If you make coffee frequently, you’ll know that the ideal coffee-to-water ratio is essential for a delicious morning brew. If the balance is off, your coffee may be overly strong, too weak, or even unpalatable.
You can end up using nearly 200 coffee beans for a single cup of coffee, and for a quick espresso, you can use half as many. Also, people like coffee ranging from weak to strong.
Although, there can be many variations depending on how strong your coffee is, the type of coffee bean you use, the grinds from your coffee bean grinder, and how you brew your coffee.
In our guide, you can learn more about what it takes to get the correct amount of coffee beans to grounds for the perfect cup. By the end, you’ll find there is far more to it than just the number of beans to correct the golden ratio. (Read Does Iced Coffee Go Bad)
How Type Affects The Number Of Beans In A Cup Of Coffee?
The simple response is that every type of bean will vary in size, shape, and weight, resulting in a different coffee type. How many beans you can fit into your coffee machine and subsequently into your cup depends on all these coffee beans measurement conversions, yet it isn’t that simple to measure coffee beans and be done with it.
To further complicate, the plant’s growing circumstances are just as important as the coffee bean variety. None of us can control the growing environment, and those who do can find variations in how we measure coffee between the same species of coffee bean because of size and weight.
It is worth noting that whole coffee beans weigh almost the same as ground coffee the coffee bean produces. Thus, once ground, it can be much easier to work out exactly how much coffee grounds needed by spoonful if you don’t have a digital kitchen scale.
Does Coffee Roast Affect Coffee Beans In A Cup?
During the roasting process, coffee can lose 15% to 20% of its total weight. Depending on how large your filter is, how much coffee will fit in, and thus how strong your cup of coffee will vary. The average weight and degree of roasting of coffee beans are below.
Longer roasting reduces the weight of coffee beans. Some people may not know that losing weight can come from grinding beans yourself. They are exposed to the air and heat of your kitchen, causing them to lose moisture.
The reason it makes a difference is moisture is a space hog. Coffee grounds expand when moisture evaporates, creating more space for coffee. Even the weight of coffee could change between your finely ground coffee for the same size of about two tablespoons worth if making one cup of French press coffee.
Note: using the right temperature water won’t change the number of beans, yet too hot water can affect the flavor. (Learn How Much Does Starbucks Pay An Hour)
How Finely Ground Coffee Beans Affect Beans In A Cup
Changing the grind size is the sole difference between the two approaches if you want to make a fair comparison. You’ll need to use a filter-equipped plunger to pass coffee in a French Press. But your coffee must be gritty enough that it does not go through the filter.
Coffee grounds with a coarse grind have a smaller surface area to interact with the hot water, and less coffee is extracted from the grounds. Although the coffee grind used in drip brewing is finer, more coffee can be brewed on the same amount of space.
If you grind the beans fine enough, you can use more of them in each cup of coffee, so you can end up with cups that are strong and bitter ones, whereas a coarser grind leaves you with a strong coffee-tasting cup without the bitterness you get from the fine grind.
Brewing Method Affects The Number Of Beans In Your Coffee
The total number of beans used in each cup of coffee is heavily influenced by the brewing method and coffee maker you choose. Results can vary across coffee maker brands and brewing techniques.
Espresso is made by tightly compressing a large quantity of finely ground coffee beans into a coffee puck. Once the water is close to boiling, the coffee machine takes over. Water is pushed through the puck by the espresso machine. As we saw up top, espresso makes efficient use of space by compressing the beans instead of wondering how many tablespoons you’ll need.
In comparison, because they don’t have to force as much coffee through the filter, more coffee grounds take up more space than in an espresso machine; thus, the more beans you need to grind.
To reiterate, the fineness of the grind and the compression of the grounds mean that an espresso machine can contain many more coffee beans than other methods.
However, it is possible to get the perfect cup from various brewing methods. The Aeropress, French press, percolator pour-over coffee, and drip coffee machines are alternatives for brewing.
From experimentation, brewing coffee with high-end coffee machines uses fewer beans per serving. Yet, the resulting fewer coffee beans per cup of coffee may not be as nice as the perfect coffee you get from your drip coffee maker. (Read Is Coffee Bean Or Nut)
Brewing Methods
Popular coffee brewing methods are:
1. Drip Coffee Machine
Drip coffee machines can have built-in filters or they use paper filters.
- The filter prevents grounds from entering the coffee pot, which would affect flavor and texture.
- A coffee machine takes 5 minutes to brew.
