When it comes to grinding, few brands command the respect and admiration of specialty coffee professionals and enthusiasts alike like mahlkoenig . Their grinders are cherished for their precision engineering, ability to enhance the natural flavors of coffee beans, and superior extraction performance. As a result, they’re considered to be the personification of quality and taste in the world of espresso.
The company was founded in 1924 and is based in Hamburg, Germany. While many of the industry has switched to conical burrs, Mahlkoenig has held onto its original philosophy – “Keep Calm and Grind Flat” – ensuring that their grinders are still among the best for producing the perfect grind for espresso.
Global Coffee Report recently visited the factory, and says: “Stepping into the Mahlkoenig factory you can feel the 90-year tradition of German meticulousness and organization embodied by both the workers in the manufacturing process as well as the organization of the entire facility.” The company is staffed by people who have worked at mahlkoenig for years, even decades, creating an environment that reflects both their deep understanding of the brand’s products and their passion for high quality engineering.
Exploring the World of Mahlkönig Grinders: Quality and Innovation
Unlike other grinders that use a plastic body and ceramic burrs, all mahlkoenig grinders feature steel burrs. Each burr is carefully pre-tooled for precise diameter and flatness before being cut into the metal by a highly skilled team of technicians. After the burrs are ready, they are subjected to a multi-step process of annealing, hardening, and sharpening to achieve their final state of perfection. In addition to their outstanding stepless grind size adjustments, mahlkoenig grinders offer a variety of other intuitive features that make working with them simple. The X54 Allround grinder, for example, offers portafilter detection that automatically selects the correct grinding setting and includes a stainless steel Mahlkonig cup that can be used to collect the ground espresso, reducing barista training time and preventing messy spills.
