(I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this, but someone can move it if not )

I've ordered Verve coffee before and loved it, but I had never tried this particular blend. It had tasting notes of blueberries, so I sure as heck wanted to try it. When I got it in at first, though, it did something in my grinder I've never seen happen before. It LOOKED as if I was grinding way too coarsely based on the speed and fluffiness of the grounds coming out, but when I tried pulling a shot it actually choked my machine. I tried again, this time weighing the grounds and the espresso, and I had the usual amount of coffee (even though it was piled high over the rim of my basket as opposed to the normal bit of clumping) and a very ristretto shot. All I knew to do was coarsen the grind and reduce my grinding time on my vario by over 2 seconds to get a similar flow rate.

Does anyone know why this is happening with this particular coffee?

all coffees vary in how much they occupy in the basket. there is a topic about this in the tips section.
That being said, The vario does not like lighter roasted coffee and can sometimes go on the fritz.

Without providing more specific details on dose, output, etc. its impossible to say. And I found it peculiar that taste was not mentioned at all in your post.

Ah. I neglected to mention taste because I played with the grind until I found the taste and flow rate I was looking for. I settled on a 15g dose giving 25g of espresso in 29 seconds. It was full-bodied with lingering notes of dark-chocolate covered blueberries. Really, the thing that threw me off was the texture of the grounds and how quickly it was being ground. It just seemed out of character for the vario.

The fresh coffee has more CO2 therefore expands more on contact with water. Try dosing a bit less. It sounds like the coffee is contacting the shower screen. I run into the same issue with my Slayer which hates overdosing. I dose around 19.5g in a 20g VST basket for this coffee.

Sermon and Streetlevel are two of my "go to" blends. My experience is that Sermon tends to be fluffier, a 15-16g dose creates an above the rim mound. 15-16g of Streetlevel is typically below the rim. I imagine this reflects the blends' origins and roast but I don't know what particular bean/roast accounts for the pattern.

Has anyone done a head-to-head comparison of Sermon with Brown Betty?

After the first week I struggled with Brown Betty, as it degassed it got more difficult to get a decent balance. IMHO It's a touch too light for an all around or bar blend espresso. As far as sermon, most of the shots I've had of that where much creamier in texture than Brown Betty could've gotten an off roast though. What I was pulling was pretty thin, but not overly so.

I have an update! After several weeks of much faster grinding and fluffy grinds, it RANDOMLY switched back to how it was before. I have to grind an additional 2 seconds now to get the same dose with the same coffee, which pulls a shot the same as it did when it was fluffy just a few days ago. I have no idea what's making my grinder do this..