on this channel we tested dozens of grinders electric grinders budget grinders hand grinders
espresso grinders filter coffee grinders low retention grinders and game grinders but this
one right here the p100 from option o it may be my favorite this is a 98 millimeter flapper grinder
with low retention variable rpm thoughtful design and the ability to do espresso and filter coffee
and i love it it's absolutely incredible and today what i want to do is share why that is why this is
such a special grinder to me why you may want to consider it and who this grinder is really
for now i also want to compare it to its family of grinders the p64 from optional as well as the lego
mini which i praised heavily on this channel and i also want to brew some espresso and share the
profiles i've experienced over the past few months so stick around for that and let's dive into this
hey friends welcome back to the channel kyle here wherever you're watching from today i hope you're
doing absolutely wonderful now today's video is going to be a little bit more nerdy it's going
to be a little more extensive maybe even a little longer so do me a huge favor before we dive into
this videos like this take a lot of work a lot of time and a lot of research scroll down hit that
thumbs up for the youtube algorithm as well as let me know in the comments your favorite coffee
origin i'm truly curious doing a lot of studies lately and i want to know what your favorite
coffee is so ecuador ethiopia colombia whatever that might be in the comments down below i'll
see you down there and i'm going to read every single one of those okay the p100 what a special
grinder this is for me this is one of my favorite grinders of all time if not my favorite grinder
and you want to know why well let's talk about its features and what it offers but i would love to
say this is not a grinder for everybody this is a very expensive grinder like ridiculously expensive
this is 2600 so you want to know what you get for the money this is a big grinder not just expensive
but large comparative to the lego mini i mean it's not even close now to be fair the lego mini
is incredibly small incredibly compact and one of the smallest options on the market today but even
still like if i put the p64 beside it around the same height but when it comes to the width of this
grinder it's almost twice as thick now up here is the hopper and the lid actually pops out which is
very nice because this hopper can actually hold 100 grams of coffee and then moving down we've
got like a stainless steel ring and opposed to the p-64s numbers on the actual adjustment dial this
one's actually on the stainless steel ring that actually can shift and move now at first i thought
this was a flaw but i quickly realized optional has actually made it so that you can adjust the
zero point on demand so if you're changing your burrs maybe you're aligning your burrs whatever
the case whatever factor might be you can change where that zero point is this is also nice because
you can customize where your zero might be now moving now from there the p100 like their other
grinders don't require any tools p64 now does but before it didn't and by simply twisting this off
we're greeted with a massive 98 millimeter burr carrier this is a 64 millimeter burr which at one
point was considered very large it's kind of like the gold standard now and in comparison this could
just eat it up this is like a baby bird compared to the 98 millimeter just just a little baby burr
and this is sixth what i love it now this bur is been popularized by grinders like the ek-43 which
has used grinders like the ssb height uniformity burr which is the one that i have right here
you can also get like a cast version of the ek-43 burr from ssp you can get the low uniformity
there's a couple different options that you can get but the stock bur on the p100 is this one
which is the high uniformity burp i'm going to share my thoughts on the bruise that makes the
profiles it creates very shortly now this is the stationary bird the upper carrier and on
the lower burr carrier that's going to be a rotary burr unlike the p64 after grinding
you're gonna want to use its knocker feature now what this does is it brings out any grounds that
have been you know stuck inside the chute here maybe there's some static and some static cling
and it knocks out most of retention now some people have modded this already i haven't
really found it to be an issue personally it's not perfect it doesn't get out like 100 of the
retention but this is a very low retention grinder actually i can show you right now
i haven't cleaned this grinder in about three weeks it's probably seen two three four bags
of coffee in that time and in here you can see there's absolutely zero retention around the bur
the only coffee i can see in here is a small ring around the outside of the sweepers
uh it's got to be less than point one of a gram in there right now and that really is just residual
dust from where the sweepers don't touch and even in the grind shoot i can see right through here
there's no coffee none at all so it does its part just like the p64 i would say this is on par
i wouldn't say it's better it's definitely not worse there's some features in here that really
