How Does Water Quality Affect Your Coffee?

Taking into account the cost of a coffee machine, the ingredients and supplies needed to run it (think milk, coffee beans, sugar and sometimes hot chocolate if you’re lucky), add in the cost of electricity – and you might be left with a rather large bill at the end of the month.

Considering all the above, wouldn’t you want to do all you can to ensure that every cup of coffee that machine makes is the best it could possibly do? And would you also not be keen to ensure the lifespan of your machine is optimised – allowing longer periods of time in between servicing and maintenance?

I’m sure that’s a yes.

How Does Water Quality Affect Coffee?

Well, how exactly does water influence the quality and taste of your actual coffee? In more ways than you could imagine!

Considering coffee is 98% water – you’d want to have the best water possible in your cannister to optimise each brew. I would even go so far as to say that apart from your coffee beans, water is the single most important factor in achieving a great cup.

It seems The Telegraph would agree – excerpted directly from their article – “The perfect cup of coffee should made with water high in magnesium and low in bicarbonate, researchers have said.

Scientists have found that the taste of coffee is affected by the mineral content of the water.

Experts used sophisticated chemistry methods to examine the impact of different compositions of water on the flavour of coffee.

They found water composition made a “dramatic difference” to coffee from the same bean – with certain types of hardness boosting the taste.

High magnesium ion levels were found to improve the process of extracting the coffee flavour from the bean, though high bicarbonate levels were bad for flavour.”

How Does Water Quality Affect My Coffee Maker?

In layman’s terms – avoiding mineral water will improve the taste of your coffee overall – but in the same breath, minerals can be really, really bad when building up inside your coffee machine. SSO what do we do?

Find a happy middle ground.

Using purified water is the best solution – and I’ll tell you why.
See, purified water has had so many chemical-free processes performed on it, the naturally occurring mineral content is all but depleted. That’s where selective mineral re-injection comes in. Re-injecting three key minerals, i.e. – Magnesium, Calcium and Potassium. The minerals add that “crisp” taste to the water, which carries through to your cup of coffee.

You override the risk of mineral build-up, because only a certain amount of minerals are re-injected to the purified water.

Another way to improve (not drastically change, just enhance) the flavour of your brew is to install a water filter, either at the point where your machine is plumbed-in, or in the internal water canister. This removes major chemical and mineral build-ups, but may still compromise the flavour of your coffee.

Using purified water allows you the freedom to ensure the longevity of your coffee machine, as well as promising a great tasting cup each and every time. What do you say?

Has using purified water improved your coffee experience overall?

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