I bought a Salter 3001 at "Bed Bath and Beyond" for about $20 or so. I'm
sure there are lots of good options, but I would suggest buying a scale that
is sufficiently large to be used for other kitchen duties.

Tea isn't the only thing that needs to be weighed, but it is one of the
smallest items you'll ever need to weigh.

Warren


"Doug Hazen, Jr." wrote in message
...
Hi,

I find myself being forced more and more in the direction of getting a tea
scale.

First, many if not most serious tea people seem to use them.

Second, I drink a wide variety of teas of many different leaf styles, and
while one can accurately and consistently measure small-leaf teas like
broken Assams with measuring spoons, portioning out large-leaf teas like
Golden Yunnan tips, silver needle white, silver needle Puer, Phoenix
oolongs, large-leaf Puers, etc., is pretty dicey.

Now one could say "that's the nature of tea, and it doesn't have to be the
same every time." And people do say that. But that doesn't work for me,
because a) I'm a little (ok, maybe more than a little)
obsessive-compulsive,
and I like some consistency in such things, but more importantly, b) at
this
stage in my tea life, I'm still trying many new teas with a variety of
leaf
styles, and I want to give them a fair chance; finally c) many tea people,
dealers and sites give steeping instructions in grams, and for the above
reasons it's practically impossible to convert that to measuring
tea/tablespoons.

With that long-winded prelude out of the way, I'm looking for information
about and recommendations for tea scales. Assume I know nothing about them
(or food scales in general); in fact, I've never even seen one in the
flesh,
and have only seen little pictures at sites like
http://www.rightonscales.com/web/pocketscales. Presumably at least some of
these are quick, easy and convenient to use, as I've been told and have
read
that they are as fast to use as a measuring spoon (though I confess I
don't
believe this yet). I've also been told that a) all you really need for tea
is .1g accuracy, and b) that I shouldn't go for less than 200g capacity.

I've already had recommended to me the Jennings JS-500 and the Toyo 250
(at
the site above). Also, I know that Silk Road carries a tea scale, and
David
Lee Hoffman told me something to the effect that (I'm sure I'm
misrepresenting this) it has some kind of "official" status in the tea
business in China - does anyone have any experience with that scale?

Is digital best? I would think so, as you presumably wouldn't have to mess
with weights. But they would need power - battery, cords? Etc.

Thanks very much.


Doug