Brewing Guide

A starting point for five ways to brew at home. Grind, ratio, and water temperature come from the National Coffee Association's brew pages and from the Specialty Coffee Association's standards and teaching notes. Your machine's own instructions still govern the machine.

Contact time on those same pages is about five minutes for drip, two to four minutes for pour-over, about four minutes for a press, 20 to 30 seconds for espresso, and about 12 hours for cold brew.

Method	Grind	Coffee to water	Water
Drip	Medium, like kosher salt.	1 to 2 tablespoons of ground coffee for every 6 ounces of water. The Specialty Coffee Association's Gold Cup figure is about 55 grams per liter.	The drip page does not print a separate temperature. A temperature near 93°C is the figure most people use, and a drip brewer that cannot reach 92°C fails SCA certification.
Pour-over	Medium.	1 gram of coffee to 13 to 16 grams of water.	93°C, plus or minus 3.
French press	Coarse, like rock salt.	1 gram of coffee to 10 to 16 grams of water.	93°C, plus or minus 3.
Espresso	Fine, like table salt.	1 gram of dry coffee to 2 grams of brewed espresso. The SCA's written standard is 25 to 35 milliliters from 7 to 9 grams.	195 to 205°F (90.5 to 96.1°C) in the SCA standard. The National Coffee Association calls the water nearly boiling.
Cold brew	Coarse.	1 gram of coffee to 4 to 5 grams of water.	Room temperature or cooler, then served at once or chilled.

Gifts for Coffee Lovers is the holiday list, dated November 20.

Sources

• National Coffee Association, drip coffee
• National Coffee Association, pour-over coffee
• National Coffee Association, French press
• National Coffee Association, espresso
• National Coffee Association, cold brew
• Specialty Coffee Association, defining espresso
• Specialty Coffee Association, how hot is hot enough
• Specialty Coffee Association, brewing foundation module