Water makes up 98–99 percent of a cup of coffee, so the quality of water you brew with has a major impact on the flavor.
WHAT’S IN YOUR WATER?
Water for brewing coffee should be odorless and clear in color. The combination of minerals, salts, and metals that can affect the brew may not be perceptible by sight or taste. Some areas have water that is clean and soft, while others have hard water that may contain chemical flavors such as chlorine or ammonia. If the water in your area is too hard, it is in essence already saturated with minerals and may under-extract the coffee, leaving you with a thinner, weaker brew. You may find it necessary to use a higher dose of coffee or a finer grind to compensate for this. Equally, water that is too soft or has had all minerals removed can over-extract your coffee, dissolving undesirable elements from the bean and making your coffee taste bitter or sour.
QUALITY CHECK
Test water quality in your own kitchen. Brew two bowls of coffee . Keep the beans, grind, and brew recipe the same, but brew one with tap water and the other with bottled water. Taste them side by side, and you may notice flavors in the coffee that you’ve never noticed before.
FILTER IT
If your tap water is too hard and you don’t want to use bottled water for brewing coffee, investing in a simple home water filter can give you good results. You can buy filtration kits that are installed on your water line, or a simple water jug with a replaceable carbon filter (as shown above). The difference in flavor between water with and without the optimum mineral content is quite stark, and is often a surprise to most consumers. Changing from tap to bottled or filtered water is one of the easiest ways to improve the quality of coffee at home.
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