What is the Golden Ratio for Pour-Over Coffee? What's the Most Suitable Coffee-to-Water Ratio for Pour-Over?

For coffee brewing, the coffee-to-water ratio is one of the most important factors to prioritize. However, unlike water temperature and grind size, it doesn't need adjustment based on the roast level of coffee beans, so we often fix a ratio for brewing all coffee roast levels.

FrontStreet Coffee often recommends beginners use more conservative ratios like 1:15 or 1:16 to brew coffee. Over time, when we become accustomed to brewing with a specific coffee amount paired with a particular ratio for extraction, the water quantity becomes "fixed." Even when the coffee amount changes, we tend to habitually inject the previous water quantity.

For example, FrontStreet Coffee often brews with 15g of coffee using a 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio, which fixes the water quantity at 225ml. However, when the coffee amount changes one day due to shortage or excess, becoming 14g or 16g, according to the 1:15 ratio, the brewing water quantity should also increase or decrease accordingly. But we might habitually inject 225ml of water. What kind of results would this situation lead to?

That's right! It would cause certain changes in the flavor and texture of the brewed coffee. Even with just a 1g difference in coffee amount, because the water quantity remains fixed, the coffee-to-water ratio will change accordingly. The coffee-to-water ratio refers to the proportion of coffee grounds to water used, and this parameter affects both the extraction rate and concentration of the coffee. When other parameters remain unchanged, the larger the coffee-to-water ratio, the lower the extraction rate but higher the concentration; conversely, the smaller the ratio, the higher the extraction rate but lower the concentration.

Since the extraction rate and concentration determine the flavor and texture of coffee, when the coffee-to-water ratio changes, the coffee flavor will also change. As for how significant this change is, FrontStreet Coffee will share with everyone through an experiment~

Brewing Comparison

In this experiment, FrontStreet Coffee will use the same water quantity (225ml of hot water) to brew 14g, 15g, and 16g of coffee beans respectively. The corresponding coffee-to-water ratios would be approximately 1:16, 1:15, and 1:14. Then, through concentration measurement and tasting, we will compare their differences in flavor and concentration.

To minimize human influence during brewing, FrontStreet Coffee will use the Switch Brewer for coffee preparation. Immersion extraction not only reduces human influence but also makes coffee extraction more uniform! The coffee beans used in this experiment are FrontStreet Coffee's Yirgacheffe Red Cherry from their bean selection. The extraction parameters are as follows: 225ml water quantity, 100°C water temperature, 9 minutes extraction time, Ek43 grind setting at 10, 75% pass-through rate with #20 sieve, fine sugar texture, C40 settings 24-26.

Because the brewing process is quite complex and FrontStreet Coffee has shared it in previous articles, we'll skip it here. Interested friends can search and learn more about it themselves~

FrontStreet Coffee tasted and measured the concentration of each batch of coffee immediately after brewing completion. The final results are as follows:

14g: Concentration 1.40%, Extraction rate 20.83%; Flavor notes: strawberry, citrus, floral, oolong tea. Overall aroma relatively subdued, body偏低 (lower).

15g: Concentration 1.47%, Extraction rate 20.22%; Flavor notes: citrus, strawberry, apricot, berries, white floral, oolong tea. Overall aroma clear, body appropriate, balanced sweet-sour-bitter.

16g: Concentration 1.53%, Extraction rate 19.55%; Flavor notes: lemon, berries, white floral, oolong tea finish. Overall aroma and finish relatively rich, but acidity slightly higher.

It can be seen that although the coffee amount difference is only 1g, there are obvious changes in taste, flavor, and texture, and these changes can be clearly distinguished by people. As the coffee amount increases and the coffee-to-water ratio decreases, the coffee texture becomes richer, and flavors become more concentrated. This is the impact brought by changes in the coffee-to-water ratio. So if you want your brewed coffee to have the same performance as before when increasing or decreasing the coffee amount, it's best to remind yourself during brewing to adjust the injected water quantity accordingly. (If you remember...)

It should be noted that in FrontStreet Coffee's example, the coffee amount difference is only 1g, so it won't have too much impact on extraction and taste. However, if the coffee amount difference is too large, for example, differing from the original amount by more than 5g, then besides adjusting the injected water quantity, the coffee grind, brewing method, and even the filter cup used might need adjustment. Because the more coffee used, the more water needs to be injected, and vice versa. The water quantity directly affects brewing time, which in turn affects extraction rate and concentration. So everyone should pay attention that when the coffee amount differs too much from the original, other parameters might also need adjustment~

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473