My wife and I had a fantastic three-week trip in Portugal this past May, visiting Peniche, Ferrel, Baleal, Atouguia da Baleia, Óbidos and Lisbon. This was my first time visiting Portugal and Europe, and I’ve been left with nothing but awe and wonder.

I’ve sectioned this report as follows:

• Thoughts on places we visited
• Speaking Portuguese
• Payment
• Uber vs Bolt
• Getting mobile data on our phones
• Camera used

^(This post is entirely written by me and no AI was used at any point.)

Peniche

Peniche was hands-down our favourite location from this trip! It’s a beautiful, cozy, small town built on a peninsula that used to be an actual island. It’s about 2.6 km (1.65 mi) in diameter so you can explore the entire peninsula on foot—which was what we did. Peniche was extremely photogenic, with views of beaches, cliffs, colourful houses, rocky plateaus, lighthouses, and a fortress from the 16th century, all within the peninsula.

We particularly enjoyed the Museu Nacional Resistência e Liberdade (National Museum of Resistance and Freedom), which detailed the atrocities committed during Portugal’s dictatorship.

Our favourite place for food/drinks in Peniche was Calé! They had great options for coffee drinks, breads, pastries, breakfast and brunch. We went there pretty much daily while staying in Ferrel—sometimes twice a day!

Ferrel

For the first half of the trip, we stayed in a parish near Peniche, called Ferrel, which had the Baleal island with breathtaking views. I’ve been to other coastal cities and beaches before, but nothing comes close to the beauty of Baleal.

Tugo’s and Master’s Burger Ferrel were our two favourite restaurants. I had the best damn burgers in my life at Master’s Burger and we just had to go back again for one last meal before leaving for Lisbon. At Tugo’s, I really enjoyed the Club Sandwich and my wife the Breakfast Quesadilla.

Atouguia da Baleia

We visited my wife’s family, who lives in a tiny hamlet near Atouguia da Baleia. Funnily enough, villagers told me that I was the first ever Asian to set foot in their village. I found that very amusing. I saw some incredible views and buildings in Atouguia da Baleia when my wife’s uncle drove us around the area. It’s a parish with a rich history and I could really feel how far the place goes back through the streets, churches and houses.

Óbidos

To visit Óbidos, we took a bus from the Peniche Bus Terminal. The roundtrip tickets for two cost only €13.60, and we conveniently got some nice views of rural Portugal on the way. We spent a day exploring the castle and went all the way up to the walls. It was a bit dangerous as there was no railing, but it gave you great views of the houses inside the castle and also the landscape outside the castle.

Lisbon

We spent the second half of the trip in Lisbon, which was a completely different vibe compared to Peniche/Ferrel/Atouguia da Baleia. It reminded us a lot of our home city, Toronto, Canada—it’s modern, new, developed and polished. We walked a lot around different neighborhoods and even visited the University of Lisbon, where I was impressed by the imposing brutalist architecture of the Torre do Tombo National Archive. The jacarandas were a beautiful sight in the city! Prettier than cherry blossoms, IMO!

My favourite part of Lisbon was Alfama. It was just so unique and unlike anything I’d seen before. Having lived in flat cities most of my life, it boggled my mind to see houses and roads built on such steep hills. We didn’t end up going into Castelo de São Jorge because we already went into a castle in Óbidos, and we wanted to actually take photos of the castle from outside.

We had the best foods of our lives in Lisbon!

• shakar had incredible breakfast/brunch foods and specialty coffee. We went there multiple times and their "Fitness Brunch" was the best duck meat I’ve ever had. Their pour-overs were fantastic and I ended up buying a bag of their coffee beans to brew back home.
• We had the most delicious meal of our lives at Claras em Castelo in Alfama. It was a very small mom-and-pop restaurant. I had the marinated salmon and the sauce that was made with wine from Porto was divine.
• We also went to Jezzus Pizzaria & Padaria multiple times and loved their pizza.
• We had pasteis de nata from Manteigaria and Pastelaria Santo António and they were incredible! Certainly way better than any pasteis de nata we’ve had in Canada.

