Coffee Math - the Math you do BEFORE you caffeinate!

Making coffee should be simple, you fill the reservoir with water, measure out some coffee and flip the switch, press the button, or whatever and in a few minutes you should have coffee!

But, I got a bag of Dunkin Donuts coffee. The directions say 2 tablespoons per 6oz. cup. That seemed like a lot of coffee, the can of Maxwell House only calls for 1 tablespoon per 6oz. cup.

The first thing I had to figure out was how many ounces in a cup! I know there are 8oz. in a measured cup but for some reason when we’re talking about cups of coffee we are usually referring to 6 ounces, which is why the package used that amount.

But what about the coffee maker?

So I measured 2 cups (16oz.) cold water and poured it in the coffee carafe. It came to JUST over 3 cups! So it’s safe to assume that the coffee maker is using 5oz. per cup!

So going to the top line (4 cups) would be 20oz. of water and D&D would suggest a bit over 6 tablespoons of coffee!

Filling the reservoir on the coffee maker actually took 3 cups (24oz.) which would mean using 8 TABLESPOONS OF COFFEE!

Now, if I had just assumed that the coffee maker used 6 ounces to measure a cup I would have used 8 tablespoons to 20 ounces instead of six!

Finally the can of Maxwell Houses uses ONE tablespoon of coffee per 6oz! (I find it amusing that more expensive coffee suggests you use twice as much!) Which means if you don’t know how many ounces your coffee maker uses “per cup” you may use 12 tablespoons for 12 cups or maybe only 10! Or if you’re using Dunkin, 24 vs. 20!

Who knew coffee required so much math! And that you need to do it BEFORE having coffee!!