At Bean Smitten we recommend using 60 grams of coffee to 1 litre of water. The problem is that one person's full scoop, is another person's half scoop, and that's before considering whether it should it be heaped or level.
The coffee brewing process is sensitive to many variables. Being a bit under or a bit over can make a noticeable difference to how the coffee will taste in the cup.
Brewing Ratios
Investing in a pair of digital scales to achieve a consistent coffee to water ratio will help us take huge strides towards the perfect up of coffee.
Let's take an example of a cafetiere (aka French press). Most people will have a standard 8 cup size in their cupboard somewhere. This takes a litre of water to fill and using our recommended recipe, we want to weigh out 60 grams of coffee grounds, or 60 grams of beans and then grind them. This is a ratio of 1 gram of coffee to 16.7 millilitres of water. Remember this.
People who appreciate good coffee at the office will likely have a little 2 cup cafetiere on their desk. It takes 250 millilitres to fill. Divide by 16.7 and this tells us we need 15 grams of coffee. It's simple when you know how.
Weigh the Water
Did you know that one 1 millilitre of water weighs 1 gram? This means we can also use the scales to measure the water too. Place the cafetiere containing the ground coffee directly on the scales and press the TARE button to reset the scales to zero.
Carefully pour the water into the cafetiere, slowing down as the readout approaches the desired weight. Leave to brew for four minutes, plunge then serve.
Scales for Brewing Coffee
When buying a pair of scales for brewing coffee, we recommend that you go for something that can measure to an accuracy of 0.1g. Here's a couple of UK companies that sell scales to suit a range of budgets:
Conclusion
In this article, we have shown how a simple pair of scales can help achieve a better cup of coffee. It might seem a bit over the top, to begin with, but it soon becomes second nature and it takes the guess work out of brewing coffee. Friends will thank you for it.
