The Water Ratio Dunkin' Uses For The Perfect Cup Of Coffee

We've all wondered how our favorite coffee spot manages to make a cup that is so much better than what we make at home, and thankfully some places like Dunkin' are kind enough to tell us exactly how. Of course everything starts with the beans, and Dunkin' has some of our favorite popular coffee beans on the market, but brewing coffee is a precision art, and your recipe and technique can ruin a good bean or elevate it. There are a few many variables that affect your brew: how you do it, how long you brew it for, and what ratio of coffee to water you use. The coffee ratio is particularly important as it determines the strength of your coffee, and in Dunkin's case, it goes for a straight down the middle ratio of 1.5 tablespoons of ground coffee for every six ounces of water.

Consult different sources and you'll get a range of one to two tablespoons of coffee for every six ounces of water, depending on how strong you like it, and Dunkin's ratio falls squarely in the well-balanced center of that range. However, most professionals prefer to measure coffee by the gram using a kitchen scale, since that is most precise, and a weight ratio of 1:17 coffee to water is seen as the best standard. Well guess what? It turns out that weight ratio translates to roughly 1 tablespoon of coffee for every four ounces of water, which is nearly the same ratio Dunkin' uses anyway.

The 1.5 to six ratio may be perfect for your hot cup of coffee, but does that same ratio translate for iced coffee? Not quite. There are actually two different formulas you can use here. For standard iced coffee, Dunkin' brews an extra strong cup of hot coffee using a ratio of three tablespoons of coffee to six ounces of water, and then pours it over ice to dilute it. If you want to take the extra time for cold brew instead, Dunkin' uses a one to four ratio, or one cup of grounds for every four cups of water, left to sit overnight for 12 to 24 hours. That produces a concentrate that can also be diluted with ice or just additional water when you are ready to drink it.

Of course the ratios you use can also vary a bit based on how you brew your coffee, so to get that perfect Dunkin' cup you'll need to follow its lead there, too. In store, Dunkin' uses Bunn brand commercial brewers, which produce drip coffee, so no need for any fancy pour overs or espresso makers here. And while you probably aren't shelling out for an industrial coffee maker, there are plenty of high-quality drip coffee makers — including this Haden Coffee Machine — that will get you close to the Dunkin's flavor you've been chasing. With some fresh ground Dunkin' beans, you won't ever need to leave home for coffee again.