Our Fellow Tally Pro Review: Cool & Expensive

Overall, let’s get this out of the way: if your main concern is value-for-money, there is absolutely no reason you should buy the Fellow Tally Pro Studio Edition coffee scale. It is a very pretty, even magical feeling scale at times. But it doesn’t really do many more things than any basic coffee scale sold on Amazon with a weird array of letters in its name. (like the TIPRE Mini Espresso Coffee Scale, for example.)

But if you’re really wondering about the Fellow coffee scale, you probably already know that. You’re curious if it lives up to the Fellow brand promise, which is instead “slick products that look great, and maybe cost a bit more than average.” On that scale, I think it’s a nearer thing if the Tally Pro Studio Edition delivers. I think if you’re, as most Fellow people are, a lover of pour over coffee, it makes sense.

However, if you’re into Fellow and don’t do pour-overs much, I’d really just avoid this scale. Its extra price doesn’t lead to ANY improved function for brewing with non-pour-over coffee brewing methods. It’s just a pretty accurate scale and timer, but which some people complain about 2g drift on.

Those things said, if you’re a Fellow fan and big pour-over-head with a relatively-generous budget for a coffee scale, just do it! You know you want to! You know it’s about $200 but you want to spend it. And I’ll be that random guy on the internet giving you permission to do it! Will this scale change your life? Not at all. Can you afford it as a fairly-well-off individual? ABSOLUTELY! GO BUY IT NOW!

That out of the way, if you’re looking for a more thorough and thoughtful consideration of the details of the Fellow Tally Pro Studio Edition, let’s get to it!

Overview of the Fellow Tally Pro scale

The Fellow scale is a great deal bigger than average for a coffee scale. It is closer in size to my large 11 lb OXO Kitchen Scale than it is to the Hario Coffee Scale I’ve been using happily for years.

That said, it looks much slicker and sleeker than either of those alternatives.

The finish on the Fellow Tally Pro is strikingly shiny black. It looks good! And though some disagree, I find the subtly different shades of the button and click-wheel appealing. And I think the weight plate is an even more appealing difference.

Overall I think it looks great. And under a large carafe (like my 8 cup Chemex, pictured above) it holds its own.

The screen is also a HUGE upgrade over basically every other coffee scale on the market. Rather than being one of those chunky 7-segment LCDs you recognize from 1980s alarm clocks, it is a beautiful little LCD with enough pixels for words and numbers to have genuine curves, and for a font nerd to think about kerning.

To sum all that up: This is simply the best-looking coffee scale I’ve ever seen!

Basic Features

As you should expect, the Fellow Tally Pro does the two major things people buy coffee scales for: provide a high-accuracy weighing of your beans and water, and let you track how much time your pour-over takes. The second feature is really what makes a coffee scale a coffee scale. And the Fellow Tally Pro Studio Edition is more than capable of doing these things.

And I’ll add, when it comes to whiz-bang basic features, I was wowed the first time I realized that the Fellow scale (like the TIMEMORE I’m also working on a review for) has the ability to actually only start your pour-over time when it detects that water (really any weight) has started hitting your brew-stack.

But that leaves aside the most whiz-bang of the Fellow Scale’s features.

Fancy Feature: Brew Assist

The Fellow scale comes with a Brew Assist mode. If I were being pedantic (and I often am) I’d say it’s more of a “Pour-over Assist” mode. But I can’t fault them for the basically-accurate and much more concise name. But here’s the basic way you use the feature:

1. Weigh your coffee
2. Grind coffee
3. Put pour-over setup on the scale
4. Set your coffee-to-water ratio. (Like 1:15, 1:17, etc)
5. (optional) Do your rinse
6. Tare scale, add coffee
7. Ratio calculation AUTOMATICALLY done, press the timer button. Note: it doesn’t start until it detects you’ve poured in water.
8. Add water, working in waves, until…
9. When the central part of the scale screen turns white, STOP!

There are two things I bolded above that I want to call your attention to, because they’re really what makes this Brew Assist feature much more elegant than any other method of making pour over. First: it has a built in ratio calculator. This saves you from the need to either take out your phone to get a calculator (or a cool brew-ratio app), or fall back to easy-to-calculate numbers like 40g and 1:15 ratios, which is my more common approach. With the Fellow it is genuinely SO MUCH EASIER to measure out about the right amount of beans, pick a hard-to-calculate ratio like 17 to 1, and have no need for hard-thinking (before coffee remember!) or getting out a calculator. It is genuinely a real upgrade!

Add to that the cool combo where it having the math down for you, and having a much prettier and more dynamic screen means it also (subtly) alerts you that you’ve hit your water goal. The numbers, which are usually white-on-black within their pill become black-on-white. This much-greater ratio of white-to-black makes even a sleepy coffee brewer much more aware that they’ve hit their 600g of water. (Or given the feature discussed above, maybe your 542g ;p)

Buy or Not: Weighing the Balance

I don’t think anyone who has read every word written above will be wondering. But I see you internet-scanners, and I get it (I do it too). So here’s a bullet-pointed list of what I see as the pluses and minuses of the Fellow Scale.

Reasons to Buy the Fellow Tally Pro

Let’s get to our pros to the Fellow scale:

• This scale is genuinely the best and cleanest looking scale, coffee or not, I’ve seen. The sleek black and the large weighing platform look great.
• The Brew Assist feature genuinely improves your pour over experience. I don’t find it THAT hard to calculate ratios and pay attention to when I’ve poured enough water. But the Fellow scale genuinely makes these things that take a bit of attention and focus and makes them trivial and mindless. It is legitimately better!
• If you already have (or are about to invest in) other Fellow products like the Studio Edition kettle or grinder, the matching takes the good-looks and gives you a truly elegant-looking set of coffee brewing equipment.
• Like all scales, you can use this coffee scale for weighing a lot of other things!

Why You SHOULDN’T Buy the Fellow Scale

Those positives considered, here’s my CONs list for the Fellow Tally Pro:

• This is more than I thought a coffee scale could cost! At about $200, you’ll NEVER make this make sense as a budget-conscious person, or especially one struggling month-to-month with your bills. This is just a luxury good and you can’t or shouldn’t try to deny it.
• I’ve seen complaints about 2g drift, both on Reddit and noted in this (great) James Hoffmann video. I didn’t experience it, and I’ve seen other anecdotes from people who also haven’t seen it. But it is something to consider if you’re aiming for scientific accuracy.
• The thing is a fingerprint magnet. Exactly the same sleek-shininess that makes this scale look good, also makes it kind of impractical if you aren’t meticulous in your care for it.
• Because it is both very big, and the Brew Assist feature is so pour-over-specific, espresso-brewers will get basically NO benefit from this versus other coffee scales. And if you’re trying to fit it on your espresso drip tray (like the real nerds do), you’ll find yourself feeling stupid.

My final verdict: Get it if you want it!

As I’ve said above, if you love Fellow products (or want your Stagg EKG to have a buddy), have a lot of spare spending money, and mostly brew pour-overs, I give you permission to get this scale.

The Fellow Tally Pro Studio Edition is worth the money if you’re thinking it’s for you. I am genuinely impressed both with how good it looks, and also with the Brew Assist feature. They are real upgrades over other coffee scales.

That said, if you’re budget-conscious and mostly brew AeroPress, French press, espresso or any other method of making coffee, skip it. You’ll probably be just as happy with the much-more-affordable scale. The cool features of this one don’t really justify its cost for most people.

Whether you buy this scale or something more sensible, enjoy every sandwich! (RIP Warren Zevon).