About us
Why "OPTION-O"?
Try this on a Mac keyboard: hold Option and press O.
Ø.
That critical symbol is how engineers mark a diameter on a technical drawing. It sits next to every critical dimension, every tolerance - the tiny numbers that decide whether parts merely fit together, or work together perfectly. Our grinders live by those numbers: burr seats machined to ±0.01 mm, shafts that run true within the specified tolerances, alignment checked before the units leave our workshop.
But the name carries a second meaning for us. We've always admired products designed so thoughtfully that they simply work the moment you unbox them - no setup rituals, no adjustments, no manual shimming required. In the grinder world, that isn't a given: enthusiasts routinely shim and align brand-new machines just to get the performance they paid for. We firmly believe that job belongs in the workshop, not your kitchen.
So the name is a small promise, typed with two keys: precision is the product. Unbox it, plug it in, grind. The tolerances are our problem - the coffee is yours.
Who we are
If there’s one thing to know about us, it’s this: our mission is to create coffee grinders that are beautiful, produce delicious coffee, and are built to last.
OPTION-O was founded by a team of engineers-turned-coffee-enthusiasts in Melbourne, Australia - a city at the heart of specialty coffee culture. In 2016, we began developing our first grinder and established our operations in Melbourne.
By 2018, we expanded with our own workshop in China, allowing us to build a more efficient supply chain, stay close to manufacturing, and strengthen our product development process.
Today, we continue to grow globally, working with partners in different regions to bring our grinders closer to customers and ensure local support.
All OPTION-O grinders are wholly designed, developed, and owned by us.
How we build
Every OPTION-O grinder is built in our own workshop by our team in Shenzhen - not by a contract manufacturer, and not white-labelled from someone else's design. Every model is our original engineering: designed, prototyped, taste-tested, and refined by our team before release.
It also means we can stand behind our grinders for the long run. Our grinders are designed to be serviceable, and we're committed to supporting them throughout their lifetime. Owners of our earliest grinders (some in service since 2016) are still supported today.
Beautiful objects, delicious coffee, built to last. That's the mission - and this is how we intend to keep it.