What is the Best Water For Making Coffee?
If you are anything like me and a huge coffee fanatic, then you want to be able to brew the best cup of Joe you can and that starts with the best water for making coffee. There is something sublime about sipping the perfect brew, the aromas that tantalize your nose, and the decadent flavors as you take your first sip. But what is the best water to use for making coffee?
The best water you can use for making coffee is soft water with a mineral content of about 150 parts per million (ppm). This is normally found in filtered water that produces clean, odorless water that has a neutral PH balance of between 6.5 and 7 and is ideal for the perfect brew.
You bought the best barista gear with some aromatic blends that just don’t taste like what you expected. I bet if you change your water and taste your coffee again, you will be pleasantly surprised.
What Is The Best Water For Making Coffee?
Water is not just an ingredient necessary for your coffee. It is a fundamental element as it acts as an ingredient and solvent, and for that reason should be treated with the same care as choosing the perfect bean or finding the right machine.
When choosing the right water for a delicious brew, you are generally left with three choices, filtered, distilled, or purified.
Each of these waters has a different level of minerals that affects the flavor of your brew. Water with a neutral PH balance and a mineral count of between 150 and 200ppm is best for making a tasty coffee.
Hard Water vs. Soft Water
Hard and soft water differ by the concentration of minerals found in the water. The term hard water is given to water that contains a much higher concentration of minerals that can mute the flavor of your coffee, which means that soft water has a lower concentration of minerals that is perfect for extracting the flavors of coffee and producing an aromatic brew.
Filtered Water
Filtered water is water that has been cleaned of major impurities but retains a lot of the good minerals that can extract the right amount of flavors from your coffee, giving you a fuller-bodied brew.
Distilled Water
Distilled water is not the best water for making coffee as this water has very few minerals, which are needed to extract the flavors and can leave you with a bitter-tasting coffee. However, if you are making espresso, it is a viable option to use, as you do not need the mineral to extract the flavors as they are extracted under pressure.
Purified Water
Purified water may sound like the best water for making coffee, but once again, this water has been cleaned of all the bad and the good minerals needed for extraction. Reverse osmosis of purified water can add all the necessary good minerals that were lost but is a long process and is generally not practiced for home brewers.
Conclusion
In the end, filtered water is the best water that you can use that has all the right amount of minerals needed to extract the aromatic flavors of coffee and take your cup of coffee from good to exceptional. Remember that coffee brewing is an art, so experiment with different waters until you find the perfect blend that gives you the full flavors you expect from your coffee.
