While I have talked some about dosage (the amount of coffee you use) it is an important topic that deserves it’s own post. It’s one of the most common questions that comes up when people begin brewing coffee at home. How much coffee should I use to brew a cup of coffee? Here are my thoughts on finding a good coffee to water ratio.

The Strong Coffee Misconception

First we need to talk about strong coffee, weak coffee and roast levels. It has become fairly common to refer to a dark roasted coffee as a strong coffee. This is simply incorrect.

When people make the mistake of using “strong” to describe the flavor of a coffee, they are usually trying to describe the smokey, roasty notes of a dark roasted coffee. There is no correlation between how strong or weak a particular cup of coffee is and the roast level of the coffee. Learn more about coffee roast levels here.

The strength of a cup of coffee is based on the ratio of extracted chemical compounds from the grounds to the amount of water in the brew. It is a term that should be used to describe concentration not the flavor.

Assuming even extraction of the coffee grounds, your dosage is the largest factor that impacts coffee strength. A strong cup of coffee is full of the flavor characteristics that the coffee and roast profile contain. It is the brewer who has the power to make a cup of coffee weak or strong not the roaster.

How Much Coffee Per Cup?

If you are standing at your coffee maker right now wondering how much coffee to make a full pot of coffee, the answer is 1 cup of ground coffee. I use one cup of ground coffee for a 12 cup automatic coffee maker. (One cup is equal to 16 tablespoons).

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