1:16 ratio.
One gram of coffee for every sixteen grams of water. A small kitchen scale ($15 on Amazon) costs less than the wrong grinder and does more for your cup than any other single upgrade.
The cup, in plain English.
You don't need a $400 grinder or a vocabulary test. You need a ratio, a grind size, and water that's not too cool. Here's how we brew it at home.
— The fundamentalsThree rules that
Three rules that
do most of the work.
Water at 96°C / 205°F.
Boil it, then let it sit thirty seconds off the heat. Cooler than that and your extraction goes flat. Hotter and the bag's floral notes get bullied out.
Grind matters more than the bean.
Same coffee, wrong grind, wrong cup. Burr grinder if you can swing it. Pre-ground bag if you can't — just buy what your method needs and use it within two weeks.
— Three methods
Pick your vessel.
Each method asks the bean a different question. Pour-over wants clarity. French press wants body. AeroPress doesn't care if you're tired.
Pour-over. Clean, bright, articulate.
Setup — 22g coffee · 350g water · ~3:30 totalGrind — Medium-fine — like table salt.
- 0:00Bloom. Pour 50g of water in a slow circle and let the bed exhale for 30 seconds. You should see a soft dome of bubbles rise.
- 0:30First main pour. Add water in a steady spiral until you reach 200g total. Keep the stream off the filter walls.
- 1:30Second main pour. Top up to 350g in the same spiral motion. The total water-on time should land around 2:30.
- 3:00 – 3:30Drawdown. The bed should be flat with light tigerstriping. If it dome-craters, your grind is too fine. If it drains in 2:00, too coarse.
French press. Body, weight, full-bodied.
Setup — 30g coffee · 500g water · 4:00 totalGrind — Coarse — like rough sea salt.
- 0:00Pour all 500g of water (just off the boil, ~96°C) over the grounds in one go. Stir gently with a wooden spoon to break the crust.
- 4:00Press the plunger down slowly and steadily. Decant immediately into a serving vessel — leaving coffee on the grounds turns it bitter fast.
- NotePre-warm the press with hot water. A cold press loses ten degrees in the first thirty seconds and your extraction will tell.
AeroPress. Forgiving, fast, travel-ready.
Setup — 15g coffee · 230g water · 1:30 totalGrind — Medium — like coarse sand.
- 0:00Inverted method. Pour all 230g of water onto the grounds. Stir three times.
- 1:00Place the cap with a wet paper filter on top and flip onto your mug.
- 1:30Press for thirty seconds with light, steady pressure. Stop when you hear the hiss.
— Origin notes
What each origin prefers.
Light roasts (Ethiopia, Costa Rica).
Pour-over. The clean, bright fruit and floral notes get steamrolled by French press. AeroPress is a fine fallback.
Medium roasts (Colombia, Honduras, Bali).
Anything works. These are the "wake up and brew" bags. French press for body, pour-over for clarity, AeroPress on the road.
Medium-dark (Brazil, Tanzania).
French press shines. The chocolate and nut notes carry the body and you don't lose anything to a paper filter. Coarsen the grind if you taste bitterness.
Need beans?
Eight origins on the shelf, all $20–$26, every bag fresh-roasted and shipped within fourteen days.
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