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How much ground coffee and water for any number of people, and how much milk and sugar to put beside it.
Your results
Ground coffee
1.08 kg
Water
18.0 L
Cups
100
Milk
1.9 L
Sugar
240 g
Sixty grams of ground coffee per litre of water is the standard ratio, and a serving cup is about 180 ml — smaller than the mug you drink from at home, which is why event coffee always runs out faster than the host planned.
Two cups a head over an event, and three if it runs through a morning. Coffee is the one thing at a gathering people go back to without being offered, and the second pot is never the one you regret making.
Brew at 195-205°F (90-96°C). Boiling water scalds the grounds and pulls out bitterness; water much below that under-extracts and gives you something sour and thin. A kettle taken off the boil and left thirty seconds is close enough.
Questions people ask
How much coffee for 50 people?
About 1.1 kg of ground coffee and 18 L of water for two cups each. That is roughly seven large urns — plan the pouring, not just the brewing.
How many cups in a pound of coffee?
About 42 serving cups of 180 ml at standard strength. A 1 kg bag gives roughly 92.
How far ahead can I brew coffee?
Thirty minutes in an insulated urn, no more on a hot plate — a burner keeps cooking the coffee and turns it bitter within twenty minutes. Brew in waves rather than all at once.