This is a fantastic time for the home coffee and espresso enthusiast. There’s been a near flood on the market of excellent, entry point grinders at or below the $200 price point in the past few years. Five years ago, if you wanted a good grinder on a budget, you had to settle for the absolute entry point from Baratza (the Encore – a good grinder!), or two offerings from Breville (the Smart Grinder Pro, or the Dose Control Pro). Almost everything else under $200 just wasn’t good enough for really advanced home coffee use.
Today, this has changed. Fellow has several grinders at or below the $200 price point. OXO has a good grinder with a built in scale in that range. Baratza has their Encore ESP. And a company called Turin Grinders has not one, but two grinders – both with very sought-after features – available around the $200 price point.
This winter and next spring, we’re doing an ongoing feature of coffee grinders in the $200 or less range, including First Looks, Full Reviews and a companion guide covering all the grinders.
As part of this, let me take a moment to introduce you to the Turin SK40 single dose grinder. It’s the sister grinder to the Turin SD40 (which we may also be reviewing this fall), itself a well established entry point grinder that has turned a lot of heads.
Turin SD40 and SK40 Grinders
Turin, a company founded under the Espresso Outlet company, imports a range of well made, economical grinders ranging from 40mm conical flat burr models on up to 64mm and 83mm flat burr models, all based on the single doser model. Truth be told, all of these grinders are more or less based on the Niche Zero’s layout: angled body housing the motor, angled burr area, angled grinds chute out to a dosing cup.
Turin’s two entry point grinders are the SD40 and SK40. Internally, they are nearly identical, separated by the SK40 having a stepless “worm” drive for selecting your grind, and the SD40 having a stepped grind selection dial. We have an SK40 in house for a full test process, and Turin may be sending a SD40 as well for us to review.
Both grinders feature a 180 direct DC motor. 40mm stainless steel conical burrs that Turin says are upgrades over earlier models (and similar grinders available overseas). Both come with bellows as standard equipment (aftermarket bellows can be around $25-$45, so that’s a perk). Both grinders weigh about 2.75kg (just under 6 pounds); measure around 35.5cm tall with the hopper and bellows (14.5”), or about a foot tall (32cm) without the bellows. The grinders are only 9.5cm wide (3.75”) and 17cm (6.75”) deep.
Both the SD40 and SK40 come with a stainless steel dosing cup that fits most 58mm portafilters. Both grinders are single dose that can hold a maximum of 40g of coffee in their hoppers. The grinders are very easy to take apart to deep clean the burrs and dosing chute area.
Externally, there are more differences. The SD40 has a round body shape, sitting very slender on the counter. Almost everything in this grinder is metal of various styles. The SD40 has a power / activation button that faces up from the dosing cup resting area. The single dose hopper is polished steel. And as mentioned above, the grind selection is stepped.
The SK40 has a more “droid like” body of a squared off rectangular box held in place by two arms. Just like the SD40, almost everything is made from metal on this grinder. The power / activation switch sits on the side of the dosing base area. The single dose bean hopper is a sprayed black metal. And the grind selection dial features a screw style worm drive for stepless grind adjustments.
Here’s some of the features of the SK40 grinder.
Those Aliexpress Grinders…
Both the SD40 and SK40 are very similar to grinders making the Aliexpress circles under the name ITOP. The ITOP40 is more or less the SD40, and the ITOP40S model is the SK40.
Turin has gained enough traction with the maker of these grinders to get some nice upgrades over those models, including the improved burr set, and a better adjustment dial setup. Turin’s prices are also less expensive than the various ITOP models on Aliexpress. You should also be aware that there are knockoffs of this grinder on the same Chinese vending platform, offering inferior internal parts and materials.
So why buy this grinder from Turin? First, the ongoing support that Turin and Espresso Outlet provide for this grinder add serious value to the product. They may not be at Baratza’s level, in terms of logistics and ability, but by all accounts they try hard to be just as good.
