Why Do Single-Serve Pour-Over Coffees Use 15g Beans? What's the Difference Between 01 and 02 Drippers?

Brewing parameters largely determine the flavor quality of a cup of coffee. Therefore, it's crucial for everyone to understand the suitable data for a specific coffee bean before brewing. But have you ever wondered why in the brewing cases shared by FrontStreet Coffee, the powder-to-water ratio, water temperature, and grind size all change according to the bean's roast degree, yet the coffee amount consistently remains at 15g (except for special brewing methods)!

Not just FrontStreet Coffee, but most single-origin coffee beans on the market also recommend 15g for brewing in their brewing information section. Additionally, most coffee academies use 15g as their standard for teaching. This naturally makes one curious: what kind of magic does this 15g possess that makes everyone unanimously adopt it? Could it be that brewing with 10g, 20g, or 30g of coffee grounds simply doesn't work?

Why is 15g of Coffee Beans Always Recommended for Brewing?

Whether it's FrontStreet Coffee or other tutorial creators, the brewing parameters shared are mostly focused on single servings. This is because most people cannot consume too much coffee in a short period, or they don't want to drink the same type of coffee repeatedly. When we brew too much at once and can't finish it in one go, the coffee will lose its flavor over time, leaving only prominent sour and bitter tastes! It's a waste to discard, yet tasteless to consume. Therefore, we choose to use smaller #1 filter cups to brew single-serving coffee. And in #1 filter cup brewing, 15g of coffee grounds represents the most suitable approach.

Brewing Difficulty

The primary reason for choosing 15g of coffee grounds is the issue of coffee bed thickness during brewing: in the same filter cup, the amount of coffee grounds determines the thickness of the coffee bed! Less coffee means a thinner coffee bed; more coffee means a thicker accumulated coffee bed!

A thinner coffee bed means fewer gaps to slow down hot water flow, allowing water to pass through more quickly. When hot water permeates too quickly, it becomes difficult to fully extract the aromatic substances from the coffee. Moreover, due to the insufficient amount of coffee grounds, a thick coffee wall cannot be formed, which also provides opportunities for hot water to escape from the sides of the filter cup! This water is what we call "bypass water," referring to hot water that doesn't participate in extraction (almost none, essentially). Therefore, even if you use the same powder-to-water ratio, grind setting, and brewing method, the resulting coffee will lack proper concentration due to excessive bypass water, easily resulting in weak and under-extracted flavors.

On the other hand, if the coffee bed is too thick, hot water will struggle to evenly permeate all the coffee grounds. Because water always finds the easiest paths to flow, creating channeling effects. Additionally, due to the significantly reduced water flow rate, if brewing is improper and the water flow force is insufficient to open up the coffee bed, blockages can easily occur, leading to over-extraction. This is particularly true for conical filter cups like V60 and Kono, which accumulate thicker coffee beds than flat-bottom or cake filter cups, greatly increasing the probability of uneven extraction.

Therefore, through numerous brewing experiments, people found the most suitable amount of coffee grounds: 15g. An amount around 15g provides the optimal coffee bed thickness for #1 filter cups, allowing you to easily brew a delicious pour-over coffee without paying too much attention to brewing techniques. Of course, FrontStreet Coffee isn't saying that coffee brewed with amounts outside the 15g range tastes bad—it's just that we need to find suitable brewing parameters and methods specifically for them. Compared to 15g of coffee grounds, this approach is more cumbersome and less stable. That's why everyone continues to choose 15g as the standard for single-serving brewing.

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