Happy birthday, Spro! Nothing like a piping hot cup of tea for the coffee community. We love a good rant.

Happy Birthday! As a la marzocco owner (GS3 MP) and big supporter of their products, customer service and reliability, I had the same reaction when I got the email notifying me about the Pico. I kept scrolling around the details to try to find something that stood out. Not really much except the motor, like you said. In the end, it just reminded me of a jazzed up version of the Sette and so, Iike you, I was a little disappointed. All this to say, I agree with you and appreciate you coming out and just talking about something like this, which I think, will be on several home baristas minds....

Well thought out and articulate review. As always, appreciated. Happy Birthday!

I think you nailed it. What gets me most is the design is almost dated instantly. It’s the kind of thing one sees in a vintage shop and says “Oh that’s cool!” but never buys.

Happy birthday man! I Wish you a happy and joyful year, may you keep follow your heart and deliver us from your wisdom and professionalism. May you feel excited from every new video and learn a lot of new stuff. May the algorithm force be with you 😊🎉🎉🎉

Happy Birthday! Great video, as always. I think the "10 years in development" -> underdeveloped product might be a very common case of where prolonged development resulted in design / engineering department going back to square one a couple of times because someone in the team working on the product decided that what they were doing wasn't gonna work, so they had to redo everything. A couple of times. This would explain the odd spec, because a lot of times re-doing something from ground up, some leftover details (in this case spec details) might be reused, making the end product a weird frankenstein of scrapped versions of it's own self during development.

Happy Birthday Spro Bro! Hope you have the best year of your life ahead!

Thank you for your honesty….it is tough being neutral when you have committed to a brand…myself using ECM max but continue to use Eureka Mignon XL grinders for their functionality / cost. There is always better, more expensive and better designs….trying to avoid the branding is sometimes hard.

Great editorial video. Really liked this one dude and Happy Birthday!

Loving your opinions here! Keep it up! Happy 28th Birthday Real SPro!

Happy birthday! I also just wanted to point out that at 6:39 the auto captioning reads "conical bird grinder". Apparently only La Marzocco reduces an entire conical bird to a soup-like homogenate in 30 seconds.

Happy Birthday, and I totally agree: it feels like a cash grab relying on the prestige of La Marzocco's brand name.

I bought mine as a bundle with the Micra, I’m loving is so far and adjustment seems to be rather simple I’ve switched over from a Mazzer Mini and the difference is noticeable. I like the in app features with all history etc Mind you they did knock off $500 from the asking price when purchasing the two together so I’m happy

Tbh the mazzer mini fits/fittes the la marzocco aesthetic better that the pico and i was hoping for a similar charme

I think Benjamin Hohlmann from Kaffeemacher put it well: "I don't care about the specs of something if it makes nice coffee." They also lauded the texture in their review. I think the grinder deserves some consideration before being dismissed.

I own the Pico and the Mazzer Mini. It’s a shame the author hasn’t done a hands on this rather than a reaction video. The performance of this grinder in terms of grind consistency, lack of clumping, flavour, ease to dial in and low retention make this a killer grinder. Ironically the conical burs make a lot of this possible. So don’t be swayed by its lack of flat burs.

Great video and very fair points brought up. I have a demo Pico at my office in Toronto. I work for Stealth Coffee who is the Canadian distributor for LM. I have a Lagom P64 at home with my DE1 (Joined Stealth after already owning it). The Pico better than I expected it to be - both in terms of workflow and cup results. I don't think the target market is the coffee nerds who are already watching grinder showdown reviews online. It's for people who are going to buy a Micra but didn't even think about their grinder. And there are a lot of people like that out there...

Very interesting assessment. But I hope you’ll test it so we can see how well it functions. I have the Mignon Specialte? and the performance is impressive but it too easily gets jammed, and I’m looking for a replacement, hence looking at LM products to go with my Linea Mini.I say this after fully disassembling it to clean this weekend.

Thank you for staying honest👏💪

happy bday spro!

Happy Birthday man!

Happy birthday spro! 🎉

My jaw dropped when seeing the specs in comparison to the price. Absolutely comical. I'm a La Marzocco stan too, love my linea mini despite knowing all it's cons.

Would love to see a full review of the grinder. I get the reaction to the spec for money- but having demoed a unit I liked it (but I’m not an expert). It was quiet, provided low retention, fluffy grounds and a similar timed dose as my Eureka Specialita. There is also a spot for a scale, a light, and magnets to swap out parts from porta filter holder to dosing cup. But again I’m not an expert- is the burr set amazing? I have no idea. Would love to see you review it with your thoughts!

Happy birthday🎉. Mine is tomorrow!

