We always get into a conversation about the ratio of coffee to water. We see labels in packaging using tablespoon per cups, or scoops per cups. These labels are based on the particular roast and grind size and is not a standard. But a mere guide to start from and customized to suit your taste.

This article is for those who grinds their coffee fresh, just before brewing. We did an experiment on how grind size matters in terms of weight. We wont be discussing grind size for brewing method of choice. This article is grind size and how particle size affects weight.

We will present to you two approaches here, the weight using tablespoon and straight ground weight.

TABLESPOON

The reason why we are showing this, is the mere fact that people talk about tablespoons per cup. So you grind your beans and then get a tablespoon and scoop out the coffee grounds. A tablespoon is not ideal to use in weighting ground coffee since particle size determines the spaced used.

The picture below shows a course and fine grind settings.

Notice, that the top picture (Course) shows 1 TBS of coffee and its weight is 4.30 grams while the bottom picture (fine) shows 1 TBS of coffee and its weight is 3.71 grams.

This is a closer look at the course grind setting.

This is a closer look at the fine grind setting.

What you will learn here is the even if both are 1 TBS they weigh differently. Now, an additional information can be learned here, particular size and space of container. You might say the finer ground can fill up more spaces and does wieghts more, but how come it's different here. The reason behind it is that they are so fine that they weigh so little and they don't create accumuative weight to compact. Sort of they are just floating, they are fluffy.

STRAIGHT WEIGHT

This is in relation to the size or dimension of the container. And espresso drinkers can relate to this also. The picture below shows the comparison of weight and container size.

The picture on the left didnt fill the container to full but weighs more than the picture on the right that filled the container. See the fluffy grounds were pressed down, compressing them, and since they are so fine the tend to fill more smallers spaces when compacted together. Hence, you can fill and compact more fine ground over each other. Unlike the course ground, despite compressing them, there are still spaces inbetween 2 big particles.

This is a closer look at the course grind setting.

This is a closer look at the fine grind setting.

Hope you've learned something from our experiment and understanding better how grind size affects weight and why it's important to approach coffee ratio based on grams rather than by tablespoon. May this article help you in making or improving your next cup of coffee.

Tweet