Monolith Flat SDRM

The OP said milk drinks primarily. The SDRM is fantastic for straight shots and great for milk drinks. But the MC6 is better for punching through milk since it highlights some notes in the coffee in a blended way and rounds out the acidity more. The SDRM is predominantly a 80mm flat grinder so it highlights acidity more.

As someone who recently moved from a Niche Zero to a SDRM there are a few things to consider. The taste difference between grinders is going to depend a lot on your taste buds. The Niche made a wonderfully viscous espresso that worked well for Cortados and Caps. The SDRM has opened up a different world for me. The world is not necessarily better. I am enjoying the flavors in lighter roast beans like a DAK Milky Cake or Creme Donut. There is more clarity of flavor. The SDRM grinds faster. But, the SDRM stalls sometimes when grinding very fine. It is still not completely seasoned with about 15lbs through it so far. The stalling will supposedly improve. So, the inability to grind as fine as I did with the Niche forced me into different ways to pull shots. I went with a Graph Step-Down basket since it helps reduce flow rate with a deeper, narrower puck. On my Decent I started pulling more Turbo style shots instead of the Lever-type profiles like LRv2. The SDRM has also been excellent for drip. So, now my wife can use the SDRM for drip and I use it for espresso. That has supported having one grinder instead of two. In the end, I have learned more about coffee prep. I have embraced the grind coarser trend being advanced in many places. And, I am enjoying the new nuances in my coffee. Is he SDRM really better? I don't know. It is different. It has helped me learn more about coffee. I have learned to appreciate some coffees that I would have probably just SMH about with the Niche. The Niche though produces a really nice espresso with medium roast beans that is enjoyable straight or with frothed milk. The SDRM has opened up a different world that one could argue isn't better - just different. You will never really know unless you try it. The good thing about Kafateks is that they hold their value very well. You could get a SDRM and if you decided it wasn't your cup, then they are easy to sell a year later and only take maybe US $500 haircut. Personally, I went back and forth on this decision for about two years mostly driven by FOMO. I really like the design of the SDRM because it is similar to the Versalab and Titus. Intuitively, the design of a conical pre-breaker and flat burr makes sense to me. The SDRM is much less $$$ than those two. So, I got it. Here is a vid on the SDRM that is a very comprehensive review. Even in expensive grinders the differences start to become very subtle. Like in most areas, the law of diminishing returns is in full effect. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nglSAkybKQE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nglSAkybKQE)

Kafatek for your needs. Personally I don’t think there’s really any downside to go sdrm but admittedly there’s not a ton of benefit based on the beans you’re drinking. Key is good too but the profile is more clarity leaning than you’re gonna need.

I use my MC6 for pour over and it’s my favorite pour over grinder. I like body and prioritize it over clarity but it is still really good at highlighting the tasting notes — best of both worlds in my view. The Max is more clarity focused. I have a flat burr grinder as well and prefer it for americanos (it dilutes better to my taste) but for espresso and pour over my favorite grinder of all is the MC6, even for light roast. Everyone’s tastes are different and of course if you can try all of the options, even better. The Kafatek SDRM is also an interesting option for you as it’s designed to work great for everything but it does come at the expense of body in my view.

The only grinders I’m aware of that offer a true balance of mouthfeel and clarity are DRM grinders, which have two separate burr sets - a conical grinder which handles the first grinding phase, then a flat burr which handles the finishing phase (see photo below). These tend to be very expensive though, and the least expensive one I am aware of is the KafaTek SDRM, which is $2,700 - and can be over $10k from Titus. I have a KafaTek SDRM grinder on order, but I also own a Lagom Casa. The Casa is a lovely grinder for light roast espresso, and it’s fine for medium roast, but anything beyond a medium roast and it starts to become quite unpleasant in my opinion. It also worth noting that the Casa isn’t a great grinder for milk drinks - as usually you’re not using light roast or going for clarity in milk based drinks. It’s workable for Cortados or macchiatos, but with Lattes and even cappuccinos - it’s ok at best. If you’re drinking traditional espresso roasts and making milk drinks - I think the Niche is going to be a far better fit. If you only drink straight espresso and generally pull light or medium roasted coffees - the Lagom Casa is really exceptional. It is however worth considering what espresso machine you’re pairing this with. Most folks don’t feel light roast espressos is all that great from a flat 9 bar machine (I’m one of them), so it depends on the overall picture of what you’re using it with and what your goals are. If you have a Flair 58 Plus 2, drink straight espresso and want to make light and ultra light espresso and soup shots - the Lagom Casa is going to work amazingly well, and will be one hell of a value - often providing results as good as a high end 64mm flat. It also makes very good pour overs and has a great workflow. If you don’t know what you want and all of this feels overwhelming - get the Niche. You’ll see a lot of folks post pictures of their setups, and they’ll have multiple “titan” grinders that are several thousand dollars each, and then still have their trusty Niche Zero off to the side for traditional spro and milk drinks. I’ve never seen a home setup photo with multiple high end Titan espresso grinders, and a Lagom Casa still on the bench. The appeal of the Casa is its small size and that it offers reasonably similar performance to $1,500 high clarity espresso grinders, for $1k less - but a $3k+ high clarity espresso grinder will blow it out of the water. The appeal of the Niche is that it offers just about as good as it gets performance for traditional dark roast spro and you don’t really need more than the Niche to max out a dark roast espresso. https://preview.redd.it/fjra4vospznf1.jpeg?width=1920&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=436c945eeb52ebc9c58f8e4bc75706566c9bc60e

Was about to point out that most people here aren’t thinking about the one option that would actually make a tangible difference. A hybrid style grinder. Could be the SDRM or VersaLab (Titus is just too expensive). I love the straight shots and when doing the occasional milk drink, still get punched in the face with the espresso shot underneath. Especially the funky stuff. In relation to OP, I’ve had Zerno Z1 with CV2 and MP2 (so similar to Philos). The SDRM produces better shots for sure. MP2 could get astringent if pushed too hard, SDRM is nearly always good. CV2 doesn’t have the same velvety mouthfeel of the SDRM, let alone the MP2 which is even more clean than CV2. Adding milk isn’t completely masking nuance, think of it as putting an 80% opacity lens over it. So if you have shots from a separate grinder that you say are 30% better, when you put milk over it, you’ll perceive it as 6%, so not fully a waste. Just made up numbers to explain a point. But you do get texture through the milk, so i200D might be less pleasant if you like the texture from the 189.

I have the KafeTek SDRM and like it a lot. I was upgrading from a Eureka Facile so it makes a noticeable difference. I'm in the US and didn't want to pay the tariffs so I really only considered the American grinders. I also make mostly cortados so I wouldn't have upgraded from a Philos. In fact I might have gotten one instead of the SDRM if not for the size and taxes I didn't want to pay.