today we're going to take a look at this coffee grinder right here this is the weber workshop key
and this is an electric grinder for the home it's also a 2 000 coffee grinder and i know what you're
thinking that's absolutely absurd this is kind of the territory where we're talking about end game
coffee grinders so in this video i'm going to talk about what is this coffee grinder all about who
is this coffee grinder for what does the coffee taste like that's coming out of a product of this
magnitude and do i enjoy my experience with this is it a masterpiece or is it more of a gimmick
so let's dive into this now before i do if you can do me a huge favor just scroll down on this video
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i'm truly curious so the key let's talk about this this is a fascinating grinder
for many reasons and turned a lot of heads when it was announced by weber workshops
back in 2021 because again this is very similar to their hd2 their hg1 it shares the same burst set
the same adjustment system and for a lot of people this is desirable because not everybody
wants to hand grind their coffee but some people prefer that conical burst set to a flat burst set
that you might find on the eg1 or even save some money because the eg1 well it's it's almost twice
the price of this grinder it's fairly expensive but this grinder it's it's beautiful right this
is the snow it comes in the onyx as well and if you're somebody who doesn't like to clean after
your coffee equipment or get the get the black one the white one's beautiful i prefer it but
it gets dirty very easily it's it's very thin you know it's a little deeper and a
little higher but it's a thin grinder so it can fit on a bar beside things very easily
i mean in comparison here's a niche zero while a little bit taller it's definitely skinnier you
know it's deeper so depending on your cabinet that could be an issue but i don't think it will be
and for two thousand dollars you'd expect a very premium feeling experience and thankfully the
key it has that you know it's it's fully metal it's got nice wood pieces that are treated well
it's heavy like everything is really high quality there's no gaps in the panels right there's no
shortcuts there's no plastics over here you've got a little wood piece that pulls out to be a brush
and i think this is really nice there's a little copper sleeve that can pull open and close so when
it pulls out it comes out ready to brush any coffee grounds that you would need and you can
slide that back in place and then you've got something very important on the end here which
is a big selling feature for this grinder which is their rpm dial now in future videos i hope
to dive into this topic more because this really is an area that we as an industry haven't really
talked about a ton but this is becoming very popular within home grinders and coffee grinders
adjusting the speed at which those burs spin which reflects into the profiles and tastes we get from
the coffee and i'm going to share my experience with this in this video later on but very nice
feature and something we haven't seen on this burst set and then beside that is the power switch
and this grinder is very quiet and down at that 30 rpm you can barely hear this thing
it does get a little bit louder at that 150 but this is still a very quiet grinder
as you would expect but right here this is really the selling feature of this grinder
this is weber workshop's very familiar uh grind adjustment system you find on the eg1
and the hd2 and hg one now this system uses a five micron stepped adjustment system something
a lot of people aren't aware of this is actually a stepped grinder now how it works is you lift up
this collar here which then removes the pins pin locking system for this dial and you can twist it
and lock it back down in place so each one of those marks there represents five microns which
is incredibly small i think red blood cells are eight microns so this is we're talking
very very small adjustments the grinder's not gonna lock out of adjustment by mistake you're
not gonna hit this and move it by mistake it's locked in so we should probably dive into my
experience my thoughts with this grinder what i love good and bad but first let's brew a coffee
i'm actually really excited to talk about the coffee this produces because for me it's very
unique it's it's fascinating so when i bought this i actually thought this would be more similar to
like a niche zero with a conical burst set you know more blended in nature a lot of texture a
lot of body to those shots maybe lacking some clarity in exchange you know when i bought this
this for me was that step up from the niche maybe a little more premium of an experience it looks
beautiful but it's it's actually very different for me for for the niche you've got very textured
shots but this this is a very um it's high in clarity and actually especially at the low rpms
lacks a lot of body when i'm talking about those words when i say body i'm talking about like those
ooey those gooey shots that you would get from very traditional style espresso this
isn't producing that now rpm is playing a big factor here what we know from rpm is the lower the
speed on the coffee grinder the more uniform it is in its grind distribution i think this is why we
