I think I discovered the limits of the Smart Grinder today. I'm guessing that a 'real' grinder wouldn't have had this particular issue. A was given a home roast of a Mexican beans and told at the outset that it probably wasn't going to be good. In fact, written on the bag was 'bad'! The problem with this batch was an uneven roast with some burnt beans in there. Now let me say up front that the flavour from the one cup I did get out of them was really quite special - full bodied, rich, low-medium acidity - very nice indeed. But on the second and third attempts, the Smart Grinder wound up choking on one of the burnt beans (it'd made some alarming 'slipping' noises a few seconds prior). In fact, even after pulling out the hopper and cleaning it out as best I could, I couldn't even adjust the burrs back to beyond the middle of the fineness range. So a full pull apart and I discovered the offending bean - black and hard as a rock (but definitely NOT a rock) and it had loosened the top washer. I took this as an opportunity and removed one of the shims (which I'd been meaning to do for a while) and gave the machine a thorough clean out. Annoyingly, something I'd already done yesterday. Ran a cup through of a Pioneer blend. All good. It was a gusher, so I'll probably need to 're-learn' the settings on the grinder. Or just put the shim back in.
