Coffee brewing: all the methods at a glance.
There are about twelve ways to turn a coffee bean into a great cup of coffee. And for every method, there’s someone online ready to tell you that their way is the only right way.
We prefer to keep it simple.
We roast our own coffee in Ethiopia and Kenya. From bean to cup, so to speak—and that means we know exactly how much of a difference that final step can make.
So, no endless coffee lecture. Just one clear overview where you can compare everything side by side: from grind size and coffee-to-water ratio to brew time and flavor.
Which method suits you? Take a quick look, pick your favorite, and start brewing!
Create table of different coffee-brewing methods
Method | Grind Size | Ratio | Brew Time | Flavor Profile |
Filter coffee (machine) | Medium | 60 g per liter | 4–6 min | Bright, light, highly aromatic |
Pour-over / Hario V60 | Medium-fine | 60 g per liter | 2,5–3 min | Clean, fruity, refined |
Chemex | Medium-coarse | 60 g per liter | 4–5 min | Very clean, low body |
French press (cafetière) | Coarse | 60 g per liter | 4 min | Full, round, oily |
Aeropress | Fine-medium | 15 g op 200 ml | 1–2 min | Bold, low bitterness |
Espresso | Very fine | 18 g op 36 ml | 25–30 sec | Intense, syrupy, crema |
Moka pot | Fine-medium | 15 g op 150 ml | 4–5 min | Heavy, dark, classic |
Percolator | Coarse | 50 g per liter | 6–8 min | Robust, old-fashioned, risk of bitterness |
Cold brew | Very coarse | 80 g per liter | 12–18 uur koud | Sweet, smooth, barely acidic |
Fully automatic machine | Machine-ground | Machine-dosed | 30 sec | Variable, convenience wins |
Capsules | Fixed | Fixed | 30 sec | Consistent, little control |
Two things stand out when you let this table sink in for a minute. First: the ratio is almost the same across the board—around 60 grams of coffee per liter of water. Second: the real difference lies in the grind size. It determines how quickly the water does its work, and ultimately how your coffee tastes.
How many grams of coffee do you use per cup?
Use 6 to 7 grams of coffee per 125 ml cup. That works out to around 60 grams per liter, which is the ratio that almost every brewing method comes down to.
The Specialty Coffee Association recommends 55 grams per liter as a guideline, with a margin of plus or minus 10 percent. In practice, the typical Dutch preference tends to be slightly on the stronger side, so 60 grams is a great starting point.
Weigh it once with a kitchen scale and see how much that is in your measuring scoop. After that, you’ll never need to weigh it again. Five minutes of effort once = better coffee for years to come.
Which grind size should you use for each brewing method?
The grind size determines how quickly water flows through the coffee, and therefore how much flavor it extracts. Finer grinding creates a denser coffee bed, resulting in a slower flow and more extraction. Coarser grinding creates a more permeable bed, resulting in a faster flow and less extraction.
Here’s a useful rule of thumb:
Finer grind = longer flow time = more bitter flavors.
Coarser grind = shorter flow time = more acidic, sharp flavors.
This solves nine out of ten flavor problems without changing anything about your equipment. Does your coffee taste thin, sharp, and sour? Then the water flowed through too quickly: grind a step finer. Does it taste heavy, dry, and bitter? Then it flowed too slowly: grind a step coarser. Change one thing at a time and taste the difference.
One important note: this rule applies to methods where water flows through the coffee, such as espresso, drip coffee makers, V60, Chemex, and moka pots. With immersion methods like French press and cold brew, the coffee sits in the water and you control the brewing time. There, the relationship is reversed: the coarser you grind, the longer you need to steep to extract the same flavors. That’s exactly why cold brew with coarsely ground coffee takes eighteen hours, while espresso with a very fine grind is ready in 25 seconds.
For pre-ground coffee from a package, the grind is usually designed for filter coffee—typically medium-fine. Try using that for espresso and the water will flow through too quickly, resulting in a thin, sour cup. Conversely, using coarse-ground coffee in a drip coffee maker will give you little more than brown water. Yikes.
Ideally, grind your coffee right before brewing. Ground coffee quickly loses a significant amount of its aroma simply because there is so much more surface area exposed to air.
What’s the best way to brew coffee?
There’s no single best brewing method—only the best method for you. The question isn’t just which coffee tastes best, but what you enjoy and how much time you want to spend making it.
Want to think about absolutely nothing at seven in the morning? Go for a filter coffee maker or fully automatic machine. Enjoy spending two minutes brewing and want to taste where the bean comes from? Try a pour-over or AeroPress. Drink your coffee with milk? Espresso or moka pot, because they have enough body to hold their own. Is it thirty degrees outside? Cold brew is the way to go for a refreshing pick-me-up.
Whatever you choose, the order of importance is always the same: fresh beans, then the right grind size, then the right ratio, and only after that, the equipment. An expensive machine with stale beans will make worse coffee than a French press with fresh ones.
How hot should the water be?
Between 92 and 96°C (198–205°F). Boiling water at 100°C (212°F) can over-extract the coffee and make it bitter, while water below 90°C (194°F) won’t extract enough from the beans, resulting in a sour, weak cup.
Don’t have a kettle with a temperature setting? Bring the water to a boil and wait 30 to 60 seconds. That should get you close.
The one exception is cold brew, which is brewed with cold water. Because there’s no heat involved, fewer bitter and acidic compounds are extracted. That’s exactly why cold brew tastes so smooth and sweet, even without adding anything.
