Stop Buying Grinders: Find Your Context First

In this episode, I take you through my personal journey with coffee grinders, specifically comparing the Kin Grinder K2, K6, K Ultra, and the ZP6. I started with a basic hand grinder and gradually expanded my collection to better understand how different grinders affect coffee clarity, flavor profiles, and overall brewing experience. I discuss why I transitioned from the K2 to the K6 for its improved espresso capabilities, then explored the ZP6 for its exceptional clarity with pour-over brewing. I also introduce the K Ultra and explain how each grinder serves different purposes depending on your brewing method and preferences.

By listening to this episode, you'll learn how to choose the right grinder based on your specific coffee context rather than falling into the trap of gear acquisition. I emphasize that the grinder is the most important tool in coffee making, even more than the brewing device itself, but you don't need seven grinders—just one or two that align with your brewing style. You'll gain insights into how clarity differs between grinders, why understanding your personal coffee goals matters more than following popular recommendations, and how the right grinder can transform an okay coffee into something truly magical. As a coffee roaster myself, I share why understanding these different perspectives helps me better serve coffee drinkers with varying equipment and preferences.

Transcript

[00:00:00]
It's been a minute since I've gotten this particular grinder. This is the Kin Grinder K2.

[00:00:08]
I got it almost a year ago. I was using a very crappy hand grinder. I used to use hand grinders all the time.

[00:00:20]
But now, in this day and age, they've come a long way. That was a very shady grinder.

[00:00:30]
So I got this K2, and I started using it, and I was really surprised how awesome and easy it was to use. There are some quirks about it that I'll talk about in a later video, but it works pretty well.

[00:00:49]
I am giving you a little bit more context. I am a pour over guy. I love pour overs, they're fun. That's where I get the most excitement from when it comes to coffee.

[00:01:03]
I do espresso from time to time, and whenever I do French press, I don't tend to go on the coarser side of it.

[00:01:18]
So when I did try this for espresso, it was difficult. It was hard. It wasn't something I wanted to do all the time, even though I don't do espresso all the time.

[00:01:34]
So I kept going down this rabbit hole, and I went ahead and got the K6. The K6 is the top of the line for the Kin grinder. It has the dials up top, it's easier to dial in. I think the burrs are slightly bigger, but other than that, the catch cup for the grounds are the same. The top, again, it's a little bit wider, but the actual mechanism to turn the crank is the same for most of these grinders that I'm going to be talking about.

[00:02:16]
I mainly got this one for espresso. Once I got it and started playing around with it, it was already worlds better than the espresso grinder that I'd been using. Since I don't do espresso all the time, I was like, "Let's get rid of it." So I sold the espresso machine, kept this, and it works out pretty well.

[00:02:42]
It works really well for pour over and everything in between. So this is a great grinder for you to use when it comes to coffee in general. No real issues.

[00:03:01]
I didn't notice that the cups were—I realized this later on—that they're kind of muddy, but it still has some type of clarity. The way that the coffees meld together with this grinder worked out pretty well.

[00:03:19]
But this whole time I've been on this whole clarity kick, changing my water, playing around with grinds, grind sizes and all that stuff.

[00:03:30]
The next thing that I wasn't really getting from my Fellow Ode, or even from my EK43, was that clarity that people always talk about, separation of the flavors and all that stuff. I really wasn't tasting that. I wanted to experience that stuff.

[00:03:52]
No matter what I could have done, yeah, I could have sifted out the grounds, gone about it that way, but I didn't want to. I just wanted to get the instrument that worked well for me, probably for you.

[00:04:08]
So I got the ZP6. ZP6 Suppressor works really well. The clarity is subtle, it's there. You have to pay attention, especially in the beginning. It's more evident when the coffee's hot. Again, these are some of the characteristics that I've noticed with this particular grinder.

[00:04:31]
It's pretty cool. Grinds are quick. It's easy to grind coffee, and this is just a pour over type of device.

[00:04:41]
So it's mainly used for lightly roasted coffees, but I've found that you can use it essentially also for medium and dark roast, but you have to approach it a little bit differently and kind of push past your comfort zone or things that you do know when it comes to making coffee.

[00:05:01]
But it's cool, it works really well. It's not an espresso grinder, which I'm perfectly fine with.

[00:05:07]
It kind of gives you a different type of flavor profile when you're actually drinking your coffees. It's fun, it's easy to use. It's something that I gravitate to from time to time, now that I've had it for over a month.

[00:05:22]
But again, it's one of those things where you just kind of keep going down this rabbit hole and you're just trying to figure things out, mainly for yourself, also for others. I think that's the beauty of all of this—all the information I'm learning, I just give it right back because why not? It's just there to be helpful.

[00:05:47]
So now we have the K Ultra. Easy, catch can just comes right out. It's magnetic, no issues there. I got this color just to change it up so I won't get these two mixed up. And this is another all-around grinder. This is kind of similar to the K6 right here.

[00:06:14]
The grinds are a little bit harder to do on here, but it's still relatively quick. It's easy, the dials are easy to understand, to read and all that good stuff. The coffees, I wouldn't say it's as clear as the ZP6, but it has a different interesting profile. It's more clean. The grinds kind of mesh together in a good unique way. But I guess what I'm saying here is why did I need this? I already have all that.

