I love premium coffee gadgets as much as the next person — but this $1,000+ coffee bean doser is a step too far

The Acaia Orion bean doser is intended for commercial use. The sci-fi-lab-core doser will immediately make any coffee shop a great deal cooler through looks alone. However, it might not be one of the best coffee scales available.

Brace yourself, I’m about to tell you the Orion’s asking price. It starts at $950 and goes up to $1,050 for the color I tested. I know — a coffee bean doser that costs almost as much as the average monthly studio rent? For this premium price, I expect premium performance. Other Acaia products have impressed me with their intuitive, easy-to-use natures, so I hoped the Orion would follow suit.

The Orion is by far the priciest coffee doser I’ve ever tested, but it’s also the most high-tech. Yes, it is literally just a bean hopper, a patented auger, a weighing scale, and a smart dial. No, I don’t think it’s worth the $1,000+ price tag. But for professional baristas or super passionate home coffee brewers, it could be worth it. Find out the full story in this Acaia Orion coffee bean doser review.

Acaia Orion review: Cheat sheet

• Who is it for? Commercial coffee shops and seriously serious coffee lovers
• What does it cost? Well, there are two colors: gray will cost you $950, and white is an eye-watering $1,050
• What does it do well? It does look incredible, and would immediately give cool points to any cafe
• What do we wish it did better? There’s no obvious use case here

Acaia Orion review: Specs

Acaia Orion review: Price & availability

The Acaia Orion is a coffee bean doser intended for use in commercial cafes, or by really serious home baristas. It’s really expensive: $1,050 for the white version, or $950 in the gray colorway.

This makes it the priciest coffee doser I’ve ever tested. But, then again, it is the prettiest coffee doser I’ve ever tested. So based on looks alone, it’s a 10. There’s nothing else in the same league as the Orion — there’s the $450 Rancilio Rocky Grinder and Doser, but this is a grinder and a doser in one.

The Orion, as a wholebean doser, is quite literally in its own galaxy of functionality. Nothing else does what the Orion does — but is that because no one needs it? I assume it’s designed to be used in tandem with Acaia’s $1,600 Orbit grinder, but then you’ve dropped $2,650 on coffee gear.

Acaia Orion review: Design & functions

There’s no way around it: the Orion is gorgeous. Gorgeous in a star-sailing, galaxy-hopping, planet-orbiting kind of way. The Orion oozes futuristic, sci-fi charm, and would look inconspicuous on the set of the next great space opera movie. I can’t fault the design, which is a common theme with Acaia products. Every single Acaia scale or doser I’ve tested is just beautiful.

The Orion has a ~500g capacity hopper depending on bean size — I tested with mixed single-origin beans for versatility’s sake. Inside the long cylinder is a patented auger, which is basically like a spring that sorts and dispenses coffee beans one at a time. The Orion is unmistakably well-crafted. You can see the high-quality craftsmanship in the weight of the aluminum exterior, the smoothness of the metal, and the quality of the bolts. The back of the cylinder is plain, and the front houses the dial screen. This is where you program all functions of the doser and switch between weighing, dosing, and preset modes.

Regarding aesthetics alone, I have no notes. 10/10. Perfection.

Going back to functionality, it’s easy and straightforward to flick through modes if you have the user manual in front of you. Yes — the Orion is another specialty coffee gadget you need to study to use. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it just means users will need to set aside time to learn the device before mastering it.

These modes consist of: weighing, manual dosing, and auto dosing. You switch between these modes by rotating dial; if you want to change the preset weight on ‘manual’, you need to press power, adjust with the dial, and press power to save. ‘Auto’ mode is basically the same as ‘manual’, but it will start dosing when it recognizes a container is placed on the surface. There are three dosing settings: precise, fast, and green. Green is only intended for pre-roasted green beans. I did my testing in precise mode.

The surface is quite large: I was able to fit a big ceramic mixing bowl on the weighing pad easily. ‘Weighing’ is self-explanatory: it just weighs pre-dosed coffee. You have to be in ‘weighing’ mode to turn off the Orion.

There’s no waterproofing on the Orion, but as it’s not going to be used with espresso machines or pour-overs in the same way little coffee scales will be, I doubt this is a necessity. In addition, there’s no timer, but as this is a doser and is not designed to work in tandem with brewing, this isn’t a necessity.

Although other Acaia products (the Lunar and the Pearl S) have app compatibility, the Orion only seems to be compatible with Acaia Updater. This app is just a firmware updater. It’s a shame you can’t track dosage for each variety of bean with the Brewmaster app — I’d like to see that added in a future update.

