My $200 grinder upgrade turned my morning routine into a real mess

So I saved up for a new burr grinder, thinking it would be the big step up from my old blade one. I spent about $200 on it, a well-known brand that gets good reviews. The first bag of beans I ran through it... the grounds looked so much better, really even. But the taste? My coffee got this weird, sharp bitterness I couldn't shake. Tried adjusting the grind size, the water temp, everything. Turns out the grinder was creating way too many fine particles, even on the coarsest setting for my French press. It over-extracted every single time. Now I'm stuck with this expensive machine that makes worse coffee than my old $30 blade grinder did. Has anyone else had a grinder that just didn't work for their brew method, even after trying all the fixes?

3 comments

3 Comments

eva_moore16d ago

Check the burr alignment like jessica921 said.

the_robert17d ago

Man that "weird sharp bitterness" line really hit home. I had the exact same thing happen with a fancy hand grinder last year. The grounds looked perfect but my pour over tasted like someone dumped aspirin in it. Felt so frustrating after saving up and reading all the good reviews. Sometimes a piece of gear just fights your specific setup for no clear reason. I ended up selling mine at a loss and going back to my old one too.

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jessica92116d agoMost Upvoted

My old Porlex did that too. Took me months to figure out it was the burr alignment. Some grinders just have a personality, and it's a bad one.