Coffee to Water Ratio for Every Brewer

If you only fix one thing about your home coffee, fix the ratio. Too little coffee tastes weak and sour. Too much tastes heavy and bitter. A kitchen scale makes this easy, but a tablespoon works too.

The starting point

A common rule for filter-style brewing is 1 part coffee to 15 to 17 parts water, by weight. In grams, that is about 60 to 65 g of coffee per liter of water. Use it as a starting point, then adjust to your taste.

Chart

Brewer	Ratio (coffee : water)	One mug (about 12 oz / 350 ml)
Pour-over	1 : 16	about 22 g coffee
French press	1 : 15	about 23 g coffee
AeroPress (strong, dilute after)	1 : 10 to 1 : 12	about 15 g coffee, then add hot water
Cold brew concentrate	1 : 5 to 1 : 8	dilute with water or milk when serving
Moka pot	Fill the basket, fill water to just under the valve	Follow your pot's size

Ready-to-drink brewers sit around 60 to 65 g per liter. AeroPress and cold brew are made stronger on purpose and watered down or mixed with milk afterward. The AeroPress and cold brew bars use the middle of their ranges, 1 : 11 and 1 : 6.5.

No scale? Use spoons

A level tablespoon of ground coffee is roughly 5 g, though it varies with the grind and how it is packed. So for one 12 oz mug, start with about 4 level tablespoons for pour-over or French press, then adjust. A scale is more accurate, and a basic one is a cheap upgrade.

How to adjust

Tastes sour or thin? Use a little more coffee, or grind finer.
Tastes bitter or heavy? Use a little less coffee, or grind coarser.
Change one thing at a time, so you know what made the difference.

The moka pot is different

A moka pot does not use a ratio. Its basket and water chamber are sized to fit each other. Fill the water to just under the safety valve, fill the basket level with coffee without pressing it down, and you are done.