You got 99 problems...98% are water.
Let’s start with the basics. Coffee is 98% water. And water contains trace amounts of minerals. These minerals can enhance, detract, or negatively interact with the flavor, aromas and characteristics of coffee. So the type, origin, and quality of water can make or break your brew. Here are our friendly tips.
The Trap of Tap
Not all tap water is created equal. Depending on where you live, tap water is treated with chlorine and sometimes fluoride. These chemical additives, and their bi-products, such as chloramine, not only negatively affect the taste of your coffee, but they can also damage your coffee machine.
Similarly, hard water, (water with high mineral content) will cause excessive scale in your machine. (Side note--always descale your home brewing machine regularly, even if your water is not particularly hard). Other tap waters, such as strong odored water will give coffee a bitter, acidic, or even metallic taste. Remember, if you wouldn’t drink the water on its own, then you sure shouldn’t use it to brew your coffee.
Saved from Purity
Purified water gets high marks for safe drinking. But when it come to coffee, there’s such a thing as too much of a good thing. The purification processes (distillation, deionization, and reverse osmosis) can often also remove the beneficial minerals and result in a flat or bitter flavor. The character of the roast and not the water should dominate your palate.
Flirtation with Filtration
When thinking about water and coffee, it’s a question of what’s lost and what’s gained, which is why we prefer filtered water. Through minimal carbon filtration--just enough to remove the chlorine, but not so much as to lose the minerals--, filtered water has the right balance of minerals such as calcium and magnesium to extract the finest tastes and aromas we expect from high quality roasts.
We put care and craft into roasting Parabola beans and want you to enjoy the tastes, aromas and other characteristics as they are intended. So when brewing Parabola beans, we recommend trying filtered water for 100% balanced, problem free coffee.
SCA (Speciality Coffee Association) water standards for minerals:
- total hardness of 50-175 ppm CaCO3 (2,9-9,8 dH°)
- carbonate hardness of 40-75 ppm CaCO3 (2,2-4,2 dH°)
- total hardness should exceed carbonate hardness
- pH of 6,5-8
