Advise Please: My coffee has a weird background taste that is off-putting.

[taramisu]

Up until this point, I have only used K-cups at work and pre-ground coffee in a drip maker at home. I purchased a bag of Counter Culture 46 roasted 1.5 months ago. It has a weird background taste that is off-putting. So, I picked up a breakfast blend from the local roaster, Fresh Ground. It was roasted 5 days ago. It, too, has the same goofy taste. Any idea what I'm tasting and why? I ground both right before brewing with a burr grinder. Is this something I'm doing, or is it the beans?

 

[MntnMan62]

The Counter Culture 46 is probably getting a bit stale after 1.5 months but I doubt it has a weird taste because of that. I have used coffee that is 1.5 and 2 months old but I never get any weird background tastes. I'm thinking that there is something about each of the roasts that you bought that is different to you and you may not like it. You need to try different roasts to see what you like best. It's a journey. Have fun with it.

 

[wmark]

That or your equipment needs to be cleaned

 

[Musicphan]

That or your equipment needs to be cleaned

Probably something along these lines...

 

[BeanPoet]

Most likely need to clean your machine. How does the water taste by itself? Anything going on there?

If you don't usually grind your own beans, then you might not have the grind size dialled in just right. That can produce taste that is quite different from what you're used to, because the extraction either isn't getting as deep into the bean (too coarse), or it's getting in deeper (too fine). Different flavour compounds get pulled out depending how much extraction you're getting. Take a look at your pre-ground and try to match that size as closely as possible.

 

[Duffyjr]

If machine is clean look at your water. Our water here is not consistent, sometimes the chlorine taste is stronger, I use Pure filtered pitchers to get rid of it. Before that I just let it sit out open in one of those glass sun tea jugs for a couple days.