Question about ratios. Coffee grounds to water in or coffee grounds to coffee out?

Question about ratios. Coffee grounds to water in or coffee grounds to coffee out?

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Question about ratios. Coffee grounds to water in or coffee grounds to coffee out?

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Question about ratios. Coffee grounds to water in or coffee grounds to coffee out?

Question about ratios. Coffee grounds to water in or coffee grounds to coffee out?

Question about ratios. Coffee grounds to water in or coffee grounds to coffee out?

minimum dose size?

I use the Hario switch to brew my coffee and am trying to reduce my caffeine consumption. Hence I would like to brew smaller cups of coffee. I am currently using 10g of coffee with 160g of water. (1:16 Ratio) I am wondering if there is a minimum amount of coffee...

Question about ratios. Coffee grounds to water in or coffee grounds to coffee out?

This has been bothering me a lot more than it should. Particularly as I'm fine tuning a couple of spreadsheets so I can quickly work out weights for pourover, Aeropress etc.

We obviously talk about ratios of coffee to water. Espresso may be 1:2 and pourover may be say 1:16. When we're talking about espresso, we're definitely talking about <weight of coffee grounds>:<weight of coffee out>. This makes sense as it's difficult for most people to tell how much water has gone in to an espresso. However when we're talking about pourover in all cases I've seen we're talking about <weight of coffee grounds>:<weight of water IN>. Hoffman's recipe for example (and I know it's not the only one, it's not the be-all and end-all) very specifically talks about measuring the total water in and working out the ratio based on that. However we know, and Hoffman himself regularly mentions, that the coffee out will be less than water in, by approximately twice the weight of the grounds.

This makes a small but significant difference to calculations. So what is it? Do we simply calculate differently for espresso and pourover? In which case, where does Aeropress sit for example?

Apart from the principle, it's causing me pain because I like to have a spreadsheet (for pourover) where I can input a desired quantity out, and it will tell me how much coffee grounds I need, and importantly how much water I have to put in, having selected my ratio. If we're treating it like espresso, this is easy:

a = volume of coffee out in ml (inputted by the user, i.e. me)

b = ratio (i.e. 15, 16, 17, 18 etc, selected by me)

c = grounds in, i.e. a/b

d = water in, i.e. a + (2*c)

This works beautifully except it's not quite correct. In the case of pourover, with the large quantities involved, it doesn't make too much of a difference. But with an Aeropress, the difference becomes noticeable.

I can't at the moment (although I'm sure I will do) work out a way to create the above spreadsheet where the ratio is calculated on the amount of water in (i.e. the correct way for pourover?), and I'm still able to input the desired coffee out. It may seem easy:

c = d/b

However d references c so it's a cyclical reference or whatever it's called. Anyone who can work this out for me would be saving me a lot of time and sweat!

All of this is confounded by the fact that I still don't know what the correct way of doing it is for pourover. Do we calculate the ratio based on the water in, or by the coffee out?

…..

As an addendum, I know it's not really about religiously sticking to ratios and recipes, it's all about starting from something fairly standard and working out what you like. And I know there are many, many other factors (grind, temperature immediately come to mind) which I haven't mentioned that make a huge difference. I do experiment, but if I make the perfect coffee I want to note down the ratio, and I want to be doing it properly.

submitted by /u/shabelsky22
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