The influence of water on your cup of coffee

Now that we are all getting more and more attention for the quality of coffee beans and coffee maker attributes, it is also important to look at the role of water in coffee. It may seem obvious, but you probably don't always realize that your cup of coffee consists of 98% water! No wonder that the quality of water affects the taste...

If you think; water is just water right? That is certainly not the case. The influence of water mainly has to do with the hardness of the water. The hardness of the water is determined by the amount of minerals, such as calcium and magnesium.

The role of water in maintaining your equipment

There are different views on the desired water quality. For example, for a kettle or an espresso machine, it is desirable that the water is not too hard, especially for the preservation of your device. In some parts of the country, the water is even so "hard" that your household appliance (including, for example, an iron) will literally break due to calcification in no time. In this case it is always desirable to work with a water filter (for example from BRITA) or with descaling methods.

Boring water?

Now that we have briefly mentioned the influence of water on your coffee equipment, let's take a closer look at the effect on the taste. Making coffee with "soft water", so water without minerals, is sometimes compared to cooking without salt. Minerals are flavor enhancers and would therefore enhance the natural coffee flavours. Just think of the old custom of adding a pinch of salt to coffee.

Making coffee with Spa Blauw would therefore not be advisable, as you will only get a boring and superficial cup of coffee. But, this apparently depends on the coffee brewing method...

The difference lies in the brewing process. Because with filter-style coffees, such as quick filter machines, Chemex, Hario V60 , Cafetiere, etc., there is much longer contact between the ground coffee and water, the effect of mineral-rich hard water is of greater influence here. The effect is mainly positive. Due to the minerals in the hard water and the relatively long contact between the components, the coffee flavors come out stronger!

But with an espresso machine, this influence seems less significant. Because the water in an espresso machine is pressed through the coffee relatively quickly (in about 20 to 30 seconds), coffee from an espresso machine is less affected by hard water. So it actually makes less difference for the taste! But again more for the machine...

So there really is no clear answer to the question of which water is better to make coffee with! But that water is not water is clear :-) ...