How Much Ground Coffee Should I Use? (2024)

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  • How Much Ground Coffee Should I Use? (1)Author:Melissa Collins
  • Updated: April 2, 2023

How Much Ground Coffee Should I Use?

The art of making the perfect brew depends on how much coffee you use. Unfortunately, labels rarely bother with instructions, and experts’ recommendations can be very confusing.

So how do you get it right and make the perfect coffee?

Besides the right amount ofground coffee, which I will explain below, make sure to get the basics right: Use high-quality coffee beans (ideally 100% Arabica and Organic), plus grind and brew coffee freshly when you’re ready to drink it. It’s also a great idea to measure or weight the beans before you grind for the right amounts.

But let’s dive in and see how much ground coffee you need for different brewing situations:

How much coffee do you use for one cup?

First, let’s talk about cups and mugs, because they’re not the same thing. One cup, fortea or coffee, means 6 fluid ounces. OK? Now, a mug is somewhere between 8 and 9 fluid ounces. Almost half as big as a regular cup, so the quantity of coffee needed will be different.

An experienced barista will advise you to use 0.36 oz of coffee per cup. Wow! And how do I measure your precious 0.36 oz? Don’t panic, we’ll explain that in plain English!

You don’t need precisionscales to measure your coffeein the morning or anything like that, because 0.36 oz coffee is the amount that goes into one scoop, like the one your coffee maker came with. Now that’s more like it!

To make it even simpler – one scoop equals two ordinary tablespoons. It’s that easy!

How many grams of coffee are in a tablespoon?

If you’re used to measuring in grams, we have the answer for you. One tablespoon of coffee contains roughly 5 grams of ground coffee. For a cup of your favorite brew, you will need to use 10 grams of coffee, which is two tablespoons.

How much ground coffee do you put in a coffee maker?

The problem is not the coffee maker itself, but how many cups you want to make.

Let’s say you want to know how much coffee you need for your morning cup of coffee. So, just one cup.

Easy, pour 6 fluid ounces of water in the reservoir of your coffee maker, and one scoop of ground coffee in the filter basket. Or two tablespoons of coffee.

Got it?

One cup of your favorite morning brew means 6 fluid ounces of water and one scoop of ground coffee!

Now, if you haven’t had much sleep and need a big mug to help you keep your eyes open you need to put 9 fluid ounces of water and three tablespoons of ground coffee beans in the coffee maker!

Tip #1 You don’t need to bother measuring the water, who wants to do that early in the morning? Just fill your cup or mug with water and pour it in the reservoir of the coffee maker!

Tip #2 If you prefer stronger coffee, just add a bit more ground coffee. If it’s not strong enough, add a bit more next time, and so on.

How many tablespoons of coffee do you use for 4 cups?

If you want to prepare four cups of coffee you will need exactly 4 scoops of ground beans, or, if you prefer, 8 tablespoons. If you want stronger coffee, you can go for 10 tablespoons and you will get four delicious cups of coffee.

How much ground coffee to use for a French Press?

French Press coffee tastes amazing and is a fun ritual to do daily. To make the perfect French Press coffee, use hot water that’s not quite boiling and then add a heaping tablespoon (that’s about 7-8 grams or about 0.25 oz) of coffee to the French Press pot per 200 ml of water (about 6.7 oz).

To recap:

  • You should use 1 scoop of coffee or two tablespoons for one cup of brew.
  • Use 1 1/3 scoops or three tablespoons of coffee for a mug of brew
  • There are 5 grams of coffee to a tablespoon.
  • One cup is 6 fl oz of water.
  • One mug is 9 fl oz of water.

Enjoy!

Coffee Beans per Cup

If you want to know the secret to a perfect cup of coffee, its attention to detail. There are a lot of factors that you need to control to make a perfect cup of coffee.

One of those factors is the amount of coffee grounds you use. Using too many or too few coffee beans could ruin your cup of coffee. Below we go over how to properly measure out your coffee for the perfect cup of joe.

How to Measure Coffee Beans

The easiest way to measure coffee beans is by using a digital kitchen scale. Take whatever container you will be using to hold your coffee beans in and place it on the scale empty.

Most scales have a button called TARE on it that will zero out the weight of the bowl to give you an accurate reading. If yours doesn’t, then make a note of the container’s weight and subtract it from what you need.

For every six ounces of coffee, you will need about two tablespoons of ground coffee. This is around 0.38 ounces or 10.6 grams of whole coffee beans. If you are making more than one cup, just adjust to as much as you need.

If you don’t have a digital scale, you can grind beans until you have two full tablespoons of ground beans. Then make a note of how many tablespoons of whole beans it took to make that amount ground up. This isn’t as accurate, but it keeps you from carrying around a scale.

Measurements And Water Ratios

There is an easy to remember the rule for measuring out the perfect coffee called the golden ratio.

This ratio is 1 gram of coffee grounds for every 18 ml of water, 1:18. If you are measuring out your coffee for the perfect cup, then this is the perfect place to start. You can play with this ratio to tailor your favorite coffee to your specific tastes.

