Espresso grinds in portafilter with dosing funnel

Stark Insider espresso lab: Espresso Dosing Funnel by MATOW

If you’re like me cleanliness is next to godliness. And that especially holds true for my coffee station.

When I’m making espresso I clean as I go, perhaps being a little too fastidious and OCD along the way. Even though it’s a messy pastime I do my best to keep things relatively organized and free from stray espresso grinds. In reality it’s impossible to keep things as clean as I’d like, so I’m always open to new ideas and updates to my workflow.

No surprise then the latest espresso accessory to enter my radar is a dosing funnel.

The promise is simple: place the ring on top of your portafilter while grinding and you can help prevent grinds from spraying all over the place. Less waste, less mess.

Along with a growing list of espresso gadgets including things like a puck screen and tamping pad that I previously wrote about here on Stark Insider, I wondered if it was worth it, or if it was just more unnecessary clutter.

I’ve been using this 58mm dosing ring for a few weeks now. Here’s what the rudimentary morning process looks like.

Dosing funnel:

Dosing Funnel - Espresso workflow test

Placed on top of portafilter while grinding:

Grinding into portafilter with espresso dosing filter ring

Pretty morning pyramid:

Espresso grinds in portafilter with dosing funnel

After tapping a few times:

After tapping a few times

Morning Cortado almost ready:

Morning Cortado

Espresso Dosing Funnel: A simple conclusion

Once again I fully expected not to like this additional accessory. It would, surely, be yet another workflow distraction. Right?! I mean how many steps do we need to go through when making a simple shot — we’re not launching rockets after all. Right!?

To my surprise I actually do like this dosing funnel. Sigh.

I found it easy to place on top of the portafilter, and that it did indeed hold true to its claim and prevent stray grinds from messing up the counter and workspace. Everything was kept neat as you can see in the above photos.

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This particular dosing ring is nothing fancy. No magnets or fidgety things to lock it in. Rather, it simply holds in place due to its weight (stainless steel). It’s never slipped off or caused any trouble, just doing its job and preventing overflow. I go about my routine and everything is a bit less messy when it comes to escaped coffee grinds.

A growing collection of espresso accessories:

Espresso Accessories - Portafilter, Puck Screen, Tamper, Dosing Funnel

And slowly I head down the rabbit hole. Above are just some of the accessories making their way into my espresso workflow. I’m still an absolute skeptic when it comes to WDT — voodoo I think, as tamping 20-30 pounds just crushes everything no? Though, it probably helps that I recently upgraded to a Ceado espresso grinder that produces fine, even and clump-free grinds. Works of art really!

TL;DR:

Yes, I recommend you try a dosing funnel (this is the MATOW I bought, but Normcore also makes one that’s well reviewed).

Make sure you get one that properly fits your portafilter — common choices are 58mm for most espresso machines and 54mm for Breville. They’re not costly, and do the job. Anything that helps keep things clean and orderly is a plus in my books.

Clinton Stark
Clinton shoots videos for Stark Insider. San Francisco Bay Area arts, Ingmar Bergman and French New Wave, and chasing the perfect home espresso shot 25 seconds at a time (and failing). Peloton: ClintTheMint. Camera: Video Gear