If you like to switch beans every cup or two then I completely agree. If you enjoy extracting the nuances of espresso flavour, especially med-light roasts every time then I agree. However;
I’ve been making espresso at home for around 15 years, I’ve dipped my toes in single dosing more than once and I 100% think it’s overrated if you’re mainly doing a bag at a time. Especially for milk drinks. And even more so if you’re making two or more drinks at a time.
If you’re going to leave beans in a hopper for a week then sure they will stale but dropping a few doses worth in the hopper each day and just grinding on demand is a lot quicker and honestly despite what seems to have become the popular opinion these days it still tastes fantastic. Good OD grinders are usually significantly quicker than the SD offerings. Contrary to popular opinion beans don’t just suddenly turn into flavourless wastes of space if they’re exposed to air for more than 10 seconds.
For some, myself included, the idea of recreating ‘coffee shop efficiency’ at home is an enjoyable part of the process. Some of us don’t have the time or inclination to portion and freeze nine different coffees, weigh out doses into little jars, scan how dark they are, select the correct gauge of acupuncture needles with which to stir and chart their extraction with a graph.
I can still make coffee at home better than any shop I’ve been to and equally as quickly. I also never purge… (gasps!!) Is it as flawlessly nuanced as someone who single doses with careful bean storage? Maybe not but a med-dark behind steamed milk, I reckon 99.9% of people aren’t going to be able to tell.
I wrote so much as I’m a strong believer that more people should try on demand grinding as there are some fantastic OD grinders out there for very good prices. People get into coffee, read forums and watch YouTube and then just believe that single dosing is the righteous path for everyone. You can get tank-like Mazzers, Ceados and even VA’s, literally best-in-class grinders for a few hundred pounds. And surprise surprise the coffee produced by them is fantastic.