The ZP6 Surprised Me

I went into this episode with something I had to get off my chest. The ZP6 surprised me, and not in the way you might expect. The marketing around this grinder tells you it is made for light roast coffee and clarity, and for a long time I accepted that. But I started experimenting outside those boundaries, testing it on medium roast, dark roast, Kenyan, Ethiopian, fruity naturals, and what I found genuinely caught me off guard. The clarity and lack of fines that make this grinder famous do not just serve light roast coffee. I went all the way down to a setting of two on a dark roast and walked away impressed. No bitterness. Real complexity. It gave the coffee its legs in a way I did not expect a grinder like this to do.

What I really want you to take from this episode is that the labels we put on gear stop us before we even start. I do it too, with my own coffee descriptions and roast profiles. But your grinder, your brewer, your coffee, they do not know what the marketing said. In this episode, I walk you through my actual brewing experience across multiple roast levels and origins with the ZP6, share the specific settings that worked and the ones that did not, and explain why low fines production is a bigger deal than most people realize regardless of what you are brewing. If you have ever wondered whether your grinder is limiting you or the label on it is, this one is for you.

Transcript

[00:00:01] The ZP6 surprised me. Not in an obvious way.

[00:00:08] The association and the marketing tells us that this grinder is for lightly roasted coffee and, of course, clarity. That's a label. To me, that's a limiting belief. It just simply is.

[00:00:34] Don't get me wrong, I did use this grinder for lightly roasted coffee, especially initially. I wanted to see if my disdain, or indifference, toward light roast was going to be improved with this grinder. And it was to an extent. Did I get clarity? Yes. I had to just push myself to see it for more than what it was. It was subtle in its ways. Other coffees worked better than others. And I started to realize, this grinder is pretty cool. This is exactly what people are talking about.

[00:01:30] Since I'm not really good at listening, I started to venture out. I started to test it on medium roast, dark roast, all different origins, even doing some blends from time to time. It was pretty cool to get to know the grinder a little bit more.

[00:01:53] One of my biggest gripes with hand grinders is that it's very hard to know exactly where you're at. In this particular grinder, it goes a little past zero, or barely at zero, and then all the way to about 1.5. So eleven total big clicks.

[00:02:31] I love that it's honest. It's not lying to me. What I mean by that is that in any grinder, we all have our sweet spots. This grinder to me is about 5.5 all the way down to two. Two for lightly roasted coffees, of course, if you're really trying to push that fast extraction.

[00:02:56] I started to venture out, not because I was bored, but because I was curious. Everybody says this grinder isn't the thing you need when it comes to other coffees. There are other grinders out there, something that is not as clear, not as distinctly tasted in profile. So I tried it on medium roast. And then I was shocked. I kept going finer and finer. Not too fine. Not like a three. And as I sat there and drank my coffee, it wasn't the best thing I ever had. But it gave me a different taste and sensation I haven't really gotten from other grinders. It rivals really expensive grinders in that department of clarity and nuance of what you're actually tasting in your coffee.

[00:04:13] Then I tried it on dark roast. Tried it on a Kenyan. Tried it on another coffee that's extremely fruity. It does its job. Has that right amount of sweetness. Just a little bit of acidity. Probably an 80/20 split. But for me, that's what works. So I tried it at a five. Tasted fine. No real issues. Kind of hollow, to be honest. Then I kept going finer. And I went to two for a dark roast. It was fine. It worked. I was shocked. I couldn't believe it. And I just sat there wondering why it was working that way. Why I was able to extract goodness out of a coffee in a device that doesn't even have its business being there, especially according to the marketing folks at Suppresso.

[00:05:28] I can't blame Suppresso. We all do it. We put different labels on things and we say this is what you're going to taste, this is what you're going to experience. I do it too with my coffee. I put words like balanced and flavorful on my bags. Most of the time that's true. But sometimes I'm just riffing here, letting you know that from time to time I don't like what I'm drinking. And I'm the one who roasted it.

[00:06:03] So it worked. And then I started to think a little bit more about this whole situation. One of the things I started to notice with this particular grinder is that the grinds were fluffier. I love fluffy grinds. When I was shaking and moving the grounds around inside the brewer, I really didn't notice too many fines. The grind is fast. Not K Ultra fast, that's a story for another day, but it's a pretty fast grind experience.

[00:07:04] For the most part, especially if you don't go to six, seven, eight, nine, you're going to be in pretty good company. Just be honest with yourself. You're not going to use any of that higher range. Even with French press, you're going to go a little bit finer. Just my suggestion. Try it whichever way you want.

[00:07:26] I noticed the grind was actually where it needed to be. The consistency of it. The way the burrs are, it doesn't produce fines. That's where you get that clarity. That's where you get that extra element of less bitterness, or no bitterness, depending on the situation. For the most part, I've gotten no bitterness, even out of that dark roast.

