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Arguably, the only thing worse than drinking a watery cup of coffee is, well, having to start the day with no coffee at all. We’ve all been there: You’re down to the very last beans, unsure of whether or not you can get away with brewing another cup before making a mad dash to the store.

But according to Maciej Kasperowicz, a Q grader (a trained and licensed coffee evaluator—a “coffee sommelier,” if you will) and the director of coffee at Trade Coffee, getting down to the scraps isn’t as worrisome as you may think; he’s actually kind of cool beans with it. That’s because if you play around with a few things—like coffee-to-water ratios, grind size, and brewing method—you can easily make a cup of coffee stronger (or weaker, if you so please) without adding extra grounds.

What determines the strength of a cup of joe?

Whether it’s espresso, drip, or cold brew, at its simplest, a coffee beverage is made up of two things: water and the coffee particles you’ve managed to pull out of your beans, Kasperowicz says.

“When we say ‘strength’ in the industry, what we specifically mean is the percentage of your drink that’s made up of those coffee particles,” Kasperowicz says. In other words, the strength of coffee depends on how much water you use and how well you’re able to extract the coffee depending on the brewing method you go with.

4 ways to make coffee stronger (or weaker) without adding extra grounds

1. Adjust the coffee-to-water ratio

When making a cup of coffee stronger (or weaker), one of the main things you want to focus on is the coffee-to-water ratio. “The factor that impacts the strength of the brew the most is, by far, the ratio of coffee grounds to water in your recipe. If you bring a new coffee machine home and make a cup of coffee that’s too weak, the easiest way to fix that is to use either more coffee or less water,” Kasperowicz says.

But when you’ve used up the last bit of coffee grounds, cutting back on the water is the way to go and your best bet in achieving a good-tasting cup. This helps ensure your cup is as strong as possible, while w