Reading time: 3 minutes. This article is a short blog. You can access the detailed blog article here .
The brewing ratio
How much coffee powder goes into the coffee? A popular question! Measuring spoons are not standardized and are not much help. So what does the perfect brewing ratio look like?
The coffee recipe
Making coffee is like baking – you should follow a recipe for consistent results. The result can only taste good if you use enough coffee powder in proportion to the water. Because it's important to remove the delicious particles from the coffee.
This is complemented by the grinding degree – grinding degree and quantity = delicious coffee!
The over-extraction
A lot of water on a little coffee powder leads to a long brewing time and thus to over-extraction. Not everything in coffee is delicious and there are some things we don't want to extract, otherwise the coffee becomes thin, bitter and makes your mouth tighten (astringent) - no one likes that!
The under-extraction
A little water on a lot of coffee powder leads to the exact opposite result - we don't extract enough and the coffee becomes sour/salty. The drink is concentrated, so are the unpleasant aromas.
Both phenomena are ultimately unbalanced. Only the harmonious interplay of sweetness, acidity and bitter substances makes coffee a symphony of the senses.
But no worry. Each of you can learn to conduct in just a few simple steps!
The search for the sweet spot
The brewing ratio helps us to choose the right parameters in advance. The brewing ratio is the amount of coffee powder and water used.
Through many experiments, the ideal brewing ratio is around 60g of coffee powder per liter of water or a ratio of 1:16.66 (18g/300ml) - this is the starting point from which you can experiment in both directions and applies to all types of filter coffee preparation.
The happy place for filter coffee is between 1:14 (72g) and 1:20 (50g) - around 1.10% - 1.50% dissolved particles in the water taste delicious, almost all filter coffee fans agree on this.
Of course there are other recipes like the bypass, more about them elsewhere.
The brewing ratio of espresso
Small, concentrated and strong and extracted through pressure - the espresso!
While filter coffee has 1.1-1.5% dissolved particles, espresso has an impressive 7-11%. Mathematically, this results in a maximum brewing ratio of 1:3.5 or 9g coffee powder to 27g extracted espresso to achieve 7% dissolved particles.
Since we cannot accurately dose the water from the machine, we have to weigh the extracted result and, if possible, program the volumetrics of the machine.
The classic espresso brewing ratio is in the range 1:2 or 1:2.5 - 9g coffee powder to 18g espresso or 9g coffee powder to 22.5g espresso.
The capsule craze has literally watered down espresso and shaped the consumer's taste. You often hear that the espresso is “too strong”.
The basis for a successful brew
In this video we explain the connections between starch and extraction (we also have a separate blog post dedicated to this topic - see the article ).
Keeping a long story short:
Starch, the concentration of dissolved particles (measured in TDS%) in relation to extraction, is the prerequisite for delicious coffee.
Each type of preparation has a typical strength. As mentioned, we don't want to extract everything, but just enough to make it taste good - this is around 18-22% of the coffee.
Under-extractions tend to be acidic and over-extractions tend to be bitter - in the middle the coffee is sweet and balanced!
The extraction is the same for all types of preparation, in contrast to starch.
The unnecessary measuring spoon
Since there is no standard coffee spoon, the volume of coffee varies depending on the grind, dark roasts are lighter than lighter ones, and it is quite difficult to use the exact same amount every time, coffee spoons are as useful as a freezer in the Arctic.
Only 1-2g deviation per 100ml and the coffee is over- or under-extracted.
How much fits in the cup?
Around 150-200ml - the amount required should be calculated based on this. If the coffee tastes good, there will be 2-3 cups per guest.
If we take 6g/100ml we need 48g/800ml for 4 cups minus 2x48ml (tribute to the coffee cake) this gives 725ml so 175ml per cup.
With espresso and Aeropress, different amounts of water remain in the cake.
The French Press
The French press (stamp pot) has proven successful for several guests - a so-called “full immersion” brewing method in which water and coffee are extracted together.
In a ratio of 7g to 100ml of water, a delicious drink is extracted in 3-5 minutes!
Conclusion
Here you have the guidelines, deviations and special recipes you will definitely come across on your coffee journey and experience will show you how to classify everything. This article will serve as a starting point for you, because the decisive factor is in the cup!
With us you will find the right scales and measuring cups for your preferred method of preparation.
