Well, I've been playing with it since the conversation the other day, spritzing my beans.
I think I may be a convert.
Single biggest change I noticed is in extraction. The Espresso is pulling nicer, with a richer flavor and mouthfeel. Visibly, my shots have always had good crema, yet now this manifests even more.
Yes, visually there is less clumping in my grind. It does not seem neater or les messy, though. More than anything, my grind has a much more "fluffy" character to it, and even though I do everything by weight my basket now runneth over.
A strange experience I'm having is that this also seems to affect the retention of my grinder. I am consistently getting more out than I put in.
I do my grinder maintenance on the 1st, so after cleaning later this week, I'll have a better sense of what is happening in that area. Ordinarily, there is 3g of retention living in my grinder. If I continue to get .2-.5g overages, I would expect my grinder retention to drop to 0 and not have to clean it ever again! *scratches head quizzically
*shrugs
Regardless, the shot quality is my primary thing. I don't know how many poor to mediocre shots I've tolerated over the years, both at home or at cafes, but this little experiment has tipped the scale pretty consistently in favor of flavor. In fact today, day 5 of this experiment, is the first day I've had a mediocre pull. And by mediocre, telling a Barista in the cafe that you want them to redo this shot would start an argument!
, as it is still a very decent shot.
So that's my 5-day follow up.
