Single dosing

Single dosing means weighing out just the amount of beans you need for one brew, then grinding that exact amount, rather than filling a grinder's hopper with a large batch of beans that sits there for days or weeks. Grinders built for single dosing usually have a small or no hopper and a way to clear leftover grounds after each use.

The main benefit is freshness and control over what you brew each time, since beans are only ground right before use and different beans do not mix together in the hopper. Single dosing also makes it easier to try small batches of specialty coffee without committing a whole hopper's worth of beans to one type.

The tradeoff is convenience, since single dosing takes a few extra seconds per cup to weigh beans and often leaves a small amount of retained grounds inside the grinder called retention. A common mistake is switching to single dosing on a grinder with high retention, which wastes a meaningful amount of coffee and skews the dose you actually get in the cup.