Dosacaffe

I first saw this tool 15 years ago, when a friend who's a devotee of good coffee taught me how to use a moka-style espresso pot. Anyone who makes their own coffee -- and especially those who do moka -- knows a fine layer of grounds comes to inhabit the counter space where you fill your coffee pot. The difference between this dispenser and using a spoon is two-fold: the Dosacaffe isn't messy, at all. And it's much more accurate. Just put the dispenser over the bottom half of the moka pot. Flip the lever 6 times, for a six-cup pot. (If you are having a rough day, bang the base of the pot against the counter to make room for a few more flip's worth of coffee.) Screw the top half of the moka to the bottom half. Make your coffee on the stove, and enjoy. For 15 years, I have looked for this dispenser off and on, and finally found it at a small general store/online retailer in Vermont, which claims to be the first US supplier of the Dosacaffe. I can say that the thing lives up to its promise: mess-free grounds dispensing, accurate coffee measurements, and the elegant simplicity of a tool that does exactly one thing relentlessly well. The cleaning is easy, just rinse it out between refills. I can't imagine any maintenance, though I bet the little springs will wear out eventually (I've had mine 3 months). Regardless, it easily holds a full can of coffee (12 oz.), so refills aren't inconvenient. It actually seems bottomless to me. I just learned there is a sugar-dosing companion piece, too.