- Coffee machines should use a 1:15 golden coffee-to-water ratio.
- For 1 cup (8 fl. oz), you need 0.85oz of coffee (168 to 192 beans) and 360g (12.70oz) of water. Medium-fine ground beans work best.
2. French Press Coffee Maker
A plunger and narrow glass beaker make a French press. After adding hot water to the beaker, the plunger filters the coffee grounds out of your cup.
Most folks prefer 4 minutes for this procedure.
The best golden ratio of how much ground coffee to water ratio of 1:12, which is 0.63oz of ground coffee, and how many coffee beans in a cup work out at around 125 to 145, with 7.62oz of water for 1 cup at 8 fl. oz.
A French most often isn’t suitable for more than one cup by design.
3. Cold Brew
Cold brew coffee, as the name implies, is prepared with colder water (generally at room temperature). After steeping the coffee grounds in the water for 12 to 24 hours, they are filtered through paper.
When making cold brew, how much ground coffee you need increases, so the ideal coffee-to-water ratio is 1:8, which calls for 1.41oz of grounds, 280–320 beans, and 11.29oz of water.
For cold brew, it is advised to use coarsely ground beans.
4. Flash Brew
Making iced coffee in a Chemex flask using the Japanese “flash brewing” technique is quite effective. To preserve all the sweet and fruity characteristics of the whole beans, your coffee cup is brewed and then chilled as quickly as possible.
Use a 1:8 coffee-to-water ratio, or 0.71 ounces of grounds, 140 to 160 beans, 5.64 ounces of water, and 5.64 ounces of ice, to make delicious flash brew coffee. The flash brew method works incredibly well with a medium to fine-grind for the final ground coffee.
Number or Bean Weight For Making Coffee?
As you can see, there are a lot of variables that affect the exact number of beans in a cup of coffee. However, coffee is typically sold by weight rather than bean count. Each cup is measured by weight or the tablespoon for home coffee drinkers, as coffee is sold by weight, not volume or number of beans.
Volume has previously been briefly discussed, but it’s essential to realize the impact it can have on your coffee. Store-sold generic coffee cans typically list the number of tablespoons per “cup” of coffee.
Some people will even advise you on how much water to use (a “cup” containing anywhere from 6 to 12 ounces of water), but weighing everything is essential for making the perfect cup of coffee.
When it comes to a satisfying cup of coffee, weight is more important than the volume of the coffee bean; cup size can vary, yet using a kitchen scale, you can keep the golden ratio and make the perfect cup regardless of size.
Place the empty cup on your scale and tare if weighing the beans. This cancels the cup’s weight, so you get the weight of the beans. (Learn The Height Of A Standard Coffee Cup Would Be About)
How Many Beans Are In A Cup Of Coffee FAQs
How many grams of coffee beans are in a cup of coffee?
Roast duration, brewing method, and strength determine the solution. Every cup of coffee contains 7–18 grams of coffee beans.
How many coffee beans would you need to eat to get as much caffeine as a cup of coffee?
Each coffee bean has 6 mg of caffeine. 90 mg of caffeine is what you find in an average cup of coffee. That means eating 15 coffee beans to acquire the same caffeine.
How many cups of coffee can you make with 5 Lbs. of whole-bean coffee?
Coffee preparation determines this. Stronger coffee needs more coffee grounds, while weaker coffee needs less. An average cup of coffee yields 120 cups.
How Many Grams of Coffee Beans Per Cup To Use
Coffee beans average 15g or 160 beans per cup. One cup of
coffee is 8 fl. oz. Therefore, 15g is plenty to prepare a robust, full-bodied cup of coffee without tasting it bitter or watery.
How Many Ounces of Coffee Beans In A Cup
15g of coffee beans makes one cup of coffee. A nice 8-ounce cup of coffee can be made using this measurement.
Naturally, this amount depends on your brewing method, cup size, and beans.
How Many Cups of Coffee in a Pound
Coffee weighs about 450g per pound. Using 15g of each cup, a 1-pound bag of coffee should yield 30 cups. To avoid waste, use any leftover grounds to make a smaller cup of coffee.
How Many Coffee Beans In An Expresso?
Espresso is strong, so remember that a double espresso uses the same amount of coffee beans as a single cup to grasp how powerful that punch is.
50–60 espresso beans or 0.26oz makes a cup of coffee. These numbers are doubled for a double espresso.
For a single shot of espresso, use 0.53oz of water and 1.06oz for a double shot. The ideal coffee-to-water ratio is 1:2.