Do I Need a Coffee Scale? Three Reasons It Helps

A scale? To brew coffee? Truth be told, our scale is one of our favorite kitchen tools. We don’t only use it for coffee — we use it for everything! But especially for coffee. Read on to see why it's one of the most brewing helpful tools you can own.

The deeper you dig into the world of specialty coffee, the more you’ll encounter the idea of consistency. Consistency starts on the farm level — the most delicious coffees come from the most evenly ripe coffee cherries, processed meticulously and expertly sorted. In the roastery, too, consistency is huge — many coffee roasters have weekly (or even daily!) quality control cuppings, where they taste batches side-by-side, to make sure each one tastes the same. The reality is, the best coffee producers and roasters are putting in the work to make sure your coffee tastes its absolute best at all times.

A scale allows you and I to join in the fun. For coffee brewing, the main use of a scale is to determine your brew ratio. Simply put, your brew ratio is the amount of coffee used vs. the amount of water. It’ll often look something like “1:15” — that simply means we’re using 15 times as much water as we are coffee, by weight. We use brew ratios all the time at Able — here are a few things we love about them.

1. You can find the ratio you like and repeat it every time. We happen to prefer a 1:15 ratio; for us that’s the perfect balance of a rich cup, but still with plenty of clarity — not too syrupy and overbearing. But maybe you do prefer a richer cup? You could try something like a 1:14 ratio (which is more coffee grounds to water). Or maybe you want a lighter, more delicate cup — or simply want to make your coffee dollars go further. A 1:16 or 1:17 ratio might be best for you. Once you find what you like, a scale makes it easy to repeat every time.
2. You can play with other variables. When we brew coffee here at Able, we try to remove as many variables as possible (especially for our first cup of the day... early in the morning… still a bit groggy). That’s why we always use water just off boil — we find it tastes great, and it’s one less thing to think about. The same thing goes for a brew ratio. If we’ve decided we like a certain ratio (and we have! It’s 1:15), then that is one less thing to think about. We can worry more about adjusting our primary variable (for us it’s often grind size), and leave the brewing ratio and water temperature alone.
3. Sometimes roasters provide recommended ratios! This is not incredibly common, but every once in a while a roaster will provide a brew ratio on their bag or website. If you’re using a scale, it’s super easy to follow along and taste the coffee how the roaster intends.

Finally, there are a lot of really smart tools in coffee scales. Our favorite is this one by Acaia — it has a timer built in, and can connect via app to your phone to help you analyze your pour. We also like the Acaia Pearl, pictured below.

Here’s the deal: you can totally make an amazing cup of coffee without a scale. Don’t let anyone tell you you can’t! But if you want to make incredible coffee day after day — and if you want to experiment more scientifically with other variables — a scale should be one of the first tools you add to your morning coffee routine.