Palouse Coffee Club Palouse Coffee Club
  1. Home
  2. Blog
  3. Coffee to water ratio

Coffee to water ratio: how much coffee for every brewer

The published ratios, the math for your own mug, and what to change when the cup is off.

Quick answer: the ratio by brewer

The standard coffee to water ratio for drip coffee is 1 to 2 tablespoons of ground coffee for every 6 ounces of water, which the National Coffee Association calls the Golden Ratio. By weight, the published regional standards run from about 1 g of coffee to 16 g of water up to 1 g to 18 g. Espresso and cold brew use far less water. The table has each brewer.

BrewerCoffee to waterContact timeGrind
Drip1 to 2 tablespoons per 6 ozAbout 5 minutesMedium, like kosher salt
Pour over1:13 to 1:16 by weight2 to 4 minutesMedium
French press1:10 to 1:16 by weightAbout 4 minutesCoarse, like rock salt
Espresso1:2 (coffee in to espresso out)20 to 30 secondsFine, like table salt
Cold brew1:4 to 1:5 by weightAbout 12 hoursCoarse, like rock salt

All five rows are the National Coffee Association's. For pour over and French press it gives a water temperature of 93 °C, give or take 3 degrees. Wikipedia's coffee extraction article gives 91 to 94 °C (196 to 201 °F) as the commonly recommended range. Cold brew is made at room temperature or cooler.

Why weigh instead of scoop

A kitchen scale measures the same way every morning, and every brewer in the table except drip is given by weight. The ratio is simply the weight of coffee against the weight of water; see brew ratio in our glossary.

Coffee regions have their own standards by weight. Wikipedia's coffee extraction article lists three:

StandardGrams of coffee per literAs a ratio
North American55 gAbout 1:18
European58 gAbout 1:17
Nordic63 gAbout 1:16

Doing the math for your own cup

  1. Decide how much water you want. A 12 ounce mug is about 355 g of water (12 times 29.57 ml, and a milliliter of water weighs about a gram: the gram was first defined in 1795 as the mass of a cubic centimeter of water).
  2. Divide by your ratio. At 1:16, 355 divided by 16 is about 22 g of coffee. At the North American 55 g per liter, 0.355 times 55 is about 19.5 g.
  3. Weigh the beans, grind for your brewer, and brew with the time in the table above.
  4. Taste. Adjust one thing next time.

The same math tells you how far a bag goes. A 12 oz bag is about 340 g of coffee (12 times 28.35 g). At 55 g per liter it makes about 6.2 liters, or about 17 twelve ounce mugs. At 1:16 it makes about 5.4 liters, or about 15 mugs.

Troubleshooting a cup that is off

First decide whether the problem is strength or taste. They have different fixes. Wikipedia's coffee extraction article treats strength (how much coffee is dissolved in the cup) and extraction (how much was pulled out of the grounds) as separate measures, and adding water after brewing changes only the first.

The cupWhat is wrongWhat to change
Watery but pleasantToo weakMore coffee for the same water
Heavy and intense but pleasantToo strongLess coffee, or add hot water after brewing
Sour, sharp, thinUnder-extractedGrind finer or brew longer
Bitter, harsh, dryOver-extractedGrind coarser or brew shorter

Wikipedia's article explains the taste side: acids come out of the grounds early, so a short or coarse brew leans sour, and bitter compounds come out after the acids and sugars, so a long or fine brew leans bitter. A finer grind and a longer brew both extract more. For machine brewers, our drip coffee page covers the rest.

One more variable is the water itself. The National Coffee Association recommends cold water, filtered if possible, and says to avoid distilled or softened water.

Practice with a Washington roaster

Ratios are easier to learn when someone pours two cups side by side. Two Washington roasters we list teach in person, as their pages showed on September 27, 2026: Olympia Coffee Roasting runs home barista classes and a public cupping on the first Friday of each month at its downtown Olympia roastery, and Victrola Coffee Roasters holds free public cuppings at its Pike Street roastery in Seattle on select Fridays at 11 am. Learning from the people who roast the coffee, and buying their beans, keeps local roasters in business; why local roasters matter has more.

Coffee to water ratio: questions

What is the golden ratio for coffee?

The National Coffee Association's Golden Ratio is 1 to 2 tablespoons of ground coffee for every 6 ounces of water, for drip coffee. By weight, the North American standard in Wikipedia's coffee extraction article is 55 g of coffee per liter of water, about 1:18.

How much coffee do I need for a French press?

1 g of coffee for every 10 to 16 g of water, according to the National Coffee Association, steeped for about 4 minutes. For 500 g of water at 1:15, that is about 33 g of coarse ground coffee.

What ratio should I use for cold brew?

1 g of coffee to 4 or 5 g of water, according to the National Coffee Association, steeped at room temperature or cooler for about 12 hours with a coarse grind. That makes a strong brew, so taste it before deciding whether to add water or ice.

How hot should the water be?

The National Coffee Association gives 93 °C, give or take 3 degrees, for pour over and French press, and Wikipedia's coffee extraction article gives 91 to 94 °C (196 to 201 °F) as the common recommendation.

Does a stronger cup need a different ratio?

Yes. More coffee for the same water makes a stronger cup, because the ratio sets strength. If the cup tastes sour or bitter rather than weak or strong, change the grind or the time instead.

Beans to measure

Palouse Coffee Club sends a 12 oz bag from a different independent Washington roaster every 2 or 4 weeks, whole bean or ground for your brewer. $16.99 a bag. First bag free, you pay $7.99 shipping. Build your box.

Sources

By Joe McRose, Palouse Coffee Club. Updated September 2026.