help but keep low retention one of those features being it's two button operation here one button
turns on the grinder as you would expect the other one works very similar to a grinder like the
fellow ode where it recognizes there's no tension there's no coffee left in the grinder it actually
purges out the grinder by speeding up the rpm for a couple seconds and then shuts off automatically
and then on the other side here we have the rpm dial and this is very similar to that p64
i really truly wish that they had rpm written on here but in my experience with using my tachometer
and also what's listed on their website this goes from 200 to 1700 rpms actually realistically what
i've tested is around 250 up to about 1500 rpms give or take it was more like 1480. outside of
that we have our familiar portafilter forks at the front you can either place the dosing cup up here
which again like the p64 i wish it had something that could actually lock this
in it just kind of sits on top of the forks you get used to it when using optional grinders by
no means is it a huge complaint or a big issue but i think the polished and thoughtful design
of this grinder it just feels like this was an afterthought and it hasn't been changed for
years and then last but not least down here uh the actual base comes off so if you don't want
to have the base here to catch your coffee grounds you want to save some space you can
do that this doesn't really support its weight or balance by any means but it is nice to have
so that it can catch the coffee grounds if they do fall from the chute it also comes with some
accessories like a little spray bottle for rdt which helps reduce static cling for the coffee
grounds it also comes with a magnetic dosing funnel a little wdt or weiss distribution tool
to mix up those grounds again this one's color matching and the new needles are a little longer
than the old p64 ones and then it still comes with this ketchup cup this is just such a nice
experience and then this i really don't get it optional what is going on you've heard so many
people including myself and for the p64 i could let it slide but for a grinder of this much money
why it's for me as important as this guy and we could dose with this but then as
soon as you spray it with water to help reduce static and grind into it you've got yourself
an absolute gong show you can do better and the second we're gonna brew some coffee on the p100
and we're gonna brew some coffee on these two but let's talk about some differences here number one
it's not gonna have that auto purge feature on the p64 you're gonna have an on and off button
here then the p64 is also a lot quieter like a lot quieter i forget that this thing is on at times
and then you've got the lago mini over here which this one over here is a conical burr
this one's got just a very similar design in terms of how it adjusts its grounds
it's stepless it's got a nice little magnetic dosing cup and funny enough this has the nicest
dosing cup of the three in my opinion this one's actually magnetic why aren't these two magnetic
why is that not a thing somebody tell me why the 400 grinder has the nicest dosing cup
not to mention a lid that's magnetic why are these two open i'm i'm definitely nitpicking here
but like this grinder is so underrated it's so good i love it so much and the sound of the mini
i'm going to say that these two are very similar in the volume that they emit but the p64 wins
for volume for sure and then obviously design this is super subjective a lot of people think
the p64 is one of the most beautiful grinders out there and i can see what the draw is there
at first i thought the p100 is a little quirky looking but i've actually really grown fond of
this design and i prefer it now that it's been sitting on my bar for a while but there's no
doubting that the p64 is a work of art and so is the mini all right the mini is a beautiful
little compact grinder but they are all beautiful so you let me know what you think is the best
aesthetically down below okay it's time to brew some coffee time to share my thoughts on the
profiles of this and these two grinders here so while i'm getting the coffee ready and while i'm
brewing this let me tell you about the sponsor of today's video which is squarespace now many
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so good okay so when it comes to the p100 the coffee crates is nothing less than exceptional
and you would hope so at this price range but the 98 millimeter burs those ssp high uniformities
are wonderful for me it's been described as the 64 millimeter burs be like turn up a notch and i kind
of disagree i think that the 98 millimeter high uniformity bursts and we're gonna talk about the
naming schemes because it's the most confusing thing the high uniformity birds the 98 mils are
as high in clarity as the multi-purpose burs or the unimodal burst from 64 millimeter size
i think they're at the same level of clarity if not just a little bit more
but what really differentiates it for me is the level of sweetness that these birds create it's
so uniform that it's really hard to create a lot of astringency and brews unless you're totally off
