Tomorrow I am picking up a 2017 Mahlkonig ek43. I am super stoked as this is my endgame grinder. I will be using it for every thing from my espresso on my Flair 58 to making coldbrew. I would love if those of you who own one would give me some advice as far as grind settings you use (I will calibrate to zero being just off burr chatter), what your workflow looks like, etc. Thanks!

Cool. I am considering an EK43S myself since I have hit a wall with my Baratza Sette 270wi. It is not capable of producing good body in my espresso. What grinder are you currently using? Also, can you tell me how much you paid if you don't mind me asking?

Just something you might want to consider - the EK43s isn't necessarily going to deliver a traditional shot with 'good body' either. The work flow is also different and less optimal than a lot of other high end grinders out today.

OP - congrats on the new grinder. Take a look at the burrs + alignment before you get off to the races. You might want to get yourself a new dial sticker too. It makes dialing in a bit more fun.

Cheers!

Nice machine! FYI the shots I've pulled with an EK43 were like this (from around 2017 when I used one a lot): Grind extremely fine, shot starts and appears choked, a few drips come out looking OK, then it starts to look normal, then all hell breaks loose and the shots are spitting and gushing all over. Pull 18g in and ~50g out and it will be an acid fruit bomb. These are called "turbo" shots now. If you want to drink anything else out of an espresso machine you will need a different grinder. I feel like people don't say this explicitly enough out of these high uniformity burrs.

Best of luck! There are other burrs available in 98mm, so you can change profiles a bit. I think the P100 uses a burr that's a bit more bimodal.

Hmm. Before ordering an EK43S, maybe I'll order a shot first from a local shop that uses one. Thanks for the input.

Didn't somebody win the WBC with an EK43?

Congrats. I recently just bought a new ek43s however only use it for pour overs. It is the hands down best grinder for pour over IMO. I do think there is some better options for espresso to get the right body of a shot if thats what your planning on using it for and would throughly test out pulling ek style shots before buying it for espresso.

When I used the stock EK burrs I could get nice body with a 20g dose in a VST basket, slower preinfusion and stopped at about 45g with Wendelboe espresso roast and similar.

Now I usually do Wendelboe filter roast 18g, fast flow start to end for a 54g-ish turbo shot.

But in general I prefer SSP burrs for both filter and spro for a little more clarity. It's nice to have nice options!

I have kept my EK43S for filter but added a P100 for espresso. Was happy with EK alone for dual use for a few years, but there is some retention so it's good practice to grind a few grams whenever going from espresso to filter or opposite

I pulled thick shots on stock EK43S burrs daily. It is highly dependent on the coffee. To my suprise they are great for Napoli type blends.

I don't particularly updose either for blends like that. Now with light roasts it does going to almost zero point, updose to fill basket, and I end up liking short shots with it, a light roast ristretto. This also increases the body for the light roast.

There is a coffee shop near me that uses EK43s for all their SO espressos which are mostly light roast. They did move to the turkish burr holder and burrs to make it easier to tease out the lightest roasts.

Interesting. Today, I went to a local coffee shop that has an EK43 with an empty hopper. I ordered an espresso and the barista ground it on what looked like an E65S or E80S. The espresso was very good. I asked the barista what they use the EK43 for and she said its for grinding bags of retail coffee for customers.

I think that probably 95% of the time (very specific scientific data ) coffee shops use an EK43 for batch brew and retail grinding.