CoffeePhilE I think you make a great point…when I look at reviews on the internet most tend to be very superficial. This is not because the reviewer has a bias and whether they were sent the product for free or not, is also irrelevant. So when they say I purchased this with my own money and it will go to one of my Patreon subscribers when I have finished with it….don’t for a moment think that reviewer purchased it…the Patreon subscribers bought it. Most reviewers apart from retailers, or those influencers getting paid have no real motivation to say something is good when it isn’t
The real problem is when the review is for entertainment vs for information. The review for entertainment has a bias on having to be entertaining, grab more Patreon users and generally being appealing for ad revenue, merch, or affiliate linking.. Just think hard, how many reviews do you see where the YT is not monetised, there are no affiliate links (generating revenue), there is no Patreon and no push for “press like and subscribe”
When I review, the videos are for evidence based reviewing, they are not really the review. They are a proof of what I might say in a written review rather than the take my word for it. I started case off reviewing on Coffee machines, that wasn’t a thing until I started it. I moved to videos as a supplement because I couldn’t “prove” something, or always clearly illustrate something with just words. e.g. the noise of a grinder with me talking, to get an idea of volumes. It’s why people didn’t generally say…“wow, the Niche is loads noiser than Dave said it was in his review”.
My videos are boring, because they are not entertainment, specific ones purposely have no edits, because why would you want to see 3s of grinding, cut to 3s of the shot starting and 30 seconds of me umming and ahhing like a twat about clarity and body.
I have not been sent the ORO to give it a proper review….I suspect there may be a few reasons and to be honest, I don’t really care.
What I do care about is…when you watch a review of something like a grinder.
Look for the entire grinding experience, look for unedited video, of grinding, prep and shot…see if it really works as you want. Look for more than just one, there should be plenty of shots. Look for how long they really used it as their only grinder, did they try it on more than one machine with more than one bean.
Do they have good information about the grinder, or are they just regurgitating manufacturers spiel and what they have read by others on the web.
When they talk glibly about retention, what are they really saying. I came up with the 3 important terms and properly defined them. I think they are becoming globally accepted reference terms
- retention
- dose consistency
- exchange
So if they talk about them, how did they measure them….because unless you can remove the lower burr, It’s difficult to know what’s there. Some of the numbers I have seen are “unbelievable” for some grinders, I would even say impossible. They should always have caveats, as grind fineness, darker beans etc.. all affect this.
Think hard about what you really learned from the review, how much they really used it and were they testing carefully each time…because of course, next week they have another video to release, because they tend to release videos weekly (They have Patreons to please remember). Is the grinder review a bit like a puppy for Christmas…forgotten by the new year.
