Simplify your morning with a cup of coffee weighing in one step

Eyeballs are big: I have two. I love spoons too. But if you want a consistent dose of coffee for a large espresso or pour-over, a precise scale is the slightly inconvenient way to go.

I still remember a time when to weigh my coffee beans every morning, I placed a small measuring cup on top of a digital scale, and then pressed a button on the scale, and then waited a second or so for the scale display. zero out before pouring the coffee beans into the measuring cup. Back in the sands of time – October 2024, I think it was – I did not consider this a tremendous inconvenience. That’s just how coffee scales work.

But maybe they don’t need to. In the past year or so, a few coffee brands have cottoned on to the simple idea that a measuring cup and a scale could be combined into one device. Trigger light bulbs above the forehead, and blue birds on the shoulders. Perhaps the most stylish of these is the Subscale, new from Singaporean coffee brand Subminimal (also the maker of our favorite milk frother).

The Subscale is a black cup on a cup that contains about 60 grams of coffee, and whose base contains a scale accurate to a tenth of a gram. Since I got it, the device hasn’t left my countertop – and it’s made me enjoy my morning coffee ritual a little more.

Keep it Simple

The key to the appeal of the Subscale is its simple pursuit. The craft coffee world is now full of new and complicated and sometimes confusing conventions. Once a humble tool, the coffee scale has become a home base for all manner of coffee makers. The Fellow Tally Pro (8/10, WIRED Recommends) will do the math for you, simul-tabulating recommended water weights for ideal beer proportions. Bluetooth enabled Acaia Pearl S it will track your fermentation time and water flow, while playing music.

The Subscale does none of this.

It’s a cup. It’s a light, crisp minimalist cup with a feather-sensitive scale on its bottom that measures the exact weight of what’s inside. There is no Bluetooth, no app, and no particular learning curve. It takes up very little space on my counter, and looks great there.