Hi,

I am looking for a pour over electric grinder that offers a balanced combination of sweetness and clarity for medium roast. I have tried many grinders, however, it seems that most modern grinders are clarity focused even for conical grinders.
I have owned Comandante C40 MK3 & MK4, 1Zpresso Kplus, Fellow ode with SSP brew burrs (V1), and Lagom mini with moonshine burrs.

Out of all these grinders that I have owned, my favorite by far is Comandante MK3. I will share a brief for my experience with each grinder below based on my V60 brews:

Comandante MK3: this is my favorite grinder taste wise by a significant margin because it provides a clear representation of the tasting notes with perfect combination of sweetness and clarity without bitterness or scarifying body. It just delivers that perfect cup for me every time I use it.

Comandante MK4: this grinder was very clarity focused with limited sweetness even though comandante claims that burrs are the same as MK3. However, this has not been my experience as I have done many comparisons with my MK3. I always prefer the MK3 for the sweetness. I noticed that MK3 has slightly more fines compared to MK4 which maybe contributing to that high sweetness in MK3. I sold the MK4 because I already have the SSP brew burrs for maximum clarity so there was no point of keeping the MK4. I am not sure if my experience in terms of taste differences between MK3 & MK4 is a single case or common.

1Zpresso K Plus: similar experience to the MK4. It is a clarity focused grinder with very similar tasting profile to MK4. Sold it after 6 months.

Fellow Ode SSP Brew Burrs: these burrs are clarity monster. I like them for very light roasted coffee where you can grind fine and push extraction with decent sweetness but with light body. However, for medium roast, I do not like them because they push extraction very high and often signifies astringency and roasting notes.

Lagom mini with moonshine burrs: I love the workflow of this grinder. It is clean, straightforward to use with almost no retention. It would be the perfect grinder for me but the moonshine burrs are very similar to the K plus and MK4 where it is clarity focused. For light roast, I think this would be the perfect grinder because it offer bright, clean cups without sacrificing the body. I have ordered the Obsydian burrs in the search for sweeter cups. I will try them when they arrive if they would offer something similar to my MK3.

I just would like to note that the above reflect my own experience with these grinders and might not be aligned with your experience. Also, all the above mentioned grinders had at least 5 KG of coffee ran through them for seasoning.

I do not want hand crank my coffee every morning. So I am looking for an electric grinder that could offer similar profile to my MK3 in terms of sweetness, clarity and body. I thought about motorizing the MK3 but the workflow would not be the same because beans normally stuck to the body and side walls of the grinder when connected permanently to a motor like Kamel. Hand grinder is a hand grinder and it would not match the workflow of a grinder that is designed to be electric so I do not like the idea of motorizing a hand grinder. Workflow is very significant aspect that make you love or hate the grinder, and that is why I love the use experience of the lagom mini but the taste is not there for medium roast. I would love to have something similar to the lagom mini in terms of workflow but offers the same MK3 tasting profile.

for ssp,
you can try lower your water ratio and keep the rest of your brew method.. eg do 1:12 instead of 1:15.
i find this works better than lowering temp, and provides thicker cup as well. add water directly later if you want to have similar amount of drinks.
lowering temp messes with sweetness too much.
sry never tried c40, cant comment there. i only have kpro and ssp mp to compare. interesting input on the iii vs iv tho.
good luck

Current favorite for medium and darker roasts is the SSP 64mm CV2 burrs. If you look at my profile you'll see I have a lot of grinders. These are my favorite when it comes to body and sweetness in medium+ roasts.

iyayy wrote:for ssp,
you can try lower your water ratio and keep the rest of your brew method.. eg do 1:12 instead of 1:15.
i find this works better than lowering temp, and provides thicker cup as well. add water directly later if you want to have similar amount of drinks.
lowering temp messes with sweetness too much.
sry never tried c40, cant comment there. i only have kpro and ssp mp to compare. interesting input on the iii vs iv tho.
good luck

Interesting thought but not sure if I like the idea of significantly adjusting the ratio just to workaround something that I know burrs are not designed for, because I feel SSP brew are mainly directed for high extractions in light roasted coffee.

EvanOz85 wrote:Current favorite for medium and darker roasts is the SSP 64mm CV2 burrs. If you look at my profile you'll see I have a lot of grinders. These are my favorite when it comes to body and sweetness in medium+ roasts.

I was thinking about the Ode Gen 2 burrs. I am not sure how the taste profile stack up against the SSP Cast V2. Do they offer that rich body similar to conical grinders while maintaining high sweetness without astringency? I would love to see a thorough comparison on these two burrs in filter.

The Ditting LS807 will check all of the boxes. It's the one high-end pourover grinder that isn't made to highlight clarity but more towards sweetness.