Does Starbucks Recommend Excessive Amount of Ground Coffee for Brewing?
My love for coffee started at an early age. That is, I loved coffee ice cream. With all the flavors in the world, I was consistent and always chose coffee ice cream.
These days I don’t eat much ice cream, though wandering through the hilltop towns of Tuscany I am easily persuaded to indulge in a scoop or two of gelato. Yum.
It wasn’t until many years later did I acquire the taste for a good cup of coffee. And I mean good. You see, my dad loved coffee. But back then, I learned many years later, he had it all wrong. His morning ritual was instant or freeze dried coffee. Sanka. Or was it Nescafe. I can’t really remember. In just a generation the taste buds and expectations of coffee drinkers have changed dramatically. While my dad’s tastes have evolved he still can’t get over the $2.00 cup of coffee. I don’t know, perhaps that was the cost of a whole jar of instant ‘back in the day.’
The first cup of coffee I ever truly indulged in was poured by one of my first bosses once I graduated college and migrated to California. “Here’s your first cup of coffee,” Glenn, a husky built mid-westerner said as he placed the cup on my desk. He assumed I liked coffee and would start my day with a fresh cup. “And that’s the last cup of coffee,” he quickly chirped, “that I’m every going to make for you.”
So my path to addiction began. I discovered espresso and cappuccino before Starbucks opened a store in Orange County. The french bakery store next to the post office where I retrieved mail from my P.O. Box became a regular stop. It was nice too. On my motorcycle I would be forced to simply enjoy the cup of coffee and slowly ease into the day. Those rushing about and eager to jump into traffic would grab their cup to go and head into the wild. I’d sit and watch and learn.
These days I grind fresh beans and use a french press to brew my morning coffee. After a late Tuesday evening (saw ex-Blasters guitarist and legendary songwriter Dave Alvin play at the Belly Up Tavern in Solano beach last night) I woke to an empty canister of coffee. No beans. Uh oh!
A short drive to my local Starbucks and I picked out a pound of the Caffé Verona, a bold blend inspired by the Italian espresso. With the morning line nearly out the door at the Starbucks and my battery dead on my iPhone, I killed the waiting time by reading the small print on the bag of coffee beans. When I noticed that Starbucks recommends “two tablespoons of ground coffee for every six ounces of water.” I wondered how much I used in my daily pot of french press. I do prefer a strong cup of coffee and choose bolder beans or blends over those that are more mild.
My french press holds about 30 ounces of water. If I follow Starbucks recommendations, I would need to use 10 tablespoons of ground coffee in order to come up with what Starbuck’s would agree were acceptable results for a brewed cup of coffee.
With new beans loaded in the grinder, I ground up about the amount of coffee I usually do in the morning and then measured the ground coffee. To be sure, I always eyeball and approximate the time for grinding. I use a grinder that stores beans above the grinding mechanism and uses a timer that winds and spins down and shuts off when the cycle is complete.
Guess what? I seem to use about five (5) tablespoons (maybe sometimes six) of coffee to brew my morning french press pot of coffee. That’s 50% less than Starbuck’s recommends. Believe me, my coffee is not weak. My recent guests here at my cottage commented on the strength of my morning coffee.
I understand that Starbucks needs to sell coffee. I’m not sure what percentage of its business comes from the sale of beans (at its stores and in grocery stores), but I can’t help thinking that this is a tad excessive. I wonder if they use this same measure for brewing standard drip coffee at its stores? Does coffee brewed using a french press require the same amount of ground coffee as a drip coffee maker?
What about you? What kind of coffee do you brew at home and how do you measure beans or ground coffee?
Mimi DiFrancesca
I’m not a Starbucks coffee fan. I’ll tell you that straight out. To me, it has the lingering flavor of beans charred in stale cigars that were first soaked in a solution of vinegar and a 13 year old boys’ used gym socks. After reading this article, I am conveinced thhey have perpetrated the greatest hoax on humanity ever pulled; the mass hypnosis of “flavor”.
