What is the importance of correctly dosing coffee? 

Introduction

Correctly dosing the coffee grounds while getting ready to brew your morning beverage will be one of the keys to achieving the ideal results of flavor, strength, and mouthfeel. This topic often presents a learning curve for new coffee enthusiasts.

Have you ever thought: How much coffee is too much or too little? This article will cover the basics of coffee dosing and its importance.

Coffee-to-Water Ratios

Having an optimal coffee-to-water ratio is important when considering the concentration of coffee molecules and oils in your brew. Using too much or too little coffee can negatively impact the strength and balance of the extraction.

How to Read Ratios

You may hear coffee lovers talking about coffee-to-water ratios, and casually throwing out numbers to describe their brew recipes. Has this ever felt confusing?

It turns out, these numbers are easy to read and comprehend once you know how to read them. A '1:16 ratio', for example, will mean that for every 1 part coffee, there are 16 parts water. If using grams, a 1:16 ratio will be 1 gram coffee grounds to 16 grams water.

How to Apply Ratios to your Setup

If you have a particular amount of coffee you want to brew, it's easiest to work backwards when you're starting out. First, choose a coffee-to-water ratio you would like to apply to your brew. For pour-over coffee, 1:15, 1:16, and 1:17 are common ratios used in specialty coffee. 1:15 will usually be a little stronger and punchier than a ratio that uses more water-to-coffee, such as 1:16 or 1:17, which will often present lighter and more elegant, depending on the coffee you're brewing.

Let's say you choose a 1:16 ratio for the coffee you're brewing on your Ratio. If you want to use 300ml (about 300 grams) of water, for example, your goal will be to calculate the amount of coffee you will add to the coffee filter. Just divide the amount of water (300ml or 300 grams) by the parts of water in the coffee-to-water ratio ("16" in the 1:16). Dividing 300 by 16 will be about 18.75 grams. 

Once you have finished calculating, you will fill the water tank on your Ratio (300ml is about 10oz or 2 cups) and weight the 18.75 grams of coffee in your coffee filter. Start the brew cycle, and you have implemented coffee-to-water ratios yourself!



How to Choose the Best Coffee-to-Water Ratio For Me?

The ratio you choose will depend on the profile you're looking for, and you can always try different ratios between brews. See the examples below for reference:

A 1:15 ratio for pour-over is best for folks who like a coffee that's rich and has a full mouthfeel.

A 1:17 ratio for pour-over is best for folks who want a brew that is more tea-like and light. 

Both examples above can achieve great results, and you might find different coffees thrive with different ratios to harness their best qualities.

You will notice a shift when trying coffee-to-water ratios outside of the 1:15 to 1:17 range. Below, we will describe what under-extraction and over-extraction mean, and how they often present in the cup. 

Under-extraction vs. Over-extraction

Your taste buds are the most important tools to help move your brew's extraction in the right direction. Ideally, the coffee will taste sweet, balanced, transparent, and have a full mouthfeel to highlight the best qualities of the coffee you're brewing. Below, you will get to understand the qualities of under-extraction and over-extraction, applying the concept of ratios to help you understand how you can improve the quality of the extraction:

• Under-extraction may present weak, salty, sour, and/or having a quick finish. In terms of ratios, this would be consistent with over-dosing the amount of coffee grounds. 

  • You can change the ratio from 1:15 to 1:16, for example, to increase the extraction.

• Over-extraction may present dry, harsh on the tongue, and/or hollow in flavor. In terms of ratios, this would be consistent with under-dosing the amount of coffee grounds.

  • You can change the ratio from 1:16 to 1:15, for example, to lessen the extraction.