My barber talked me into a cheap hand grinder and I'm lowkey mad it works
Honestly, I was at my usual spot in Austin last Saturday getting a trim, and my barber saw me complaining about my electric grinder's inconsistent shots. He said, 'Ngl, you're overpaying for noise, just get a $30 ceramic burr hand grinder and count to 200 slowly.' I laughed it off, but that night I ordered one off Amazon. Three days later I pulled a shot with way more crema than my $150 machine ever gave me. Has anyone else had a random stranger in a totally unrelated place fix their espresso game?
Wait, so the guy who cuts your hair knows more about coffee gear than the folks at the fancy shop? That is both funny and a little sad for the rest of us who spent months reading reviews online. Guess the real lesson here is that sometimes the cheapest fix comes from the last person you'd expect to hear it from.