Weighing In On Coffee Scales

For Christmas the family purchased a 'dedicated' set of 'coffee' scales which could (a) be kept near the Behmor coffee roaster so the kitchen scales didn't constantly go walk-about from the kitchen, (b) fitted under the spout of the coffee brewer, (c) had both weight measurement and a timer built in.

We'd been making do with the 3kg (3000g) kitchen scales for weighing the beans for roasting and this had been working ok apart from the constant need to 'borrow' the scales from the kitchen and the need for those scales to find their way back to the kitchen afterwards!

Additionally, while the kitchen scales were quite accurate within 0.1g, they were physically too big to fit under the spout of the coffee brewer so it was impossible to use them to experiment with weight of brewed coffee, which was something we'd been wanting to experiment with for a while for ourselves, as opposed to just reading about it.

The above scale offers an accurate and fast pressure sensor and has a rubber mat for the scale-plate to minimise any possible effect of having hot or cold liquids causing sensor inaccuracy.

Specs for the above scale are:

• Capacity: 3 KG

• Accuracy: 0.1 g

• Unit: g / oz / lb / ml, or g / ml

• Power Supply: 2 x AAA Battery(not included)

• Weight: Approx. 473 g

• Size: Scale: Approx. 195 * 130 * 30 mm / 7.7 x 5.1 x 1.2 in

• Tray: Approx. 128 * 128 mm / 5.0 x 5.0 in

We'd done quite a bit of research including watching James Hoffman's YouTube review of The best Smart Coffee Scale where at the end of the day we felt there was insufficent justification to go the smart-scale rout and instead went with a simple filter-coffee scale as discussed in other reviews such as this one which was specific to our scale choice (albeit re-branded)

Anyhow we wound up getting this little set of scales for just a few dollars and they have been working really well so far.

They allowed us to do some comparative measuring of what our everyday De'Longhi bean-to-cup machine could do in delivering coffee shots, with our findings as follows:

• Using the default Espresso setting (2-bean aroma and pre-infusion) produced a 76.5g brew in 26sec, offering a reasonable taste experience

• Using the Espresso X2 setting (2-bean aroma and pre-infusion) produced a rather over-extracted 155.5g brew in 53sec

• Using Espresso X2 with 3-bean aroma and pre-infusion allowed us to stop production at a 120g brew in 36sec, offering an 'acceptable' taste experience at the larger brew quantity, which we also tried over-ice and found 'acceptable'.

• The default Ristretto (1-bean and pre-infusion) produced a 30g brew in 26sec with a notably more flavoursome brew as a result of the reduced volume of brew, compared to the default Espresso

• The best result of our experimenting was the double-Ristretto (two consecutive 30g brews) using a 2-bean aroma setting which gave a good quantity of brew (60g) and very enjoyable flavour.

We have yet to use the scales for roasting or more in-depth coffee prep, but given the experience thus far, they will undoubtable allow us to accurately weigh our green beans for roasting.