Mahlkonig Peak - First Impressions

I received the "Peak" on the afternoon of Dec 8th via UPS. As expected very well packed and not a scratch on it. I'll be primarily comparing it to Vario K30 which I've owned for about a year now so others can relate.





Un-boxing

The first thing that struck me was how hefty it was compared to the K30. The're not a lot of plastic used on it so feels pretty strong(think Mazzer). Inside the box were the usual suspects, a couple of allen wrenches a little brush and the testing data sheet. As new as this grinder is I noticed the absence of an operating manual. When you go to Mahlkonig's web page this grinder is still not even shown as a product so I had no way to get a manual thru those means. Regardless of it's absence it wasn't hard to figure out since the only thing I had to figure out was that the button you press to start the dose is the 'enter' button in programming mode so I was up and running in about 10 minutes. The second thing that struck me most was how quiet it was during grinding, even more so than the K30 or any other grinder I've ever had. It has a 3 position switch in the rear that you can use to either use or not use the internal fan. I think this is a great feature since on my Compak Fresh it's just on ALL! the time.




Initial Setup

Since I had no manual to go by I started using the settings that I would normally use with the K30 and was surprised at the fact that the settings for grind are almost identical to the K30 except for time. I'd put about 2 pounds of disposable coffee(they ask for about 300g) to get the grinder set up and figured to use that coffee to do some testing on grind weight consistency. The first thing I noticed was that for a double shot my K30 uses about 3.8 seconds so that's what I set on the "Peak". That time on the "Peak" gave me a very small dose (not usable for a double). As I realized this I went back to the "original" shipped setting and voila! 18.5 grams exactly (5.80 seconds) . As I continued grinding I was in awe as I saw the max variance shot after shot was of no more than 0.3 grams with thee back to back grinds of exactly 18.5 grams in sequence. As the hopper got emptier it started drifting up to about 0.8 grams but I expected this as every grinder I've had behaves in a similar fashion, and mind you this was my old throw away old coffee!.







About the grind.

After calibrated for weight I noticed that by volume it was a flufier grind, weirdly almost powder like. I've heard of coffee shop baristas putting ground coffee through their hands to determine proper finess but I'm having a hard time thinking this would work with this grinder. Needless to say, when I saw that, I thought the current setting was going to 'choke' the GS/3, but once again I was treated to a proper 29 sec shot by weight in my first try!!. (can you tell I'm excited about the darn thing). . As a little side note... the picture at the top of the thread with the latte art on it was my very first shot out of the grinder. I could not believe how everything had worked out so good on my first attempt that I had to take a picture of it!


The Tasting

The coffee I decided to use first was a Colombian Supremo that I had roasted, for some basic reasons. It's not my most expensive coffee (in case things don't work out initially) and secondly I find Colombians coffee's very soft and "maleable" (IMHO) meaning they won't punch you in the face if you do mishandle your prep!

This is the part where, me, not being a professional coffee taster is probably going to get in the way. In my first Cap this morning I had a very intense coffee flavor but not the harsh bitter(strong) note/tone. It was more like the feel you get from a superb straight espresso shot but with milk in it, it felt weird at first. I know the inevitable is that people will want to know is, Is how this compares to flat vs conical?. In my couple years experience owning the Compak K10 and now this I have to say that I felt something more like "stages". When it was in the initial hot stage it cut through my palate with the clarity of my conical, very defined flavor and a good coating of the whole mouth with coffee flavor ( notice I wrote mouth and not tongue, I really mean that). As it cooled I started feeling more of the usual stuff I feel with the K30 which is that caramelly sweetness most of us like. I Imagine it's there when it's hot and it probably accounts for that whole "roundness" coating you feel in your mouth. The machiato's we're also on point with a strong but not slap in your face note that was very pleasant. At the very end I decided to go for the straight espresso shot to see what was really under the hood. Lets just say I had my last cup at about 9AM this morning... It's about 2P here in Chicago were I live and I can still taste it. Here's an extraction video. There was no special technique used(WDT,Stockfest,etc) just grind tamp, go...



The aftermath

I noticed it was a little messier than the K30 but I might be the particular coffee I'm using or, our dry weather here in the winter but it's not a deal breaker for me personally. Also in the spirit of this initial impression I got curious and wanted to see how the water actually permeated through the grounds (being that it looks like powder) to see if there were "dry" spots like I've seen with some of my other grinders. As you can see on the pictures of the wet puck there where none that I could see even after I destroyed the puck to look inside of it.









In conclussion


I think this grinder will be liked by a lot of people for many reasons. I travel quite a bit and if I walked into your store and you served me what I had this morning I'd surely be back for more. Also, taking into account the original design specification of this grinder (busy coffee shop) I was pleasantly surprised that after putting my "old" coffee through it, ( on the initial setup) and after a quick purge and cleaning I didn't have any previous coffee artifacts in the taste of the new coffee that I had decided on trying.

Thanks for the detailed writeup. I'm currently looking for an ek43, ceado e37s and may include the peak to my list.

I had 2 shots of a CC PNG today. One on the Robur and one on the Peak.

The Robur was slightly heavier bodied, a strong syrupy sweetness in the front of the palate. It was bright, but more in a savory raisin, dried fruit and green tea sort of way. It had a decent finish with some slight bitter cacao notes, but still a sort of buttermilk savory notes lingering for a bit.

The Peak had a nice heavy body, but not quite as thick as the Robur. It wasn't as syrupy or had an initial impression of being as extremely sweet as the Robur when it first hit my tounge, but as I swished it and swallowed, it seemed that the sweetness lingered slightly longer and the flavor notes were a little more clearly defined. The body seemed very similar to shots I've had from the k30, but with a lot more flavor spectrum. Overall maybe slightly more balance and more pleasant finish.

I slightly felt that the Robur was more of a punch to the face, and the Peak a little softer of a shot. I did not pull the shots, so I have no experience working with the Peak yet. I honestly wouldn't say that it's much much better or even extremely different than the Robur in terms of taste profile. But at the given price point, functionality I would definitely purchase it over the Robur.

And congrats on the Peak! I enjoyed your write up! Hopefully I'll have one along side my GS3 soon too!

Luis,

Thanks for the great write up, pics, and video! With your extensive grinder experience, you've got lots of comparative data to impart! Please keep us posted as your initial impressions settle into solid opinions. I'm in the market for a grinder, and this one could be in the mix!

Hi Luis
Can you post a comparison shot of the Peak grind with the K10 Fresh grind and tasting notes between the two? Also a shot of the tamping process would be great.

I really appreciate the more objective aspects of the new grinder. Could we see some shots of the burrs?

I can't help but feel all the subtle flavor comparisons are so subjective it all becomes kind of comical to read through.

You're right on! spearfish. I was going for comical ... I can look at that taste wheel all day long and still not have a good way to explain what I felt about the "Peak" vs many of the other grinders out there. One thing I had a problem explaining and understanding was the "new" perceived intensity. It's like a stereo receiver... I'm listening to the same song, just louder and more "constrained" like a music compressor would do, if that makes any sense to you guys whatsoever. I don't have the instruction manual so I won't be trying to disassemble it to look at the burrs yet so I owe you guys that one. I've never done a comparison between the grinders since I don't consider myself to have a very developed palate. It seems like a mute point to try if you're by yourself as, like you said, it's all subjective

You're welcome to all who liked the write up. I'm sure that when more of these show up everywhere, and the real "coffee" guys ( the guys that get paid to do coffee ) get their hands on them, we will read some really good explanations about what It is that I taste out of it. I have a hunch that it might have something to do with the higher measured extraction yield that I think I read somewhere about this grinder