Serious question - did I mess up my grinder burrs for years?

I just realized I've been cleaning my Baratza Vario burrs wrong since I bought it in 2018. I always used those little brush things, but a barista in Chicago told me I'm supposed to run rice through it to absorb oils (which I now know is a bad idea anyway). He showed me how caked on my burrs were with old coffee residue. Anybody else find out they've been maintaining gear totally wrong?

2 comments

2 Comments

terry_jones27d ago

That's a pretty common thing honestly. I've talked to a bunch of home folks who just brush and don't think about the buildup in the nooks. Those little bristles only get the surface stuff, not the gunk that's really baked on from heat and moisture over years. Your mileage may vary, but a deep clean with a stiff nylon brush and maybe a tiny bit of compressed air every few months makes a massive difference in grind consistency. You can feel the burrs actually cutting instead of just smearing old oils around.

thomasshah26d ago

Wait, you can actually feel the difference after a deep clean? I've been lazy about it for a while now and just figured it was all in my head. That's ridiculous.