We stayed at Locke de Santa Joana and really enjoyed it. It’s an "aparthotel"—hybrid of apartment and hotel. We got a one-bedroom unit with a fully equipped kitchen and in-suite washer/dryer, which was great because we could do laundry and had the option to cook if we wanted. I will say that I would absolutely not want to stay in any hotel near/in Baixa or in Alfama. It wasn’t even peak tourism season when we were there, and it already felt like there were a lot of people in those areas. We were so grateful that Locke de Santa Joana was kind of tucked away while still being steps away from a major subway station.

We used the subway and buses to get around the city. We got the navegante occasional card from one of the subway stations, but we later realized that we could have also just tap via our credit cards.

Overall, while we had fun in Lisbon, both my wife and I preferred the first half of our trip in Peniche/Ferrel because those small towns just felt more "lived-in," authentic and characteristic. Lisbon, for the most part, felt very similar to Toronto.

Speaking Portuguese

We always spoke Portuguese first to people we interacted with (servers in restaurants, shopkeepers etc.). I think it’s disrespectful to go to a country without learning a bit of their language and at least try to use it, even as tourists. I’d been learning European Portuguese for almost a year using Practice Portuguese so I could speak and understand some Portuguese.

In Peniche/Ferrel, some people looked amused when I, an East Asian, spoke Portuguese to them, but most smiled and responded back to us in Portuguese, even though I could hear them speak English to other people later. In Lisbon, because English is so widely spoken and we were so obviously tourists, most servers responded back in English. However, we went to a very traditional Portuguese restaurant and our server seemed to be quite pleasantly surprised that I spoke Portuguese. He even said to me "You speak very well," so that was nice!

Payment

We are Canadians so this might or might not be relevant depending on where you are from. Most restaurants and stores (even in Peniche/Ferrel) accepted cards (they referred to it as "Multibanco"), and those that didn’t made it very clear so just be sure to pay attention.

We mostly use the Wise prepaid VISA card for payment as it doesn’t charge FX fees. We loaded it with CAD and let Wise convert per-transaction. We were always charged in euro, which is the ideal option—you wouldn’t want the payment machine to convert the currency before you pay as it’s usually higher in fees. I heard some people experienced that but we never did.

Uber vs Bolt

We downloaded and installed Bolt because Bolt is European and we wanted to avoid American products as much as possible. However, we ended up using only Uber when we needed to go between Peniche and Ferrel, and from our hotel to the airport because every time we compared, Uber always had cheaper prices and more vehicles available. Sometimes, Bolt quoted us almost double the price compared to Uber for the same trip.

Mobile data

My phone supports eSIM so I bought a package from Airalo. My wife’s phone doesn’t support eSIM so she went to Continente (a supermarket) in Peniche and bought a physical prepaid SIM.

Buying a SIM there was cheaper. She got unlimited data for €20 (~$32CAD) while I paid $50CAD for 50GB of data. In some places, she would have reception while I did not.

Camera

All the photos were straight-out-of-camera JPEGs taken with my Fujifilm X-E5 and the XF23mm ƒ2.8 lens. No retouching was done after.

Photo locations

• 1: Baleal
• 2–10: Libson
• 11: Atouguia da Baleia
• 12–13: Óbidos
• 14–19: Peniche
• 20: Ferrel

I noticed that there isn’t enough discussion on the OutIn Fino grind size on the web so I took some high res photos showcasing grinds from Fino at all major adjustments, and compare them to three hand grinders of different calibres: Timemore Chestnut C2 (entry level), 1ZPRESSO JX (mid-range, now just “J”) and 1ZPRESSO ZP6 S (specialized high end). I chose these because they’re just the grinders I own. Scroll down to read my review.

Each photo includes a label for the grinder and the grind setting.

