Hi,
We’re soon to be launching an online coffee shop and will be offering (unfortunately) pre-ground coffee.
We’re trying to decide on our grinder, and the choice is likely to be the EK43 for it’s speed and accuracy.
Other options would be grinders such as the Ditting KR804 or the Bunn G1.
Anyone with past experience able to throw up some pros and cons? Or is the EK43 a clear winner?
Thanks!
If you can afford to get an EK, get an EK. Otherwise build a bunnzilla for around $600.
This next section might be thought down on in the speciality coffee world, but, you also have to think: if someone is buying pre-ground coffee, then they probably don’t care as much about the quality of what they are getting. It might be worth getting a Grindmaster 890 which has kenia/guatemala burrs in it or just using a bunn g1. Either one of those can be had for less then $150 if you keep your eyes open locally.
If your core business is to sell online pre-ground coffee, how much do you need to sell to break-even? And how much could your company grow?
These are all excellent grinders for the retail setting (okay, maybe not the bunn so much) but are intended for less than 30lbs of grinding per day (-ish). So, plan on quickly growing past 150lbs per week? Considering these grinders are easily capable of lasting a decade or two, would a larger volume grinder be a better fit for this business model?
If your going to be doing a lot of grinding I would really go with the Mahlkonig VTA6. The EK43 is awesome in a shop setting but for doing lots of work its gonna get hot and really doesn’t have the power to bulk grind. The VTA 6 grinds 2750g/minute and has 120mm burrs (220v).The EK will start getting warm around the 5 lb mark and has 98mm burrs (110v).
Hi Spencer,
Thanks for your reply. We’d already picked up the EK43 for a trade show so we’ll work with it for now. If we’re doing enough coffee that the load is too much for the EK43 then we’ll be in a position to justify getting the VTA6. Thanks for the information though, very informative!