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One of the best investments you can make to level up your morning coffee -- regardless of how you brew it -- is to add a digital scale to your coffee preparation. For years I started my days grinding a handful of beans and sloshing an indeterminate amount of boiling water through them, and the results were...fine. Is "fine" really the goal when it comes to your daily caffeine-delivery ritual?
Achieving good coffee is all about the consistent combination of quality beans (ground well), hot water and time. A quality coffee scale ties them all together, measuring the beans before and after grinding, measuring the amount of water added and extracting the coffee over a set amount of time.
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The MHW-3Bomber Cube Coffee Scale Mini 2.0 does it all in a compact, affordable -- $45 but you can save 15% with an Amazon coupon for Labor Day -- package with features tailored for coffee and espresso preparation. It recharges via USB-C cable and takes up nearly no space on your counter. The best part is you don't need to dive deep into the intricacies of professional coffee brewing to gain the advantages a scale provides.
Let gravity get you started
Aside from the obvious capability of giving a precise measurement of whatever you put on top of the scale, what I like about the Cube Coffee Scale Mini 2.0 is how convenient it is for me.
As long as the scale is powered on (via a physical switch, which I almost never again need to touch), it sleeps near my other coffee gear. When I put anything weighing over 100g on top, such as a small container to pour beans into, the scale wakes up and zeroes the measurement -- most scales require that I add the container and then reset the amount before adding the beans.
The MHW-3Bomber Coffee Scale Mini 2.0 automatically activates when you place something heavier than 100g on it, like this cup, and then measures the coffee you put into the object.
Jeff Carlson/CNETSmart modes for pour-over and espresso
The Cube Coffee Scale Mini 2.0 also features smart modes for the preparation of pour-over coffee and espresso. For example, with grounds all set in a pour-over cone, as soon as I start pouring watBest Electric Kettles of 2024er the scale begins recording the weight and starts the timer. When the brew finishes, the bright LCD displays the original weight of the grinds and the water weight plus the elapsed time.
When using it with an espresso machine, the scale is small enough to fit under most groupheads (alas, my old La Pavoni Europiccola is too short). This smart mode records the weight of the coffee in the portafilter -- the silicon mat flips over to make this easier to balance -- and then records the weight of the extracted espresso so you can dial in a good ratio of beans to liquid.
For espresso, measure the coffee grounds put into the portafilter. You can then move the scale to the espresso machine's drip tray to weigh the extracted liquid.
Jeff Carlson/CNETTrue to its name, the MHW-3Bomber Coffee Scale Mini 2.0 has a small footprint, which is great if the coffee corner in your kitchen is dense with gear. It's best suited to smaller, single coffee batches, but I've successfully used it with an 8-cup pour-over coffee maker that I brew with most mornings.
This 8-cup pour-over carafe fits fine on the MHW-3Bomber Coffee Scale Mini 2.0.
Jeff Carlson/CNETMeasuring my coffee beans and water has proven to be a revelation in my coffee prep. When an older, larger scale I'd used for years finally weighed its last grounds, I was buzzing with excitement to get a smaller, slightly smarter model -- or maybe that was the caffeine coursing through me. For more, here's our favorite mug warmer and here's our favorite smart mug.