The Technivorm Moccamaster can brew a large batch of coffee in just 6 minutes, making it an essential appliance for coffee-loving households, offices, and specialty cafes. Its recognizable design is available in a variety of colours and sizes to suit any space.
The Moccamaster brews like the pour-over method, where hot water extracts coffee before filtering through paper to yield a clean and aromatic cup. It's an automatic brewer that heats water to ~95°C and maintains a single flow rate—a functionality that makes it easier to brew consistent batches of coffee.
Does that mean it brews excellent coffee with each batch? Not at all!
There are still a few things you need to know when it comes to brewing with a Moccamaster. As with any other brew method, the right recipe is key to whipping up a delicious coffee. Knowing the right coffee ratio and grind size for a batch brew will have you giddy on the good stuff in no time!
Coffee Ratios Explained: From Espresso to Filter
When we're talking about coffee ratios, we mean an amount of coffee to an amount of water used to brew. When we're measuring out ratios, we stick to grams for units of measurement. For example, a 1:2 ratio in a recipe means we're using 1g of coffee for every 2g of water. Knowing your coffee ratios and what they mean is the core of any sized recipe, whether it's one cup or a batch.
You'll find that different brew methods use different coffee ratios.
Espresso recipes usually use 1:2. Some experienced baristas may go down to 1:1.5 or up to 1:2.5 depending on the coffee they're brewing with. The steam pressure from an espresso machine makes a concentrated cup with these ratios, resulting in a coffee with a strong body and creamy mouthfeel.
Filter recipes can vary from 1:16 to 1:20. All filter recipes brew a larger volume of coffee with low-pressure methods. This yields a coffee with a lighter body and clean mouthfeel.
How Coffee Ratios Affect Strength, Flavour, and Caffeine Content
It's important to know how coffee ratio affects the brew's strength, flavour, and mouthfeel. Understanding this aspect of a recipe can tell you how the cup will taste using a particular brew method.
An espresso may have stronger flavour than a cup of batch brew, but would not contain more caffeine. When using a Moccamaster, you're likely brewing a 1L batch brew with a 1:16 (1g of coffee for every 16g of water) recipe. Since there is more water used for extraction, you'll need a higher dose of coffee. A higher dose of coffee means more caffeine extracted. An espresso recipe might pull a shot from 20g of coffee, but a batch brew recipe would give you a cup extracted from 65g.
You might hear about a golden ratio for a particular brew method. This is true to a degree; you don't want to stray outside the ratios of 1:16 to 1:20 for filter coffee. Especially for batch brews. But experiment within this range. Explore how different a coffee tastes from one ratio to the other.
With your knowledge of coffee ratios and how to use them with a Moccamaster, it's time to learn about the best grind size for a Moccamaster brew.
Moccamaster Grind Guide: Finding the Sweet Spot
Brewing at larger volumes means coffee grounds have more contact time with hot water. Make sure to grind your coffee to a medium coarseness. Like coarse sand. Grinding too fine over-extracts the coffee, leading to unpleasant bitterness and astringency. You should be aiming for a balance of flavours. A harmony of savoury, acidity, sweetness and bitterness.
Since a Moccamaster can brew in large volumes, you’ll need a lot of ground coffee. If you’re not eager on a workout to hand grind 60g of coffee, you can ask your barista to grind the coffee for you. Specify the level of coarseness you want and what you’re brewing with at home. If you've purchased coffee that a barista is currently using on the bar, you could ask them for their recipe. Seeking expert advice can help you skip the guesswork and avoid waste.
From Bitter to Better: Adjusting Your Moccamaster Recipe
The amount of coffee you use in a Moccamaster depends on how much water you're brewing with. A good ratio to start with is 1:16.5, where 1g of coffee is used per 16.5g of water. We recommend brewing with 1L of water, which means you should be using about 60g of medium-ground coffee.
If you're tasting bitterness and astringency in the coffee, try a coarser grind. If you find the flavour of the coffee too strong, try a bigger coffee ratio. There is no perfect ratio or grind size for every coffee. The variety of coffee within our easy reach can be so different from one another. There are too many variables to account for in the coffee's journey to brew exactly the same cup each time. But we can get close by using equipment that allows easy repeatability of coffee recipes. The Moccamaster's automatic functionality makes it a reliable machine for consistent-tasting coffee.
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