Rule of Thumb: Water is 98% of your
cup; if it doesn’t taste good from the tap, don’t brew with it.
Hard v. Soft:
“Hard” water is alkaline water and
though the basic nature does not harm flavor or aroma, it will neutralize some
of the natural acids in your Coffee and you will end up with a blander brew. It is generally agreed that
water containing 50 to 100 parts per million of dissolved minerals will produce
the best tasting Coffee.
But extra hard water doesn’t mean
you should soften it; the other extreme is just as bad. Softeners tend to slow
the Coffee extraction process
in most brewers, thus weakening the ultimate quality of your
Coffee.Our advice to people
with hard water: either use bottled or filtered water, or stick to extra-acidic
beans like those from Africa, Arabia, and the higher quality products from
Central America.
Distilled water, the ultimate in
soft water, has been stripped of all minerals - Please don’t use distilled water
to make regular Coffee
(espresso is, as always, a different story). It will NOT produce the cup you are
trying so hard to achieve.
In general, it’s a great idea to get
a filter. The cheapest way to go is the pitcher filter (Brita, PUR, etc.), a
refrigerator-stored plastic pitcher with a charcoal filter. Of course, you need
to remember to change the filter every two months or so and to clean the darn
thing even more often.
More expensive but more convenient
is the “faucet dongle” design which gloms on to your kitchen faucet at something
of a price aesthetically-speaking. (Also available from Brita and PUR among
others.)
We think the best way to go is the
under-the-counter dual-stage variety -- two cartridges work together to filter
out chemicals, heavy metals, and mysterious organic material. Though you still
have to remember to change filters every now and then, it’s worth the trouble.
We like a design by Plymouth Products.
Important note: If you are brewing
espresso, you are simply NOT allowed to leave your water unfiltered. Whereas the
effect of water on regular Coffee
can often be merely a question of taste, the combination of hard water and
espresso brewers verges on criminal. (well, not really.) With espresso, soft
water is suddenly okay, even recommended! (It doesn’t affect brew quality, and
is easier on the delicate parts of your machine.)
It’s all very confusing, we know.
And you haven’t even had your Coffee yet!
