This is my family’s Ninja Luxe Cafe, our first machine. When I was considering a machine, my friend made me a couple lattes from his Breville and I loved it. I wanted to get a Breville but my parents upgraded to the Ninja. 

I’m using Reading Coffee Co. “Jamaican me crazy” whole beans (same beans my friend used). I got all the flavor profiles and it tasted pretty much like the cup my friend made me. I made about a cup a day, sometimes two. My parents use the machine too for espresso and regular coffee. 

That was about four days ago, and now all of a sudden my shots are super bitter. My friend showed me how he used a toothpick to stir the grinds in the puck before tamping, something I forgot to do when we originally got our Ninja. 

So I started doing the toothpick stirring, tamping, and pulling the shots in my routine about two days ago. The machine adjusted the grind size to 19 when I did this so I rolled with it, and the first 1-2 cups after that tasted fine. Is that what caused the flavor change? 

The temp of the grinds in the puck after brewing was about 190°. I was told the Ninja detects and automatically adjusts the grind size for optimal pulling, is this a lie? Should I start manually dialing in? Sorry if my questions are a little dumb. I just don’t know what could cause a sudden flavor profile change. 

My shots used to taste great, why are they suddenly bitter?