Acaia Orion review: Performance

As mentioned previously, I think the Orion would work best used in tandem with the Orbit, Acaia’s $1,600 specialty grinder. However, having to buy a $1,600 grinder after already dropping $1,050 on a doser is just a kick in the teeth. I don’t see why anyone needs the Orion: my Eureka Mignon Specialita doses ground coffee just as well. Yes, you have to dial your coffee before using it (as the Mignon dispenses by time, not weight), but I only need a scale for that. I suppose if you seriously need speed, you might need the Orion. However, coffee shops that would require the Orion might also just have a commercial doser + grinder combination like the Rancilio Rocky.

Acaia has confirmed to me that the Orion ‘learns’ bean mass and density after around three doses. So if you’re switching beans, the Orion will need a few practice runs to understand how many beans to dispense.

For example, Ethiopian beans are often smaller than other varieties. Ethiopian beans average a screen size of 14/64 or 16/64, whereas Brazilian beans are 17/64 or 18/64. This number refers to the size of holes in a screen measured in 64th of an inch. If beans can pass through a 16/64 hole, but not a 14/64 hole, they are 16 sized beans. I know — specialty coffee gets a bit baffling.

In light of this, I ran my mixed origin beans through the Orion ten times before starting official performance testing, to give the Orion adjustment time.

I tested the Orion by dosing coffee in ascending gram-by-gram increments. Here are my results. This was in ‘precise’ mode.

As you can see, I needed to dose more than once to get an accurate weight for ‘200’. Although I had to re-dose this amount, I like that the Orion shows an orange light if it has under-or-over-dosed, so you can easily see if you need to go again. It maxed at 102dB during dosing.

However, for such an expensive product, you would expect it to be perfect every single time. Imagine having to re-dose in rush hour at your cafe. I would be incredibly frustrated.

For the most part, it was accurate during testing. However as I’ve reiterated throughout this review, I just don’t know who the Orion works for. A professional barista, sure — but why not just get the Orbit grinder, which doses ground coffee? You’re effectively getting a watered-down version of the Orion and a doser in that $1,600 price tag, so I would definitely go for that.

Acaia Orion review: Storage & maintenance

The Orion has a rechargeable USB-C battery; one charge lasts for 12 hours. In theory, you could plug in the battery all the time and it would never run out, but that would decrease its portability.

As the Orion is quite large (almost 15 inches tall), you would need a large counter space to use the doser properly. I recommend this only if you have a dedicated coffee station at home, or if your commercial coffee shop has enough room to house this and a grinder.

Cleaning is really easy: you can easily empty the hopper by long pressing the dose button, and from there you can use a brush to wipe away any coffee specks.

There’s only a 1 year warranty outside of the U.S. and E.U., and that grows to 2 years in those places. I’m really surprised that such an expensive product has only a 2 year warranty: you’d expect at least 5 years for something of this cost. However, if you’re using it for 8 hours a day every day in a busy artisanal coffee shop, it will obviously not last as long as using it at home.

You don’t seem to be able to buy accessories other than a replacement bean hopper, so don’t lose your USB-C charger.

Acaia Orion review: How does it compare?

As I stated above, there’s very little to compare the Orion to. Nothing else does what the Orion does.

I believe there are two reasons for that: one, the Orion does its job so well and is so respected that nothing needs to challenge it. Two, well, no one really needs the Orion. All it does it dose coffee — yes, it does that one job well, but for the most part, your money would be better spent on a doser + grinder combination product.

Even just getting Acaia’s Orbit grinder makes more sense — the Orbit doses coffee and grinds it. I like the Orion, and it does its job well, but it’s simply unnecessary. If you really want an Acaia product, why not just get the Orbit?

Acaia Orion review: Verdict

As I’ve touched on throughout this review, I do like the Orion. I think it’s striking to look at, it performs well, and it’s fun to use. But is it worth it?

Well, no. Even if it was $100 I’d say that. I loved the Pearl S during testing, but is it worth $220? Not at all. Very few coffee gadgets are actually worth their asking price.

Especially when they’re a $1,050 coffee bean doser that doesn’t even grind the coffee. It’s simply not worth the price. I’m just baffled by who the Orion is designed for. Professional baristas? Sure, but why wouldn’t they just use the Orbit to dose and grind beans? Home coffee lovers? Sure, but why would they spend over $1k on something that is essentially a mechanized spoon? The only use case I see is roasters dispensing whole beans into bags.

The bottom line is this: the Orion performs exceptionally well. But that performance is largely superfluous, and I’m not sure who’s going to give it a standing ovation once it’s done.