Choosing a scale is an important part of any coffee setup. While it can be tempting to use a random kitchen scale, purpose-made coffee scales offer greater accuracy and some useful features that will improve your workflow. You might also think you’ll only need a scale for pour over, but there are great benefits from using one for espresso and other forms of brewing as well. With this in mind, let’s take a look at two of our current favorite scales: the Acaia Pearl S, and the Fellow Tally!
Acaia Pearl S
The Acaia Pearl S is a longstanding favorite of ours and of the coffee world at large. Acaia makes excellent coffee scales that are sensitive and full of smart features. Using Acaia’s app, you can save and recreate pour over recipes step by step. This makes recalling that perfect pour so much easier than if you had to try to recall all of your ratios and flow rates off the top of your head. Even without the app, the Pearl S offers a timer, pinpoint accuracy, and multiple modes.
If there’s anything that might dissuade you from the Pearl S, it’s the complexity. This is a tough scale for new at-home coffee enthusiasts to get the hang of. Between the app and the 8 different brew modes, it can be overwhelming to get started with this scale on paper. That said, you can always just turn this scale on and use it as, well, a simple scale. It’s for this reason that we still love and recommend the Acaia Pearl S, just plan to pick up the portafilter plate if you are going to use it for espresso.
Fellow Tally
The Fellow Tally is a newer option on the coffee scale front. Similar to the Pearl S, this scale offers a very high degree of accuracy, boasting 0.1g of consistency. Like the Pearl S it is also water-resistant, and features USB-C charging. It’s also got simpler features like the timer and basic usage right out of the box. So what separates this scale from the competition?
The cool thing that the Fellow Tally offers is its Brew Assist mode. This mode has you tell the scale when you’re measuring your coffee, and it then helps you pour just the right amount of water, taking the guesswork out of your pour over. You can just fill your kettle and pour, with the scale letting you know when your brew has had enough. It’s a smart feature that is easy to use, and it definitely helps you to brew the perfect carafe or morning cup of pour over. Since it adapts to your coffee amount it means that you don’t have to save recipes, which is a really comfortable way to make that pour over.
Which Scale is Right for You?
So which of these two scales is right for you? It really depends on what your preferred level of complexity is.
The Acaia Pearl S offers extreme tweaking with its brew app. You’ll get stats on ratios, volume, time, flow rate, basically everything that goes into your morning pour over. It’s the perfect scale for the person who wants to spend the extra time to brew their coffee to exacting standards.
On the flip side, there’s the Fellow Tally. The Tally still wants to provide all of the accuracy that you need for a great pour over. The difference here is how deep it dives into the details. If you want to simplify your morning pour over and make your workflow a little easier, the Tally is for you.
So there you have it. Each of these scales is excellent, and while each might carry a hefty price tag for a scale, they really do justify their price points. Which one is for you will come down to what you’re looking to gain from your scale selection.