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First Month Using a Kitchen Scale for Coffee

A $25 piece of equipment changed how I make coffee more than the $200 I'd previously spent on grinder upgrades. A first-month report on what actually happened. I'd been making coffee at home for two years before I bought a scale. I'd watched dozens of YouTube videos that all said "weigh your coffee," and I'd ignored all of them. Eyeballing scoops worked fine for me. The cup was OK. I didn't see the point. Last month I finally bought a cheap kitchen scale ($25) and tried weighing for two weeks. By the end of the first week I'd thrown away my coffee scoop. Here's what I learned about why "eyeballing it" was costing me more than I thought. The thing nobody told me I assumed my "scoop" of coffee was roughly consistent day-to-day. It wasn't. When I started weighing, the same scoop ranged from 14g to 22g depending on: How loosely or tightly I packed the scoop How fresh the beans were (older beans are less dense) ...
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The 3-Day Melbourne Coffee Crawl I'd Recommend to a Friend

Three days, ten cafés, walkable. The route I'd send a friend with no time to research. Take the tram if it rains.

Cafe interior with tables and chairs near a window in Berlin
Photo: Nikita Pishchugin on Unsplash

I've sent this itinerary to four different friends visiting Melbourne in the past year. It's not the best café tour possible — it's the most useful one for someone with limited time who wants to leave the city understanding why Melbourne's coffee culture is what it is.

Three days, three neighborhoods, ten cafés. Walking distances are all under 25 minutes between stops. Adjust based on your tolerance for caffeine.

Day 1: Central Melbourne and the lane-ways

Morning — Patricia Coffee Brewers (CBD). Tiny standing-only espresso bar in a side street. No seats, no food, no flat whites with extra syrup. You order an espresso or a long black, you drink it, you leave. This is your introduction to Melbourne café culture: focused, unfussy, very fast, very good.

Late morning — Brother Baba Budan (CBD). Five minutes' walk from Patricia. Look up — there are upside-down chairs nailed to the ceiling. The flat whites here are textbook. The space is busier and more tourist-friendly than Patricia, but the coffee is honest.

Afternoon — Dukes Coffee Roasters (CBD/Flinders Lane). A Melbourne institution. The siphon brews here are worth the slower pace. Order a single-origin filter and ask the barista which bean is best at the moment. They'll tell you honestly.

Late afternoon — Walk Degraves Street, Centre Place, and Hardware Lane. No specific café — just walk. These are the lane-ways that contain Melbourne's café density. Pop into whatever looks open. You will not have a bad cup. The point is to feel the geography.

Day 2: Carlton and Fitzroy

Morning — Seven Seeds (Carlton). One of Melbourne's most respected roasters, with a flagship café where you can taste single-origin filter alongside the espresso program. Order a "tasting flight" if they offer one — three small cups of the same bean prepared three different ways. The best coffee education $15 can buy.

Late morning — Walk Lygon Street. This is the historical heart of Italian Melbourne. The Italian espresso bars from the 1970s are mostly still here, with the same elderly clientele drinking espresso at the bar. Brunetti is the most famous; King and Godfree is more historically resonant. Either one will do.

Afternoon — Industry Beans (Fitzroy). Tram across to Fitzroy. Industry Beans has a roastery-café format where you can see the roasting equipment and order direct from beans roasted that week. Their Coffee Flight (espresso, batch brew, AeroPress) is a good way to taste one bean three ways without committing to three full cups.

Evening — Proud Mary (Collingwood). Walking distance from Industry Beans. Proud Mary's Collingwood location stays open later than most Melbourne cafés (~4pm closure), and they serve coffee alongside actual food. A reasonable end to day two.

Day 3: Pick a roastery and go deep

The first two days are tasting tours. Day three should be a single-roastery deep dive. Pick the roaster whose coffee you liked best so far and go to their flagship café. Examples:

  • ST. ALi (South Melbourne). The classic. Their café also does excellent food.
  • Market Lane (multiple locations). Smaller, more focused on filter coffee. The South Melbourne Market location is the most atmospheric.
  • Code Black (Brunswick). Smaller, newer, very serious about light-roast filter coffee.

Spend two hours. Order a flat white, then ask the barista to make you whatever single-origin they think you should taste right now. Bring a notebook. Take notes. This is the day you understand the difference between drinking coffee and thinking about coffee.

Practical notes

Most cafés close by 3-4pm. Australian café culture is morning-to-afternoon, not evening. Plan accordingly. If you want to drink coffee in the evening, you're looking for a bar with a coffee program, not a café.

Bring cash for tips, but tipping isn't expected. Australian baristas are paid properly, unlike in the US. A small tip is appreciated but not required.

Trams are your friend. Central Melbourne is walkable; getting between Carlton, Fitzroy, and South Melbourne is much easier by tram. The trams in the CBD zone are free.

Buy a bag at the end. Whichever roastery you visit on day three, buy a bag of beans to take home. The roasters in Melbourne all bag with current roast dates and ship internationally. You'll thank yourself in two weeks when the trip-coffee withdrawal hits.

/ Read more on HexRoast

The deeper take on Melbourne is on the main site

This was the practical itinerary. If you want the longer piece on why Melbourne ended up the world's best coffee city — the Italian post-war foundation, the lane-way geography, the apprenticeship pipeline — that's on HexRoast:

→ Melbourne's Coffee Supremacy · hexroast.com
HexRoast is a craft coffee brand for developers and designers.
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