Why does your coffee at home taste different from coffee at a café?
In nine out of ten cases, it’s not your equipment that makes the difference, but the three things a barista does right that you might not: grinding fresh, weighing accurately, and using the right water temperature. A barista grinds each cup fresh, weighs the coffee to the gram, and brews with water at 93°C. That’s the big difference.
The quality of the beans also determines how much flavor there is to extract. And that quality isn’t decided in the final week—it’s shaped throughout the entire chain: how the coffee cherry is picked, how it’s processed, how it’s roasted, and how it’s transported.
That’s where our story comes in. We control that entire chain. We roast in Ethiopia and Kenya, in our own facilities, close to the farmers who grow the coffee. No middlemen blending different lots, no anonymous commodity beans. We know where every bag comes from and what the farmer was paid—and you can check it on our impact dashboard.
That doesn’t just make the supply chain fairer; it’s also why we can influence the flavor in a way that simply isn’t possible with purchased commodity coffee.
What’s the best way to store coffee beans?
Store coffee beans cool, dry, dark, and airtight. Oxygen, light, heat, and moisture are the four things that destroy aroma, and a sealed container in a regular kitchen cupboard keeps all four at bay.
Don’t store them loose in the fridge. Coffee absorbs odors from everything around it, and every time you open the fridge, condensation can form on the beans. That’s a classic way to make your coffee taste stale.
Want to keep your coffee fresh for longer? The freezer is the best option, but only if the beans are vacuum-sealed. Divide the beans into portions you’ll use within one or two weeks, vacuum-seal them, and put them in the freezer. This keeps the aromas almost intact for months. Important: take out one portion at a time and don’t refreeze it. The repeated temperature changes are what cause condensation. Without vacuum sealing, freezing isn’t really worth it.
If your coffee comes in a regular bag with a one-way aroma valve, squeeze out as much air as possible before folding it closed and store it in a cupboard. It’s better to buy smaller quantities more often than one large supply that stays open for months.
Which coffee should you choose for each brewing method?
For filter and pour-over methods, lighter-roasted coffee works best because it allows you to taste the fruitiness and acidity of the coffee’s origin. For espresso, moka pot, and milk-based drinks, a darker roast makes more sense: more body, more chocolatey notes, and less acidity.
Our Kenyan coffee beans are particularly well suited to a V60 or Chemex. Kenyan coffee is known for its bright fruitiness and pronounced acidity, and those are exactly the qualities you want to highlight. Ethiopian coffee from Sidamo or Guji often has floral and citrus notes that really shine when brewed as filter coffee.
We roast our specialty coffee in the country of origin, in Ethiopia and Kenya. This means a much larger share of the value stays with the people who grow the coffee, while less time is lost between roasting and drinking. All our coffees score 80+ on the cupping scale, the threshold above which coffee is officially considered specialty coffee. In other words: really, really good coffee!
Frequently asked questions about brewing coffee.
Frequently Asked Questions About Brewing Coffee
How many grams of coffee per cup is normal?
Six to seven grams per 125 ml cup, or roughly 60 grams per liter. You can make it stronger, but above 70 grams per liter, most brewing methods tend to produce more bitterness rather than more intensity.
Can I use ground coffee for every brewing method?
No. Pre-ground coffee from a package is almost always intended for filter coffee. It’s too coarse for espresso and too fine for a French press or cold brew. If you want one bag of coffee that works for multiple methods, buy whole beans and grind them yourself.
What grind size should I use for a French press?
Coarse—roughly the size of coarse sea salt. Grinding too fine can clog the filter and leave sediment in your cup. It can also make the coffee bitter because the grounds release too much flavor during the four-minute brew.
What’s the relationship between grind size and flavor?
A finer grind means a longer flow time and therefore more bitter flavors; a coarser grind means a shorter flow time and therefore more acidic, sharper flavors. If your coffee tastes sour and weak, grind a step finer. If it tastes bitter and heavy, grind a step coarser. This rule applies to percolation methods such as espresso and filter coffee; with a French press or cold brew, you control extraction primarily through brewing time rather than grind size.
How long does coffee stay fresh?
Whole beans can remain perfectly drinkable for months when stored in an airtight container; the aroma gradually becomes flatter rather than disappearing all at once. Want to keep them longer? Vacuum-seal them in portions and store them in the freezer. Ground coffee deteriorates much faster: you’ll already lose a noticeable amount of aroma within fifteen minutes of grinding.
What’s the difference between cold brew and iced coffee?
Cold brew is brewed with cold water for twelve to eighteen hours. Iced coffee is regular hot-brewed coffee poured over ice. As a result, cold brew is smoother and sweeter, while iced coffee retains more acidity and can be ready in five minutes.
Does more expensive coffee really make a difference?
Fresh, well-roasted beans make a bigger difference than any brewing equipment. But price isn’t everything: we keep our specialty coffee affordable by not investing in expensive marketing machines, while still investing in coffee farmers and forest protection.
Get started.
You now know which method suits you, how finely to grind, and how much coffee to use. All that’s missing are the beans.
We roast our coffee in Ethiopia and Kenya, in our own facilities, using beans from farmers we know by name. We keep the entire chain in our own hands, from bean to cup.
Explore our freshly roasted coffee beans and choose the roast that best suits your brewing method.
Last updated: August 2026.