Femobook A2 Manual Grinder

“I have a Lagom 01 with 102 SSP Brews. I wouldn’t recommend it unless you regularly push extractions beyond 2% TDS. The Femobook A4Z, Millab M01 and Pietro will all give you cups in the same general ballpark. Some are better for some coffees/drippers than others - but if you’re doing tea like pour over brews, buying a Lagom 01 for home use is a little ridiculous. If you use boiling water, grind fine and do 7+ minute extractions, or if you’re looking at a grinder for Spro, it’s a different story as you can push extractions MUCH harder without them getting astringent or bitter. If you don’t brew that way, then it’s mostly (but not entirely) a waste. The whole allure of Titan grinders creating some magic cups is just total BS and largely confirmation bias from owners who bought them. They’re different - but so are all the other grinders on the counter and each big burr grinder is going to have its own flavor due to the design of the chassis and the specific burr used, but there isn’t some magic flavor unlock where the sky opens up with a $3k grinder. What there is however - is a shocking amount of noise. With one 15 gram dose - it’s vaporized in a second and then quickly spins up to purge, but when seasoning my Lagom 01, I didn’t wear hearing protection (didn’t even occur to me) and my ears got sore part way through the process (I tossed in ear plugs once I realized I was doing damage) and rang for a day. It also took about 50lbs of seasoning beans before the burrs settled down and started to show potential - before that, I really disliked the cups. The Lagom is a solid grinder, don’t get me wrong and the workflow is awesome - but it absolutely could not be my only pour over grinder, and it’s definitely not my favorite all rounder. In fact, I have a KafaTek M98V on order for something a little more laid back - as the 102 brews can be pretty punishing. With the Pietro, A4Z and Millab M01 in the photo below - I can’t remember ever making a bad cup I’ve had to toss, where as with the Lagom, it’s not terribly uncommon for me to toss a cup I’m not happy with and make another attempt, and I generally find whenever I make grind setting changes - if I just leave RPM consistent - I know I’m leaving a lot of potential on the table - where as with ALL of my other adjustable RPM grinders - I generally set and forget the RPM. The Lagom 01 can make the best cups I’ve ever had, but it often requires some dial in (and wasted coffee), me mixing custom water blends or doing post brew mineralization and truth be told - it’s just generally just not that much better that I care to faff with it to squeeze an extra 5-7% more out of a bean than I can get with other brain dead simple, near zero effort grinders. It’s a different story when I push monster extractions - but I generally don’t drink more than 3-4 cups like that a week. These massive commercially rated constant use grinders are really designed for cafe use, where they’re dialed in ahead of time by the staff”