Hello HBers,

Over the last couple of years I have used (still using) a HG-1 and more recently a Compak E-8 as I was mostly brewing espresso. I have recently moved some of my consumption over to pour over.

As I like the idea of a single dosing and low retention electric grinder that can easily switch back and forth from espresso to pour over (from what I gather that is the case), the EK has been grabbed my attention.

Since I am still espresso first, pour over second, do I need to look for an EK with turkish burrs? If so, is that something that I need to change out on my own?

Or do the coffee burrs work fine for espresso?

Thanks for your help,

Mike

From what I've read, I'd say the newer coffee burrs are just fine for the espresso range. But I have to say that I don't have personal experience making espresso with the EK yet.

https://robdoescoffee.com/2015/11/11/ev ... -espresso/

http://grindscience.com/2015/02/just-testing-ftw/

https://www.pilotcoffeeroasters.com/blo ... kish-burrs

I've just picked up a used EK43 with older style coffee burrs and plan on using it as-is for a while and see how it goes and may get new coffee burrs in the future.

Hi, yes the coffee burrs work fine for espresso but get a custom dial for it with smaller increments on the settings, if you can, like f.ex. the dials from 3fe : https://shop.3fe.com/product/ek43-dial There are probably other options too. Makes it much easier to track settings compared to the stock dial.

As far as I understood from the german webshop I bought from last year, they only sold them with the new type of 'coffee' burr sets and that these where kind of a hybrid between the old turkish and coffee ones. It's what the sales rep. told me at least.

I've calibrated the grind setting so that espresso is in the 1.3 (minimum setting) to 3.0 range, for 30-40g doses for drip (Hario v2) I then have to go all the way to the 19-20.5 range (21 is max) but the adjustment mechanism is so solid and easy to use that it is just a flick of the hand moving between settings. For single dosing and with its low retention, power and grind speeds it is just excellent and hard to beat as a dual use grinder.

Thanks for the replies.

So I am assuming you guys aren't experiencing any issues similar to what is being demonstrated in this video:

https://www.instagram.com/p/z494fXyuCK/ ... aticcoffee

For some reason, this video has been stuck in the back of my mind, but it sounds like more often than not the coffee burrs work well with espresso.

-Mike

Thats a proper undosed basket there . I had a l1 and an ek43 ( older variant coffee burrs ) it made great espresso .
To be getting the clairty and sweetness from the ek43 your brew ratios need to be 1:2-3 , so if you are fan of heavy body ristretto then I would give it a miss...
This is a light roasted ethiopian made with an brand new ek43 ( un seasoned burrs ) - with the older variant coffee burrs, the new variant ones go finer than these do , Yes you generally near zero ish for the grinder but this is not a problem
This is my friend pulling the shot , as the burrs settled down you can dose a little less and go lighter on the tamp and we stopped nutating and went to flat tamp techniques ..
Again this isnt meant to be a perfect prep and shot clip , just one we made ages ago , as we were excited to to have the grinder ..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlaX7yAM050

Mrboots2u wrote:Thats a proper undosed basket there . I had a l1 and an ek43 ( older variant coffee burrs ) it made great espresso .
To be getting the clairty and sweetness from the ek43 your brew ratios need to be 1:2-3 , so if you are fan of heavy body ristretto then I would give it a miss...
This is a light roasted ethiopian made with an brand new ek43 ( un seasoned burrs ) - with the older variant coffee burrs, the new variant ones go finer than these do , Yes you generally near zero ish for the grinder but this is not a problem
This is my friend pulling the shot , as the burrs settled down you can dose a little less and go lighter on the tamp and we stopped nutating and went to flat tamp techniques ..
Again this isnt meant to be a perfect prep and shot clip , just one we made ages ago , as we were excited to to have the grinder ..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlaX7yAM050

I think I have watched this video over 10 times! Thanks for sharing your experience, especially since you used a L-1 with it.

The EK sacrifices body for clarity and sweetness.

I find that filter roasts are great on it. Espresso blends that I am used to seem to perform less than well. Killer for SOE though

Thanks again for all of the input. As I had some time to do some additional research on this forum, I stumbled upon the Kafatek Flat grinder that is in production right now, and it is around the same price point as the EK-43. Not sure they are worth comparing, but I might sit around and wait until some reviews start trickling in on that, as I am not sure if my coffee space can facilitate the size of the EK (checked one out at a coffee shop and it is a lot larger in person!).