[00:06:46]
Well, these are some of the grinders that mostly a lot of people talk about. Again, I'm not a rich guy or anything like that. I am just a very curious guy. I'm sure you're a curious person too. But at the end of the day, it's one of those things where I'm like, wow, what are we doing here? What's the most important thing in coffee?

[00:07:10]
Besides the coffee and the water, it's a grinder. It's always been the grinder. You can turn something that's just okay into something great, magical, something that kind of, as I say, sings to you.

[00:07:28]
This grinder is $250. This is $180. This one's $250. There are other grinders. These are hand grinders. Probably you want a Fellow Ode or something cheaper, something that gives you the range and that you don't have to crank your hands constantly to make your cup of coffee. Or something else back there that we'll talk about more in a future video.

[00:08:36]
And then you have the EK43 or $3,500 grinder. I guess really what I'm saying here is not to boast, to brag, to do any of that stuff. It's that with the right context, you can have the best grinder that you can get for the money that you want to spend. Meaning that if you are an AeroPress, French press type of person, probably you can go with something simple. Probably you don't care about clarity. Probably you think it's overrated. Probably you don't do lightly roasted coffees.

[00:09:13]
I'm just here to give you my context so you can figure out your context and then hopefully decide on which coffee grinder that you want to get. Because really that's ultimately what it's all about. It's about you. It's about you finding that thing that you want to use and explore and understand and get at and all that good stuff, right?

[00:09:37]
Because at the end of the day, that's the only thing that matters. These tools are great. These tools are magical. These tools kind of talk to us in a way where we can actually understand our coffees and enjoy our coffees.

[00:09:56]
Because from the longest last year and in the year before a little bit when I was just using another grinder, a Baratza Encore, the coffees were getting a little bit muddy. I don't know if that's just me having more experience of understanding and tasting coffees and only really loving and enjoying coffees from time to time just because it was the grinder.

[00:10:33]
I think really what I'm saying is that once you have an idea, once you get to the place of understanding the things that you're trying to do as it relates to coffee and all that, once you have the grinder, you can do anything you want.

[00:10:52]
It's been extremely fun in the past couple of days where I'll just switch off the grinders. I have seven of them—four, seven of them. So each day I can just change it up or not change it up, change one variable of the grinder and understand it even more. That's really where the sweet spots come into play.

[00:11:19]
And like I mentioned earlier, you don't need seven grinders. You probably need one at most two, and you're good to go. You'll be able to taste the coffees, different flavor profiles, depending on the grinder. You may get something a little different from the taste of that coffee. You may experience and enjoy that coffee a lot more just because the tools are not limiting you.

[00:11:47]
I believe any of these tools that we have in front of us and behind us and wherever else are the ones that we can use, should use. There are other manufacturers out there that also make great products. I'm not going to go deep into the rabbit hole of that. I'm sure they work just as good, comparable, probably a little bit better, probably not better. But again, this context here, it's all about what you care about, why you care about it and how it's going to make your coffee experience a lot better. That's really what I'm getting at.

[00:12:24]
So yeah, you see these grinders. You see how things are, what they are. Or they seem kind of fuzzy and kind of weird that you see whatever's in front of me. Don't worry about what's in front of me. Think about what you want to do. Think about why you want to do it. Think about the tools that can help you get there a lot faster.

[00:12:53]
That's ultimately what we're doing here. That's all that matters. Because once we figure out the context, once we figure out what is important to us and we're getting the tools that we want, then we can simply just go to the store, buy our coffees online and enjoy it and let it be what it is.

[00:13:17]
That's pretty cool to me. Hopefully that's cool to you. And of course, you have your grinder, I mean your coffee maker. You can explore and love coffees the way that you want to.

[00:13:32]
And once you master these tools, whichever one that you do decide to pick, because I would highly recommend that you don't get all of these. I got them mainly because of the reasons I mentioned earlier. But once you have the tool that's ready to rock and roll for you, you can do anything, absolutely anything in coffee.

[00:13:55]
You can make up your own recipe, you can follow somebody else's guru's recipe. You can look at the roaster's stuff online and all that good stuff. You can figure that all out. But remember this too—one of the key reasons why I also got all of this is because I'm a roaster. I roast coffee.

[00:14:19]
And it's very imperative, it's very important that I do understand where other people are coming from. Again, it's about that context. Because once we have that context down, then we can understand that we're different than other people who give you reasons to like something versus not like something.

[00:14:41]
It's very important that I do understand where people are coming from, why they like it, and to explain different flavor characteristics in coffee. But whatever your reason may be, it's your reason.

[00:14:56]
And I think that's the cool thing about all of this—it's all about you. It's about why you care about it, why you want to do what you want to do in coffee, and how it expresses you each and every morning, or however many times throughout the day.

[00:15:13]
So I hope that this is helpful for you too. More so, shine a light on you and ask: do I have all the stuff I need? Do I already have one, two grinders? Do I even want to fool around with these hand grinders? Do I just want an electric grinder? You can do that too. And that's what I'm looking forward to—just helping you out with as much as I can, kind of giving you understanding where I'm coming from, again, with my context.

[00:15:49]
So this is Okey at Everyday Beans, signing off. I'll talk to you later. If you have any questions, let me know. Bye.