For Fino, there’re 2 minor dots or numbers between each major number (e.g., 2 · · 3 · · 4), and in the label, “2-1” means the dot is set to major number 2 plus 1 minor number coarser (towards the next bigger major number). Note that despite having audible clicks, the Fino adjustment is stepless.

For Chestnut C2 (photos are here) due to Reddit’s upload limit), the grind setting in the labels indicates clicks from burr-lock. The Chestnut C2 manual specifies 6–12 clicks for espresso, 15–24 for pour-over and 24 for French press.

For 1ZPRESSO JX, “1 cir” means 1 full rotation from 0 point. Here, 0 point is not burr-lock, but is when I can hear the burrs rubbing together while the handle can still spin freely. “1 cir -1 click” means 1 full rotation from burr-lock, then add 1 single click finer.

For ZP6 S, the number in the labels refers to the number on the grinder adjustment dial. It’s calibrated to 0 at burr-lock.

It’s important to note that you cannot reliably judge grind consistency just by looking at the grinds with your eyes. Refer to the particle distribution size graph on Fino’s product page for scientific data (I hope a third party can verify the results too).

That said, I’m posting these photos because some of you might still want to examine the actual grinds (I know I do), and I hope that the included photos of coffee grinds from a few known grinders can serve as reference points.

My review

^(Note: I’m not affiliated with OutIn and I do not receive money or commission for writing this. I just enjoy testing products and writing reviews.)

Taste

I want to discuss taste first and foremost because ultimately, I believe taste is what matters the most for a coffee grinder.

OutIn mostly focuses on espresso in their marketing copy for Fino but I find it to be very capable for pour-over as well. It has a similar taste profile to my 1ZPRESSO JX—the flavour notes are well-blended but with a noticeably heavier body. My pour-over brews have more of a silky and syrupy kind of mouth feel compared to JX and ZP6. Fino is not a high clarity grinder, though (not that it’s marketed as such), so it pales compared to my 1ZPRESSO ZP6 in that regard, unsurprisingly.

As expected, Fino’s espresso grinds produce very tasty espressos. I use OutIn Mino to make my espressos (see my Mino review), and I’ve been able to get shots that are rich, syrupy and slightly sweet with medium-dark roast beans from a reputable local roaster (Pilot Coffee Roasters in Canada).

Roast level

Fino’s product pages states that the burr is “perfect for any roast”—maybe the burr is, but I’d say the motor is certainly not as it struggles to grind for espresso with beans roasted to light and above. When it ground light roast beans from Prodigal Coffee at setting 2-0, the jam protection kept getting triggered and Fino would rotate the burr in reverse, grind for a bit, then rotate the burr in reverse again, and this continued until it finished grinding. Even the official manual says “DO NOT use too light roasted coffee beans to grind espresso coffee powder.”

That said, Fino was able to grind those light roast Prodigal beans for pour-over at 6-0 setting no problem. I don’t think Fino is for you if you mostly make espresso with light to very light roast beans.

Build quality

Fino’s build quality is good but it doesn’t feel as premium as Mino. I think I’m just so used to the all-metal construction of my 1ZPRESSO grinders that Fino’s plastic shell makes it feel a bit cheaper in comparison. The inside of Fino, however, is made out of metal. Of course, this plastic-metal hybrid construction allows Fino to be lightweight (therefore portable) and affordable. It’s a compromise that makes sense for what Fino is marketed for.

For reference, the 1ZPRESSO ZP6 S is ~750g (1.65lb), the JX is ~800g (1.76lb) while the Fino is 690g (1.52lb).

Adjustment ring usability issue

One thing that I really dislike about Fino is that the grind adjustment ring feels loose. It’s apparently the normal behaviour, but, again, I’m used to adjustment dials and rings on my manual grinders to have zero wiggle. From a practical standpoint, the looseness makes it hard for me to be precise with the stepless adjustment. If I find a setting that works well, it’s hard to get back to that exact same spot once the setting has been changed. I would have also appreciated more granular markings on the adjustment ring as well, since we all know that dialing in beans for espresso often requires very minute grind size adjustments.

