter when you ask it to, with separately programmable single and double doses and a digital display with a shot counter. Nothing is ground before it is needed.
This is the better fit for a cafe serving specialty coffee, a venue that runs more than one bean, or a serious home setup. Every shot is ground fresh, there is no doser to clean, and the counter tells you when the burrs are due. A hand tamper and a tamping support are included in the box.
Which to choose
- High volume, one bean, speed above all: the automatic. The doser wins during a queue.
- Specialty, multiple beans, or fewer than about 200 coffees a day: the electronic. Freshness wins everywhere else.
- Home espresso: the electronic, and only if you have the bench space and the ceiling height for a 14kg commercial grinder with a hopper on top.
If you need more capacity
The Super Jolly is rated for medium consumption. Above that, the Major steps up to 83mm burrs, a 650W motor and a 1.8kg hopper, in the same two versions and with the same logic behind the choice.
Both need the same care
Flat burrs collect oil between them, and stale oil makes bitter coffee no matter which version you bought. Run grinder cleaning granules through every few weeks, and check the burrs for wear at the shot counts the manual gives. Both grinders carry a 12 month manufacturer's warranty, returned to the Giuseppe Brothers service centre.
For the wider choice, see best coffee grinder for home espresso.
