Twelve Days of BonLife: Day 9

It’s the Ninth Day of BonLife! During the Twelve Days of BonLife we have dropped daily blog posts to share with you twelve of our favorite specialty coffee products in hopes of making your holiday shopping a little easier. Got a loved one who is crazy about anything coffee-related? We’ve got you covered in this blog series.

Today’s specialty coffee product is an essential tool in any coffee set-up: a scale! We know… it doesn’t sound glamourous. But there is virtually no specialty coffee recipe or brew method that doesn’t involve weighing at least one part of the drink. A good scale is a barista’s right arm!

So if you’re looking for a good gift idea for a home barista, a good scale is a good idea— especially if you’re shopping for someone is just getting started in their home coffee set-up. Or maybe you want to treat someone you love with a very nice scale and upgrade their coffee bar. You can’t go wrong with this practical gift: they will use it every single day.

The reason why a scale is so essential is that we weigh everything in the specialty coffee world. As you can see in most of our photos of our baristas at work, we weigh espresso shots, coffee grounds, pour overs, water, syrups… You name it, we weigh it behind bar. This is key in keeping up consistency in coffee drinks, but it’s also key in making a drink taste right as coffee has a delicate balance when it comes to the ratio of water to coffee grounds.

So you want to buy your coffee lover a new scale for Christmas? It probably won’t surprise you to learn that there are many different options when it comes to scales: from price to features to weight limit, there’s lots to choose from!

Here’s the deal: all levels of fancy work when it comes to weighing coffee. Just make sure the scale can weigh in grams (most do). If it has a built-in timer, that’s a huge plus! Many coffee recipes are timed. As far as weight limits go, most people don’t need to weigh very high weights at home. And if you’re looking to treat a loved one to a really nice scale, the features you’ll start to see is bluetooth connectivity which allows the barista to save recipes/ operate the scale from an app in their phone.

Like with many of our coffee gift ideas, even the most basic choice will delight a home barista, so stick to your budget, follow your instincts, and get the scale that you think is the best fit for the person you’re shopping for!

You can find scales almost anywhere! Here are the three we use in our shop: the Hario V60 Drip Scale, the Acaia Pearl Scale, and the CJ4000 Digital Scale. We love all of these for different reasons, and they’re all very durable and dependable. But, like we said, there are so many good scales out there; using the guide in this post you can vet any scale you’re considering.

We started the Twelve Days of BonLife a bit too early for it to end on Christmas. That’s because we want to give you a few extra days to finish up that last minute shopping with our specialty coffee gift guide in mind. The last day we can ship out an order for it to arrive by Christmas is December 18. Orders on our website over $30 qualify for free shipping.

Need more inspiration? Check out the previous seven days of the Twelve Days of BonLife blog series!