Video Overview | Mahlkonig Peak

Transcript

- Mahlkonig's new Peak espresso grinder is a direct response to the growing interest in espresso with higher extraction and tons of sweetness. Taking cues from the EK43 batch grinder, the Peak features large 80 millimeters flat steel burrs that boast a more uniform grind profile, perfect for accessing higher extractions right out of the box. With espresso bar friendly design, the Peak is poised to lead the way into new territories in espresso.

Mahlkonig Peak Espresso Grinder

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The Peak features 80 mm cast steel burrs, which are big enough to handle a lower RPM and produce a consistent, fluffy grind shot after shot.

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Hey folks, this is Steve with Prima Coffee here. Today I'm going to talk to you about the Mahlkonig Peak espresso grinder. This is Mahlkonig's newest grinder and it's very much inspired by this enthusiasm for using the EK43 and other sort of big batch grinders like it to brew coffee and espresso and get results that are really not so traditional but very very interesting. So the Peak, like the EK43, has big flat burrs. It has a very uniform particle distribution and it allows you to pull shots of espresso that have higher extraction, a lot more flavor without really getting into over extraction like bitter, horrible tasting territory.

So you'll notice it looks a lot like the K30s that have preceded it. It's definitely the same footprint, same sort of body design but inside it's very, very different. Up top we've got the same 3.3 pound hopper that you've seen before. It's got a nice little metal shut off. Right here we also still have a stepless grind adjustment. All you have to do is sort of loosen this knob, turn your dial to your desired setting. We have some more micromental settings down below. Really really easy to get set up and dial in this grinder. Inside we have 80 millimeter flat steel burrs. They're cast steel and they're precision machined, not coated or anything, just plain steel. But again, 80 millimeters is very very large for an espresso grinder. We also have a 690 Watt motor powering it and those burrs spin in about 900 RPMs, which is relatively slow compared to other espresso grinders, but it's still able to grind four to six grams per second anyways. So your dose is done in three to four, maybe five seconds if you're doing larger doses.

We also have a brand new control panel here. You'll notice that there's no more potentiometers so a lot of the controls are done through this display. It's a brand new OLED display. If I hit this here you'll see a couple things going on. I have the symbol for my double dose setting. I've also got a single dose I can program in. I have 4.6 seconds as my time setting. Now the Peak is precise to one hundredth of a second in its doses. And you'll also notice that I have a little indicator here for the temperature inside. The Peak has a brand new thermal management system so like the K30 Air, it has sort of a vent and fan system but now we also have a thermal readout and we found it's actually a little bit more robust than the Air in that it's able to keep things a little bit cooler, even under high volume grinding environments. So it's probably pretty comparable to the K30 Air in the standard thermal management mode but there's also, on the back, a secondary fan mode that actually keeps the fan running the entire time. So kind of full blast, full on all day long and that's going to keep things a lot cooler. So if you are in a high volume cafe, that's probably what you want to do, is you want to keep that fan on the whole time, keep it running really really cool.

So changing the doses is now, honestly, much easier than before. Without the potentiometers all we have to do is long press the button and you'll see that we have three little controls pop up. We have the minus, which corresponds to the left side button, the plus, which corresponds to the right side button, and then sort of an approve check mark that actually corresponds to the portafilter button below. So if I want to change my dose, again, I can change it in hundredths of a second up or down really easily. And then if I hold I have sort of a ramping up speed of change. So I'll set that back to my four six and then to approve I just hit the center portafilter button below. There's also all kinds of controls in the control panel which you can access by holding down both buttons for a few seconds. You'll notice the settings menu kind of come up. So we have outputs for your shot counters, controls for the portafilter light below, some temperature management and other settings as well as some alarm settings. To get back out of this menu you just hold the buttons down again and you'll come back to your grinding mode.

There also is a barista mode on this grinder as well. You'll notice the icon changes to a portafilter so now I can manually grind as much as I want up to 20 seconds at a time. Taking a look at what grinding actually looks like, the grind is exceptionally uniform and there's also a new declumping mechanism here. Also underneath there is an adjustable spout. I can move this back and forth really easily. It slides back and forth so if you wanted to dose right in the center of your basket all you'd need to do is push it back and forth. So when I grind you'll notice it's a very very fluffy grind, very uniform looking, very soft, and we're able to grind really really fine, again, because it's such a uniform grind we don't have as many fines kind of blocking things up. So we're able to take the grind a lot finer, get a lot more extraction out of it and get super super tasty results.

So we found that, when compared to other grinders using the same exact settings, so let's say I have a 19 gram dose, a 40 gram output and an extraction time of 30 seconds, the Peak is going to achieve 1 to 2% more extraction versus even a K30 Vario, just the standard K30 grinder, for the same exact settings on the same exact machine. No other changes, no recipe changes at all, you just have more extraction and a higher TDS automatically. So you really are able to achieve higher extractions right out of the box incredibly easily. And the flavor you're going to get is a lot richer, it's going to be a lot sweeter. You might actually find you need to change your recipe slightly. So like an EK43, a lot of the times you'll see shots being pulled to a larger yield than previously because they want to access that broader range of flavors, more well-rounded characteristics and a little bit more sweetness at the expense of strength. The Peak is similar, but you don't have to go quite as far as an EK43 shot might. So really there's a lot to love here and this is a really fantastic step forward towards that trend of using big, flat burred grinders to access more extraction in your coffee production. And that is the Mahlkonig Peak. A lot to love. Thanks for watching.