I test some of the best coffee makers on the market, but you don't need to spend a lot of money to bring your coffee routine to the next level. There’s one easy way to do that, and it’s not a needle distributor or a portafilter puck — although those are somewhat worthy investments, too. I’m a former barista, and I’m perfectly happy with my current routine of yes-to-the-scale, no-to-the-bells-and-whistles.
Some coffee evangelists will tell you that you physically cannot make a high-quality coffee without a scale, and they’re neither right nor wrong. Here’s why: if you’re a coffee purist who can taste every roasting note and millilitre of over-extraction, they’d be right. However, if you just want to guzzle as much of the brown liquid as possible for your daily caffeine rush, they’d be wrong.
