The best single-dose grinders
Weigh in exactly what you brew, keep nearly nothing behind. Single-dosing is the workflow for people who rotate coffees — and the retention number decides everything. We measured it. Priced live in Canada.
91 of the 165 grinders on file qualify · In Canada today the shortlist runs about CA$235–2,398. · updated 2026
Torn between the top two? VS4 Grinder vs Lagom P80 →
What we left out, and why
Hopper grinders marketed as "single-dose friendly" are excluded — bellows taped to a hopper is a workaround, not a workflow. Everything here was designed to run empty.
If your case is the exception
A shortlist ranks the field. The finder ranks it for you.
Two minutes of questions — your cup, the machine it feeds, retention, noise — weighed against all 165 on file, honest alternates included.
Take the two-minute finder →Feed it right
Week one is dial-in — and stale beans will lose it.
Coffee more than a few weeks past roast won’t extract predictably, and a new grinder gets blamed for it. A balanced burr set: rotate origins freely — it will keep up.
Pick your coffee — any of these dials in beautifully here:
Etherea - Ethiopian YirgacheffeSCA 88Medium roast · NaturalJasmine · BergamotSteady and repeatable — right for this setup’s lane.CA$24.16 · roasted to order
Sergio - Brazillian Fazenda Joia Rara Aerobic FermentedSCA 88Medium-light · Cerrado Mineiro · Aerobic FermentedHoney · OrangeSteady and repeatable — right for this setup’s lane.CA$29.18 · roasted to order
Eden Gesha - Colombian MiramarSCA 87Medium-light · Kennedy, San Agustin, Huila · WashedCherry blossom · Tropical fruitSteady and repeatable — right for this setup’s lane.CA$26.24 · roasted to orderWhole bean coffee, with the roast date on each bag.
Prefer regular deliveries? RoastPlan is RoastAroma’s coffee subscription. Choose your coffees and their available options, then set deliveries every 1–6 weeks.
One-time RoastAroma orders are roasted to order in Ajax, Ontario and ship Canada-wide. We’re the roastery behind this database — measuring the machines is how we make sure the coffee gets a fair shot.
Questions, answered straight
- What is the point of a single-dose grinder?
- Freedom to switch beans without purging and near-zero stale retention between sessions. If you rotate coffees, run decaf evenings, or pull a few shots a day rather than a hopper’s worth, it is the workflow that fits.
- Which single-dose grinder is best?
- VS4 Grinder leads on the blend of retention, community standing, and value. The ritual costs a few extra seconds per shot — a drop of water against static, a bellows puff out — and buys back-to-back repeatability.
More shortlists
New burrs settle over their first kilo — and stale beans make every grinder look broken. We roast to order, daily, in Ajax, Ontario.