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Knowing this will Change Everything! Ultimate Guide to Water for Coffee — Transcript

by Lance Hedrick · 6,368 words · 888 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:00what's up everyone Lance Hedrick here
0:02and today we're going to get into the
0:03nitty-gritty of water
0:05chemistry you know that a cup of filter
0:08coffee is over 98% water that espresso
0:11depending on how you brew it is around
0:1387 to 93% water water can make it your
0:18skin feels slimy when you go to places
0:20that have like certain minerals and
0:22whatnot in their water you know that
0:23water has a big place in life I mean our
0:26bodies are like freaking mostly water so
0:29we know water is important o this is
0:32going to be scary this is too much work
0:34I just want to buy a nice grinder nice
0:35coffee beans and have good coffee and
0:37that's all I want to do in life but no
0:39you need to learn a little something
0:40okay we need to understand how water is
0:43affecting your cup of coffee so sit down
0:46brew a cup of coffee I guess you can use
0:48trash water for now but you're going to
0:50be using good water afterwards and let's
0:52Jump Right In in water there are two
0:56kind of categories we need to understand
0:58these two categories are general
1:00hardness and carbonate
1:03hardness general hardness this is
1:05largely going to be affecting what is
1:07your magnesium or your calcium content
1:10in your water then carbonate hardness is
1:13more so that temporary hardness like
1:15your bicarbonate so whether you have
1:17sodium bicarbonate or potassium
1:19bicarbonate or whatever it might be your
1:21bicarbonate is the carbonate
1:23hardness general hardness is your
1:26permanent hardness that's another term
1:27to know you can heat your Kettle up all
1:30day and it's not really going to affect
1:31or change your permanent hardness it is
1:34there it is permanent this is also what
1:36will eventually cause scale buildup so
1:39your magnesium and calcium are the
1:41things that contribute to scale buildup
1:43they are minerals that could precipitate
1:46out that can affect your supplies your
1:49your machines on the other hand
1:50carbonate hardness is referred to as
1:52temporary hardness this will be affected
1:55with boiling water and can change pretty
1:57rapidly through the different chemical
1:59transitions during Brewing so when
2:01you're heating up the
2:02water well how do these affect taste
2:05well we know what carbonate hardness
2:07does pretty objectively as far as what
2:09the bicarbonates do and that is they are
2:12used as a buffering agent what does that
2:14mean it means it takes acidity and it
2:17Smooths it out if your coffee has a lot
2:20of vibrant acidity you bought it at a
2:22local coffee shop and you're like oh
2:24this was so good there were blueberries
2:26and raspberries and all these delicious
2:28fruits in it you go home after buying
2:30the bag from your local roster you brew
2:32it at home and it's like H this this
2:34doesn't taste like what I had at the
2:36shop what is going on you could have
2:38really high bicarbonate it could be
2:40buffering out all of that perceived
2:42acidity some people say my coffee is too
2:45sour you could of course increase your
2:47extraction to lessen the perceived
2:49acidity or you could add bicarbonate to
2:52your water in order to buffer out that
2:55acidity now on the other hand with
2:57general hardness there's no real proof
2:59as to what they're doing we know they
3:01affect taste and there are lots and lots
3:02of anecdotes out there as to how they're
3:05affecting taste the issue with these
3:07anecdotes is most of them are coming
3:09from people or companies or whatever
3:11that aren't doing specific methodologies
3:14in order to give those conclusions
3:16they're not using millions of dollars
3:18worth of scientific equipment in order
3:19to understand what's going on A and B A
3:22lot of times the anecdotes are coming
3:24from people that do not have access to
3:26Pure salts in order to truly see what's
3:29going on on so you may see some people
3:32claim that magnesium sulfate is
3:35different than magnesium chloride
3:36because sulfates are much more bitter if
3:38you're using something like epson salt
3:41for your source of magnesium sulfate
3:43that's an impure form of sulfate there
3:45should really be no difference in taste
3:47between the chloride and the sulfate
3:49between those two and the Magnesium is a
3:52separate cation altogether but anyway I
3:54digress with that that's too much
3:56information but something I felt was
3:58proper to say because we need to
4:00understand that it's difficult to get
4:01our hands on really pure salts unless
4:03we're working with a laboratory or if we
4:05have some sort of connection or if you
4:06want to buy in
4:08bulk some say magnesium can increase
4:11complexity it can help with uh the the
4:14Showcase of the acidity it can maybe
4:16even bring some sweetness to the cup
4:17whereas calcium can increase the body it
4:20can also help with some sweetness with
4:22magnesium they say too much can make it
4:23maybe harsh or bitter or something along
4:25those lines too much calcium has been
4:28attributed to being chalky coffee which
4:30is something I too have experienced but
4:33too much of either one of them can cause
4:35a more flat or a dull
4:37coffee in reality it's all about finding
4:39what works for you and your palette with
4:41the things that you have available in
4:43your area around the
4:45world there are other minerals that can
4:47affect taste like phosphates like
4:50citrates and different things like that
4:52the citrates can actually come out as
4:55citric acid which can kind of boost the
4:57acidity in your coffee and a almost
4:59artificial way but we're not really
5:01going to deal with that cuz most people
5:02aren't buying citrates in order to brew
5:04with at home most people are looking at
5:06EPs and salt which is your magnesium
5:09sulfate and most people are looking at