@ Sprometheus Happy birthday Spro!!! Hope ya downed a big cup of Joe for you, your family and friends, and all of your fans. :)

I seen this advertised and figured it was 64 mm flat burrs and grind by weight but not so. Thanks for the info

🎉 happy birthday, spro

Happy Birthday!!!! 🎉

Happy BDay Spro!! 🎉

Happy Birthday bro!

Happy birthday Spro.

LM’s relationship with Etzinger was soured by the Swift Mini. The Swift Mini aesthetic came from the LM design team so it doesn’t surprise me that there are some similar design cues in the Pico, however it was definitely an independent development 100% in-house by LM R&D and there are no Etzinger parts in the Pico.

It's my birthday as well :D happy birthday dude!

Happy Birthday and Enjoy the Day !!!

Happy birthday!!

I think the looks of it go really well with the mini and micra so it's more like a nice companion piece to match up the desktop space. I'm probably going to get it..I know it probably doesn't have the performance of the other grinders for the price, but the brand is probably going to take me over the line 😅😅

Thanks for being straight about there grinder, it does look like a step back in time ?

Is that the Potu / other-brand flat burr hand grinders in the background? The few reviews I can find are positive and they are getting so affordable on Ali they fall below the EU import/handling limit, so I hope you do a video on them! Especially because there's a ghost burr one.

Happy birthday! It is my birthday too! 😊

My first reaction when I saw the release was "they made themselves a Sette 270". I'll eat my cup if that thing isn't either made or licensed by Baratza to LM. I had two 270s when I first got started. Loved them. Beautiful grind. FAST. And VERY LOUD. Both croaked and needed new motors after a year, though.

i like this channel because commenters don't get attacked for expressing their opinions specifically non positive opinions about products as they do (i was) for a non positive glowing opinion on a 1600 usd grinder with the ability to use flat or conical burrs. in my case already have 2 prosumer grinders, a flat and a conical.

Happy Birthday!

thx for your reflections - Marzocco is far away from my budget, but I am interested what others do in the Espresso market. And here I think: not bad, at all - for a real Marzocco fan(boy/girl) the matching design for the coffee machine .. that's ok..

I would love to know more about the hand grinders in the background

Happy birthday Asa! Totally agree. It seems it's lacking some passion and soul (and design), unlike the espresso machines...

Happy birthday !

So what we're your thoughts after using it? this product had so much negative preconception but so far everyone i have spoken to that actually uses it seems to love it

Happy birthday Spro

Like you I am found of La Marzocco the first machine I worked woth was a 4 group head Linea Classic. I always did like La Marzocco look. I've always wanted one but I am unwilling to pay the La Marzocco tax. They Pico is competing with the $1000- $2000 grinder market which is a bit saturated. And me I'd probably go with a Zerno or a P64. DF series would do well too. I feeling like the Pico is for someone that has a lot of expendable cash that wants a La Marzooco grinder to go with their La Marzooco espresso machine.

Happy birthday and nice video as usual! I wouldn’t put my money there. It’s just the name tag.

Happy birthday! 🎉

Happy birthday! Today is my birthday as well! 🎉

Happy birthday buddy

Ayy my bday too. Happy bday us 🎉

Happy Birthday Ponyboy!

Looked through all of your videos and I can’t seem to find a GBW grinder for my LM Micra that isn’t a giant next to the Micra and suitable for light roasts 😢 Did I miss something? 😊

As someone who has tried the Pico, the way it grinds, speed and retention is superior to grinders such as the Eureka Libra, which is a very clumpy grind. I would recommend trying out the grinder prior to posting a rant on it 👍

HAPPY BIRTHDAY 🎉

Thank you my friend.

Happy Birthday! May your crema be thick and your cup full.

Happy birthday sprometheus. 🎉 I had brief contact with Etzinger and can say that they were just as surprised by the La Marzocco Pico and that they also see similarities to their grinders. So it's definitely not a cooperation like the swift Mini. As you mentioned, I think it's an overpriced grinder that comes many years too late and clearly has too much "fines" content. 😅 Nice rant❤

Hey, HAPPY BIRTHDAY ! Nice rant, you make a lot of good points. Small conical burrs and stepped adjustment would be big issues for me. Specs and design issues aside, we won't know if those are meaningful until some unbiased hands-on testing is done on this new grinder. It may be that 'under the hood' there are some better things unseen than folks are assuming, and that this grinder performs well or maybe even great. Less than a grand for a great grinder wouldn't by a bad thing, IF it is a great grinder. 38mm seems like a small burr set for a conical at that price point, but maybe there is some unique and new technology discovered in conical burr design that is implemented here. Maybe not, but until it is actually put through its paces, who knows. I'd hope for not a lot of plastic inside that thing - a solid piece of Swiss-German 'omphf' in the engineering and construction expected. You've raised some good issues, but until it's actually been used and evaluated, some performance issues or excellence won't be evident. Can't wait for a good hands-on eval -- I'm very curious too. Maybe you can get your hands on one -- your pragmatic evaluations go the extra step.

