You may have just heard the term ‘single dosing coffee’ and you’re wondering what it means. Or, you may have wondered about it after watching your baristas measuring and pouring the beans into their grinder. You might well be asking yourself why do this? Or how do you single dose coffee?
Why dose your coffee?
Dosing your coffee allows you to maintain consistency in your cup. Think of a cookie recipe. Although adding a whole bunch of chocolate chips sounds like a great idea, if you don’t measure them properly, your dough to chips ratio could be fatal. Who wants a blob of chocolate with little dollops of dough anyways?
Similarly, using ratios and recipes when brewing coffee will keep your cup consistent and tasting great! It’s all about concentration and extraction. When you start to master that, your everyday coffee will taste better and better. Dosing the right amount of ground coffee for each cup is key.
Dosing coffee also allows you to save coffee and preserve their flavors. By measuring out an amount before grinding, you’re making sure you don’t use more than what you need for that one brew. You can store the rest of your beans in other containers and also help you keep your coffee beans consumption organized and under control.
What is single dosing?
Almost self explanatory, somewhat difficult to understand. Single dosing is a technique used by coffee professionals and enthusiasts that is rapidly increasing in popularity. Single dosing is the process of weighing out each dose of whole beans as needed in your recipe and when you’re ready to grind them. This allows you to leave your hopper empty and ready for new fresh coffee every time.
It’s worth noting. If you’re into convenience and time is not on your side, single dosing might not be for you. Keeping your hopper loaded and ready to go everyday is totally fine. Our grinders have features that allow you to automatically dose your coffee by time or weight. Load up your favorite beans and grind on demand.
Weighing is best.
Believe it or not, coffee beans have different shapes and individual weights. Where they are grown or how they are roasted can change things up. Because of this, eye balling or scooping your dose is not very reliable. Some coffee beans are really small but have a significantly dense molecular composition, while some can be large and light. These differences can be a game changer in how your cup will taste.
We totally understand some folks may not have a scale handy. Our advice is to try to keep the volume as consistent as possible. Weighing the amount of beans you are grinding is the most accurate way to replicate your recipe over and over.
So how do I single dose Coffee?
Now you know all about single dosing coffee and how it benefits your brewing process. So how do you do it? Last year we introduced BARATZAgear, and our Single Dose Hopper for the Encore, Virtuoso, Virtuoso+ and flat burr grinders.
We know that some customers are already single dosing with their standard hoppers. Yet we also got feedback that people would like a dedicated single dose hopper, helping to minimize space in their coffee area.
As usual, we wanted to offer an intentional design for an accessible upgrade. With our Single Dose Hopper, single dosing is made clean and simple and comes with a slick thoughtful design.
You can use the lid, as your weighing vessel. No need to add a whole bag of beans in the hopper. Place the lid on your scale and tare it out. Grab your favorite beans, and measure out just what you need for your recipe! If you don’t have a scale, you can use the handy inside lines to pre-measure a dose and replicate it next time.
When you’re ready to grind, bring your cup close to the hopper and pour in the beans. Some people choose to have their grinder running, although you can do it either way. The special shape of the cup will allow your beans to pour nicely into your hopper.
When you’re done pouring your beans, cover the hopper with your lid and let the burrs grind through your dose, while you start focusing on your brewing. It’s just that easy. You can keep your counter tidy by minimizing tools and vessels, and leave your grinder ready for the next run.
Now that you know how to single dose coffee, go and explore new flavors. Find your favorite beans and master new brewing methods. You can learn more about brewing like a pro in our blog.
Happy Brewing!