InfamousTuba exactly the conclusion I came to, a lot of claims are made about products and I’m sure companies must spend a lot of time testing a product against competitors. Some brewers are nicer to use than others, but as far as taste goes I don’t see any differences in most of them
But therein lies a large pitfall.
Surely, for any exercise in which we treat data gathering as King, it needs to be measuring something that’s objectively measurable? How coffee tastes isn’t. Some, for instance, burr geometries and the resulting consistency of grinds no doubt are measurable, but the taste resulting fron using them? That’s much more subjective.
And as you point out, you don’t see (taste) a difference in most of them, and nor do I, but neither of us can tell what someone else can taste because none of us can experience the other’s taste buds.
I’ve related a story before, I think, where a friend swore he could tell if I’d made his tea using a spoon that had stirred my coffee. I thought he was winding me up. We used to have a couple of gaming sessions a week, so for about 6 months I very carefully either did his tea first, or washed the spoon I’d used for (instant) cffee before stirring his tea.
Having not had him comment/complain about a coffee taste in this tea, for that 6 months, I conducted an experiment. I made my coffee, washed and dried the spoon, dipped it ONCE in my coffee, shook off any loose coffee from the spoon and stirred his tea maybe two rotations.
I said nothing and gave him his cup, sat down and prepared to pay (racing MotoGP bikes I think), and he took a sip of tea. He immediately said You used the coffee spoon in my tea, didn’t you?". The kitchen isn’t even on the same floor as where we were gaming and there’s no way he can have known. It can only be that he could taste the tihy bit of remaining coffee in the whole cup of tea. I certainly can’t. I didn’t believe he could either, and thought he was winding me up.
When he can taste that, and I can’t, and I doubt many could, I can only conclude there’s a big difference between his sense of taste, and certainly it’s sensitivity, to mine. How can we objectively determine what tastes better?I mean, maybe 1000 people not being able to taste that coffee ‘taint’ doesn’t mean he can’t. I might genuinely prefer a V60 to a Clever, or whatever, but it doesn’t invalidate it if someone else prefers the Clever. Similarly, I love coffee but can’t stand coffee cake. My brother loves coffee cake, but can’t stand my favourite, a nice fruitcake. Who’s taste is ‘wrong’? Neither, of course.
So the elephant in the room …. we can break burr geometry down all we like, and examine consistency of grounds sizing but how can we coherently categorise which tastes best? Or more specifically, to whom?
We might get 999 out of 1000 prefer version A to be, but I (or you) might be the 1000th person that doesn’t.
My objective, and I assume every here to, has taste as ther No.1 priority. Data analysis only gets us so far. It might point us at a probability of tasting better, but only one method will be certaon - taste it for ourselves. And it’s frustrating as hell. 😀