Grind by eye

The old-school technique of eyeballing the amount of ground coffee in the basket — judging by sight whether the dose looks right.

Why it matters — Fast, but inconsistent. Acceptable in a high-volume café where shot-to-shot variation is tolerated, or for very experienced baristas with calibrated eyes. Not recommended if you care about repeatability.

Good to know

• Even experienced baristas show ±0.5–1 g of dose variation when grinding by eye.
• The cost of a scale is small and the gain in consistency is large — buy a scale.