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Grinders, can you tell the difference in the cup?
LaMarzocco USA was having an informal coffee tasting session at their lab in Seattle so another H-B member and I went over to see if we too could participate in the test. We could and did, and to make it short and simple we tasted 4 blind test cups, all brewed the same way on the same type of machine (Bonavita drip) all using the same coffee beans.
It was very interesting and the first time I had ever done such a thing. There were several people there, some hobbists like ourselves and other professional roasters and folks in the industry. There were forms to fill out with impressions of the coffee.
When it was all over we were shocked to find out, although I could taste a rather raspy stale flavor in most of the cups, that the beans were all ground a week prior to the brewing that morning!!!
Then they told us what types of grinders they used, mind you they sell Mazzers, but they did NOT use one! They used a cheapo whirlybird blade grinder, a Baratza Vario(I think, or maybe Preciso) and an EK43 with coffee burrs, and then they sent a batch of beans to California to have them ground on a EK43 in a vacuum! As they were explaining (trying to) that process all I could get into my head was grinding in a space station. In any case they sent the ground beans back in a vacuum sealed bag that was opened just before the brewing.
The men at the taste test all blindly agreed on one grinder and the women on another which we all though interesting and if there had been a biologist/anthropologist among us there probably would have been a hot discussion. One woman, who seemed very motivated and knowledgeable, brought her 13 year old daughter who was pretty darn interested and motivated to learn and participate; she was even pulling shots on their GS/3 with a Mazzer grinder and as I later learned has her own business plan!
The guys blindly picked the EK43 with coffee ground the week before and not the fancy grinding in a vacuum EK43. The other grinders just did not taste that good. Now this was all drip coffee and it was from stale grounds if you were to ask me but you could actually taste a difference. Too bad they did not have a Compak grinder in the test!
It was very interesting and the first time I had ever done such a thing. There were several people there, some hobbists like ourselves and other professional roasters and folks in the industry. There were forms to fill out with impressions of the coffee.
When it was all over we were shocked to find out, although I could taste a rather raspy stale flavor in most of the cups, that the beans were all ground a week prior to the brewing that morning!!!
Then they told us what types of grinders they used, mind you they sell Mazzers, but they did NOT use one! They used a cheapo whirlybird blade grinder, a Baratza Vario(I think, or maybe Preciso) and an EK43 with coffee burrs, and then they sent a batch of beans to California to have them ground on a EK43 in a vacuum! As they were explaining (trying to) that process all I could get into my head was grinding in a space station. In any case they sent the ground beans back in a vacuum sealed bag that was opened just before the brewing.The men at the taste test all blindly agreed on one grinder and the women on another which we all though interesting and if there had been a biologist/anthropologist among us there probably would have been a hot discussion. One woman, who seemed very motivated and knowledgeable, brought her 13 year old daughter who was pretty darn interested and motivated to learn and participate; she was even pulling shots on their GS/3 with a Mazzer grinder and as I later learned has her own business plan!
The guys blindly picked the EK43 with coffee ground the week before and not the fancy grinding in a vacuum EK43. The other grinders just did not taste that good. Now this was all drip coffee and it was from stale grounds if you were to ask me but you could actually taste a difference. Too bad they did not have a Compak grinder in the test!