Retention

Fino’s website states that it’s “anti-static” and has “low grounds retention,” but unfortunately that hasn’t been my experience. This was how much ground coffee was stuck to the burr after grinding for espresso:

https://preview.redd.it/ngt7a8zuprhh1.jpg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=dcda3dbeb582dda3abf68041ea05bad9128c1ff8

Note that I don’t do any RDT because doing so left a bunch of dried coffee grounds stuck to the chamber of my JX.

Grind time

Fino’s grind time is much slower than hand-grinding in my experience, especially compared to my ZP6. For pour-over level grind size, it takes Fino double the amount of time than ZP6 to grind 15g light roast coffee beans. However, I don’t mind it because I just do everything else while I wait for Fino to finish grinding. Below are the grind times I recorded (YMMV):

• 12g of medium-dark roast beans at 1-2 grind setting: 1 minute
• 15g of light roast beans (Prodigal) at 6-0 grind setting: 42 seconds

It’s worth nothing that manually grinding beans to espresso-level fineness can be really challenging, depending on the grinder and the roast level of the beans. With my 1ZPRESSO JX, I always have to keep the grinder tilted at a steep angle (to slow feed) to grind for espresso because otherwise there’s too much resistance. Some people don’t have the strength or ability to manually grind for espresso at all.

While I don’t mind grinding for pour-over, I actually appreciate not having to manually grind for espressos anymore.

Deep clean & calibration

Disassembly is as easy as the official cleaning guide shows, and I especially appreciate that it doesn’t need to be recalibrated after reassembly. I will say that the included air blower is way too weak to be useful at all. Get one of those blowers for camera equipment; they’re way better.

I also want to mention that I find it hard to truly “deep clean” Fino. Unlike many hand grinders that allow you to disassemble major components, thereby providing large openings to clean the interior, you’re really only supposed to remove Fino’s inner burr from the bottom, and so it’s almost impossible to thoroughly clean the hopper area or the inner chamber. I’m not an engineer, but I imagine this is due to the physical limitations of the construction of an electric grinder—there’re probably a lot more intricate components that the average user isn’t prepared to disassemble and reassemble compared to a hand grinder.

Usability issues with Fino’s dosing funnel and lid

Fino comes with a dosing funnel with a lid. It’s nice that they include these because Fino’s catcher has a much wider diameter compared to that of a typical hand grinder and so it’s hard to transfer coffee grind from Fino’s catcher to Mino’s portafilter or any brewer with a narrow chamber, like AeroPress’ chamber. For example, my 1ZPRESSO JX’s catcher fits perfectly into Mino’s dosing funnel, but with Fino, I need not only Mino’s dosing funnel, but also Fino’s dosing funnel to transfer the grind:

https://preview.redd.it/py3tg2m7qrhh1.jpg?width=6048&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5c47dc29a5f5fd53c16c959bb6871b36f75757ed

One usability issue I have with Fino’s dosing funnel and lid is that coffee grind would get into the threads:

https://preview.redd.it/lpz9w1jbqrhh1.jpg?width=3004&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=12232796b963ee0f9c83176e17e3d72c6d2693c7

I wish they had designed them in a way that, once you screw them tightly, there won’t be gaps that allow coffee grind to get in. It’s not a huge deal but I do always need to clean coffee grind off the threads.

There’s also no good way to store these two pieces with the Fino and they can’t fit in the carrying bag that comes with Fino. Currently, I just put Fino’s dosing funnel and lid haphazardly on top of Fino when they’re not in use. I wish the dosing funnel was just slightly wider so I could fit it on top of Fino neatly like a cap. If OutIn is reading this, I hope they keep this in mind for future products (maybe even make updates to Fino?).

Customer support

My first unit of Fino had an issue. I send some videos and a detailed description of the issue to the OutIn team. They promptly reviewed them and sent me a replacement unit. Defective units happen, and it sucks when you’re the one who got unlucky, but it’s how the company takes care of you that ultimately matters.

