What is the most suitable ratio of powder to water in coffee? What are the concentration and extraction rate of hand-brewed coffee? How much hot water should I inject to make coffee by hand?

Powder-to-water ratio is a technical term that we often use when communicating and cooking, and it means, as the name suggests, the ratio of coffee powder to water we use.

The greater the proportion, the less hot water is injected, and the smaller the proportion is, the more hot water is injected. The ratio of powder to water can involve a lot of extraction factors, so whether it is appropriate or not will be closely related to the taste of coffee. So, today Qianjie is going to share how the ratio of powder to water affects the extraction, and how we can find a suitable ratio of powder to water.

What is the effect of the ratio of powder to water on coffee? The ratio of powder to water has two effects on coffee extraction, the most important of which is the concentration of coffee. The so-called concentration refers to the content of coffee in the water. Under the same extraction parameters, the greater the proportion of powdered water of coffee, the higher the concentration of coffee, and the smaller the proportion of powdered water, the lower the concentration of coffee.

Qianjie has done a special experiment for this purpose before: brewing coffee with three different powder-water ratios, which are 1:10, 1:15 and 1:20 respectively, and then using the concentration meter to get the concentration of 1.93%, 1.35% and 1.04% respectively. But the amount of water injected will not only affect the concentration of coffee, and many friends will usually do such a thing: if you want to drink stronger coffee, you will drink less water, and if you want to drink lighter coffee, pour in more water. It's true in theory, but it's easy to affect the taste of coffee! Why? Because the powder-water ratio of coffee also involves another point, that is, the extraction rate.

When other parameters remain the same, the more water we inject, the longer it takes to extract the coffee. At the same time, the more hot water can take away from the coffee. For example, in the experiment mentioned in the front street, in the case of only changing the ratio of powder to water, the extraction rates of three pots of coffee were 16.43% at 1:10, 16.43% and 18.55% respectively. This is the increase of water and time, resulting in an increase in extraction rate. And coffee has a good range of extraction rate, if beyond or below this range, then the taste of this cup of coffee will not be liked by most people. So we can't simply increase or reduce the amount of coffee injected. The method of water injection, grinding, or water temperature also need to be adjusted to ensure that the brewed coffee has a suitable extraction rate.

Generally speaking, the effect of the ratio of powder to water on coffee is the concentration and extraction rate. When other parameters are constant, the higher the ratio of powder to water, the higher the concentration of coffee, but the extraction rate will be relatively low; while when the ratio of powder to water is lower, the concentration of coffee will be lower, but the extraction rate will be relatively higher. In fact, from the above experiment, we can observe another phenomenon, although the difference in the proportion of the three is huge, but the increase of the extraction rate is not much. The extraction rate of the pot of coffee with the powder-to-water ratio at 1:20 is only 3.29% lower than that at 1:10. What does that mean? That's right! This means that most of the soluble substances in coffee will be dissolved in large quantities in the first place. With the progress of the extraction process, when the small molecular substances dissolve almost, only the macromolecular substances are still slowly dissolving. So no matter how much water we inject behind us, it won't greatly increase the extraction rate of coffee.

Then again, the concentration of coffee also needs to be properly controlled. Because when the concentration is too high, coffee will be difficult to perceive the flavor performance because the flavor substances are too concentrated. Not only that, too high concentration can easily cause discomfort and make people resist coffee. Of course, even if the concentration is too low! Too low coffee concentration will make the taste and taste too diluted. The whole tastes like a cup of coffee-flavored water. Therefore, the concentration is the same as the extraction rate, must be appropriate. The ratio of powder to water is to adjust the relationship between concentration and extraction rate, so we need to match a suitable ratio of powder to water according to the purpose of brewing, so that the extraction rate and concentration of coffee can reach the best range we want.

What is the best ratio of powder to water for coffee? Generally speaking, the range of powder-water ratio used in hand-brewed coffee will be in the range of 1-13-13-1-18 (hot brewing). In this range, we can choose the appropriate powder-water ratio according to different coffee beans, or according to our own taste. Of course, remember to adjust it together with other parameters. I believe some friends have found that the proportion of powder and water shared in front of the street is at 1:15, but this does not mean that it is the best proportion of powder and water. The reason why Qianjie Association recommends 1:15 is that the fault tolerance rate of this ratio is relatively high. Most of the people who need recommended parameters belong to rookie friends who have just come into contact with coffee. In the case of not skillfully mastering coffee extraction, a set of insurance extraction parameters can reduce variables and help Xiaobai make a cup of coffee more easily.

And when we successfully learn how to brew coffee, that is, after getting started, we can begin to set our own extraction parameters. No matter whether it is the water temperature or the ratio of powder to water. Can be adjusted through our understanding of cooking. For example, if some beans are harder and harder to extract, we can dilute the concentration and prolong the extraction by increasing the injected hot water, so as to make the coffee have a better flavor performance. If the brewing is a deep-roasted coffee, then we can control the powder-water ratio within the range of 1-13-15-1-15. On the one hand, it can prevent over-extraction, and on the other hand, the coffee brewed out of this range can have a higher alcohol thickness. But if we think the concentration of the brewed coffee is too high, we can also dilute the concentration through bypass, which can be entered or retreated, depending on how well we understand brewing.

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