Beethoven’s 60 Coffee Beans: The Story Behind the Ritual

It is one of the most repeated coffee facts on the internet: Ludwig van Beethoven counted out exactly 60 beans for every cup of coffee he made, counting them out one by one. The story of Beethoven’s 60 coffee beans is charming, specific and perfectly suited to a composer obsessed with precision. It is also less solid than it looks. As far as researchers have found, it rests on one witness, Anton Schindler, the composer’s onetime secretary and early biographer, a man whose accounts of Beethoven are treated with great caution by historians. Here is what we know, what we do not, and what 60 beans actually make in the cup.

Key takeaways

• The 60-bean routine comes from Anton Schindler’s biography of Beethoven, first published in 1840, with the story associated with later editions.
• Coffee researchers have found only one direct witness for it: Schindler himself.
• Schindler is known to have falsified entries in Beethoven’s conversation books; one reference work says almost nothing he wrote can be accepted without other evidence.
• Sixty darkly roasted beans weigh about 8 grams, a modest single cup by modern standards.

In this article

1. The story as it is told
2. Beethoven’s 60 coffee beans: where the story comes from
3. Can we trust Schindler?
4. What 60 beans actually make
5. Brew a Beethoven cup today
6. FAQ

The story as it is told

In the familiar version, Beethoven drinks coffee at breakfast, prepares it himself in a glass coffee apparatus and insists on exactly 60 beans per cup, counting them carefully. Later retellings add more color: a locked box of beans, a ritual performed in front of visitors, a temper if anyone miscounted. The details multiply with each retelling, which is usually a sign that storytellers have been at work.

Our existing history of coffee mentions the anecdote in a single line. Here we follow it back to its source.

Beethoven’s 60 coffee beans: where the story comes from

Anton Schindler (1795–1864) lived in Beethoven’s house as his unpaid secretary from 1822. The two fell out in 1825 and reconciled in 1826, and Schindler continued to help the composer until his death in 1827. In 1840 Schindler published his Biographie von Ludwig van Beethoven, with later editions in 1845, 1860 and 1871.

A detailed two-part research article by Barista Hustle traced the 60-bean claim and found only one direct witness for the routine: Schindler. The story appears in his biography, and the article notes it was added in the 1860 edition. A novelist, Luise Mühlbach, repeated it in 1859, but she was a writer of historical fiction who cited Schindler and embellished the scene with extra details. No independent contemporary, as far as that research found, describes the counting ritual.

Timeline

Can we trust Schindler?

This is where the story gets wobbly. Late in life Beethoven was deaf, and visitors wrote their side of conversations in notebooks known as conversation books. Schindler kept many of them. Beginning in the 1970s, a series of musicological studies showed that he had falsified entries, adding many entries after Beethoven’s death. Doubts about his accounts had surfaced as early as the 1850s.

The verdict of one standard reference, the Beethoven Compendium, is blunt: virtually nothing Schindler wrote about Beethoven can be accepted as fact unless other evidence supports it. Some scholars think the extent of his tampering has been exaggerated, and some of his recollections remain useful. But for a small domestic detail like counting coffee beans, there is no second source.

So the honest answer is: possible, even plausible, but unverified. Beethoven did love coffee, Vienna was already a coffee city, and a precise daily habit fits his character. The specific number 60 is the part that rests on Schindler alone. The Barista Hustle authors themselves note that something so peculiar would probably have been mentioned by other visitors, too.

What 60 beans actually make

Whatever the truth, the number is a fun brewing puzzle. According to the Barista Hustle analysis, 60 darkly roasted beans weigh about 8 grams. That means each bean averages roughly 0.13 g, though lighter roasts and different varieties weigh more or less per bean. (Our guide to coffee beans per cup goes deeper into bean counts.)

That is a much smaller cup than a modern mug. By comparison, the analysis notes a typical drip coffee uses about 12 g for 200 ml, while 8 g is close to what a single Turkish-style coffee uses. The researchers’ best guess is that Beethoven’s coffee was ground just before brewing and prepared in the kitchen, perhaps by decoction and filtered into a glass vessel, though the exact “glass machine” remains unidentified.

Brew a Beethoven cup today

A small, fun ritual to try at home:

1. Count 60 beans (or weigh 8 g). Notice how few they look.
2. Grind fresh, medium-fine for a pour-over or very fine for a Turkish-style coffee.
3. Brew about 130 ml (4.4 oz) of water at just off the boil for a 1:16 ratio.
4. Serve in a small cup, black or with a little milk, Viennese style.
5. Play some Beethoven. We suggest something cheerful rather than the Fifth before breakfast.

Coffee and composers go back further than Beethoven: Johann Sebastian Bach wrote an entire comic cantata about a coffee-obsessed daughter, which we cover in Bach’s Coffee Cantata. For other creative coffee habits, see writers’ coffee habits.

Beans worth counting

If you are going to count your beans, make them good ones. Our Ethiopia Natural from Sidama is fruity and sweet, with milk chocolate and caramel, lovely in a small cup. Colombia Medellín is the balanced classic, with dried orange, berry and chocolate. Or try several with our best sellers sample pack and find your own number. Every bag is roasted 1–5 days before delivery.

Beethoven and coffee FAQ

Did Beethoven really count 60 coffee beans?

Possibly, but the only direct source is his secretary Anton Schindler, whose writings about Beethoven are considered unreliable without corroboration.

How much coffee is 60 beans?

About 8 grams of dark-roasted coffee, enough for a small cup of roughly 120–135 ml at common ratios.

Who was Anton Schindler?

Beethoven’s unpaid secretary from 1822 and an early biographer, later shown to have falsified entries in Beethoven’s conversation books.

What coffee did Beethoven drink?

We do not know the beans. Researchers think it was freshly ground and brewed at home, possibly in a glass apparatus, but the exact method is unclear.

Sources

1. Beating the Beat on Beethoven’s Coffee Habits, Part 2, Barista Hustle.
2. Anton Schindler, Wikipedia.

Facts checked in October 2026.

Keep reading: Famous coffee quotes · Bach’s Coffee Cantata · Single origins