Ever pulled a shot, taken a sip, and thought... where's the coffee? You're not alone, and it happens just as often in cafes as it does at home. The good news is it almost always comes down to one of two ratios, and once you know what they should be, it's an easy fix.
It's Usually a Ratio Problem
There are actually two different ratios at play here, and mixing them up is where most people go wrong.
1. Coffee to milk (or water)
This is the ratio between your shot and whatever you're topping it up with. As a rule of thumb, you want around 30ml (roughly one ounce) of coffee in an 8oz cup, so about a 7:1 ratio. Going up to a 12oz cup? Bump that up to two shots (around 60ml) rather than stretching the same shot further.
2. Coffee to water in the basket
This is the one almost nobody knows off the top of their head, and it's happening before the coffee even reaches your cup. The ratio here should be about 2:1, meaning two parts water out for every one part ground coffee in.
If you're using a standard BST basket, that's a 20g basket filled to the rim, so you'd want to extract close to 40ml of liquid from those 20g of grounds. A digital scale makes this a lot easier to nail consistently.
Where It Usually Goes Wrong
The most common mistake is guessing. Half-filling the basket without weighing it, tamping it down, and hoping for the best. When there isn't enough coffee in the basket to begin with, the shot gushes out too fast, the "coffee" coming out is mostly water, and the puck looks fine at a glance but turns into a soggy mess the moment you touch it.
There's also a variation on this where people run extra water through an already-pulled shot to "get the last of the coffee out." It might feel like you're maximising your beans, but by that point you're really just pouring flavoured water into your cup.
The Fix
If your shots are running long, pouring off to the side, or filling more of the glass than they should, it's worth checking:
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Are you weighing your dose? Guessing the amount of coffee in the basket is the single biggest culprit.
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Is your basket filled to the correct level for its size (e.g. 20g for a standard BST basket)?
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Is your yield close to double your dose (2:1, water to coffee)?
Dial these two ratios in and you'll notice the difference immediately: more body, more sweetness, and none of that thin, watery finish.
Other Things That Can Cause Watery Coffee
Ratios are the big one, but if you've got those dialled in and it's still tasting thin, a few other usual suspects:
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Grind size too coarse - water runs through too fast and doesn't extract enough
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Stale beans - coffee past its best loses body and flavour compounds over time, no ratio fixes that
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Water quality - very soft or mineral-heavy water can affect extraction and mouthfeel
If your ratios are right and it's still watery, start there next.
FAQ
What's the correct coffee to water ratio for espresso? About 2:1 - for every 1 gram of ground coffee, aim for roughly 2ml of liquid out. So 20g of coffee in a standard basket should yield close to 40ml.
How much coffee should be in an 8oz cup? Around 30ml (one shot, roughly one ounce), for about a 7:1 coffee to milk or water ratio. Scale that up with an extra shot for bigger cups rather than stretching the same shot further.
Why does my espresso pour too fast? A fast, gushing pour usually means either too little coffee in the basket, too coarse a grind, or both. Weigh your dose and check your basket is filled to the level it's designed for.
Want to watch Ryde walk through this one, shot by shot? Check out the full video here.
Ready to put it into practice? Explore our coffee subscriptions.
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