What’s on your coffee bench?

[denapista]

I was gifted a Fellow Stagg EKG electric kettle for xmas.
Amazing! not sure why I took so long to buy one.

I would go for the grinder but I heard not so good reviews/feedback about the level of fine it can grind.

[fmradio516]

Originally Posted by AJosiahK

just got myself a new scale, the 2021 Acaia Lunar. huge upgrade.

Lmk if youre gonna put your old scale on the market! Ill be in town at the end of the month for my wifes dr's appointment.

[crankles]

Originally Posted by jh_on_the_cape

Then why don't they use a scale at an espresso bar in Italy? Or any high quality coffee shop? Just clack the doser and go.

I haven't been in Italy in 20 years so I can't speak to that, BUT many of the new commercial machines have scales built into the drip trays, e.g. La Marzocco KB/strada/PB series. Also using low retention grinders w. autodosing. The scales are there, it may just not be as obvious.

[MikeD]

I've got a cheap scale. It's not waterproof and the display is a little wonky because a little water got in there and affected it, but it's still readable. I was always wondering how accurate the scale was though, so I bought a set of calibration weights off of Amazon. The scale is spot on. IMO, you don't need to spend a lot of $$ on a scale, and a lot of them are quite pricey and not worth the money. Water resistance is nice though.

[crankles]

Originally Posted by AJosiahK

just got myself a new scale, the 2021 Acaia Lunar. huge upgrade.

You're almost done ;-).
https://www.pantechnicondesign.com/c...unar-scale-mod

[93KgBike]

Got a Nespresso for x-mas, which has helped me to reduce my daily intake from 10+ cups to < 5 cups.

[froze]

Originally Posted by jkbrwn

Because Italian espresso and modern espresso are very, very different indeed. Italian espresso isn't precise in most casual walk up bars and it costs 1 EUR for a shot...

The reason you see an Italian add two sachets of sugar to an espresso but probably not someone in a third wave cafe in other parts of the world is because Italian espresso is inherently dark and bitter versus more modern styles of espresso.

Lots of specialist coffee shops use scales. I can't think of one that doesn't.

I've must have been too weird cities then because I've never seen a scale used either, and I've been to a lot of specialist coffee shops. I personally think the reason they don't is once they know exactly how much coffee to use, they don't need to weigh it, no one would be able to taste even up to 5 grams of coffee difference plus or minus, unless you were comparing side by side then maybe, just maybe, someone with acute taste buds could tell the difference between an accurately weighed cup of coffee vs one that is off by 5 grams either way in a side-by-side comparison.

[crankles]

Originally Posted by froze

I've must have been too weird cities then because I've never seen a scale used either, and I've been to a lot of specialist coffee shops. I personally think the reason they don't is once they know exactly how much coffee to use, they don't need to weigh it, no one would be able to taste even up to 5 grams of coffee difference plus or minus, unless you were comparing side by side then maybe, just maybe, someone with acute taste buds could tell the difference between an accurately weighed cup of coffee vs one that is off by 5 grams either way in a side-by-side comparison.

5g is huge, whether we are talking the weight of the beans or even the weight of the final cup. In the US at least, no shop uses single dose baskets. All are doubles and are typically 18 or 20 g baskets. An addition gram of ground coffee will overfill the basket and become waste (read profit).
If I run an extra 5 g of water through the same 18g puck. I'll pull off bitters I rather not have.

In addition, all this weighing, timing of shots...etc, simply turns almost any barista into a half-way decent one by removing as many variable from their hands as possible, ones that an experienced barista will have internalized.

[jkbrwn]

Originally Posted by froze

no one would be able to taste even up to 5 grams of coffee difference plus or minus, unless you were comparing side by side then maybe, just maybe, someone with acute taste buds could tell the difference between an accurately weighed cup of coffee vs one that is off by 5 grams either way in a side-by-side comparison.

5 grams!? 5 grams is huge. It's the difference between a single and a double. If you're talking about 5 grams in, that is. Even 5 grams out, I can tell the difference from a textural perspective - and trust me, I've done the A-B comparisons. 18g in to make 35g out versus 40g out are very different shots.

Outside of espresso, have you ever seen pour over being made in somewhere like Blue Bottle? They have scales built into the counter. Or Verve, or Intelligentsia or any other third wave coffee shop. They'll all absolutely use scales of some kind.

Edit: Oops got beaten to it by crankles.

[froze]

Originally Posted by crankles

5g is huge, whether we are talking the weight of the beans or even the weight of the final cup. In the US at least, no shop uses single dose baskets. All are doubles and are typically 18 or 20 g baskets. An addition gram of ground coffee will overfill the basket and become waste (read profit).
If I run an extra 5 g of water through the same 18g puck. I'll pull off bitters I rather not have.

In addition, all this weighing, timing of shots...etc, simply turns almost any barista into a half-way decent one by removing as many variable from their hands as possible, ones that an experienced barista will have internalized.

You're right, I was over exaggerating a bit. But the point was I haven't seen anyone use scales, so if their not using scales then it must be by experience.

[froze]

Originally Posted by jkbrwn

5 grams!? 5 grams is huge. It's the difference between a single and a double. If you're talking about 5 grams in, that is. Even 5 grams out, I can tell the difference from a textural perspective - and trust me, I've done the A-B comparisons. 18g in to make 35g out versus 40g out are very different shots.

Outside of espresso, have you ever seen pour over being made in somewhere like Blue Bottle? They have scales built into the counter. Or Verve, or Intelligentsia or any other third wave coffee shop. They'll all absolutely use scales of some kind.

Next time I go into a shop I will check more closely for a scale built into the counter, you could you be right, I just never notice it because it wasn't something that stood out on top of the counter, I'll even ask if they use a scale if I don't see one.

I said much earlier I don't use a scale because I like to taste the coffee a tad different from the last.

[jkbrwn]

Originally Posted by froze

Next time I go into a shop I will check more closely for a scale built into the counter, you could you be right, I just never notice it because it wasn't something that stood out on top of the counter, I'll even ask if they use a scale if I don't see one.

I said much earlier I don't use a scale because I like to taste the coffee a tad different from the last.

Managed to find a photo from a Blue Bottle pourover counter for you These are Acacia Pearl's, I think.

[Bici-Sonora]

I toyed with getting a Nespresso machine for Christmas, but
ended up just buying a new rubber plunger for my Aeropress, as well as an Aeropress travel model. I did get a new Peugeot hand grinder. Interestingly, Peugeot made pepper and coffee grinders well before they ever made a Bicycle or car. The Peugeot grinder is for home use, I still have my beat up but still functional GSI Java Mill for coffee outside.

After about 10 years of using Aeropress coffee makers, I’m still in love with the simplicity and quality of coffee I get out of mine.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[jkbrwn]

That coffee sounds delightful.

[ripvanrando]

I dial in new beans, getting the pressure, amount of grind and times are correct.

Then, I just use time of grinding and my eyeball for the amount. My timed grinds are within 1 gram of the new bean validations.

Would I get better results if I get a scale?