Key Mk II

I’ve owned the Key MK2, Kafatek, and Niche Zero (and many more flat burr grinders). I’m sticking with the Niche Zero. For me personally, it’s the best grinder for medium to dark roasts. You won’t get the most complex flavor notes, but you’ll enjoy a rich, chocolatey, nutty, and syrupy-thick espresso. It’s honestly the best and easiest conical burr grinder to use even for other people in the household. Also, this grinder is truly high-quality. With the Key and Kafatek, you must shake, because they produce a lot of fines in the grind and I don’t like to shake my grinds.

Love mine and they are nice and quiet at slower speeds.

I have 2 grinders atm. Sold 1 gave 2 away for free I use both grinders nearly every day. My favorite grinder: Option-o lagom 01 with 102mm mizen burrs. This could be a one and done grinder, does really good for modern espresso, great for filter and immersion brew, and good ( not great ) for traditional espresso and milkies. My more used grinder: Weber key mk2. (Used to be the niche zero). Great high end traditional espressos grinder, wonderful body texture, and sweetness, with a little bit more clarity than the niche. I run 2 grinders, because I can (lol), but really it just convenience thing. I can have my big flat set for grind size that’s more suitable for modern light roast while having my key set for traditional darker roast.

It really depends on how you like drinking espresso. And it depends on what burrs you pick, 80mm has a lot of options and the z2 will probably be an extremely good grinder. I used a lagom 01 102OM + niche zero for a year, then sold the NZ for a Weber key mk2. I like having a more modern and more traditional spro option. I make 3 lattes every morning on the key, and then I make 1-2 americanos or filter3, or bird brews on the lagom 01 later in the day. For 3k budget you should check out other options from option o, kafatek also. If you only like drinking med dark lattes, save your money and get a NZ

I don’t have experience with the vs6, the vs3 tends to have issues from what I have read and watched. The NZ is one of my favorite grinders, tbh, even tho the key is technically a better grinder, I miss the NZ. If you pretty much only do medium and lighter I would probably just get the Z2. Unless you plan to get a higher end conical like the MC6

I’ve just got the Weber key. It will be replacing my niche zero. It will also sit alongside my DF83 with mazzer 151 burs. I think I have all my bases covered 😊

So you are planning to go from conical to flat. Will give you a totally different cup. I love my niche. I also have df83 with mazzer 151 A burrs. I ended upgrading to a key mk2. I love the traditional espresso profile

After 400-700€ diminishing returns hit fast. But you WILL get a really good grinder for that amount. No need for a weber. If you want to buy a forever grinder, the Philos is endgame territory, capable of incredible Espresso and Filter coffee and there is plenty of shops in Germany who service Mazzer machines if it were to ever fail. Eureka are great by the way and they enjoy a good reputation, even in more nerdy areas of the internet. The Femobook series has garnered a good reputation lately but they have to yet prove longevity. The Lagom Casa also enjoys a really good reputation by now and their customer service is said to be really good. I heard they struggle with ultra light beans but that might have been V1.

At the price point here in Germany, there's a good argument for that, yes. But there's of course other machines like the EG-1, Wug2, Kafatek Monolith or Ozik TheAll if you want to really go crazy with grinders.

So if I would have to buy a grinder right now for under 1K, I would probably get the Lagom Casa. It's said to be very similar to my I200D Philos burrs with less retention and a much smaller footprint. Just a weaker motor. Or the Femobook A68. The Femobook seems super nice and really well engineered, if you can live with that ass ugly Femobook Logo on top. When I was shopping for the Philos, it was between it, the Casa and the Femobook A68. Decided for the Philos because I got it from a store at a discount.

For your use case the “upgrade” path is kafatek MC6 or Weber key as far as conical goes. I personally think the key is a downgrade (big one) from a workflow perspective. Haven’t used a MC6 but hear very nice things

Weber key mkii at low rpm is whisper quiet. Quieter than my hand grinder because I usually grind faster by hand than the key does at minimum speed