It Starts with Water

Photo by John Forson on Unsplash

Water the base for great coffee.
Water makes up almost 99% of your cup of coffee. So, in order to have consistently great coffee having a water source that is of a good quality, has a consistent mineral profile, and a reasonable total mineral level.

Most tap water in the United States has been filtered and cleaned to provide us with good quality drinking water, but due to location and the processing of our drinking water mineral content can vary and additives like chlorine can have an adverse effect to our cup of coffee.

To ensure good quality water, use a filter. A good filter can remove chlorine and many harmful and unwanted elements from the water and ensure a great cup of coffee. A step up from a filter would be a reverse osmosis machine, but they are costly. Another option would be using bottled water. The last option is using distilled water and adding the minerals to provide the flavor for your brew.

A filter can remove most of the unwanted stuff in the water you use to brew, and is the one of the more important and cheaper options for brewing at home. If you want to take your water to another level get it tested by a lab on a regular basis and start playing with the mineral amounts dissolved in the water. The three main minerals that can help effect the taste of your coffee are magnesium, calcium, and bicarbonates.

Magnesium effects how well chemicals can be extracted from the ground coffee. It will bring out the acids and stronger flavors of the coffee. It's drawback is if the levels get to high, over 500mg/l, it may have an adverse effect taste. Calcium helps draw out sweetness in coffee. Too much calcium can lead to a chalky taste and lead to lime scale build up in your water heating and brewing devices. Bicarbonates help control acidity and makes our coffee more palatable. Like calcium to much can lead to coffee that does not taste good at all.

To ensure a consistent mineral profile in your water you can always add some minerals if the levels are low or add distilled water to dilute your water if there is too many minerals in your water. A mineral level that is too high will make getting a good cup of coffee very hard. Not to mention that limescale build up and equipment that will need frequent deep cleaning to remove the mineral build up.
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Good luck finding the best water for your coffee!

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