[00:08:05] Then it all started to make sense. This is a very precision-made grinder. It's mainly designed for pour over because that's where they want to stay in their lane, which I really appreciate. Me being a pour over person, it really does work. I think it also works for drip. For espresso, Suppresso makes something with the K6, and I think that's a better option. Maybe even the K7, though I haven't tried it and I'm not getting it.

[00:08:58] I just kept thinking about this particular grinder. How easy it is to use. How precision-made it is. How there are little to no fines. I know that's a characteristic, a profile that's very unique to this grinder and others like it, minus the Sculptor or whatever that grinder is, which is unique in its own way. But with the characteristics this one has, it's really good for most coffees.

[00:09:41] Who really wants to deal with all the fines in their cup? Don't get me wrong, sometimes when you have a little bit of fines, like the Fellow Ode has a lot more fines depending on the coffee, especially a dark roast, it blends in very perfectly. There's this perfect maturation of coffee flavor. There's no isolation. This ZP6 will isolate the heck out of the coffee. You start seeing layers and all that stuff. And after a while you start using it, you start losing that whole blend. But what I'm really saying here is that this grinder works for more coffees than people think.

[00:10:31] That's what I'm talking about with the label thing. If it does one thing, we think we can't do other things with it. I'm not saying that's not true across the board. Like an espresso grinder, I wouldn't use it for pour over. For French press, yeah, you go a little bit coarser. There are specialized tools for the job. But this one is actually more open, more accessible, more presentable in other ways than you even thought was possible.

[00:11:23] That's one of the things I've learned about this particular grinder. We put labels on it. We put labels on everything. And when we do that, it just stops us right in our tracks. We can't use it for this. We can't do that. But can we? Should we? Yeah, we should just try it all. Why not? It's there for the taking. You're drinking for yourself. If it says one thing, who cares? Try it on something else you like. See what you like about it. Not everything is going to work for this or that. But the biggest thing is that you're just trying, just exploring, just experimenting. You're stripping away those labels so then you can actually get there with that particular coffee.

[00:12:40] Because that's really what we're talking about. We're talking about coffee. We're just talking about trying to bring the best out of the coffee.

[00:12:50] This grinder does it for me. It does its job very well. Does it have a particular profile? Yes it does. Is it a little thin sometimes? Yeah it is, I'm not going to lie to you. Does it blend the coffee very well like other grinders? No it doesn't. It's not great at that. That's like everything else though, right?

[00:13:21] As I was drinking my coffee and experiencing different coffees, I will let you know this. With lightly roasted coffees, that coffee just keeps going. The acidity is just singing even more so. Sometimes you get different variations of acidity in the cup. Is it complex? Yeah it is. It's different, a little trippy. But after a while it kind of just blends together because of what you're doing and tasting. Even at a two, no bitterness whatsoever. Just more complexity when it comes to the acidity.

[00:14:08] Medium roast. Depending on the medium roast, it may bring out different things. I just had a Colombian. Absolutely amazing. Very fruity. The acidity was there, very pronounced but not offensive whatsoever. The sweetness even showed up to play. I almost hoarded that coffee because it was just so good.

[00:14:43] I've got this Ethiopian coffee. It's not bad coffee. It's a very slow draw down. It has that hit of Meyer lemon right in your mouth and then it dies down. The ZP6 amplifies it a little bit more. It gives it its legs. It's still not my thing with that particular coffee, but it works for me. It may work for you.

[00:15:18] I hover around 4.5 to 5 for medium roast. I use different brewers. They all kind of resemble and mimic different things, but for the most part you're able to extract whatever you want out of the coffee. You don't have to go down to two all the time. You can stay and hover around 3 to 4 for a lightly roasted coffee. 4 to 5 for medium roast. If you go a little bit finer that's fine, but it does something to the acidity where it just pinches it, squeezes it even more. I don't know if that's what you want. It can work, just depending on the coffee.

[00:16:06] With dark roast. Something I'm not supposed to be using this device for. It's my device so I do what I want, right? Same with you. I isolated it. It kind of just gave it its legs. It gave it its purpose a little bit more. Don't get me wrong, I like fines in coffee sometimes, especially with a darker roast. It blends in really well. It just gets juicier and more presentable. But as I kept grinding this coffee, the coffee didn't even really give up. It was kind of just more indifferent to it. It was letting you know: this is the max, this is what I can do for you. Sit there. Pay attention. And experience me for what it is. It wasn't bitter. The acidity showed up a little bit more. It was quite amazing. It gave a different degree of separation that you're not used to when it comes to dark roast.

[00:17:24] I'll leave you with this. Just push past the labels. This grinder is pretty cool. It's heavy. It's got a cool handle you can pull out. This handle also works for the K6 and K2 grinders, if you didn't know. It does a good job. Just don't put it in a box. Try it. Experience it. See what it's all about. And I think you're going to be pleasantly surprised just like I was.

[00:18:09] Let me know what you think. Talk to you later.