Acaia Cinco
Traveling abroad is always the excuse for buying toys and this is how I convince myself to buy the little digital balance by Acaia.
I travel with my coffee equipment which includes grinder, kettle, filter coffee dripper, cups, digital balance and some accessories. They are all kept inside a bag made by Timbuk2 which was designed for Blue Bottle (the coffee company). I have replaced the original equipment inside with mine and the tools I take along fits my brewing style and habit - a 180ml kettle, foldable filter coffee dripper by Munieq, stackable double walled cups by Snow Peak, the Comandante C40 grinder and the digital balance by Acaia.
I kept the Acaia Lunar at the side pocket and it is a bit too tight (yeah, a lame excuse) with no protection (legitimate reason!). Thus, I have been trying to find a balance which is smaller and better yet with some sort of protection. I have seen different digital balance but either size is not ideal or comes with no protection. I saw the Cinco and find it fits the bill - it is much smaller than the Lunar and also protected by a hard case. How small is it? Below is a comparison with the Lunar.
It carries the same feature as the Lunar but even more sensitive. The Cinco works with the apps on my iPhone without pairing, I am not sure if it is reusing any pairing information I have established with my Lunar. At home, I don't use the apps as all I cares are the time and weight which I could read easily. But the Cinco is so small that I might not be able to read properly with most of the cup I use. The apps would come in handy in this case.
I feel the touch sensitivity on the Cinco is not as responsive as the Lunar, I might have to press more than one time for powering it up or start the timer but again, I can start the timer on the app as well.
My setup is now completed (until next time when I am tempted by other gadget) ...