Happy birthday 🎉

I love everything about La Marzocco and am a happy owner of a Micra but there is no value with this new grinder and I don't see it selling well. It's mildly interesting for someone who is in the market for a Mini or a Micra with the grinder and they can take advantage of the current offer of 15% for both. Happy B-Day!

I agree - a complete damp squib. My issue is not with the VFM, it’s the fact that (being LM) you’d expect this to actually be a premium product - not something comparable to an entry level grinder. I was hoping for GBW at least.

Happy Birthday. It's my birthday too!

happy birthday🎉❤

Pico in terms of controls looks more like a companion piece to Silvia.

I agree with your opinions. It’s nice they came out with a grinder but it’s not going to be on my list when I shop for a grinder.

39mm Conicals! LM just released a Betamax grinder in a VHS world.

Saying what we’re all thinking sir Happy Birthday!

Be honest. How many regular people, even coffee "experts" would be able to tell the difference between this grinder and a more mid-ranged one in a blind taste test consistently? I doubt you would see a difference.

A belated happy birthday.

Happy Birthday, Spro! The swiss based Kaffeemacher just reviewed it and as part of this they also assessed the grind distribution curve. It seems like the pico produces quite a lot of fines and tastewise emphasises the body and darker notes of coffee. Thus it seems a grinder particularly suited for classic italian roast espresso. So already because of this it’s out of scope for me. If I buy an overpriced grinder to go with my micra, I would go for the lagom p64. The more sensible option seems to be the new DF64v though, but for now I am okay with the grinder I have which is a 64mm ceado E5SD.

Hmmmm probably it was very expensive the advertisement with the bump of that girl that woke up in the morning to grind coffee so early. 😊

What are your thoughts about the Lux D, do you consider a good grinder to be my 1st espresso grinder? I friend of mind is selling one to my for $400 brand new

22nd? That's my birthday, too!

This has helped me in deciding on my purchase!! I wish I had my hands on a swift mini!!!!!! For my home use!! Less mess is important 😊

Happy Birthday

Yeah this is a La Mar-no-go

Hope you are enjoying your birthday bash (pun intended)!

I have an excellent “La Marzocco” grinder to pair with my Micra. Strangely though, it’s called a LAGOM P64. Seriously, though I’m a LM fan and feel that their price premiums are justified, this grinder is a complete puzzlement. I agree with you, Spro, that the developers seem to have just phoned it in and thrown up their hands. LM has hurt its reputation with this thrift shop grinder.

I’m in the market for the Linea Micra and a new grinder. Even with the 15% off bundle deal they’re doing, I still don’t want this lol

They're almost like the Rolex of espresso. Big price tag based heavily on brand alone.

Pass. Fun video!

Just wait for new product from Mahlkönig coming at HOST

It disappointing that they would put this out there. The LM name carries a premium expectation but this doesn’t seem to live up to it, certainly not premium specs. But their average customer probably will not notice and will bundle this with an espresso machine purchase. I’m sure they’ve sold a lot of Lux D units even though it’s a Mini with 50% mark up, now they can drop that for the Pico and not have to pay anything to Mazzer. All they were probably looking for is a capable grinder they could make a sizeable profit on.

And on that terrible disappointment, back to the tent! 🤣

When are the going to update the GS3 with a GS4? The Unica pro, FAEMA literally blow it out the water. Come on La Marzocco pull your socks up.

Happy birthday…………… Pony Boy 🎂

What is "pony boy"?

H a p p y B i r t h d a y ! ! ! I really value your honesty in this space.

☕☕☕ Love Is Important 💓 ....

feelings will be hurt when the duck sinks

Happy Bday Spro! That thing is ugly!

For me, Pico is like a Baratza Sette in a weird housing.

For the same money I feel like the Baratza Forte bg or ap would be a better spend. In terms of form/function/fit and finish. Even the Vario w+ feels like a better buy.

I mean the price is the price because La Marzocco think's we'll pay and for no other reason. They are a LUXURY brand. Whether you think it's over priced or not, if they sell, it's worth that price to those people who bought. Like an Apple product, whether you think it's worth the price they're charging, they're selling a lifestyle as much as a solid product

You can only get so much improvement from a conical burr grinder, and most of it is not in the cup.