and things went downhill from there

I've had coffee that's gone stale and slightly rancid from sitting too long (which will happen with pretty much any oil-rich food). But this is the first time I've had a skunky cup of coffee out of the blue in the middle of a bag.

The follow-up cup that I made after I dumped the first one was much better, but it still left a bit of a rancid aftertaste. I took the grinder apart and cleaned the burrs and surrounding components before I made coffee again the next day, and every subsequent cup from that bag (so far) has been fine.

In the back of my mind was this floating worry that maybe I had caught COVID during one of my outings since one of the symptoms I've heard from people who caught earlier varieties was that it ruined the taste of coffee for them. It was a very small worry since the first cup had tasted fine, but nobody could accuse those little anxiety corners of my brain of not being stupid.