When you assume wrong
May 23, 2025
Not too long ago I was rewatching a Technology Connections video about drip coffee makers, which are interestingly simple devices. But at one point he mentions that the "cups" of coffee as measured by the lines on the side of the carafe are five ounces. I'd always thought it was six.
It just made more intuitive sense, I guess. Pretty much any coffee you buy for one of these machines says to use 2 tbsp of grounds for each 6 oz of water, so it would make sense for the marking everywhere to be that 6 oz. But Alec is pretty good about fact-checking so I pulled out a measuring cup and gave it a look.
Six ounces was too close to the line, it could have been a slightly-misaligned marking. But going up to 12 put the water line almost halfway between the "2" and "3" lines. So the video was right, I'm making 15 oz of coffee every day instead of 18.
Which means I'd been technically brewing my coffee too strong, using 6 tbsp of grounds when I should've been using 5. So I figured, might was well give the correct amount a shot and see what I think. I've given it a try for a week or two now, and I do like it a bit better: it's less sour than it was before. So let's hear it for learning things.
