Down at the local supermarket, Taylor's of Harrogate's Cacao Superior Colombia was on offer so I thought I'd give it a go - average price and in a 227 gram bag (not the 200g bags that have appeared on the shelves in the last few years that diddle you out of 11% of the coffee you were expecting if you're not paying attention).

Anyhow, I have an old Twinings 227 g coffee tin that I always decant my ground coffee into to keep it fresh, so couldn't help but notice that the Taylor's packet was nowhere near the full 227g.

Looked at the packet more carefully and it says 227g e (the e in a different, much paler but larger typeface that I hadn't noticed before). Looked it up on the web and it says:
"The e -sign on a food label indicates that the volume or weight of the product is an average value. Packaging machines in the food industry are not completely accurate; there will always be a margin of inaccuracy. Also, many products are not homogeneous, but contain lumps, pieces of fruits etc, which means that the same volume may have a different weight."

Turns out that on a 200-300g package manufacturers the "accepted margin" of error is 9 grams.

Wondering why Taylors need to apply this to packs of ground coffee that contain no lumps? More to the point, looking at how much coffee went into the coffee tin, I'd say it was short by a lot more than 9 grams!

Tastes pretty good by the way, but I won't be buying it again.

Weigh the stuff for gods sake.

We demand to know how short it was!

Just for future reference, ground coffee should be kept in the fridge to help retain freshness. I keep mine in the zip lock pack, not that it lasts longer than a week!

Just beating Joe/Yubep/yloop to it.....

damnit, i was googling the image in another browser.

Now i've got lit - zip lock stuck in my head now after reading that.

Lovely 90's song that.

Attackontitan knows.

Zip it up, best advice my dad ever gave me.

Wrong log in, monkeybutt.

You should have listened to him Monkeyzip.

Why thank you, got one on sock durability for next week

You reconteur you!!

Excellent article!

I'm lazy, I use Tassimo pods. Should I be weighing each pod before I use them?

I've got a gaggia, usually fucks up and sprays water allover the fucking kitchen though.

No, but when you have emptied your pods, wash your feckin hands!

Thanks for that very informative post, MD.

Not bags but for a year or more now, I have noticed that the contents of the coffee jars we buy have shrunk as they no longer fill the container we transfer them to. The current content displayed is 190 g although I haven't a clue as to the earlier amount. The "e" sign you refer to, however, is quite prominent being larger than the 190 g and of the same shade.