Which Water Works?
Water is a very important part of brewing coffee. It's important; to use water that is hot enough, to use the right ratio of coffee to water, to only boil your water once, and to use water with the right mineral content. That means use filtered water. Many people have a water filter at home for drinking, yet use water out of the tap for their morning coffee. As baristas, we hear many reasons for this; from the idea that boiling water purifies it, to the thinking that the taste of the coffee will mask the off flavors in tap water. This week in the lab we set up an experiment to see if we could, in fact, tell the difference between coffee brewed with different waters.
We set up our experiment by brewing three Press Pots of coffee: identical in type of coffee, dose, temperature and extraction time, but using different types of water. For this experiment we used: tap water, distilled water, and the filtered and softened water we use for brewing in all of our stores. The coffee we used was our Rwanda Remera. 
The coffee we brewed with filtered and softened water was the Remera we all knew and loved: lightly sweet with notes of stewed fruit, hints of milk chocolate, and an unbeatable silky mouthfeel. We used this as a base line for comparing the other two pots. Next, we moved onto distilled water. Distilled water is free of the chlorine and metalic contaminates of tap water, but is missing the minerals that aid in the brewing of coffee. The coffee brewed with distilled water was surprisingly different: it tasted underdeveloped, the sweet fruit acidity was now sour, and the creamy mouthfeel was totally gone. This coffee was very flat and had none of the nuances of our Remera.
Then, we brewed with tap water. We expected some of the unpleasant flavors from the water to be perceivable in the brew, but we didn't expect the amount that the actual taste would change. This brew was neither sweet nor bright, it was overall lacking in flavor. What we perceived the most was the change in mouthfeel. This version of our Remera was dirty, gritty, dry and a bit salty. Kind of like a Clint Eastwood movie.
The filtered water was noticeably better to every one in the lab, so it's worth paying attention to water quality. You are, after all, using wonderful beans. Brew them to their highest potential!
Then, we brewed with tap water. We expected some of the unpleasant flavors from the water to be perceivable in the brew, but we didn't expect the amount that the actual taste would change. This brew was neither sweet nor bright, it was overall lacking in flavor. What we perceived the most was the change in mouthfeel. This version of our Remera was dirty, gritty, dry and a bit salty. Kind of like a Clint Eastwood movie.
The filtered water was noticeably better to every one in the lab, so it's worth paying attention to water quality. You are, after all, using wonderful beans. Brew them to their highest potential!
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Lisa & Jeff Apr 17, 2010 – 3:34 PM
Gimme Staff,
We have been using tap water for our coffee for as long as I can remember. We recently tried using the filtered water and the difference is certainly note worthy! Thanks for the great tip! ....and the great coffee!