EK 43: Why I Don't Talk About My Best Grinder

I sat down with my Mahlkönig EK 43 grinder and had an honest conversation about why I rarely talk about what might be the best piece of coffee equipment I own. After 12 years with this $3,500 grinder, I've discovered something unsettling: having the absolute best tools doesn't always lead to satisfaction—sometimes it reveals uncomfortable truths about coffee itself. I share my journey through gear acquisition syndrome, from the Baratza Virtuoso to hand grinders and back to the EK 43, and why I keep returning to this machine despite it being tucked away in my garage. I explore the paradox of owning top-tier equipment and how it can simultaneously elevate and complicate your coffee experience.

By listening to this episode, you'll gain insight into the law of diminishing returns in coffee equipment, understand why the best grinder won't solve all your coffee problems, and learn how to manage expectations when investing in high-end gear. I discuss the psychological aspects of the coffee enthusiast journey, the reality of what happens when you remove equipment as a variable, and why sometimes coffee is just coffee—even when you have the best tools at your disposal.

Transcript

[00:00:00] I was taking a picture yesterday and it looked kind of weird. It looked like I was trolling, actually. Let me explain. Right here, I have in front of me another grinder. This is the One ZPresso CP6, ESP6. We're going to be talking about this another day. I lied about reflections—that's another story for another day.

[00:00:40] And I put it right next to my EK 43 grinder. I was like, this is, I'm going to talk about this soon. It's going to be my community story. But I started thinking, that's one of the grinders that I really don't talk about. Let's talk about it.

[00:01:13] The Mahlkönig EK 43 is a great grinder. It's going to be the best grinder that I have in my house. If you ever get one, it'll probably be the best grinder that you will ever get too. But with all the innovations with grinders and everything, the EK 43 is still the best grinder that you will ever get.

[00:01:50] The EK 43 hasn't been on my coffee bar for very long because I have to change my outlets. The power that it needed would trip the breakers from time to time depending on whatever I had on. And then it got to the point where I just wanted a simple, easy grinder, so I started going down the rabbit hole of trying to get a basic, easy grinder.

[00:02:30] For work, for the longest time, I had a coffee club and I used the Baratza and it worked fine. It worked fine, but then I needed something for home. So I went to the Baratza Virtuoso. It worked great for many years, actually. I gave it out to a friend.

[00:02:57] I forgot about grinders. I knew things were happening in the world of coffee, but I went ahead and didn't care. It didn't matter. But then when I started this YouTube channel, for some reason, it was just gear acquisition syndrome, as you guys know. That's kind of how things happen sometimes with FOMO. You start to think about if you have enough gear in order to do the things that you're trying to do.

[00:03:38] So, as I like to talk about your journey, you have seen parts of my journey. I started with a niche and tried to justify it with not enough clarity in my cup of coffee. Then I bought the Fellow Ode. Good grinder. We'll talk about it another day. I got rid of the niche, gave it to a friend. I may even actually get another grinder after this one. We'll talk about that another day. But I went down this whole hand grinder phase: the Comandante grinder, the K2, K6. Yeah, we can talk about this versus that and why I'm doing the things that I'm doing.

[00:04:44] But the biggest thing here is that I keep going back to the EK 43. I've had the EK 43 for about 12 years. But it works, at least for now. I have been trying things out. Let's talk about being quick and specific. A grinder speaks to me and talks to me and does all the things that you want a high-end grinder to do, or a grinder in general to do. It gives me a different perspective when I'm actually drinking my cup of coffee, when I'm basing it off of the Fellow grinder, the hand grinder, and just something I haven't done in a while.

[00:06:43] The thing about the EK 43 and the reasons why I don't really talk about it or even brag about it to you is because it's unattainable for most people. Yes, you can spend $3,500 on a grinder and you won't be disappointed. But the thing about it is, when does it stop?

[00:07:21] I know when I got that grinder, my wife was looking at me crazy. She knew I was crazy already. But then you wonder why you do the things that you do and you're like, I need to stop. I will spend $10,000, $15,000, $20,000 to get that much better understanding about coffee. I'll get that much closer to the maximum amount of clarity and enjoyment out of coffee. It has to stop eventually.

[00:08:26] I think there is a law of diminishing returns with grinders. But when you get something that's like the top, you start to second-guess yourself about anything and everything and think about if you're doing things right. If you don't have the right beans, if you mess up in your recipe, it's trippy. It's kind of confusing. It's one of those things where you're like, what happened? What went wrong?

[00:09:04] And I have to say, for the most part, I think it's kind of taught me that coffee is just coffee. Sometimes it's just okay. Sometimes we're trying to chase this thing, and it's just not there. And those are some of the things that I have to remember: even with the best tool in the world, it's okay. It's just coffee. Sometimes it can let us down.

[00:09:36] And I think that's probably one of the reasons why I don't use it as much too. Because I get some really good coffees. I'm not saying I'm the best roaster in the world—close. Just tooting my own horn, but whatever. Anybody and everybody will say that, right? But when you have the best tools and you can get any coffee in the world to your own palette's desires, and you brew a cup, and you're not happy, you're not satisfied—where do you go from there?

[00:10:21] I think that's part of the reasons why I don't use it as much as I should. Yeah, it's in the garage. Sure, not a problem. But I guess what I'm saying is that it throws you off. It makes you wonder about all the stuff that you've been doing, listening to, trying to analyze and understand. You wonder, like, wow, I got the best tools. I got some of the best coffees. I know how to brew a good cup of coffee. I got other instruments that help me get on that road. And this coffee is just okay. It's kind of disappointing. It's kind of depressing, if you really think about it.

[00:11:13] So now that I'm sitting here, psychoanalyzing, having a mental talk with myself and also with you, I think that's probably part of it. You know, it's kind of crazy when you think about the reasons why you don't say things and do things and give people more advice about why they should get an EK 43 and how it's going to make their coffees and everything legendary. And then you just stop and wonder. You're like, oh, that's why.

[00:12:07] That's why I don't really talk about the EK 43 to you, because it's kind of attainable. Get your credit card out. Spend your money. Place it on your bar. Change the outlet. Take some pictures for the gram. Whatever. It doesn't really matter. And then when you sit there and use it, it throws everything off.

[00:12:42] No matter what anybody else says, you're there with that grinder, and you're just trying to figure it out. You're just trying to wonder about that coffee that you just paid $30 for. It's so trippy. And don't get me wrong, you will get amazing cups of coffee. You'll be like, wow, this is what coffee can be. You can get there.

[00:13:35] But you can also get there with a $100 grinder. Don't get me wrong, I do need to change the burrs. How you will start to second-guess if the beans are what they are or if you know what you're doing or if you do need to get another thing to make you even better at coffee. That's a crazy thing about the rabbit hole, right?

[00:14:55] The rabbit hole just keeps going and going and going until, in this case, especially for the EK 43, you just stop. And now you're just there, stuck, because you can't use money to get out of your situation. Sometimes if something's just okay, it's just okay. If that coffee that you bought is just okay to you, it's just okay.

[00:15:35] And then other times, many more times, you're going to be happy. You're going to be thinking about that coffee for ages. I think that's the high that I'm really trying to get back to. That coffee gear high.

[00:15:59] So yeah, EK 43, magical bastard. If you've ever had a cup of coffee from it, I hope that you get your chance to. I really do. It puts you in a place where you're tasting the coffee for what it truly is, the best that it can probably get. And you can get worse if you mess it up with the brew, or that could just be the coffee. It's not the grinder. In this case, it's never the grinder's fault, especially the EK 43. So that's it. Okay. Everyday beans. I'll talk to you later. Bye.