Eyeballs are great: I have two. I also like spoons. But if you want the best espresso or a consistent dose of coffee for pour-overs, an accurate scale is the way to go, if a little inconvenient.
I still remember the time when every morning to weigh my coffee beans, I placed a small dosing cup on top of a digital scale, and then pressed a button on the scale, and then a second or two for the scale to display looked forward to. Zero the coffee beans before pouring them into the dosing cup. Back in the sands of time—October of 2024, I think it was—I didn't consider it any serious inconvenience. Coffee scales work similarly.
But maybe they don't need it. Over the past year or so, some coffee brands have looked at the simple idea that a dosing cup and scale can be combined into one device. Trigger the lightbulb above the forehead and the bluebird on the shoulders. Perhaps the most beautiful of these is Subscale, a new brand from Singapore coffee brand Subminimal (also manufacturer our favorite milk brother,
The subscale is a black-on-black swatch of a cup that holds approximately 60 grams of coffee, and at the base of which is a scale accurate to the tenth of a gram. The device hasn't left my countertop since I got it — and it's let me enjoy my morning coffee ritual a little more.
keep it simple
The key to the subscale's appeal is its steadfast simplicity. The world of craft coffee is now full of new and complex and sometimes confusing features. Once a simple tool, the coffee scale has become a household mainstay for coffee wineries of all types. Fellow Tally Pro (8/10, Wired recommends) will do the math for you, simul-tabulating the recommended water weight for the ideal brewing ratio. bluetooth-enabled Akaiya Pearl S It will track your brewing time and your water flow rate, as well as play music.
The subscale doesn't do any of this.
This is a cup. It's a light, crisp minimalist cup with a feather-sensitive scale at the bottom that measures the exact weight of what's inside. There's no Bluetooth, no apps, and no special learning curve. It takes up very little space on my counter, and it looks good there.