Coffee Beans Measurement Conversions

With coffee beans being measured in weight and coffee being measured by volume, it can get confusing really quickly. The easiest way to remedy this is to convert everything to simple measurements. The standard measure of coffee is two tablespoons. This is equal to about one-eighth of a cup.

Brewing Method Affects The Number Of Beans In Your Coffee

Different brewing methods are going to require different amounts of coffee beans as well. If you are using a drip coffee machine, the grounds are not packed in so you can use fewer coffee beans. If you are using an espresso machine, you will have to use more beans packed tightly into what is called a coffee puck. This changes how many beans you can pack into each cup of coffee.

Bean Weight Or Count: What’s More Important For Making Coffee?

This is a common mistake. The coffee industry measures its bags of coffee by weight and not by the number of beans in each bag. Your coffee grounds needed in each cup are measured in weight the same way. You will need more beans depending on how you are brewing your coffee, but it doesn’t have an impact outside of that.

The art of making the perfect brew depends on how much coffee you use. Unfortunately, labels rarely bother with instructions, and experts’ recommendations can be very confusing.

So how do you get it right and make the perfect coffee?

Besides the right amount of ground coffee, which I will explain below, make sure to get the basics right: Use high-quality coffee beans (ideally 100% Arabica and Organic), plus grind and brew coffee freshly when you’re ready to drink it. It’s also a great idea to measure or weight the beans before you grind for the right amounts.

But let’s dive in and see how much ground coffee you need for different brewing situations:

How much coffee do you use for one cup?

First, let’s talk about cups and mugs, because they’re not the same thing. One cup, for tea or coffee, means 6 fluid ounces. OK? Now, a mug is somewhere between 8 and 9 fluid ounces. Almost half as big as a regular cup, so the quantity of coffee needed will be different.

An experienced barista will advise you to use 0.36 oz of coffee per cup. Wow! And how do I measure your precious 0.36 oz? Don’t panic, we’ll explain that in plain English!

You don’t need precision scales to measure your coffee in the morning or anything like that, because 0.36 oz coffee is the amount that goes into one scoop, like the one your coffee maker came with. Now that’s more like it!

To make it even simpler – one scoop equals two ordinary tablespoons. It’s that easy!

How many grams of coffee are in a tablespoon?

If you’re used to measuring in grams, we have the answer for you. One tablespoon of coffee contains roughly 5 grams of ground coffee. For a cup of your favorite brew, you will need to use 10 grams of coffee, which is two tablespoons.

How much ground coffee do you put in a coffee maker?

The problem is not the coffee maker itself, but how many cups you want to make.

Let’s say you want to know how much coffee you need for your morning cup of coffee. So, just one cup.

Easy, pour 6 fluid ounces of water in the reservoir of your coffee maker, and one scoop of ground coffee in the filter basket. Or two tablespoons of coffee.

Got it?

One cup of your favorite morning brew means 6 fluid ounces of water and one scoop of ground coffee!

Now, if you haven’t had much sleep and need a big mug to help you keep your eyes open you need to put 9 fluid ounces of water and three tablespoons of ground coffee beans in the coffee maker!

Tip #1 You don’t need to bother measuring the water, who wants to do that early in the morning? Just fill your cup or mug with water and pour it in the reservoir of the coffee maker!

Tip #2 If you prefer stronger coffee, just add a bit more ground coffee. If it’s not strong enough, add a bit more next time, and so on.

How many tablespoons of coffee do you use for 4 cups?

If you want to prepare four cups of coffee you will need exactly 4 scoops of ground beans, or, if you prefer, 8 tablespoons. If you want stronger coffee, you can go for 10 tablespoons and you will get four delicious cups of coffee.

How much ground coffee to use for a French Press?

French Press coffee tastes amazing and is a fun ritual to do daily. To make the perfect French Press coffee, use hot water that’s not quite boiling and then add a heaping tablespoon (that’s about 7-8 grams or about 0.25 oz) of coffee to the French Press pot per 200 ml of water (about 6.7 oz).

To recap:

  • You should use 1 scoop of coffee or two tablespoons for one cup of brew.
  • Use 1 1/3 scoops or three tablespoons of coffee for a mug of brew
  • There are 5 grams of coffee to a tablespoon.
  • One cup is 6 fl oz of water.
  • One mug is 9 fl oz of water.

Enjoy!

Conclusion

The best thing to do if you want to accurately measure your coffee is to get a digital kitchen scale. This will take the guesswork out and make you one step closer to perfecting your coffee.

Start with the golden ratio and experiment for a while to find your preference. After a few tries, you are sure to know exactly how much coffee to use.

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Sources

How to measure coffee to make the perfect brew
https://www.coffeedetective.com/measure-coffee.html

How To Measure Coffee Without a Scale:
https://www.javapresse.com/blogs/enjoying-coffee/measure-coffee-Awithout-a-scale

How to measure coffee to make the perfect brew
https://www.coffeedetective.com/measure-coffee.html

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