How Much Coffee Per Cup? Brew Ratios for Drip, Pour-Over, French Press, and Cold Brew

Most bad coffee at home is not the beans. It is the ratio. Too little coffee and the cup is thin and sour; too much and it is muddy and bitter. Fix the ratio and everything else gets easier.

The short answer

Use about 1 gram of coffee for every 16 grams of water for drip and pour-over. That is roughly 2 level tablespoons per 6 oz cup. If you have a kitchen scale, use it. Scoops vary by 30% depending on how you fill them.

Ratios by brew method

Method Ratio Example Grind
Drip / auto-brewer 1:16 60 g coffee per 1 liter water Medium
Pour-over (V60, Chemex, Kalita) 1:16 22 g coffee to 350 g water Medium-fine
French press 1:15 30 g coffee to 450 g water Coarse
AeroPress 1:14 15 g coffee to 220 g water Medium-fine
Cold brew concentrate 1:8 125 g coffee to 1 liter water, 14 to 16 hours Coarse
Moka pot 1:12 Fill the basket level, no tamping Fine (not espresso-fine)
Espresso 1:2 18 g in, 36 g out, 25 to 32 seconds Very fine

How to adjust

Taste it. If the cup is sour or thin, use a little more coffee or grind finer. If it is bitter or harsh, use a little less coffee or grind coarser. Change one thing at a time and give it a day before changing the next.

Water matters too

Use water you would happily drink. Filtered tap water is fine. Aim for 200 to 205 F, which is about 30 seconds off the boil. Water that is too hot pulls out bitterness; water that is too cool leaves the cup flat.

A note on freshness

Ratios assume fresh coffee. Beans more than six weeks off roast have lost the gas and aromatics that make the cup sweet, and no ratio will bring them back. Our coffee is roasted on the 1st of every month and ships within 3 business days, so the roast date on the bag is the date it was actually roasted.

Which coffee for which method