Pour-Over Coffee Water-to-Ground Ratio Guide! How Much Water for 15g of Coffee Grounds? What is the Coffee Ground-to-Water Ratio?

Understanding Coffee Ratios: The Key to Perfect Brew

The coffee-to-water ratio is an important parameter in coffee brewing, referring to the weight ratio of coffee grounds to water. For example, a 1:10 ratio broadly means 1 gram of coffee grounds to 10 milliliters of water. Since the size of this ratio directly affects the taste and texture of a cup of coffee, learning how to find the appropriate coffee-to-water ratio is an important part of brewing a good cup of coffee. This is also one of the questions most frequently asked by friends at our store: "What should the coffee-to-water ratio be for pour-over coffee?"

Finding the right coffee-to-water ratio to brew good coffee is actually not difficult, but first we need to understand what the coffee-to-water ratio affects.

How Coffee-to-Water Ratio Affects Coffee

It can be said that the greatest impact of the coffee-to-water ratio on coffee is "concentration," which is something other parameters cannot achieve. With other parameters remaining constant, the smaller the coffee-to-water ratio, the lower the coffee concentration; the larger the coffee-to-water ratio, the higher the coffee concentration. This might be a bit difficult to understand, so here FrontStreet Coffee shares an experiment we previously conducted: With all other parameters fixed (including time), we brewed three pots of coffee using 1:10, 1:15, and 1:20 coffee-to-water ratios respectively. Then we measured the concentration using a concentration meter and found that their coffee concentrations were 1.93%, 1.35%, and 1.04% respectively. It can be seen that when we use more water, the coffee concentration becomes lower.

Concentration refers to the ratio of coffee substances to water in coffee. The higher the concentration, the higher the proportion of coffee solubles in the coffee, and vice versa. These substances are the main source of coffee's flavor and aroma. Therefore, we can understand that when the coffee concentration is higher, the coffee's flavor and aroma are more intense. Combined with the explanation of the coffee-to-water ratio, we can conclude that when we use a larger coffee-to-water ratio during extraction, the coffee concentration is higher, and the higher the coffee concentration, the stronger the coffee flavor (and vice versa).

If the evaluation standard for the best coffee-to-water ratio is based on our personal taste preferences, then we only need to find the ratio that can brew coffee that suits our own taste. If our taste is relatively strong, we can choose a larger coffee-to-water ratio to brew a cup of coffee with rich flavor. And if our taste is relatively light, we can choose a smaller ratio to brew a cup of coffee with a light flavor.

FrontStreet Coffee here provides a reference: whether for daily store production or brewing sharing in articles, FrontStreet Coffee mostly uses a 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio. Because coffee brewed with this ratio is neither too strong nor too weak, making it a concentration with wide appeal. Then everyone can use this value as a reference standard. If you prefer stronger coffee, you can increase the coffee-to-water ratio to 1:13-1:14. If you prefer weaker coffee, you can adjust it down to 1:16-1:17. But coffee should not be too strong or too weak, because coffee with too high a concentration will make the flavor and aroma too concentrated, making the coffee unacceptable. Overly weak coffee, on the other hand, will have less obvious flavor and aroma performance, making it taste more like a cup of coffee-flavored water (the texture will be very thin).

Additionally! We also need to know that the increase or decrease in water amount not only affects coffee concentration but also affects the extraction rate of coffee. Because water acts as a solvent during extraction, flavor substances in coffee need to be extracted through water. Therefore, with other parameters unchanged, the more water used, the more substances are dissolved, and vice versa. At the same time, the amount of water will also affect the extraction time. The same flow rate will have different injection times due to different water amounts. The longer the extraction time, the more flavor substances are dissolved, and vice versa.

Combining these two points, we can know that the amount of water affects the strength of coffee's extraction rate. And the coffee extraction rate has a generally accepted delicious range, which is 18%-22% in the Golden Cup extraction (not absolute, but can be referenced). If we want to keep the extraction rate within this range while changing the water amount, then we need to adjust other extraction parameters. This way, we can extract a pot of delicious coffee with both suitable concentration and extraction rate. FrontStreet Coffee's parameters when brewing light-roast coffee are: 15g of coffee, 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio, 92°C water temperature, 10 grind setting on EK43, and extraction time of 2 minutes. If we want to adjust the coffee-to-water ratio to 1:10 to brew stronger coffee, then we need to grind the coffee finer or increase the brewing water temperature, or extend the extraction time. Only in this way can the coffee achieve sufficient extraction rate, ensuring that even at high concentration, it can bloom with the same delicious flavor.

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473