see such great results from a lot of hand grinders is because we have such a low rpm but from this
grinder you can bring it right down to 30 rpm so really you're simulating a hand grinder if not
slower which is really interesting now you can get this up to 150 and like i said at that 150 range
you start to get more body a lot less clarity you're producing a different style of grind
distribution and the results are more more niche like more traditional conical but at these low
rpms the grounds are interesting like they don't look uniform right they're not like a unimodal
grinder like a flat bird they look different and the result is is different too like the coffee
it's just it lacks that body but man does it pop in in clarity and for me i think this is a grinder
that would really excel for a specific person right if you have like a decent espresso machine
or like a lever espresso machine or something with flow control or pressure profiling this
is a grinder that would excel with a machine like that because you can really push long extractions
without getting a lot of bitterness or astringency from those coffees now that being said at that
higher rpm like i mentioned you will get able to get more traditional clinical style shots and so
any machine can be able to pull on this don't get me wrong but it is a great machine for people who
want to experiment in my experience at least so let's quickly talk about the filtered coffee the
key produces and while this isn't a filter coffee focus grinder it is a 2 000 grinder with lower
tension so you'd expect it to do both filter and espresso especially if this is your only grinder
and it does deliver while this wouldn't be my filter coffee grinder of choice it produces great
juicy cups of coffee that have good clarity not quite as much as like a flat burr grinder but
more than something than the niche zero it does still produce a lot of fines in your beds of your
filter brewers but that really hasn't uh really hasn't affected the cups terribly now let's talk
about some pros and cons because that's obviously a big factor here what's good what's not what has
my experience been let's start with pros so this grinder is beautiful right it's it's compact it
looks nice it's very quiet that brush feature the materials used on this feel like you're getting
your money's worth even putting this beside a p64 while that's a beautiful grinder and some might
prefer the looks of that you can tell there's a incredible build quality on the weber workshops
there's something about the way that they build these machines that definitely turns heads it's
a centerpiece to a brew bar the tolerances on this are very tight for me out of the box it
was perfectly aligned at least from what i can tell things like even the magic tumbler which
is a catch cup that actually uh releases the bottom of the tumbler so your grounds can fall
into the portafilter as you probably saw me doing earlier which is also magnetic it both magnets to
the base of this grinder and also magnetizes to the grinder itself it's a nice feeling experience
i really love that part for sure but let's talk about some cons because there's definitely some
here now first off i don't love this this is an anti-popcorning disc that's kind of been
kind of feels like an afterthought it sits on top of where you feed your beans into the grinder
it helps for sure but like it just doesn't fit with the rest of this grinder like everything
feels very premium in this i don't love that i also don't love how hard it can be to adjust
the grind setting depending on at least this is my grinder it uh it can be a very hard thing to
adjust now for most people this won't be a huge issue but it is something to consider depending on
i guess your strength like do you need to be strong to adjust a coffee credit i don't know
but it's definitely something i noticed i've never had an issue adjusting grind
size before and this one's a little tough now the other thing speaking of grind size
the burst set itself produces fantastic quality grounds it's a monster 83 millimeter conical weber
workshop coats their grinder burr and they say that they season it as well now for me this is
very confusing uh it definitely is a burst that still needs to be seized regardless of what they
communicate in the purchasing process now a couple other things to be dressed i've been on forums and
looked on reddit to other experiences people have been having to ensure that my perspective
isn't linear but i'm addressing the issues that the community is facing now i can only speak to
my experiences but i did notice some people having some issues with their early units mine being one
of the first out there by the way people had some marks on the top of their grinder especially the
white models i i can't speak to the the black one and uh there were some paint defects now this was
a minor issue and again i talked to douglas he said they're already addressing it and so by the
time you're watching this video this is probably a non-issue but again because it's a review thought
it was worth addressing so hey guys editor kyle here uh originally in this video i recorded
saying that i had no issues with stalling or hesitations as i had heard some friends
