Few things in life are better than brewing yourself a beautiful cup of coffee to jump start your day. Conversely, few things are worse than walking downstairs and opening the cupboard only to find you don’t have enough beans for your brew.
A key part to becoming an expert home brewer is understanding the rate at which you go through your coffee beans. Not only does this mean you’ll know when to reorder to avoid running out, it will also help ensure you don’t have too much sitting around at one time. After all, fresh coffee is key to a good brew.
So, here’s the big question – how do you know the rate at which you’ll go through your coffee?
Calculating How Far Your Bag of Coffee Beans Will Stretch
If you’re an espresso brewer, you can generally expect to pull 40-50 double shots of espresso from 1 kilo of specialty coffee beans. However, the exact answer depends on the roaster’s recommended brewing parameters.
Each coffee bean blend or single origin, has a unique set of brewing parameters which allow you get the most out of the beans. Click the following link to learn more about coffee brewing parameters, but for now, all you need to know is that the ‘dose’ – aka the amount of ground coffee that goes into your basket – is what will help you determine the amount of coffee you can get from your fresh bag of beans.
To calculate how many servings you should get from your coffee beans, simply divide the bag’s total weight by the recommended dosage in grams.
For example: 1000g divided by 23g = 43 double shots or 86 single shots.
Assuming you stick to the correct dosage when making your tasty brews, you should have a pretty accurate idea of how far your bag will stretch. Though keep in mind, you may need a few test shots in order to get your machine dialled in for the perfect brew.
Here’s a breakdown of some Will & Co coffee beans to help illustrate the variation in dose per cup and how many coffees you’ll get from a 1kg bag.
1. Eight-O-Eight Coffee Beans
Our OG and iconic blend with a full body and smooth notes of chocolate and caramel, goes great with or without milk.
Dose/In: 23g
Coffees per Kilo: 43 double shots / 86 single shots
2. Three-Oh-Three Coffee Beans
Complex, lightly roasted beans and an absolute delight in the cup - this beauty is best served black to enjoy the full flavour.
Dose/In: 23.5g
Coffees per Kilo: 42 double shots / 84 single shots
3. Goofy Coffee Beans
A medium roast that can be enjoyed with milk or as black coffee, made with beans from three of the world’s best arabica growing regions.
Dose/In: 22g
Coffees per Kilo: 45 double shots / 90 single shots
As you can see, each blend has a slightly different recommended dosage. This is due to differences in the blends themselves. Using the recommended dose will result in the best coffee flavour for these blends.
Of course, if you don’t weigh your coffee, you may not be able to get these precise amounts each time. If this is the case, you may want to slightly underestimate how many cups you’ll get from each bag to allow for discrepancies in brewing.
Or, better yet, purchase a scale to bring your brew game to the next level – any simple kitchen or food scale will do.
Related: Dose, Yield, Time: Three Essential Parameters for Brewing the Perfect Espresso at Home.
How Many Cups of Coffee Do You Drink Every Day?
Once you know how many shots you can pull from your bag of fresh coffee beans, you’ll need to figure out how many cups of coffee you have in a day to determine how long your bag will last. If you’re a hardcore coffee lover with espresso in your veins and enjoy two shots per cup, you'll go through 1kg of whole beans or pre-ground coffee much faster than someone who has one cup per day.
This is the same if you’re sharing the coffee with others at home or in an office. It might be more difficult to keep tabs on other people’s coffees though, so we recommend an estimate of 1-2 cups of coffee per person, per day and adjust from there as needed.
What About Alternative Brewing Methods?
When it comes to alternative brewing, you can follow the same logic – dividing the total weight of the bag by the dosage – to determine how long your bag of coffee will last. As with espresso brewing, make sure to follow the directions for that method and use the best coffee beans for your favourite brew.
Here’s a general rule of thumb for some of our favourite alternative brewing methods:
Aeropress Brewing
If you are brewing your own coffee with a small but mighty Aeropress coffee maker, the recommended dosage is 18g of coffee grounds, which makes about 7-8oz of coffee. This means you’d get 55 Aeropress brews from a 1 kilo bag of beans.
We go into each step further in our brewtorial, How to Make Aeropress Coffee On The Go.
Using a French Press
The French press is a fixture in many coffee-loving households because it’s a remarkably simple brew method that doesn’t take up much space. For plunger coffee, you want to stick to the same ratio of water and coffee grounds regardless of size.
Our recipe for brewing coffee in a French press recommends a water-to-coffee ratio of 13:1. You can adjust the ratio if you want to strengthen or dilute the flavour according to your taste preference.
Stovetop Coffee (Moka)
Brewing coffee using a stovetop Moka pot is a classic way to go, though can involve a bit of troubleshooting if you haven’t tried it before - we have a guide for stovetop brewing too, don’t worry.
You’ll need 18g of coffee or 3 tbsp to make a rich brew with this steam-powered method. Like with the Aeropress, you’ll enjoy 55 stovetop coffees with 1kg of beans.
Make Life Easier With a Coffee Subscription
Now that you have a better grasp on how long your bag of coffee beans will last, you can really get into the flow of making and drinking good coffee. Our coffee subscriptions are a great choice for sourcing fresh, high-quality roasted coffee beans – and to ensure you never run out.
Here are a few other reasons why we think a coffee subscription is the bee’s knees:
- It's the best way to save. We give our subscribers our best discount – period. A Will & Co coffee subscription offers you 30% off the normal price of our coffee beans for life. As long as you want to, you’ll have access to that discounted rate for our delicious specialty beans.
- Fresh coffee, right when you need it. No more buying in bulk - you can have a constant supply of fresh coffee beans without having to hoard them and risk them going stale.
- Delivered to your doorstep. All our subscriptions are sent straight to your door from our roastery, so you don’t even have to leave your house to get excellent coffee beans.
Related: Are Coffee Subscriptions Worth It?
Fresh Roasted Coffee Beans in Just the Right Amount
If you’ve made it this far, you should have a pretty good idea of how long your bag of coffee beans will last.
All that’s left is to sort a supply of fresh, delicious coffee so you’re never caught short.
Check out our range of specialty coffee blends made right here at our coffee roastery in Sydney to find the right beans for your daily ritual.
