Which to buy · Every setting
Breville Barista Touch Impress (built-in) vs Mahlkönig EK43
Conical against flat — the Barista Touch Impress (built-in)'s scale curves where the other runs straight. The Barista Touch Impress (built-in) is numbered 1–30; the EK43 is numbered 0–16.
Which to buy
Choose the
Barista Touch Impress (built-in) if you…
- want grinder and espresso machine in one — this grinder comes inside the Barista Touch Impress
- brew espresso — Breville gives its 30 settings to espresso and lists no filter range
- want the machine to work out the dose, tamp with assistance and correct the next dose itself
Choose the
EK43 if you…
- brew filter or Turkish as well as espresso — Mahlkönig says it suits all three
- grind in volume — about 19–21 g a second from a 1,200 g hopper
- grind straight into retail bags — it has a bag clamp
Shop links are affiliate links: BrewMark earns a commission if you buy through one, at no extra cost to you. The verdicts were written without regard to it.
Sources: Breville — Barista Touch Impress · Breville — Barista Touch Impress manual · Mahlkönig — EK43 · Mahlkönig USA — EK43
| Barista Touch Impress (built-in) | EK43 | |
|---|---|---|
| Brand | Breville | Mahlkönig |
| Scale | Numbered dial | Numbered dial |
| Dial range | 1 – 30 | 0 – 16 |
| Burrs | Conical | Flat |
| Espresso → filter | 12 numbers | 7 numbers |
| Filter → coarse | 10.2 numbers | 7 numbers |
The same number means different things
Both grinders use a numbered dial, which makes it tempting to copy a number straight across. Setting 9 sits at grind index 13.4 on the Barista Touch Impress (built-in) but 40 on the EK43 — far enough apart to change the cup.
Converting a setting
If a recipe quotes a setting for one of these grinders, read across for the equivalent on the other. Rows are spaced evenly by grind size, not by dial number — on a conical burr those are not the same thing.
| Barista Touch Impress (built-in) | EK43 |
|---|---|
| 4 | 2 |
| 7 | 4.8 |
| 10 | 7.1 |
| 13 | 7.8 |
| 15 | 8.5 |
| 17 | 9.3 |
| 18 | 10.7 |
| 20 | 12.1 |
| 21 | 13.4 |
| 22 | 14.3 |
| 24 | 14.9 |
| 25 | 15.4 |
| 27 | 16 |
| EK43 | Barista Touch Impress (built-in) |
|---|---|
| 2 | 4 |
| 4.8 | 7 |
| 7.1 | 10 |
| 7.8 | 13 |
| 8.5 | 15 |
| 9.3 | 17 |
| 10.7 | 18 |
| 12.1 | 20 |
| 13.4 | 21 |
| 14.3 | 22 |
| 14.9 | 24 |
| 15.4 | 25 |
| 16 | 27 |
Side by side, by brew method
Where each grinder lands for the same brew, worked out from its own dial curve.
| Method | Barista Touch Impress (built-in) | EK43 |
|---|---|---|
| Espresso | 6 | 3.7 |
| Moka pot | 10 | 7 |
| AeroPress (short steep) | 13 | 7.8 |
| Pour over — V60 / cone | 16 | 8.8 |
| Siphon | 17 | 9.3 |
| Pour over — flat bottom | 17 | 9.8 |
| Steep and release — Clever / Switch | 18 | 10.3 |
| Drip / batch brew | 18 | 10.7 |
| Cupping | 19 | 11 |
| Chemex | 20 | 12 |
| French press | 22 | 14.1 |
| Cold brew | 25 | 15.2 |
The shape of each dial
Where the connectors bunch, that grinder’s dial is compressed and single steps count for more. Comparing the two shapes tells you which gives finer control, and where.
Breville Barista Touch Impress (built-in)
Mahlkönig EK43
Dialing in the Barista Touch Impress (built-in)
Built into an espresso machine and tuned for it, with the grind range weighted heavily toward the fine end. Perfectly capable within espresso; if you also brew filter you will find the coarse end short.
Dialing in the EK43
The grinder that changed what filter coffee was supposed to taste like, and still the reference for high-clarity brewing. Its very large flat burrs produce an unusually narrow particle distribution, which is why coffee ground on an EK often tastes cleaner at the same nominal setting than it does elsewhere. Stepless, so treat the numbers as targets.