Varia AKU Scale

The Varia AKU Espresso Scale

The Varia AKU scale is one of the best all-purpose scales available in its price range. It’s durable, accurate, and attractive, designed to facilitate your brewing, not impede it. 

Where larger scales suitable for pour-over brewing may not fit under spouted portafilters with a cup, the AKU’s slim profile makes it a perfect choice for espresso brewing. It’s also got a wide enough weighing platform to fit most pour-over carafes, making it one of the more versatile scales we’ve seen.

Dimensions: 4.75" W x 4.2" D x 0.5" H

Features & Benefits

Despite only having two buttons, the AKU offers much of the functionality you see in coffee scales twice the price. 

The automatic brewing time and tare function allows you to achieve the perfect coffee to water ratio when brewing pour over coffee. You can also time your espresso extractions perfectly without the need to push extra buttons. 

As scales with timer functions go, this one is easy to use and intuitive, making it a perfect option for anyone who doesn’t want to mess around with complex menus.

The AKU is also die-cast and CNC machined to industry levels of precision, giving it precise tolerances, accuracy, and stability when making adjustments and weighing. Its high-quality precision-load cell is accurate to 0.1 grams across the entire weighing range, which allows you to measure your coffee beans precisely for the perfect pour-over or shot of espresso. 

Made from heat-resistant PFA Alloy with an IPX-5 water resistance rating, you can spill as much espresso or brew water on your AKU as you like without having to worry about damaging it. 

The high-contrast, hidden LED display makes it easy to read measurements in real time, and the rechargeable Lithium polymer battery lasts for over 300 brewing cycles. (It is worth noting, however, that the AKU scale cannot be used while it’s charging, so make sure you plug it in when it gets low so you don’t find yourself up a coffee creek without your proverbial paddle.)

To top it all off, the non-slip silicone feet keep the AKU scale stable, even when the countertop is wet. 

Why You Should Get It

Varia’s AKU scale offers all the functionality and quality of other popular espresso scales at less than half the price. It’s also more versatile than most other scales, being large enough to support a pour-over carafe yet slim enough to fit under a portafilter spout. Ultimately, the AKU scale is the perfect accessory for home brewers of all varieties. 

What’s in the Box?

The Varia AKU scale comes with everything you need to follow precise brewing recipes right out of the box (which, granted, isn’t much).

The included protective carrying case fits the scale itself, as well as a silicone anti-slip mat, 100 gram weight (for calibrating the scale) and the USB charging cable. (NOTE: the cable does not come with a wall adapter, so you’ll need to buy one of those separately or plug it into a computer to charge.) The user manual is clear and (best of all) short.