Pour-over coffee requires the use of a scale to ensure that the correct amounts of coffee and water are used, as well as the appropriate ratio of coffee to water. Anyone who has ever made pour-over coffee knows this. You can use any old scale to help you weigh things out, but the Acaia Pearl scale, which costs $150, is the scale that pros look to when they want to perfect their cup.
However, $150 is quite a bit of money for a scale. So… would you say it’s worth it? In order to find out, we tested one.
A Quick Look at: Acaia Pearl Scale
Cons:
Designed to assist you in becoming more proficient at brewing coffee.
Stunning in its construction
Stunning in its precision
Cons:
A challenge to use.
Expensive
What Are Some of the Benefits of Using the Acaia Pearl Coffee Scale?
Impressive accuracy
The accuracy of a scale is of the utmost significance, particularly when used for coffee, in which case even a fraction of a gram makes a difference. The Acaia Pearl is accurate to the tenth of a gram, although the readings on some other scales may not be so miniscule at such a small unit of measurement.
Its response speed is one of the fastest on the market, especially when compared to lower-end coffee scales, which is another great advantage of the Pearl. Another major advantage of the Pearl is how rapidly it registers weights. Additionally, the weights stable much more rapidly, which means that you do not need to take that half a second to make sure that the scale is indeed displaying the proper weight.
A coffee scale for those who are passionate about coffee.
This coffee scale was built with almost every aspect with the intention of assisting you in becoming a better coffee brewer. The display is equipped with a real-time flow rate indicator that provides feedback on whether or not the pace at which water is being poured is appropriate. The display even features lines that serve as thresholds for so-called correct flow rates, which baristas use to help assess how well their final cup of coffee will be extracted. These markings are used by baristas to help gauge how well extracted their coffee will be.
The Pearl also includes a number of options that might assist you in developing your barista abilities further. The dual-display option, which is the most popular setting for all coffee scales, allows you to view both the timing and the weight simultaneously. However, when you activate the Pearl’s other capabilities, you will also have access to the Auto-Start Timer mode. This mode detects when you begin pouring water and will begin counting down the allotted amount of time once it detects this action. The Pearl’s Beverage mode walks you through every step of the pour-over brewing procedure, from placing the cup or carafe on the scale to removing the filter when the coffee has finished brewing.
In addition, for those who are app addicts, the Pearl has a companion smartphone app that can be connected through Bluetooth. This app allows you to save brewing recipes, update the firmware, and use a variety of other coffee-geek capabilities.
The Pearl can be charged multiple times.
Even though it is a very insignificant feature, the fact that the Pearl scale can be charged with an external power source is without a doubt one of my favorite aspects of it. I had been using the Hario coffee scale, which requires AAA batteries in order to function, and I have always hated having to replace those things, especially when the act of replacing the batteries became an additional step between waking up and drinking coffee. I have since switched to another coffee scale that does not require batteries.
The Pearl is powered by a USB Type-C port, and while it does come with its own charger, you can also use the charger that came with your phone to power the Pearl. According to the manufacturer, the coffee scale only needs to be charged once every few months despite having a battery life of up to 30 to 40 hours. In addition to that, the scale is ready to use right after it has been charged.
What Aspects of the Acia Pearl Scale Are Less Than Ideal?
That really high price tag
It’s hard to see past the Pearl’s price tag of $150, especially when you consider that you can buy a great coffee scale for a lot less money than that. For those of you who put a lot of thought into your coffee routine, this is a worthwhile investment. If all you want to do in the morning is brew a cup of coffee to keep yourself going for the rest of the day, then purchasing this item seems like a ridiculously large waste of money.
On the other hand, a significant number of people who enjoy making coffee at home enjoy tinkering with the brewing process and trying different beans. If you are one of these people, the Pearl will assist you in elevating your coffee-brewing skills to the next level.
Interface that is difficult to utilize
The Pearl only has two buttons total, one of which is the power button, and the other is the tare button. These two buttons are all that are necessary to control the scale, so it maintains a streamlined and uncluttered appearance. It is annoying to use the Pearl because you have to remember what buttons to press and for how long to press them in order to go through the device’s settings. There is an infinite amount of possible combinations of long and short pressing.
Only two of the Pearl’s settings, “weigh only” and “dual display for weight and time,” are operational when the device is first removed from its packaging. To activate the several modes, Acaia insists, for some reason, that you first navigate to the settings, which are, once more, not easy to find (or off). I had to go into the settings in order to turn on the mode that automatically starts the device and the mode for beverages. It raises the question of why Acaia did not just set all of these modes on from the beginning of the game.
The timer cannot be restarted at this time.
The countdown timer is one of the aspects of the Pearl that I dislike the most. Once you pause the timer, there is no way to resume it; the timer resets to zero. This is despite the fact that it counts correctly upwards while you have it paused. This does not make any sense. The fact that it is a touch button makes it simple to inadvertently halt the timer, and since there is no way to restart the count, you run the risk of messing up your entire coffee-brewing procedure if you lose track of how much time is still left on your brew.
The Conclusion of the Acaia Pearl Scale
Since I’ve been making coffee using the pour-over method for about a decade now, the Pearl has always been one of the dream accessories I’d like to add to my pour-over collection. However, despite its attractive appearance and remarkable degree of precision, it is ridiculously costly.
This scale feels like a luxury buy that you could do without making unless you’re aiming to compete in a barista competition. In that case, you should get one. It is difficult to rationalize the expense of the Pearl when a coffee scale that costs only $50 could do the job, but a coffee aficionado would certainly appreciate receiving it as a present.
