ZP6 vs Fellow Ode: Same Coffee, New Story

I recently put the ZP6 grinder to the test with a dark roast Honduras coffee—a bean I know intimately with its orangey top notes that fade into mellow chocolate. Most people claim this "clarity king" grinder only works well with light and medium roasts, but I wasn't convinced. What I discovered changed how I think about grinders entirely. I went finer than the recommended sweet spot, pushing down to a 2 on the dial when most people stay between 4 and 5.5, and the separation remained clean without getting offensive. Then I tried the same coffee through my Fellow Ode grinder at a slightly coarser setting, and something magical happened—those orange notes lingered and danced with the chocolate in a way that made me want to keep drinking.

Through this experience, I realized that every grinder has its own profile, its own way of telling a coffee's story. The ZP6 brings crisp separation and expressiveness, while the Fellow Ode creates lingering, layered complexity. I used to blame my old Baratza for muddy coffees, but the truth is the coffee was probably fine—it was the grinder's profile I was tasting. In this episode, I share why owning two different grinders can unlock entirely new dimensions in your coffee, how to stop being judgmental about which grinder is "better," and why the real magic lies in understanding what each device brings to your cup. You'll learn that it's not about chasing one perfect grinder—it's about discovering which profile resonates with what you're looking for in that particular coffee.

Transcript

[00:00:00]
I was recently playing around with coffee and I was using the ZP6 Clarity King grinder. I think it was a dark roast. You know, a lot of people say that this grinder is only good for lightly roasted coffees and medium roast, so you can get that clarity, that separation and all that. But I don't believe that. Or I didn't believe it at the time.

[00:00:33]
And I put a dark roast through it. Dark roast, Honduras coffee, that I know the flavor profile of. Has an orangey top end and then it dies down to a mellow chocolate type of note. Really interesting. It's cool from time to time but not every single time. And I put it through this particular grinder. And it was interesting.

[00:01:07]
I got the separation. I don't know if it's more so like a characteristic of this particular grinder, but you get it initially. You have to pay attention. It's subtleness. The coffees are a lot cleaner, a lot smoother in this grinder. And then I just kept going.

[00:01:35]
And what I mean by that is that I kept going with a finer grind. And I think I took the TDS one time and I was like, "Oh wow, it is pretty high." But the coffee didn't get offensive. It was still there. But you know that aftertaste that I'm usually accustomed to with this particular grinder really wasn't there, which is perfectly fine.

[00:02:04]
So as I kept going I went down to two, which is kind of bizarre. Because I would say this grinder has a sweet spot, I think it's between four and five point five. But I didn't let the TDS kind of rule my day. I trusted my palate. Even at two it was still getting that separation.

[00:02:35]
And it didn't matter that it was so much more, I wouldn't say delicate, but more so like it didn't get stronger. But as I kept going and started to realize is that this grinder has a particular profile. You have to pay attention to it in the beginning. If you don't pay attention to it you will get punished. You start to blame the grinder. You start to blame the coffee and all that stuff.

[00:03:04]
So one time after that, after I tried three or four different times, not really frustrated but just trying to really understand the gear that I have, I used something like this. This is a Kin Grinder. Truthfully I used a Fellow Ode Standard Burr. I don't know why I keep saying that like that, but that's the way I say it because I think it's very important. And I had the coffee. That coffee was amazing.

[00:03:49]
Same coffee, just different grinder. Slightly coarser on the Fellow Ode. But that orangey taste came in and it lingered and it lingered and it mixed in with that chocolate type of note. It was quite interesting. I wanted more of it. I just wanted to keep drinking it. More and more and more. It was so fun.

[00:04:19]
It was something that I didn't know or think about as much as I would have thought. Because a lot of times whenever I have coffee, especially when I have my old Baratza, the coffees were muddy. Again, every grinder has a sweet spot and every grinder has a particular profile. It was muddy. It wasn't as defined as this one is right here.

[00:04:49]
And I judged the coffees. I thought that there was a big problem with the coffees. I thought that the coffees sucked. And really what I've noticed and realized over time and as I keep going down this awesomeness of coffee drinking and understanding is that for the most part your coffee is probably fine.

[00:05:16]
The reason why you probably don't like it more than anything is these things right in front of me. These things tell a story about that coffee. It kind of wakes you up. It kind of puts you in front of the center. You have to pay attention. But it gives that coffee a different type of profile. A different type of character if I was to say.

[00:05:43]
And it's pretty cool because it's one of those things that you don't realize until you have a grinder. Or two. I think most people should be perfectly fine with two grinders. You want to go hand grinder or not? Go with this one. Or go with this one. We'll be talking about these more and more as we keep going down this awesomeness of grinders.