—

Overall, I really enjoy using the Fino and I use it if I want some more body in my pour-over brews with certain beans. I think it’s a nice all-around grinder that combines quality, portability and the benefits of the electric aspect. If I’m going on a trip and want to bring some coffee to make filter coffee and espresso, I would 100% bring the Fino along with the Mino and an AeroPress.

This review was written/edited/formatted 100% by me, not AI.

I needed some coffees that are fully rested and ready to brew. I discovered that Eight Ounce Coffee from Canada sells coffees that are 6 weeks off roast at a 20% discount so I ordered these.

Immediately brewed the Sorellina bag with my V60 using James Hoffmann’s recipe and was blown away by how bright and fruity it was. I’ve heard great things about Prodigal and I’m excited to brew some this weekend!

If any of you has brewed either of these, I’d love to know some tips :)

Apologies for any silly questions! I’m trying to switch to DDG after using Google my entire life and I have some questions.

With Google, I often type “reddit” after my search query to see results only from Reddit. I tried doing that with DDG and there’s always no results from Reddit at all (see above screenshot).

So then I tried the !ddgr search bang to append site:www.reddit.com to the search query, only to get “No results found.”

The only solution is to do the extra step of clicking on the “Discussion” tab to see results from Reddit only, but even then, DDG is only showing me a dozen of results from Reddit, whereas Google gives me pages upon pages of results from Reddit.

Any idea what I’m doing wrong here? Your input is appreciated :)

My wife and I took our car to the mechanic because, upon braking while driving fast on the highway, the steering wheel shakes/vibrates. No issue whatsoever while driving in the city, however.

The mechanic sent this photo to us and said the rotor needs to be replaced. Our car is at 22,700 KM or 14,100 miles, and we live in Canada so we drive it a lot during snowy winters. Road conditions were particularly rough last winter with tons of potholes.

We are complete noobs when it comes to cars and so I just wanted to understand what we are looking at here, what might have caused this, and what could be things we could do to avoid this in the future?

I read that normally brake rotors won’t need to be changed until 80KM or more. Just wanted to make sure we aren’t getting scammed somehow.

Car is 2021 Hyundai Elantra.

Thanks in advance :)

I want to see all menu bar items when I’m on my Apple Studio Display, but then on my MacBook Pro’s built-in display, I want some menu bar icons to be hidden.

As far as I'm aware, Bartender is the only app that offers this feature. Neither Ice nor Thaw does.

This is the most important features in a menu bar management app for me and it’s way I stuck with Bartender despite all the controversies over the last couple of years.

Is there a better alternative that has this feature?

I was recently traveling in Portugal and discovered the fantastic coffee shop, shakar. Their pour-over coffees were really good, so I bought a bag of beans to bring back to Canada. The roaster is Roast Berry.

This is one of the juiciest and tastiest coffees I’ve ever had! I’ve ground these beans with both my JX and ZP6, and brewed them with AeroPress and V60—all gave me amazing results. I found this coffee to be very easy to dial in; I pretty much got a great cup the first time I brewed it, which is rather uncommon for me.

I use James Hoffmann’s recipes for both the AeroPress and V60, except with lower water temp, around 92ºC (197ºF) upon the first pour. I’ve found the setting of 5 on my ZP6 (calibrated to burr-lock at 0) to give the best results for my V60. For AeroPress, I do 4 minus 2 clicks (3.8).

Definitely recommend giving the roaster and/or the coffee shop a try.

These photos are part of my photo collection from my recent trip to Portugal! All taken with the XF23mm ƒ2.8. You can find another set below:

• Peniche, Portugal

I’m planning to share more in the upcoming weeks! Portugal was breathtaking.

Also: Some street photography I did on my X-E5 and thoughts on why I chose the X-E5 over X100VI.

Lens is XF23mm ƒ2.8