Coffee and Caffeine FAQ

WARNING! Nowadays with more people grinding their own coffee and potentially using finer grinds than are optimized for an automatic drip coffeemaker, users are heading for trouble if they apply the 2 TBSP per 6 oz cup "standard" because not every coffee machine uses that definition of a "cup". There are several brands on the market that use a 5 oz per cup definition. So if you were to fill up your 10- or 12-cup coffeemaker that brews 5 oz per cup using the 2 TBSP guideline intended for a 6 oz cup/carafe measure, that could result in the dreaded overflow situations people complain of in many a coffee machine review. To be precise, such overflows can *also* be caused by not aligning/snapping things in place, putting in too much water, not having the lid on the thermal type carafe free of grounds/limescale or by the pause-serve mechanism "stuck" with spent coffee grounds. So when people complain that they "did everything right" and still their ADC overflows, it is important to address the potential that one is adding too much grinds to brew a full pot of coffee. In short, users are asking for trouble if they add 2TBSP per cup with the intent to brew a full pot into a smaller 5-oz per cup carafe. The advice on so much of the web doesn't take this caveat into account, and it never occurs to some coffeemaker owners that their coffee decanter is designed to hold 5 oz per cup, not the standard 6 oz or even a conventional 8 oz cup.

If my math is not mistaken, a 5-oz-per-cup carafe such that you find on some CUISINART and KRUPS models is going to take a 1.6TBSP per cup measure to equate to the 2 TBSP recommendation per 6 oz carafe cup. But even at the 1.6 TBSP per cup equivalency, manufacturers using a 5 oz carafe measure often suggest a TABLESPOON per cup guideline rather than a "coffee scoop" (1/8C). With a partial pot it may be possible to add the "ideal" measure, but with a full pot at that quantity of grounds, watch out!

Here's how it breaks down: One standard 8 oz measuring cup is equivalent to 16 TBSP dry measure, or 8 standardized coffee scoops (1/8C). Suppose you were to take a 5 oz per carafe "cup" and brew a full 10- or 12-cup pot using the instructions provided here (2TBSP or 1/8C coffee scoop). That would be 1 1/4 Cup worth of grinds brewed into a 10-cup, and a whopping 1 1/2 cups worth of grinds brewed into a 12-cup model! Not only will the coffee taste too overpowering for the average person, but there are very few coffee machines that can accept this many grinds into their basket when brewing a full pot of coffee —— unless you don't mind overflows!

But wait, it gets worse! Even on a coffeemaker that uses the industry standard 6 oz cup-per-carafe measure, I would think twice about brewing a full pot of coffee at the 2TBSP per cup rate. That's a LOT of coffee grinds to shove, say, into a #4 cone filter. Therefore, if you opt for that many grinds to a full pot of coffee, you *must* be particularly careful if using a permanent filter that the grind isn't too fine or it will clog quickly and overflow rapidly. Bottom line: If you want to brew a full pot into a non-commercial home coffeemaker, don't follow the advice shown here. Consult your user manual or the manufacturer website, instead.