Dosing by Volume

Depending on your degree of involvement in the whole specialty coffee thing, you may or may not be familiar with weighing coffee. Traditionally, it's been dosed in terms of volume - which any baker can tell you is less accurate. The solution here is, of course, to use a digital scale, which is neither expensive nor difficult to use.

But not everyone is ready to invest in more gadgetry, which is fine, since the difference in accuracy between the two methods needn't be large - provided you measure accurately. Or perhaps it would be better to say that you need to dose, rather than measure, accurately, since many coffee bags suggest an improper dose: 1 tablespoon per 6 ounces of water.

Now, those who measure by weight and indulge in a greater deal of specificity will notice inherently that there are problems with this method. But for my sake - and most others' - it does a good enough job - or it would, rather, were the dose not half of what it ought to be.

Of course, these same bags do say that you can adjust for taste - which, of course you can. Still, though, we're most people will not simply jump to a dose twice as high as the one suggested, and may not make their way there at all. They want to make their coffee "right", so they follow the directions, more or less.

Well, don't. Two tablespoons of whole bean coffee per six ounces of water (some people say eight, to account for water loss, but we'll not worry about that now) is, so far as I'm concerned, the standard volumetric dose for high quality coffee. Ignore any bag that says otherwise - unless, of course, you enjoy hot water, flavored with a faint hint of coffee.

This blog, for the most part, does not indulge in "how to's", since there are no shortage of them already, and in any case, I don't pretend you ought to listen to me. But I'm making an exception in this case, both because I think this problem (such as it is) is fairly common, and the solution uncommonly simple.

To Taste

There are foods so simple that even I can prepare them, so easy that even I will prepare them. You might think, then, that these base stir fries and porridges would have something like agreed upon rules for preparation. That is, there ought to be recipes. And there are recipes; it's just that they can't seem to agree on even the most basic of concepts. Does my one cup of rolled oats need 2 cups of water or 1 3/4? Should I add the oats to the water, then boil? Or should I get the water going first? And what about salt?

Does it matter?

Well, no. At least it shouldn't. But there are personalities like mine, persons who need to feel they are doing it "right". The process is as important as the product.

That in mind, how ought one dose coffee for brewing? It's a simple question, and one that, by now, you might think we'd have answered. But if there is a consensus, it's cleverly hidden behind a veil of dissent.

1 tbs coffee per 6 fl oz water is the set point advocated by most grocery store coffee bags. This probably owes to the fact that -- putting it nicely -- their target demographic is not so concerned with the taste of coffee. Thus we have the artisans, who advocate for twice as much, 2 tbs per 6 fl oz. They want you to taste every nuance and detail of their beans.

Both, at least, agree upon 6 fl oz as the base unit of liquid measure. But that is far from a consensus. Since an American cup is 8 oz, for ease of measurement and... other reasons, perhaps, some advocate for using 1 or 2 tbs of coffee per 8 oz of water, instead of 6.

Again I have to ask, does it matter? And again I have to say, not really.

I don't mean that dose has no effect on flavor. It is one of the most important factors. But there is no right way to do it, even if we assume uniformity of grind, brewing technique, etc. And we really can't assume that. A french press is not a Melitta is not a Chemex. Even a $15 Mr. Coffee is not a $110 Mr. Coffee. Thus it's a fallacy to assume that this one variable is the only thing that ought to be toggled, when in fact there are no constants.

The truth, then, is this: Do what produces a cup you like. It's not a satisfactory answer for those who, like me, want the "right" way. But it is probably correct, in this context and others.