What Is Retention?
4.3BRAINROT SCORERetention The amount of previously ground coffee that stays trapped inside a grinder's internal chambers and gets mixed into the next dose, treated as a contamination problem to eliminate.
Origin:Engineering term for grinder residue that became a central obsession once single dosing made cross-contamination between beans a visible, trackable issue.
First Seen:2016
Peak Era:2026 (Espresso Optimization)
Aura Impact:+1 Aura (Grinding a New Bean With Barely Any Retention Left Over) / -1 Aura (Tasting Yesterday's Bean in Today's Shot Because of Retention)
EXAMPLE USAGE
"Switched beans and could still taste the old one — pure retention."
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