Pour-Over Coffee Ratio

The short answer: 1:16 (one gram of coffee to sixteen grams of water) is the balanced starting point for pour-over, with 1:15 for a stronger cup and 1:17 for a lighter one. The table above works that out in real grams and millilitres for a 20g dose — the amount a single mug typically calls for — at all three strengths.

Why 1:16, specifically

Pour-over sits in the middle of the common ratio range across brewing methods because the water passes through the bed only once and drains reasonably quickly, giving a moderate amount of contact time — more than espresso, less than a long French press steep or a cold brew soak. That puts the ratio that produces a full-bodied but not syrupy cup somewhere in the high teens rather than the single digits a French press or Turkish coffee can use.

Working it out for your own batch

For any water amount, divide by 16 to get the coffee dose in grams (500ml of water needs roughly 31g of coffee). For any coffee dose, multiply by 16 to get the water in millilitres (25g of coffee wants 400ml of water). The ratio calculator does this instantly in either direction, for any of the three strength presets, and lets you swap in a different cup size than the 240ml (8oz) mug this page assumes.

When to reach for strong or light instead of balanced

Move toward 1:15 if you're using a darker roast (which tends to taste fuller and less bright at a given ratio), if you plan to add milk, or if your prior cups at 1:16 have tasted thin rather than balanced. Move toward 1:17 for a naturally processed or very light roast where you want the brighter, more delicate notes to come through without being muddied by extra body, or if 1:16 has tasted heavy or bitter to you specifically. Neither direction is "more correct" — taste preference and bean choice both belong in the decision, which is exactly why this is a range and not a single number.

This is a starting point, not a verdict

If a cup at any of these three ratios tastes actively wrong — sharply bitter, thin and sour, muddy — the fix usually isn't the ratio at all. Check grind size and water temperature first; a ratio problem tastes uniformly too strong or too weak, while a grind or temperature problem tends to taste wrong in a specific, describable way. The dial-in troubleshooter walks through that distinction for whatever's actually off in your cup.

If you're measuring by spoon instead of by scale

A kitchen scale is the only way to hit these ratios exactly, but a rough approximation with a tablespoon is better than skipping ratio altogether: a level tablespoon of coffee grounds is roughly 5–7 grams depending on grind size and roast, which is close enough to matter if you're scaling a whole pot. If you need the conversion the other way — how many tablespoons a given gram weight actually is, or how a specific ingredient's density changes that math — that's a kitchen-measurement question rather than a coffee one, and our friends at PantryMetric cover volume-to-weight conversion for exactly this kind of ingredient in more depth than belongs on a coffee-specific page.

For the full method — bloom timing, pour technique, the difference a V60 versus a Kalita Wave makes, and the mistakes that cause channeling — see the complete pour-over guide.