Second, you’re pretty much guaranteed the best price on these models by buying them from Turin. And third, if you have any service issues, the grinder doesn’t go back to China; it goes to Espresso Outlet in the USA.
How the Turin SD40 and SK40 Perform
This is not a review, or even a first look; it’s just an introduction post for these grinders (the reviews are coming). But by all accounts so far online, the consensus is the SD40 (and the new-to-market SK40) punch very much above their weight class in terms of what you get in quality of materials, quality of build, featureset, and most importantly, the output.
These grinders are fast, with some reviewers reporting 750RPM for the burr set. Even at that speed, the grinders are quiet – much more so than the Encore ESP, as an example. The grind output has been praised from ristretto espresso levels through pour over. Many are happy with the Chemex and Press Pot grinds from this grinder as well. The 180W motor can keep up with the lightest baked roasts that seem popular in some Scandinavian circles.
The SD/SK40s retain a fair amount of grounds… until you use the included, stock bellows lid to clear the chute and exit ramps of the grinder. Then it goes down to a near-zero retention for pour over grinds, and around 0.2g or less for espresso.
Static so far hasn’t been a major issue with the grinders either, and can be completely eliminated with a slight RDT (ross droplet technique, or a quick fine-mist spritz of the beans).
I wanted to complete our “seasoning” process with the Turin SK40 (running at least 5kg through the grinder) before commencing any real tests. I hit that point this past weekend. I did note my settings for our standard test espresso blend (Social Coffee’s People’s Daily blend) on the SK40 went a few ticks finer during the seasoning process to get our same standard shot output (TL:DR for that article link: 18.5g in, 45g out, 35sec shot time incl 10sec preinfusion, Breville Dual Boiler).
In our seasoning stage, two of my regular “focus group” participants were over for another machine test and had a chance to play around with the SK40. Both were surprised it is priced around $200; they guessed nearly double that price.
The grinder puts out a very nice grind for the price. The 40mm burrs are a newer design in the SK40 (vs the SD40 model), and while I haven’t tested the particle sizes yet, it’s producing some really nice espresso shots. For pour over, the output is comparable to the Baratza Encore and Virtuoso grinders. The benefit of having a stepless worm drive on the SK40 means great dialing ability for espresso, but you’ll need some time – 10-15 seconds of spinning – if you want to move from espresso to press pot settings.
The SK40 is quite tiny on the counter. I even had a photo of it next to the absolutely miniscule Lagom Mini, to show the size. In our review, we’ll compare it to grinders like the Baratza Encore ESP and Breville Smart Grinder Pro, but suffice to say, it’s smaller than both.
Wrapping Up
Turin’s SK40 (and the SD40, which now has the upgraded burr set and some other minor upgrades) both at around the $200 or less price point, are really shaking up the market somewhat in the sub $200 grinder market. I’m surprised there aren’t more reviews out there for the SK40, which has been out for about 5 months now.
My very initial testing gives me confidence to already recommend this grinder if you’re looking for an entry point, espresso primary single dosing grinder that can also do other brew methods. It’s not meant for large batch brewing (so it’s not idea for your 1.2litre auto drip machine) but it can easily serve as a multipurpose grinder in a more budget-friendly coffee loving home, as long as you don’t mind the 10-15 seconds required to spin the worm drive adjustment from pour over to espresso.
Look for our Full Review later this year! In the meantime, the SK40 is available from Espresso Outlet for $199 on sale as of this writing (subject to change).
Mark has certified as a Canadian, USA, and World Barista Championship Judge in both sensory and technical fields, as well as working as an instructor in coffee and espresso training. He started CoffeeGeek in 2001.
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Mark Princehttps://coffeegeek.com/author/markprince/
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Mark Princehttps://coffeegeek.com/author/markprince/
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Mark Princehttps://coffeegeek.com/author/markprince/
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Mark Princehttps://coffeegeek.com/author/markprince/
