Home › Home & Kitchen › Kitchen & Dining › Coffee, Tea & Espresso › Coffee Scales Coffee to Water Ratio Published: July 9, 2026 · Updated: July 9, 2026
A reliable starting point for brewed coffee is about 1 gram of coffee to 15–18 grams of water — roughly 60 grams of coffee per litre — weighed on a scale rather than measured by scoops. Go nearer 1:15 for a stronger cup and 1:17–1:18 for a lighter one, then adjust to your taste.
Recommended Start at 1:16 by weight (about 60g coffee per litre), then nudge toward 1:15 stronger or 1:18 lighter — The ratio of coffee to water is the single biggest lever on strength, and weighing both on a scale is far more consistent than counting scoops, because grind and bean density make spoon measures unreliable. A widely used guideline (the SCA's 'golden ratio') is around 1:16 to 1:18 by weight; 1:16 — for example 30g of coffee to 480g of water — is a good default for pour-over and drip. Move toward 1:15 for a bolder, stronger cup and toward 1:18 for a lighter, more delicate one, changing the ratio rather than fiddling with everything at once. Different methods have their own norms: immersion methods like French press sit around 1:15–1:17, while espresso is a different world entirely, typically a 1:2 ratio of ground coffee to liquid espresso (say 18g in, 36g out). Remember that ratio sets strength, but grind size and time control extraction — the bitterness or sourness — so dial the ratio in first, then adjust the grind. Water is about a gram per millilitre, so 1:16 is also roughly 60g of coffee per litre, and once you find a ratio you like, weighing it makes the same cup repeatable every morning.
