Pour-Over Coffee Techniques: How to Determine the Coffee-to-Water Ratio?

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When temperature and grind size are the same, but you still feel the brewed coffee isn't ideal? Perhaps it's related to your choice of coffee-to-water ratio!

How important is the coffee-to-water ratio for a cup of coffee?

When making pour-over coffee, the amount of water used has quite a significant impact on the coffee's flavor. Different coffee-to-water ratios affect the flavor, mouthfeel, and other characteristics presented by the coffee. Too little water results in overly concentrated coffee, where flavors cluster together without clarity; too much water makes it too thin, even tasting like water with coffee flavor.

We all know that Golden Cup extraction considers the ideal extraction rate range to be between 18%-22%, with a concentration range between 1.15%-1.45%. However, we don't usually have equipment to test concentration at home, so how do we know what coffee-to-water ratio is suitable for a particular bean?

For light, medium, and dark roast levels, the editor selected [FrontStreet Coffee's Panama Butterfly], [FrontStreet Coffee's Yemen Mocha], and [FrontStreet Coffee's Jamaica Blue Mountain] for this experiment, testing coffee-to-water ratios of 1:13, 1:15, and 1:17 respectively.

FrontStreet Coffee's Panama Butterfly: BG grind size 5M (60% pass-through rate on China standard #20 sieve), water temperature 90°C, coffee-to-water ratios of 1:13, 1:15, 1:17, brewing times (timed from bloom start): 1'55", 2'10", 2'27".

FrontStreet Coffee's Yemen Mocha: BG grind size 5R (56% pass-through rate on China standard #20 sieve), water temperature 89°C, coffee-to-water ratios of 1:13, 1:15, 1:17, brewing times (timed from bloom start): 1'50", 2'05", 2'14".

FrontStreet Coffee's Jamaica Blue Mountain: BG grind size 6M (50% pass-through rate on China standard #20 sieve), water temperature 85°C, coffee-to-water ratios of 1:13, 1:15, 1:17, brewing times (timed from bloom start): 1'35", 1'46", 1'57".

The editor tried these three coffee-to-water ratios and personally feels that light roast beans can be brewed with a slightly longer ratio, while medium and dark roast beans are more suitable for smaller coffee-to-water ratios.

Understanding the relationship between roast level and coffee-to-water ratio

After roasting, coffee beans' structure becomes loose and brittle, making the flavor compounds inside easier to extract. This is why undesirable flavors may appear when extending the coffee-to-water ratio. Additionally, dark roast beans mostly emphasize dark chocolate, caramel flavors and a rich mouthfeel. If the coffee-to-water ratio is extended, the overall flavor becomes thinner, losing the characteristics of dark roast beans.

During light roasting, because the roasting time is shorter than medium and dark roasts, the damage to the coffee beans' structure isn't as severe as in medium and dark roast beans. Flavor molecules are locked in more tightly, especially high-altitude beans which have harder density and are more extraction-resistant. Therefore, even after extending the coffee-to-water ratio, undesirable flavors are less likely to appear.

However, the coffee-to-water ratio is not fixed but varies depending on the brewing device. For example, when making espresso, the coffee-to-water ratio is mostly 1:1.5 or 1:2; for cold drip coffee, it's 1:10, and so on. To get a delicious cup of coffee, you need to choose your parameters based on your understanding of the particular bean, then extract a cup of coffee that satisfies you~

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473