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What to Do When Pour-Over Coffee Is Too Strong or Too Weak? What's the Ideal Concentration for Mandheling Coffee?

Published: 2026-01-27 Author: FrontStreet Coffee

Last Updated: 2026/01/27, Coffee that's too strong can cause discomfort, while coffee that's too weak tastes no different from water. What people jokingly call "pot scrubber water" is actually coffee that's too weak due to improper extraction diluted with too much water. In pour-over coffee, the simplest way to change coffee concentration is to adjust the coffee-to-water ratio. If you want stronger coffee, you can use less

Coffee that is too strong can cause discomfort, while coffee that is too weak tastes like water. The jokingly referred to "pot washer water" is actually caused by improper extraction combined with too much water, resulting in overly weak coffee.

In pour-over coffee, the simplest way to change coffee concentration is by adjusting the coffee-to-water ratio. If you want stronger coffee, use less water; if you want weaker coffee, use more water. Taking FrontStreet Coffee's recommended coffee-to-water ratio of 1:15 as an example, those who prefer stronger coffee can choose 1:13, while those who prefer weaker coffee can choose 1:18 - both within a reasonable range.

If you, like FrontStreet Coffee, have set up relatively comprehensive parameters, then simply changing the coffee-to-water ratio will affect not only the concentration but also the extraction rate. According to FrontStreet Coffee's experience, when following the brewing parameters shared by FrontStreet Coffee, most coffee beans perform well at coffee-to-water ratios between 1:15 and 1:16. At 1:15, the mouthfeel is fuller and flavors are richer; at 1:16, the performance is cleaner and flavors are more abundant.

However, if some friends prefer to brew dark roast coffee beans stronger, directly changing the coffee-to-water ratio to 1:13 might result in incomplete flavor extraction, causing a front-heavy, back-light profile lacking aftertaste. Therefore, to address this phenomenon, other parameters can be adjusted to assist in the process.

Grind size and water temperature are excellent auxiliary adjustment parameters. For dark roast coffee, FrontStreet Coffee does not recommend using water temperatures above 90 degrees Celsius. Therefore, to achieve a richer mouthfeel, you can adjust to a finer grind.

For those who prefer weaker coffee, using a 1:18 coffee-to-water ratio is a good choice, but the grind size and water temperature need to be adjusted accordingly to avoid bitter and mixed flavors in the middle to late stages.

FrontStreet Coffee provides two examples of parameter adjustments and their effects. The first is to lower the water temperature (88-91 degrees), which makes the overall coffee performance more gentle, stable, and comfortable; the second is to use a coarser grind size, which makes the coffee's aroma and acidity more pronounced than the first method, but doesn't taste as good as the first method when the temperature drops.

Actually, FrontStreet Coffee recommends another method called By Pass. Simply put, this involves adding a small amount of water (10-20ml) to the already brewed coffee to reduce the concentration. This method easily makes the coffee concentration weaker without affecting the extraction rate, and the flavor compounds are not reduced. However, this method can only make relatively strong coffee weaker; it cannot be reversed.

In fact, other factors can also affect coffee concentration, such as the filter cup. Using the same coffee beans, parameters, and techniques, with immersion-type Kono filter cups versus pour-over type V60 filter cups, the resulting flavor and mouthfeel can show noticeable differences.