You don’t need to memorize coffee grounds to water ratio to create a perfect coffee. Even if you have a coffee business of your own, knowing the exact measure of the grounds along with the water (and also the temperature) can help you create an ideal cup of Joe.
Of course, you shouldn’t forget other important elements, such as the type of coffee beans and whether you should grind the beans yourself. That’s why knowing the basic knowledge of the ratio can help and provide you with basic knowledge.
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The Important Elements
Most people are talking about buying the perfect and high-quality coffee beans if you want to achieve the best result. But then again, even the finest beans would be useless if you brew it all wrong. If you want to create the perfect coffee, you need to understand the whole process, including the brewing process.
So, what happens during brewing? And why is such a thing like coffee grounds to water ratio important? When you brew the coffee, you basically immerse the coffee grounds in the water, leaving the coffee particles (known as aggregate) to be exposed to very hot water. The idea is to extract the important soluble parts (such as oils and flavor compounds) from the grounds.
As a result, you get the coffee infusion that is left inside the water. Theoretically, the perfect extraction should result in the perfect outcome too – which will end up in your cup. If course, the real practice is more challenging and difficult. And everything is far from perfect. But then again, we have developed some ways and systems – and each time, it gets better and better.
The Important Ratio
When it comes to coffee grounds to water ratio, the proper measurement way is to do it by weight. If you take your coffee seriously, you should have a good scale that will help you weigh your coffee proportion. Instead of counting the beans, the scale can be super handy.
What if you measure it by volume? This method is possible, but let’s not forget that coffee beans have different density and different sizes too. That’s why you should really consider having a good and reliable scale.
You see, when you brew the coffee, there will be extracted soluble in the water – which usually related to the drinking ratio. But those who don’t want to have too rich or too concentrated coffee contents, you can always add water after the coffee is created. The addition of (hot) water will reduce the flavor intensity and also concentration.
Professional and expert coffee lovers say that it would be wiser (and better) to make the coffee on the strongest side and then ‘reduce’ with the extra water. If you create it too weak, then the result will be useless and you may have to start over again.
If you want to know how much water used for the coffee, multiply the coffee weight by 16 to get the water ounces. Let’s say that you come up with 1.2 oz of coffee, you need to multiply 1.2 by 16.0 to get the result of 19.2 oz.
There is also the inverse factor method to try so you can get the right amount of liquid. Find out about it in details.
The Importance of Water
Don’t forget that water also plays a crucial factor in the quality of coffee. The best water is the clean pure water so your coffee won’t be contaminated by the pollutants and other elements that can affect the taste of the coffee. Basically, bad water will end up as a bad coffee – there is no doubt about it.
If you don’t have the filtered water, the bottled version of the spring water is your best bet. Filtered water is the best one because it still has the important minerals and yet it doesn’t contain any harmful pollutants or elements.
What about softened water? It isn’t good either because such water has been removed or stripped off from the important minerals.
What if you are using a special container to store the water? It is doable but be sure to clean the container regularly (and also often). The water collection is prone to bacteria buildup.
Aside from the fact that it isn’t dangerous for your health, it will also affect the taste of the coffee in a bad way. All in all, the knowledge of coffee grounds to water ratio is important to make tasty coffee, but let’s not forget that there are still many other elements that will determine the quality and final result of the coffee.
Temperature, Temperature, and Temperature
Don’t forget that the water temperature is also crucial. To achieve the best result, the temperature should be between 195 degrees Fahrenheit to 205 degrees Fahrenheit or around 91 degrees Celsius and 96 degrees Celsius.
If it is too hot, it will burn the ground coffee. If it is not hot enough, the extraction won’t happen properly. So, aside from the knowledge coffee grounds to water ratio, you should also consider other elements.