BaratzaGEAR Single Dose Hopper: a Mini Review

Baratza recently introduced the BaratzaGEAR lineup of accessories for some of their grinders. These include: a Single Dose Hopper compatible with most of their grinders (except the Sette series); accent kits that work with the Encore lineup (and sort of with the Virtuoso grinders); and an Aeropress holder / doser that is compatible (for the most part) with the Sette series grinders.

This time around, we’re having a look at the Single Dose Hopper from BaratzaGEAR. 

Single Dose Hopper

One of the most popular home hacks ever for coffee grinders has been jerry-rigging up a single dose hopper. Home baristas are absolutely obsessed with it, and every fugly-be-damned attempt under the sun has been tried. Even some companies have gotten into the act with espresso doser grinders, designing tiny little plastic spaceships for the top of giant grinders like a Mazzer Kony or similar.

Leaving aside any debate one way or the other about single dosing your coffee into a grinder, it’s good to see a company like Baratza design one that works with a wide range of their grinders, and actually design one with some usability tweaks and enhancements. That’s what’s been missing with other companies’ attempts to address the home barista obsession with single dosing.

Specifications and Details

The BaratzaGEAR Single Dose hopper consists of two parts: a beans holding base and feeder that screws into your Baratza grinder’s burr area, and a rubberized cup / lid that sees double duty as a measuring / weighing cup and a cover for the mini hopper to prevent beans from jumping out. The cup also gives the overall installation of the Single Dose Hopper a much better aesthetic look.

The capacity of the single dose hopper is 60g of coffee. It measures 10cm tall with the measuring cup in place, and is 8cm wide. 

The Single Dose Hopper is compatible with the following current and former Baratza grinders: Encore, Encore Plus, Virtuoso, Virtuoso Plus, Preciso, Vario, Vario-W (why!*), Forte (again, why!*)

* I say “why” because the Vario-W and the Forte are grinders with built in scales, which completely defeats the purpose of single dosing.)

Using the BaratzaGEAR Single Dose Hopper

Installing the hopper is really simple: just unscrew your grinder’s current hopper, line up the Single Dose Hopper’s indicator with the grinder indicator (right side on Encore / Virtuoso, back of the Vario and Forte), screw it on and you’re good to go. On the Encore and Virtuoso+, the hoppe now becomes your grind fineness selector. On the Vario and Forte, it stays put after you screw it in place.

60g max capacity is a good dose weight for Baratza to go with. This covers folks wanting to do up to 1l brews of coffee, no problems. It also easily accommodates your typical 18g doses for Aeropress or espresso, your 21g doses for small V60 brews, and your 28g doses you do for siphon coffee.

The design of the measuring/pouring cup is good. It’s got a grippy hold, has some flex (which means it can slide on and off the bean hopper easier) and has vertical measuring lines inside if you’d prefer to measure by eye instead of using a scale. The cup is also angled, another good design choice. It makes pouring the beans into the hopper easier and it also fits more secure to the hopper when it is put back in place.

The only downside to the material used is it attracts any stray bean chaff quite a bit.

There’s one more perk: the rubberized cup actually helps reduce the grinder’s operating noise. The Encore, Virtuoso, Vario and Forte aren’t super loud (not like how loud the Sette grinders are!) but every bit of noise reduction helps and the Single Dose Hopper does help in that regard.

The workflow with the Single Dose Hopper is pretty straightforward: remove the upper cup, place on your scale, measure your whole beans, and pour them into the hopper. Put the upper cup back into place, and grind until all the coffee has been ground.

Pricing

This is where I really like this product. Considering that some single / low dosing options for grinders from Mazzer and other commercial / prosumer grinders can cost well over $100, at $24 MSRP, the Baratza Single Dose Hopper is a complete bargain. A nicely designed product for the price of a cheap steak dinner is yours, instead of paying for five courses at French Laundry.

Wrap Up

I’m not a fan of single dosing much (was I able to hide that fact in this review?) I do get why some are obsessed with single dosing coffee: sometimes changing the coffee you’re drinking and swapping out an entire hopper full of beans is a hassle. Others just like to see that everything going in is coming out of a grinder. Still others prefer to keep their coffee as fresh as possible in a one way valve bag that has all the air squeezed out. I admit much of my bias against single dosing comes from just not liking it when someone takes a product that’s been designed with pleasing aesthetics and solid industrial design, then they throw some hacked on, fugly duct taped single doser on top. 

The BaratzaGEAR Single Dose Hopper is not that. It’s well thought out, doesn’t look too weird on top of a grinder, and the price cannot be beat. I think it’s the best product in the new BaratzaGEAR lineup, and I give it a solid A rating.

About the author

Mark has certified as a Canadian, USA, and World Barista Championship Judge in both sensory and technical fields, as well as working as an instructor in coffee and espresso training. He started CoffeeGeek in 2001.