Unlike you, I’ve been a coffee drinker since our days in the early 1980s at Syracuse University. It’s not those memories that “Wake Up and Smell the Coffee” stirred, rather the reference to your wanderings in Tuscany and a scoop of gelato: was it coffee flavor?
In July 2010 I visited Tuscany with my family, often awaking before dawn to keep up with my daily journal-keeping duties. This excerpt titled “I Can Sleep When I’m Dead” was written pool-side at Relais Villa L’Olmo in Impruneta.
Arose about an hour ago to catch the sunrise over the vineyards of Tuscany. Struggled with one of those two-part aluminum Italian coffee-makers filled with ground vacuum-pack from the Co-op, checked the email from the states and took a seat on a small terrace with journal and camera. Fresh air, cool and still. Birds chirping. Morning Doves coo. A rooster crows. Earlier, the crows squawked.
Cup of coffee now half empty and cooled. Smooth taste. Aroma of consciousness. Tastes like paradise. Set down pen to stand and stretch arms over head and behind my back. Bees already busy in the lavendar. I hear a motorcycle passing in the distance and adjust my seat to more directly face the valley which rolls off to the right, sloping down to the west.
The shadows of the morning sun fade now as the Mother Earth Godess climbs higher. The contrast between light and dark green reduced and just a sliver of shadow sloping to the east as she continues her ascent. I’m still seated in the shade, though I know that her direct rays will soon wash over me, warming the chill of the dawn, but not enough to reenergize my cup, now cool and nearly empty. Inside, a toilet flushes to signal that my family is waking up. Probably Erik, 7, our other early-riser.
The roses bushes shimmer in a slight breeze, the petals mostly wilted. Pause to sneeze: am I allergic to rose, or just the thought?
The rooster crows less frequently now. Geometric patterns of ancient agricultural lands please the eye. The morning light dapples the olive groves which parallel the vineyards. Patchwork and connected. Recently mowed high grass adjoins stands of what what I’ll call cedar trees–the characteristic look of Tuscany–resembling green candle flames burning perfectly vertical in still air. A dog barks. Over my left shoulder the sun light now brushes the tops of the olive trees, fruit of same still months from maturity.
Warming rays reach the peach, plum and fig trees lining the pool patio. The toilet flushes again and I hear the shower start. I’m probably too late to slip back into bed. The caffeine is in my veins as the morning rays reach the nape of my neck. The flame of desire within continues to burn and probably will all day, perhaps to be satisfied tonight after a day in Florence.
I smell the sage and lemon balm. By 7am more local noise tells me that the world continues to awaken. I’ve been up for nearly two hours. A window in the lodge to my right cranks open with the sound that calls for a shot of WD-40. Thoughs on paper expended, I probably should go inside and change my shirt, though it’s unlikely I’ll sleep. Too much life to live.
I noticed the same thing about coffee quantities. I also read about what happens when you grind coffee finer – you don’t need as much coffee for the same strength but the taste isn’t as good. For an experiment I tried grinding really coarse and using more coffee for after dinner coffee when I had a group of friends over. Everyone commented on how good the coffee tasted, and when they later tried the same thing at home they liked the coarse grind taste better.
The basic problem is that using a really coarse grind “wastes” a lot of coffee, so normally I grind a bit finer to stretch the coffee, and only go for coarse if I’m trying for super taste or if I’m using a French press (I usually use drip).
Did I ever show you my Aeropress? It’s not too expensive, very fast and makes an incredibly smooth tasting espresso-like coffee with no noticeable acidity, making the taste seem weak because we’re trained to associate acid bite with strength. While you can add hot water to make an Americano, when you use the Aeropress coffee straight and add sugar and some milk or half and half you move in the direction of coffee ice cream, sweet and really tasty. Check out this page for more info: http://aerobie.com/products/aeropress.htm