and then let's talk about his filter coffee profiles here they reflect a lot of what we're
experiencing in espresso i love the p100 for its filter coffee i think it's incredibly forgiving
it creates some of the most delicious juiciest sweetest cups that i've had in a very long time
honestly i was surprised how good they were i was expecting this to be better than the p64 or that
64 millimeter bur but not this much better and again for me i'm a sweetness junkie i love high
clarity i love acidity but when coffee has great sweetness for me that just like that hits the
spot now because it's so high in clarity you're really going to know when a coffee is roasted with
a defect or if the coffee is bad itself but when it comes to brewing i find them way more forgiving
than any other bird that i've had but let's brew some espresso on the 64 to see how it compares
it's also so good
the alarm diminishing returns does come into play here and the p100 is not twice as good as the p64
it's just not but i would say i have been impressed with how good those 98 millimeter
birds are it's got the same level of clarity um same level of acidity right off the tongue
and then later in the shot a little bit of aftertaste i've got a little tiny bit
of astringency just comparatively right like the multi-purpose birds are fantastic they're they're
super uniform they're super wonderful but it is similar but i think that this one takes a slight
advantage in terms of the sweetness in the cup for me now the lego mini is also a great grinder and
i think if you're looking for something a little more traditional uh maybe you like more chocolatey
espressos or maybe you want more milk-based drinks or the occasional milk based drink
that's for something for lego mini would be my high recommendation these two grinders are high in
clarity and so what that means is it's not going to create the texture you might want from espresso
with a little go mini because of its conical bur it's naturally going to create more fines as it
breaks down those coffee beans that creates a little more texture in the espresso shot and
so it's going to give those thick syrupy shots these two are really going to be if you want to
drink like black espresso and you want the best results from modern style espresso and to be sure
this result is not based off of one brew today this is based off of hundreds of coffees i brewed
over the past few months with the p100 p64 and lego mini but i would say that this is the burger
you're not going to really want for traditional style espresso it's possible if you're doing like
long pre-infusions you're still going to lack some of the texture you desire from some other
traditional style grinders but not every grinder's perfect so what's wrong with it well first of all
i really don't like how this shifts i really think with a small design something unique optional
is going to fix this i think it will happen in time but currently on my model it's not lockable
and like i said on the p64 the rpm dial needs to highlight what rpm it's spinning at this isn't
hard to do with a simple tachometer we can simply figure out what speed is each number at and write
it on here i think optional it's not too much to ask it's kind of the gold standard in the industry
right now and i think it's going to help people especially just getting into higher end grinders
like this understand what's actually happening the only other complaints i have is i wish this was
magnetic you know when the lego mini's magnetic but not their p100 flagship for their dosing cup
i think that's an issue i think simple magnets in the portafilter fork and this dosing cup just to
keep it in place will go a long way i've already dropped this on the base many times i've got dents
in the bottom because it falls out it's not a big ask but optional it would go a long way so let's
wrap this up the p100 is a fantastic grinder and you would expect so at this price range there are
very few times where i spend this much money on a product and i'm completely satisfied in the case
of the p100 i truly am it makes fantastic filter coffee fantastic espresso you can swap between the
methods with ease with near zero retention this i'm sure like other optional products will evolve
with time with small little minor adjustments and i would like to see a lot of them backwards
compatible if possible especially for a grinder of this price range somebody's not going to get the
newest model if they already have a p100 overall as crazy as my sound this is my favorite grinder
it's so expensive but it also creates fantastic coffee and so i'm going to be using this for years
to come so this review is going to be almost a work in progress and i'll be releasing more
videos on the p100 in the years to come as i've used this year after year to share reliability
issues i've had and basically how this grinder ages so if you haven't get subscribed so you don't
miss those videos and hit that bell so you know when those videos go live like this video if you
enjoyed listening to me talk about a 2600 coffee grinder over the past however long this video is
we will see you guys all in the next video i love every single one of you have a wonderful day peace