Coffee and Caffeine FAQ

Just to check how much a tablespoon of coffee grounds weighs, I pulled out my OHAUS 1010 reloading scale. These have to be very precise otherwise the person reloading rifle cartridges will blow the gun apart and OHAUS could perhaps be sued.

I used two different tablespoon sized measures.
And pulled a knife across the spoon top to level the measure of coffee.
The coffee was Folgers Brazillian in their standard grind which is courser than expresso, and intended for the common drip grind American coffee brewers.

First tablespoon weighed 71.5 grains
Second tablespoon weighed 72.2 grains.
Grains is the measure of weight used by gunpowder manufacturers.
1 grain = 0.648 grams.
So the first tablespoon weighed 4.63 grams
The second weighed 4.68 grams

Now if we use the comments by "Scott", he says that the ratio of expresso to drip grind he found to be 3.3 to 3.1, the expresso being heavier than the drip. So taking an average of my two weighing as 4.65 grams, then we have 4.65 grams x 3.3 /3.1 = 4.95 grams.

Variables, there are many.
But a tablespoon of expresso will indeed weigh about 5 grams as far as I'm concerned after my experiment. Which I never have to do again, I did it once to be sure, that's enough for me!

Personally, in a drip coffee maker I use 4 tablespoons for 40 ounce pot. Folgers advises 1 tablespoon per 6 ounces, but 6 and 2/3 TBLS per pot is way too much for me.