system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Why is coffee/pepper that you grind at home better than coffee/pepper ground at the factory?

Would people be able to tell the difference in a blind taste test?
gpt
Coffee, pepper, and many other spices have very volatile oils that evaporate fairly quickly after their outer shells/skins are broken. So the closer to end use you put off the grinding of the spice the better it will taste and the more of those oils you consume. Grinding them in a factory means you lose a lot of those oils, and therefore lose flavor.