[00:06:13]
I think for the most part I'm done with grinders. I think they are the missing link in what people want to taste in coffee. Yes there's other gadgets out there that kind of enhance it in the grand scheme of things. But I think really what I'm saying here is that sometimes when we look at coffee and look at profiles and look at the consistency of the coffee that's barely even the story.

[00:06:43]
Sometimes we want fines. Sometimes fines make the coffee dance. Sometimes fines give you or give that coffee a chance to breathe to express itself to you. And if you're patient enough and you have enough coffee when you're doing this whole thing then you start to realize that wow that's pretty cool. That's what coffee is all about.

[00:07:16]
So as much as I would have thought to say that this is the only grinder that you would probably need because truthfully it's about $200, it's kind of expensive for people. But at the end of the day it works really well. But I wouldn't say get too carried away about clarity because sometimes understanding that coffee has a separation as what it is isn't what you need.

[00:07:51]
The coffees are crisper. They're more expressive. They tell a different story. And this grinder and any other grinder that has more fines in it tell a different story too. Sometimes when I thought that I was really chasing this clarity thing which I still am because I want to understand coffee as much as I can and I'm sure you do too—

[00:08:24]
Is that the coffee speaks to you in a way to where you don't realize that you're front and center trying to get it for what it is. You're trying to understand it for truly what you think that the coffee can be and is. What I mean by that is that it's easy to second guess a coffee, it's easy to say that this coffee is not going to do anything for you.

[00:08:59]
But at the end of the day it's one of those things to where if you don't put yourself in front of the whole thing then you fall flat. You're the one who's really truly missing out because that coffee is saying something to you. And it's through these devices right here. It's through how separated the coffees are. It's through how a little bit of money in this can really bring out some of the best things in the coffees. It's quite cool.

[00:09:42]
I like that. I hope that you like that too because at the end of the day it's one of those things to where if we really open up our eyes and not be so judgmental like this one is better than this, this one's better than that. Like what most answers: it depends. It depends on what you're looking for, what you're chasing, what that coffee is telling you.

[00:10:09]
And then when you do that and get there those are the places that you want to be. Not so much on the fence of like did I get the right grinder, did I mess up here and there. For the most part you probably already have a grinder too that you're using. I would recommend that you get two grinders that are totally different from each other.

[00:10:35]
Probably think about the things that you like in coffee. Do you like espresso? Do you like pourover or whatnot? It's really interesting to kind of go down that rabbit hole of getting there and expressing yourself and then once you do that you're going to be in a better place. And that's all it's really about.

[00:10:59]
It's about using or tasting that bean. Seeing what you like about it being objective as possible. And seeing how you can manipulate that. And I think that's the really coolest thing about all of this is that you can manipulate flavors. You can manipulate how it comes in. How delays and all that stuff.

[00:11:19]
That's what you can do with these things. Yeah you can do that with water. You can do that with a cone shaped filter. You can do that with a flatbed filter or a brewer or whatever. But I think the real magic here is when you kind of manipulate and play with the grinders that you do have and with the coffees that you do have. Because that's where the magic really comes to play. It's pretty cool.

[00:11:53]
And it's kind of like this. I'll leave you off with this. It's kind of like you eat some food. Let's get a little bit more specific. Let's say you have Italian food. A lot of times when you have Italian food they like to talk about and promote that we only have three or four ingredients. Fresh ingredients and all that. That's great. That's awesome. You can taste the essence of exactly what you're getting. You don't have so much complexity.

[00:12:23]
But you do have a richness and a boldness and an understanding of what those flavors are doing for a couple of ingredients that you're dealing with. Then you have Indian food. That has so many different layers. The way that they build flavor. The way that flavors come into your mouth. That's where we really want to be.

[00:12:48]
Both of them are good. None of them are bad. It just depends on the application. And once we understand that, you can get there. I think our coffee journey is going to be even more fun. Even more expressive. Even to the point to where we're just gelling and having a good time with this coffee. With this processing method. With this roasting degree and all that stuff.

[00:13:18]
And we're just really trying to understand that coffee. And these tools right here in front of me. Again it's not a versus versus this. It's not so much of a combination of both of them together. But it's more so like—what does a coffee do with this device? What does a coffee do with this device? Which one do I like more? And why? And once we get there, we're going to be a lot better off. Pretty cool right?

[00:13:56]
So this is Okay at Everyday Beans. Just talking about grinders. And how fineness and coarseness and fines and boulders and all that stuff. And different geometry and different ways that it actually comes out and does this thing. Brings out the best in the coffee. Whichever one that you may choose in the coffee. But I will say get both. One of each. This is Okay at Everyday Beans. Signing off. Talk to you later. Bye.