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A dose of good advice

So you purchased some of our tasty beans, you have made a few cups since opening the bag and one of those cups was incredible! But since then you have struggled to repeat that exact cup of wonderful coffee goodness? The coffee has been great (of course) but not incredible. Your equipment hasn’t changed, you have the same grind settings, and your brewing machine is working as it should. So why can’t you repeat that incredible cup that dreams are made of?

Chances are, you are not dosing your coffee.

Often when you consider the components that go into making some amazing brew the first things that come to mind is top quality beans and top quality equipment (your brew machine and grinder of choice). And you would be right in making that assumption – get your grind right with those top quality beans and the results will be heading in the right direction of stunning.

But to actually get to stunning, and to do that consistently, a variable that is so often overlooked in the process is weight. Using the same weight for the same bean with the same grind setting = that stunning coffee you made three cups ago but have since not been able to repeat.

Dosing (the term affectionately used in the coffee world) is the simple process of grinding the exact amount of coffee needed for your preferred brew method. For example, when using an espresso machine the ground coffee dose should equal the capacity of the filter basket you are using. By ensuring you use the same amount of coffee each time you reduce the (usually very large) scale (pun intended) of variations going into that cup. This allows you to then hone in on other aspects of your brew preparation such as grind settings.

How do you ‘dose’ coffee?

There are two methods which work well, the one to chose is dependent on your grinder:

1) Weigh the amount of coffee you need before putting it through the grinder. This method works well if you have a grinder that doesn’t retain much of the ground coffee (as in most of what you put into the grinder comes out when it has been ground).

2) Weigh the amount of coffee you need after it has been ground. This method works well if you have a grinder that retains a reasonably significant portion of the coffee it is grinding, also a good option if you have pre-ground coffee. With this method, to ensure you get the amount of coffee required for the correct dose, weigh your whole beans before putting them into the grinder and ensure the whole bean weight is more than your desired ground weight.

*Please refer to the instructions/guides that came with your brew machine(s) to determine the suitable dosing weight.

Rebel Alliance Roasters