Our favorite scales and why they’re important.

It’s essential that delicious coffee beans should result in delicious morning brew when it is poured into your cup. You may have noticed instances where the coffee on Monday was absolutely delicious, and nearly undrinkable on Thursday. WHY?

There’s a simple technique that can save a lot of frustration, and that is dosing by weighing your coffee. This may sound like a small detail, but it can have a huge impact on the constancy of your daily brewing experience. Weighing out your coffee can turn a good brew into one that's exceptional if you take the time to dial in.

A reliable scale can be found for typically under $50, including a few golden standard items that many cafes around the world use every day.

Here’s our favorite way to use a scale to brew with your Ratio Four, Six, Eight Original, and Eight Series 2. Once you do it a few times, it will become second nature!

1. Use a cup that's suitable for dosing the whole coffee beans, or the lid of your grinder's hopper if it allows, and place it on the scale.

2. Tare the scale.

3. Dose your beans. Please reference this article for our recommended doses for each Ratio machine.

4. Start the grinder's burrs, and pour the weighed whole coffee beans into your grinder's hopper. Starting the grinder before adding the beans will help prevent jams.

5. After your coffee is ground, then dose the coffee grounds into the paper filter or Able filter that's in your machine's dripper.

6. Place your carafe and dripper on the base of your Ratio, press the brew button, and let the delicious coffee commence!

Here are some of our favorite scales to add consistency to your morning ritual:

The Workhorse: CJ-4000 Scale

A simple, sturdy workhorse with accuracy that lasts. This comes with a neutral backlit LED display. The accuracy is within a tenth of a gram, and with a 20 year manufacturer’s warranty, you can rely on this scale to provide great results with your weighing routine for many years to come. ($29 from Prima Coffee)

The Pour Over Companion: Hario V60 Drip Scale

The Hario Drip (V60) Scale is a pour-over enthusiast’s best friend. It has a sleek profile that lends well to any coffee countertop. It has a great feature that simultaneously allows it to measure weight & extraction time for proper pour-over process. Whether using for the Ratio or otherwise, it’s an accurate scale that is versatile to multiple brewing methods. ($60 from Hario)

The Modernist: Fellow Tally Pro Precision Scale

Meet the ultimate coffee scale for perfectly-proportioned and effortless pour-over. The scale features ultra-precise responsiveness, a luminous OLED display, and Brew Assist™ Mode guide you to the right ratio, removing the guesswork from brewing. ($199.95 from Ratio)

Fellow Tally Pro Precision Scale

The Minimalist: Acaia Lunar Scale

The Acaia Lunar scale is sleek with a minimalist design, built in timer, and associated app to track recipes. The scale is small and fits on any espresso machine drip try, but can be used to dose your beans for any batch size. Its maximum capacity is 2kg of coffee. ($250 from Ratiocoffee.com)