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I just bought a fancy Cuisinart 12 cup machine and some fairly pricey freshly ground coffee.

The machine came with a scoop that is equal to 5 g (1 tsp). The machine advises not to use more than 15 scoops. 75 g (2 ⅔ oz) is a dangerous amount for some reason, probably overflowing or clogging the filter basket.

Anyway, how many scoops of coffee would you recommend to make a full 12 pot?

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    Your machine's instructions call for 15 TABLESPOONS (see bottom-right corner note at page 3). 15 tbsp = 225 g.
    – J.A.I.L.
    Nov 23, 2012 at 10:05
  • Are you sure the scoop measures 5 g? All the coffee scoops I've ever seen (from different makers) are 7~8 g (½ tbsp).
    – J.A.I.L.
    Nov 23, 2012 at 10:14
  • The fineness of the grind will affect how the coffee maker deals with the grounds. My experience is that if I use the "normal" full-pot amount of a finer ground, my basket will overflow. Nov 23, 2012 at 16:58
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    @J.A.I.L. 1 tbsp of coffee is 5g not 15g. A tablespoon of sugar is 15g, but coffee is less dense than sugar. So 15 tbsp is 75g not 225g, 225g would be a full small pack of coffee for one pot!
    – chim
    Jun 2, 2014 at 9:50
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    Have you bought supermarket pi--water breakfast blend, or something that puts hair on your chest from the local Syrian, Lebanese, Turkish or Yugoslavian market? It makes a HUGE difference to the quality of the Joe that comes out the bottom end of your coffee pot. Do not be fooled by high price beans. You can spend a lot, and still get crummy coffee. Best to shop in a store where they have a culture which knows how coffee should taste, how it should be ground, and how it should be brewed. If, when brewed, you can see the bottom of the cup, you have done something wrong. Mar 18, 2017 at 20:00

8 Answers 8

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Normally retailers estimate between 7g and 8g per cup for normal coffee. Try 8g and work your way up. So 12*8=96g for starters.

You might find this article by Harold McGee interesting.

When I dropped the strength close to Mr. Hoffmann’s preferred 1.5 percent by using a third less ground coffee (about 12 grams of coffee to 180 grams, or 6 fluid ounces, of water), the fruity aroma was much more evident, and the flavor generally brighter and more lively. Clarity is a good word for the overall impression.

Edit: Note that I'm talking about espresso cups that are 60ml as opposed to McGee's 180ml cups. Multiply the amount of coffee for the amount of water you are actually using.

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I worked as a coffee roaster for a number of years and met a lot of people. There is a lot of variation to this answer.

What I found works the best is 10-11 g of coffee per 6 oz cup, or 180 mL, so 12 cup maker would be 120 g. Also, the coffee should always be ground to suit the particulars of the brewing method.

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  • You bring up a very important point -- many coffee & tea devices measure in 'teacups' (6 fl.oz), not the standard american measuring cup (8 fl.oz). So a '12 cup' coffee maker might be 72 oz (~2.1L) or 96 oz (~2.8L)
    – Joe
    Nov 24, 2012 at 17:52
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Most of these answers are confusing for two reasons: 1. A cup is not a cup when discussing coffee. 2. And measuring coffee grounds by volume introduces too much variability. The recipes should be stated as ratios. I found this ratio on a bag of beans sold by Charleston Coffee Roasters: one gram of coffee per 17 grams of water. I have been using this ratio successfully with my old cheap drip coffee maker. But I just bought a Cuisinart 3200. Using the marks on the carafe I see that 60 ounces equals 12 "cups" or 5 ounces per cup. One ounce of water = 29.57 grams. If a Cuisinart scoop (tablespoon) of coffee is 5 grams, Cuisinart's recipe--one scoop per 5-ounce cup, the ratio is 30 to 1. That's much weaker than the Charleston Coffee Roasters recipe. But it almost works if you hit the Bold button on the Cuisinart 3200. Otherwise for me that recipe produces watery coffee. Bottom line: use weight not volume. Once you find the ratio that gives coffee you like, you can achieve consistent results every time.

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The Cuisinart Pot measurement is 5 oz=1 cup. So a full 12 cup pot is 60 oz.

If you are used to an 8 oz cup, the pot will yield 7.5 cups. Coffee standard is 7 or 8 grams per cup of water for normal tasting coffee. At 7 grams per cup, you would be at 52.5 grams of coffee grounds per pot. At 8 grams, you would use 60 grams.

If you are used to a 6 oz cup, the pot will yield 10 cups. Coffee standard is 7 or 8 grams per cup of water for normal tasting coffee. At 7 grams per cup, you would be at 70 grams of coffee grounds per pot. At 8 grams, you would use 80 grams.

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So, first, assume that the coffee maker will not brew properly, either with temperature or brew time. In fact, almost 0 home coffee makers brew coffee properly (exception being the technoverm which is rather pricey).

Usually you can assume 1-2 TBSP per 6oz cup of coffee, but this can vary greatly based on grind and your coffee maker. Your best bet is to start with 2TBSP/6 oz cup (so 12 TBSP, or 3/4 cup) for the full 12 cups. Then, if that's too strong or not strong enough, adjust based on your tastes and how the coffee machine brews. Like all tools, every one is a little different so you'll have to play with it to hone in exactly how you like it.

Also, if you switch brands of coffee, expect to repeat the process once again.

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100 to 200 grams of coffee for 10 to 12 cups is the average, depending on how fine the grind and what TYPE of grind. If you are using a conical burr grinder then less is better. If you are using a chopping grinder, you may need more. If it is a finer grind, you need to use less. You still have to experiment. To start, use 150 grams per pot of coffee. Then go up and down as needed. Different types of coffee will produce different results even when ground into the same size.

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I roast coffee in a bread machine with a heat gun. I roast Kenyan AA to city + and grind the coffee on #2 (fine) in a Cuisinart grinder. I use 60 grams of coffee per 60 oz of water (12 mark on pot, 1800 grams) and it makes an awesome cup of coffee. This is almost half the recommended by SCAA ratio of 1 to 15. it is more like 1 to 30. The Cuisinart 1000 will not take much more grounds of coffee than that with out overflowing. At 75 grams it is the strongest coffee you can get without grinding finer coffee grounds. I measure with the scoop heaped up and put in 6 scoops, and have measured it many times on the scale and it always comes to be around 60 grams.

Note I use the same grind in a pour-over pot. I use 20 to 30 grams (3 heaping scoops) to 16 oz of hot water. this is a 16:1 ratio (480 to 30 grams) and this is the same ratio that the SCAA recommends for specialty coffee. It makes the same strength and brew of coffee as the Cuisinart 1000 above.

Good Brewing to All. SH

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As mentioned in the original post, 75 grams of coffee is probably about the most the filter basket will safely hold, and it makes a fairly strong pot.

Here's a chart I made for the Cuisinart DGB-550BK, which is a 12-cup coffee maker that has a built-in grinder. Each "cup" is five fluid ounces, for a total of 60 fl oz when making a full pot. The chart shows the amount of whole beans to use at four different water levels: 6, 8, 10, and 12 cups. The numbers going down the middle of each column are in grams, and the sideways numbers are the amount of ⅛ cup dry measuring scoops. As you can see, measuring by volume isn't as precise as by weight because a level scoop holds around 10 grams, while a heaping scoop holds around 13 grams. Also, maintaining a consistent strength with a scoop requires staying in the middle of the chart where it's bright-yellow (3 scoops for 6 cups, 4 scoops for 8 cups, etc).

coffee to water ratio

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