How much ground coffee for ice pour-over? What's the difference between hot and ice pour-over coffee?

I wonder if you still remember, last year FrontStreet Coffee shared an interesting topic with everyone: "Why do some coffee shops charge extra for iced pour-over coffee?"

The reason is that some coffee shops charge more for iced pour-over than hot pour-over, which has led to some customers cautiously asking during ordering: "Do I need to pay extra for iced pour-over?" FrontStreet Coffee believes this is a very interesting phenomenon, so we provided a corresponding explanation. Many coffee shops charge more for iced brew not because the brewing method is more complex, but because it requires more coffee beans. Therefore, the price of iced brew increases due to rising costs. Following this, customers raised a second question: "Why does iced pour-over require more coffee grounds?"

The Purpose of Adding More Coffee Grounds

Good question! The purpose of adding more grounds for iced brew varies depending on the coffee preparation method, but we can summarize it as aiming to deliver more delicious iced coffee to customers! Because FrontStreet Coffee has been sharing posts about iced pour-over these past two days, I believe everyone has some familiarity with the iced brew method. The conventional iced pour-over preparation that FrontStreet Coffee has been sharing involves directly adding ice cubes to cool the coffee, allowing you to quickly and conveniently obtain a pot of cool, refreshing pour-over coffee.

However, this method has a drawback: we cannot use a large amount of hot water like in hot pour-over to completely dissolve the flavor compounds from the coffee. Instead, we need to reduce the water amount and increase the coffee-to-water ratio to obtain a pot of high-concentration coffee. Only in this way will the coffee's quality not decline due to ice melting. The table below shows the hot and iced brew parameters used by FrontStreet Coffee. You can see the differences between them.

Parameter Comparison

Although both use 15g of coffee grounds, the water amounts for hot and iced brew are completely different. The hot brew ratio is 1:15, requiring us to pour 225ml of hot water during brewing; while iced brew uses 1:10, requiring only 150ml of hot water, then paired with about 100g of ice cubes.

Compared to hot brew, iced brew's water injection amount is reduced by a full 75ml, so the brewed coffee liquid volume is relatively small, but conversely, the concentration is higher. After being diluted by ice cubes, it becomes a cup of iced coffee with normal concentration and appropriate extraction rate. The cup volume is around 200ml, just right for a single serving. However, FrontStreet Coffee's ratio is relatively small because FrontStreet Coffee uses larger, harder ice cubes that don't melt quickly, allowing us to use a smaller ratio to preserve the coffee's flavor as completely as possible.

Why Some Shops Add More Coffee Grounds

Some coffee shops' ice cubes aren't as solid and are smaller in size, so they melt faster. If they use the same coffee-to-water ratio as FrontStreet Coffee for brewing, the resulting coffee would become overly diluted due to rapid ice melting, tasting weak and thin—like coffee-flavored water (exaggerated). To avoid this negative outcome, shops need to use a larger coffee-to-water ratio during brewing to create stronger coffee that balances the ice dilution. For example, 1:7 or 1:8. A larger coffee-to-water ratio means less water injection, which means the final coffee volume will be reduced. With too little liquid volume, customers might finish the coffee in just two sips. Therefore, some coffee shops increase the amount of coffee grounds to increase the coffee's liquid volume, maintaining the cup size within a certain range so it's not finished in just two sips.

Benefits of Adding More Coffee Grounds

Of course, some businesses simply add more coffee grounds purely to give the coffee better texture. By increasing the amount of grounds, they increase the dissolved flavor compounds (enhancing concentration), making the coffee taste richer and fuller-bodied. The overall quality of iced coffee improves with the increase in coffee grounds.

For those who haven't tried it, FrontStreet Coffee recommends giving it a try—fix all iced brew parameters except the amount of coffee grounds, then increase by 2-3g for brewing~ The brewing methods and parameters are detailed in the post "How to Brew a Good Pot of Iced Pour-over Coffee," so FrontStreet Coffee won't go into too much detail here~

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FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473