How to use a coffee scale

How to use a coffee scale

Here’s how to make the best of your coffee using a scale:

French press and manual brewing

For french press and manual brews, you want to first measure out the coffee beans and grind them.

Once you have coffee grounds, place the french press/container on the scale and tare it so it reads zero. Add your grounds and tare it again, since you’ve already measured them.

1 ml of water is equal to 1 gram of water, so you can use that to keep track. Start pouring water and keep an eye on the measurement. A typical cup of coffee is 6 ounces or 178 ml. On your scale, it will read 178 grams.

It’s also super useful for fine-tuning your brew as you can adjust coffee and water in exact steps.

Espresso

If it’s an espresso you are craving, place the portafilter on the scale and tare it so it reads zero. Now just add grounds into the portafilter until the measurement reads your desired amount – again, this will depend on whether you’re making one or two shots.

Once you’ve got the grounds measured out, just tamp them down, stick the portafilter into your espresso machine and start brewing coffee!

In case you’re using beans, you’ll need to measure out the beans first, grind them, and just fill them in your portafilter as you would normally. There’s no need to tare it again on the coffee scale, since you already measured it out.

Pour over

For pour over coffee, first measure out your beans and grind them.

Then place the filter apparatus on the coffee scale(this includes the cup, the funnel, and the paper filter). Add your grounds and tare the whole thing to zero.

Keeping an eye on the coffee scale, pour water in a circular motion until you’ve hit 178 grams, which is equal to 6 ounces. For best results, use a gooseneck kettle for easy pouring.

Coffee Scale Buying Guide

On the whole, the best coffee scales are fairly simple machines but there are indeed a few features you want to consider before you buy.

Speed of measurement

This is usually an overlooked feature but it’s critical that your scales show you the measurements in almost-real time. Otherwise, you’ll always end up inadvertently pouring out a little more than you actually need and it can be a pain to fish out the beans little by little until you’ve got the right amount.

You’ll find this especially annoying if you’re adding water to dry ingredients!

Precision

Next up is precision – how accurate of a measurement do coffee scales provide? One gram/ounce? Or one-tenth of a gram/ounce?

Some recipes and preparations (like pour over coffee) require extreme precision, whilst others are more forgiving. Depending on what you’re planning on making, you’ll have to see if you can get away with 1 gram measurements or you need more accuracy.

Capacity

Next up is capacity. Some coffee scales can only go up to 500 grams, whilst others can go up to 1 kg and more. 500 gram scales are fine for only measuring out coffee, but if you need to measure out water as well, you may need higher capacity scales.

For example, you need to measure 20 grams of coffee and 300 grams(ml) of water, that’s 320 grams. But the cup you’re measuring the water in weighs 200 grams, so the total is 520 – more than what your coffee scale can handle!

Size

Where are you going to keep the coffee scale? On your kitchen counter, on your restaurant prep table, or is this something you’re going to throw in a backpack and go camping? These are things you’ll need to consider. Obviously, size and capacity are inter-related to an extent.

Units

Sometimes you will need to measure in grams, and other recipes may call for ounces. Most coffee scales do indeed support switching between units but it’s always good to double check before buying.

With units there is another feature called tare, where you can place something on the scale, tare it, and the scale will subtract the weight of the object from the weight of the stuff you wish to measure.

This is useful if you want to measure in a cup or a bowl and not fiddle around with a calculator.

Timer

A timer is a good feature to have when you’re brewing coffee using manual methods like pour over or french press. Once you’ve measured out the coffee and water, you can just set the timer on the coffee scale for however long you wish to brew – like the 4 minutes recommended for a french press.

Power

Finally, power is a factor to consider when you’re using coffee scales for prolonged periods of time – such as entertaining guests, or if you’re buying for a restaurant or cafe. It may be a hassle to keep changing out batteries, so instead, you want to consider getting something that’s directly powered from a wall outlet.

Bottom line

We’re big fans of all the coffee scales we’ve reviewed here, but the ERAVSOW takes the cake in terms of a combination of price, value, durability, and features.