The grinder that won't let you lie

Hey,

The ZP6 surprised me. Not in an obvious way.

The marketing tells us this grinder is for lightly roasted coffee. And of course, clarity. That's a label.

To me, that's a limiting belief. It just simply is.

Don't get me wrong, I did use this grinder for lightly roasted coffee, especially initially. I wanted to see if my disdain, or hatred, or indifference towards light roast was going to be improved with this grinder. And it was, to an extent. Did I get clarity? Yes. I had to push myself to see it for more than what it was. If that makes any sense.

It was subtle in its ways. Some coffees worked better than others. And I started to realize, wow, this grinder is pretty cool. This is exactly what people are talking about.

But I'm not really good at listening.

I started testing it on medium roast, dark roast, all different origins, even some blends from time to time. Not because I was bored. I was just curious, because everybody says this grinder isn't the thing you use for other coffees. There's other grinders for that, something not as clear, something that doesn't give you that distinctly separated profile.

One thing first, though. I love that everything on this grinder is right there for you. That's one of my biggest gripes with hand grinders, it's very hard to know exactly where you're at. This one goes barely past zero and all the way up, 11 total big clicks. And I love that it's honest. It's not lying to me. What I mean by that is we all have our sweet spots on any grinder, and on this one mine is about 5.5 all the way down to 2. Two for lightly roasted coffees, if you're really trying to push a fast extraction with one of those fast filters.

Just be honest with yourself. You're not going to use the rest of that dial. Even if you use a French press, you're going to go a little bit finer than you think. Just my suggestion. Try it whichever way you want to.

I tried it on my medium roast. And I was shocked that I kept going finer and finer and finer. Not espresso fine. Not like a three. But finer than the label says I should.

And as I sat there and drank my coffee, I wouldn't say it was the best shit ever. But it gave me a different taste and sensation that I haven't really gotten from other grinders. It rivals really expensive grinders in that department, the clarity, the nuance of what you're actually tasting.

I just had a Colombian on it. Absolutely amazing. Very fruity, the acidity was pronounced but not offensive whatsoever, and the sweetness even showed up to play. I couldn't believe it. I almost hoarded that coffee, almost destroyed it, just because I didn't want to drink more of it. It was just so damn good.

I hover around 4.5 to 5 for medium roast. Go finer if you want, but it does something to the acidity where it like, pinches it. Squeezes it even more. I don't know if that's what you want. But it can work, depending on the coffee.

Then I tried it on dark roast. Something I'm not supposed to be using this device for. It's my device, so I do what the fuck I want to. Same with you.

I started at a five. Tasted fine. No issues. Kind of hollow, actually, to be honest.

Then I kept going finer. Kept going finer. And I went to a two. For a dark roast.

It was fine. It worked. I was shocked. I couldn't believe it. I just sat there for a little bit wondering why it was working that way. Why I was able to extract goodness out of coffee on a device that doesn't even have any business being there, at least according to the marketing.

And I can't really blame 1Zpresso. All of them do it. We put labels on things and we say this is what you're going to taste, this is what you're going to experience. I do it too, with my coffee. Balanced, flavorful. It is, most of the time. But as you can see, I'm just here riffing, letting you know that I, from time to time, don't like what I'm drinking. And I'm the one who roasted it.

That one dark roast, though. The coffee didn't even really give up. It was just kind of indifferent. It was letting you know, this is the max. This is what I can do for you. Sit there. Pay attention. And experience me for what it is. It wasn't bitter. The acidity showed up a little more. And it was quite amazing. A degree of separation you're not accustomed to when it comes to dark roast.

I started to notice the grinds were fluffier with this grinder. And I love fluffy grinds. I know it's kind of weird saying that. When I shook it around inside the brewer, I really didn't notice many fines. That's where the clarity comes from. That's where you get less bitterness, or no bitterness, depending on the situation.

Now, fines aren't the enemy every time. My Fellow Ode 2 puts a lot more fines in the cup, and on the right dark roast it blends everything in perfectly, just a perfect maturation of coffee flavor. No isolation. This one will isolate the crap out of the coffee. You start seeing layers and all that stuff.

Is it a little thin sometimes? Yeah, it is. I'm not going to lie to you. Does it blend coffee well like other grinders do? No. It falls really short at that. It sucks really bad at that. That's like everything else, though, right? There are specialized tools for the job. This one just turned out to be more open than its label.

I guess what I'm really saying here is that this grinder works for more coffees than the box says. And that's the thing I keep chewing on. The label thing. We put labels on it. We put labels on everything else. And when we do that, it just stops us right in our tracks. We can't use it for this. We can't do that.

But can we? Should we?

Yeah. We should just try it all. Why not? It's there for the taking.

You're drinking for yourself. If the label says this grinder is for light roast and you drink dark, who gives a shit? Try it on something you actually like. Not everything is going to work. But you're trying, you're exploring, you're experimenting. You're stripping away the labels so you can actually get somewhere with that particular coffee. Because that's really what we're talking about here. Just trying to bring the best out of the coffee.

You don't need this grinder for any of this. If you're on the fence, stay on the fence.

But there's probably something in your kitchen right now wearing a label you've been obeying. A brewer that's "only for" one thing. A coffee you've been drinking the way the bag told you to.

Take it out of the box this week. Run it against the label and taste what happens.

Hit reply and tell me: what's the label you've been obeying? And what happened the time you ignored one?

I read every one.

Oaks