Vent: My $70 hand grinder made worse coffee than a $12 blade chopper I got at a yard sale
Everyone on here keeps saying you need a burr grinder or you are basically drinking dirt, so I dropped $70 on a hand grinder and now my pour over tastes flat and muddy no matter what beans I buy. A cheap blade chopper I grabbed for $12 at a yard sale in Boise gives me a cup I actually like, and I have been chasing that taste with the fancy one for three months. Am I crazy for thinking puck prep and water temp matter way more than the grinder, or did I just get a bad burr?
My first burr grinder was so bad I went back to pre-ground for a month, so you're not alone in that club. Blade choppers are all over the place, but sometimes random chunks beat a burr that's badly aligned. Check if your burrs wobble at all, a lot of cheap hand grinders ship out of whack.