That new coffee shop downtown is ruining their beans, please stop

I stopped into Brew & Bloom on 5th Street last Saturday and watched the barista grind a $28 bag of single origin Ethiopian beans into a hopper that was FULL of stale dark roast from the morning rush. They didn't even purge the grinder first. My cup tasted like burnt ash mixed with citrus, and the barista just shrugged when I asked about the blend. Has anyone else noticed this place rushing through their specialty pours since they got busy, or was I just unlucky that day?

1 comments

1 Comment

the_anna21d ago

ruining their beans" is doing a lot of heavy lifting there. You watched one busy barista skip a purge step on a Saturday rush, which is annoying but also kinda what happens when a shop gets slammed. Maybe the hopper was full of dark roast, but also maybe that's just their house blend and the Ethiopian was gonna be a separate thing that got mixed up for a second. I've had burnt-tasting coffee at spots that charge twice as much, and honestly half the time it's the beans being over-roasted from the start, not the grinder. If the whole cup tasted like ash, that's a real problem, but one miss on a busy day doesn't mean they're ruining anything on purpose. I'd give them another shot before declaring the whole batch a disaster, or just ask for a pour-over next time so you can watch them do it fresh.