who had those issues but update uh since recording this about a week ago i have had some issues uh
this coffee is a coffee from onyx this is a pointy village it's a light roasted colombian
and up to this point nothing has really hesitated the motor uh but this coffee has so you know i've
just basically been lucky to this point but i'll show you exactly what happens it doesn't
stall where the motor stops but it slows down at its lowest rpm now if i pour this coffee in here
and i turn this on this is at 30 as you can see oh oh now it's at 30. and i turn this on you can see
it has to grab some popcorn in there too so quick quick thought with that obviously
popcorning has been an ongoing issue that i i didn't mention in this video um and also that
that concerns me you know for a grinder of this price i definitely wouldn't want it to hesitate
i'm not really grinding at 30 anyways but you would expect that that wouldn't be an issue
now something that i'm kind of neutral on here is this built-in wire mixer now this
is attached to the inner burr and as the burr grinds the coffee it spins this little
needle here to mix those coffee grounds and break down any clumps i think it's a really unique idea
but it hasn't been super functional for me this might just be a personal thing
but i've always had to use the wdt or mixing the coffee grounds to help break down those clumps
even more for best distribution it doesn't hit the whole magic tumbler and so it only really mixes a
certain part of it definitely if you don't have a wdt tool this is better than nothing if you do
have one i would still recommend using that wdt to break down those clumps again owning this for over
a month now i've really taken my time to address this grinder and really familiarize myself with
it now i'm i've mixed feelings on the workflow of this grinder it both is really satisfying
with magnets and nice feeling materials but awkward when it comes to grind adjustments
but also pouring the beans into the grind chamber now there's not a ton of space here as you can see
so depending on your dosing cup which whoever provides this little tiny one with a spray
bottle by the way which is awesome this one is is definitely designed for this grinder which
is nice and also weber has like their bean cellars that you can store coffee beans in
now this one's nice and thin and it works really well for this grinder you can even sit on top
here if you want to but if you have something a little bit bigger a different dose and cup it's
not great it's very awkward to pour your beans in here i wouldn't say it's a reason not to buy this
grinder unless that's a big deal to you so let's wrap this up the weber workshop key is this a
grinder that you should consider is it a grinder worth the the two thousand dollar price tag
and is it a modern espresso masterpiece as i've shared so much in this video this is a very niche
grinder if you're somebody who wants to brew very modern style espresso who has a a slayer style
machine or something with like flow control or pressure profiling or like a decent or a
lever machine this might be a grinder worth considering while it's super expensive there
really isn't a ton of options when it comes to a build quality like this with the adjustability
in rpms uh on a 83 millimeter conical is this for everybody definitely not if somebody knows
exactly what they want they want like a unimoda style burr or they want a high textured coffee
this is probably not the grinder for you you might be better going off with something like the p64
or going with weber's eg1 it's it's a nice electric grinder it's got great build quality
but i see a little bit of competition and almost tribalism between flappers and conical bursts
this isn't a flat bur grinder it's not trying to emulate it it is its own thing but if you kind
of want like a hybrid grinder and something unique something beautiful something smaller
whatever your case might be this is definitely a great conical burst set just keep in mind
it's not a traditional conical in the profiles that it produces it's not going to produce
those very thick bodied espressos at least in my experience this far and i've brewed hundreds of
coffees on this at this point mine being the first in canada and one of the first in north america
i was excited to see that mine had no issues the alignment was perfect the paint was perfect
everything about mine was good and i do believe that weber workshop has designed a beautiful
grinder here it's really nice to use except for some quirks that are personal subjective opinions
in that but i do want to know what do you think i'm sure you've got lots of opinions on your take
on the weber workshop key do you have one of these do you ever plan on looking at something this
expensive is 2 000 way too much money to spend on a coffee grinder or is it enough let me know down
in the comments below i'll be reading every single one and responding to as many as possible now if
you've gotten this far in the video well first of all you're amazing and i love you let me know by
writing major keys down in the comments below it would let me know that people actually watch these
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all right i love you guys all so much we'll see you guys all in the next video peace
you