French Press Coffee to Water Ratio
French press is an elegant and simple way to get a full-flavored cup of coffee. This brewing method has a few essential tricks you may already know. Using the right grind size and the brewing time will help you achieve better results, but one question is asked more often than others — How much coffee do you put in a French press?
The right French press coffee to water ratio is one of those simple but important points you don’t want to underestimate. That’s why we have created a calculator that will help you adjust coffee and water proportions to your taste and press size, but if you want an evergreen solution, simply use the standard ratio.
Standard French Press Coffee-to-water Ratio
The standard ratio for French press is 1:14, 1 part of coffee to 14 parts of water. You may confidently start with it to get middle strength coffee. Simply divide your water volume in ounces by 14 to know how much oz of ground coffee to add. Example: 12 fl. oz / 14 = 0.85 oz (4 tbsp) of coffee. 350 ml / 14 = 25 grams of coffee in metric units.
Your Ideal French Press Ratio
Standard proportions are good to start with, but ideal means your own, adjusted to your taste or circumstances. Making it stronger or milder or brewing for a big company will need calculations you don’t always have time for. This shouldn’t look like rocket science, so this handy calculator will help you to brew it to perfection.
French press ratio calculator
How to Use The Calculator
- Select imperial or metric measurement units to work with ounces or grams and milliliters. Like tablespoons? Not a big deal, the results will be shown in tablespoons too, but remember that while being a magical wand of measurement on the kitchen, tablespoons are not precise as their sizes vary. We use a level tablespoon and presume it weighs 6 grams (0.21 ounce) of coarsely grind coffee. Using scales is precise and recommended coffee and water measuring method.
- Choose the right volume of water for your French press. Have a big press and want to brew less? Of course you can! Just move the slider to the total volume of coffee you need.
- Choose coffee strength from weak to rocket fuel strong, by moving ratio slider. Your French press coffee to water ratio will be recalculated every time you move the slider. Feel free to experiment with the values.
- Brew and enjoy!
Tablespoons vs Ounces and Grams
A few words about measuring units. You can certainly use tablespoons as your measuring unit, but it will not beat ounces and grams in terms of precision. Volumetric measurements are just not precise. A widespread rule exists saying a tablespoon weighs 0.21 oz or 6 grams of coffee (that’s what we used in the calculator when showing results in tbsp.), but can you be sure your tablespoons are of standard size? Often not. Even a standard level tablespoon will weigh more or less coffee depending on the grind size, as well as on other factors, such as roast level. We made a small test and compared several spoons and coffee scoops.
As you can see - the difference with the standard is substantial, up to 0.07oz or 2 grams for ground coffee per tablespoon and even more for the whole beans. Two of three coffee scoops showed adequate results (7.2 and 12 grams ), close to what was promised by the manufacturer. That’s why we recommend using digital scale (affiliate link) or a quality measuring spoon to weigh ground coffee. For whole coffee beans a digital scale is essential. Going in this direction you can always be sure you are brewing according to your favorite French press coffee to water ratio.
We hope our calculator will help you to brew better French press. Your feedback and shares are highly appreciated!
Happy coffee brewing!