Better Coffee at Home Part 3 of 5
Ratios Before Recipes
A coffee-to-water ratio looks like math. In practice, it is simply a way to make the next brew comparable to the last.
We have talked about the grinder and the water.
Now we need to bring the coffee and water together.
This is where brewing advice often turns into a collection of numbers and gets confusing again. One recipe calls for 18 grams of coffee and 300 grams of water. Another uses tablespoons and ounces. Your coffee maker asks for scoops and “cups,” but its version of a cup is much smaller than the mug in your cabinet.
Each recipe may work perfectly well. The difficulty comes when you want to make a little more or a little less—or when tomorrow’s coffee does not taste like today’s and you are trying to understand why.
A simple ratio can greatly simplify all of this.
What a ratio means
I often brew with 30 grams of coffee and 500 grams of water.
Coffee people would describe that as approximately a 1:17 ratio. It means that for every gram of coffee, I am using about 17 grams of brewing water.
That is the whole idea.
Here, the ratio describes the water added to the brewer, not the ultimate volume of coffee that drips into your cup. The grounds soak it up and stay wet. So we focus on what we add to the process, not what comes out.
If I want half as much coffee, I can easily just halve it and use 15 grams of coffee and 250 grams of water.
If I want twice as much, I can double easily and use 60 grams to 1,000 grams.
The amounts can change. Their relationship stays the same.
This is what a fixed recipe cannot tell us as clearly. A recipe gives us one set of amounts. A ratio shows us what those amounts have in common.
Why I start with 30 and 500
I often use 30 grams of coffee and 500 grams of water because the math is easy, it fits my favorite mug, and I know what that relationship tastes like.
That does not make it the correct ratio.
It makes it a useful starting point.
For some full-immersion brews, I use something closer to 1:15. Easy math and it's close enough for me.
The important thing is not that we all choose the same number. It is just that we start somewhere and making adjustments, with a scale... until we like it.
A ratio gives you that beginning. It lets you brew the cup again before deciding what needs to change.
Scaling without starting over
I have a brewing setup I arrived at over time. It is not a standard brewer with a recipe printed on the side.
A ratio gives me a way to use it anyway.
It also helped when I needed to scale up to a large electric percolator for a gathering recently. The ratio gave me a reasonable amount of coffee for a much larger volume of water. I still needed to work on the grind, but it answered one question: How much coffee should I begin with? And it was fine the first time.
And it became easy to just tweak the grind next.
Does this require a scale?
Scales help because coffee can vary in density from one origin or roast level to another. That can fool the eye, especially if you start with whole beans.
A scoop can be fuller one morning than the next. The markings on a brewer may not mean what we think they mean. A scale removes some uncertainty—and that helps at six in the morning.
It can give us a more dependable comparison and a more repeatable outcome.
Brewing without a scale
Coffee still needs to fit into ordinary life.
I do not like to travel with a scale. The place where I stay usually does not have one. In that situation, it's nice to have a way to get close.
If you travel regularly, designate a travel scoop. At home, use a scale to learn how much coffee that scoop holds. Find out how much water your travel brewer, mug, or bottle holds. Write it down or save on your phone.
- Two level scoops
- Water to this line
- The same grind setting
You have turned the ratio into a portable recipe without carrying the scale.
If you have not calibrated anything and need somewhere to begin, try roughly two level measuring tablespoons of ground coffee for every six fluid ounces of water.
That is an approximation. Roast level, grind size, and the way the spoon is filled will change how much coffee it actually holds. Use the same spoon, level it the same way, and measure the water as consistently as the situation allows.
Then taste the coffee.
If you like it, you have a travel recipe. If you do not, you have a starting point to change the next time.
A reference point, not a verdict
The danger of introducing a number is that the number can begin to sound like a ruling.
A 1:17 ratio is not proof that a brew was made correctly. It cannot tell you whether you enjoy the coffee. It does not account for every brewer, roast, grind, or preference.
It gives you a place to start.
Begin with 30 grams of coffee and 500 grams of water if that amount suits your brewer. Make less or more while keeping the relationship the same. Brew it again before changing it.
Once the cup is repeatable, it becomes useful information.
You may decide you prefer a little more coffee. You may decide the ratio is fine and the grind needs attention. You may notice that the same recipe behaves differently as the coffee rests.
Those are questions for the next brew.
The ratio has already done its job. It has made tomorrow’s coffee comparable to today’s.
Once you can repeat a cup, you can learn from it.
Taste it.
Then change one thing.