5:10baking soda which is your sodium
5:12bicarbonate that is the easiest and most
5:15approachable way to make your water at
5:17home and is what is the foundation of a
5:19lot of recipes you'll find
5:22online you can also find things like
5:24potassium bicarbonate and calcium
5:25chloride and magnesium chloride online
5:28or in different stores if you're privy
5:30to it in order to make even a more
5:33nuanced approach to your
5:36water in order to keep things as simple
5:39as possible we're going to focus mostly
5:40on things that are connected with
5:42bicarbonates so things like potassium
5:43bicarbonate and sodium bicarbonate and
5:45then we're going to look mostly at
5:47magnesium and calcium which can be
5:48connected to sulfates or to uh chlorides
5:51or things like that something else we
5:54need to understand is the very simple
5:55terms which is hard water versus soft
5:58water hard water is that which has more
6:02minerals in the water itself versus soft
6:05water which has to be relative to
6:07something else which is less minerals in
6:09a given source of water so let's say we
6:12have water that's 100 parts per million
6:15which means there's 100 parts per
6:17million parts inside of the water versus
6:1920 parts per million on the other hand
6:21the 100 would be harder water than the
6:2420 softer water now we could take that
6:26100 and have one that has 500 parts per
6:29million in this instance the 100 is soft
6:31water the 500 is hard
6:34water so it's a relative type of term
6:37but is something that can be helpful
6:38when we're discussing our water
6:41attributes some places around the world
6:43have softer water for instance I know
6:45that I believe it's Melbourne has like
6:4740 parts per million in their in a lot
6:48of their tap in um parts of New York you
6:51have really low about 40 or 50 parts per
6:53million and that's great that's a great
6:55first step to having fantastic Brew
6:57water but then you have places on the
6:59other end of the spectrum like Los
7:01Angeles that typically lives in the 400
7:03to 500 parts per million area which is
7:06way too hard for really tasty nuanced
7:09complex coffees even if you drink darker
7:11roasted coffees it can still affect the
7:13flavor profile one of the recent papers
7:16that came out about a year ago on the
7:18role of divalent cat ions in the
7:20extraction of organic acids in coffees
7:23they used a darker roasted coffee for
7:25their experiment and they were using gas
7:27chromatography and a lot of other things
7:29that are are showing more objectively
7:30what's going on but even in their
7:32sensory panels they're using this darker
7:34Ro and we're able to see statistically
7:36significant differences even at smaller
7:38concentrations of adding in these
7:40different
7:41minerals there are different ways to
7:44discuss what is making up your water
7:47meaning you can talk in terms of PPM or
7:50you can talk in terms of carbonate so
7:52sometimes people say we have 300 PPM as
7:56calcium carbonate in the water itself
7:58and it's just another way of discussing
7:59it you can talk in terms of like GRS per
8:01liter but I find the easiest and just
8:04the most simplistic way of talking about
8:06all this is based off of PPM parts per
8:08million so what I like to do and that's
8:10how my kind of mind works is based off
8:12of PPM you can always use conversions uh
8:16you know you can Google up how to
8:17convert these things and you can just
8:18sit there and type in what your city
8:20water has and type it into PPM and then
8:23have it on a list so that you know what
8:25is making up your
8:27water most cities around the world
8:30actually releasee water reports and this
8:33will give you an idea of what's coming
8:34out of your
8:35tap if you say your tap water tastes
8:38great and you were happy with your
8:39coffee well then don't watch a video on
8:41how to improve your coffee with water
8:43because you're happy with your coffee
8:44and that's great but the majority of us
8:46around the world need to have some sort
8:49of sit down chat in order to improve our
8:51water for coffee you can go through as
8:53many great beans Great Grinders great
8:55machines great Brewers whatever it might
8:57be and still have bad coffee and it's
8:59because that first ingredient is not
9:03sufficient now there are going to be
9:05things in tap water like different irons
9:06and whatnot that can cause a metallic
9:08taste in your coffee ideally should be
9:10removed if not it needs to be in a
9:12really small concentration to kind of
9:14abstain from that then another very
9:16common thing in tap water is chlorine
9:18chlorine is going to give you a an off
9:20smell and is going to affect the taste
9:22of your coffee as well it doesn't affect
9:25the extraction but it will cause that
9:28that kind of Aroma to stay through to
9:30the Final Cup now simple filters like a
9:33brida filter can remove chlorine that's
9:35for sure but when it comes to permanent
9:37hardness it is not able to remove that
9:40you'll need something a bit stronger to
9:42remove a lot of that some places will
9:44use like a sodium softener in order to
9:47convert calcium and magnesium into other
9:49minerals so that you don't have that
9:51hardness to scale up your machine there
9:53are many ways of going about tailoring
9:55your water but a lot of them are very
9:57wasteful one very common way is to go
9:59and buy distilled jugs gallons liters of
10:02water and then you add something like
10:03third wave water or Aqua code or uh Apex
10:06lab or even the the the company I
10:09co-founded Lotus water in order to
10:10create your own water but then you have
10:12all those plastic jugs that are going to
10:13waste and that's not a great idea you
10:16have another option which is like
10:17reverse osmosis this is a very expensive
10:20option but is something that will clean
10:21up the water and it by going through a
10:23thin membrane and you're able to remove
10:2580 to 90% of all the minerals in your
10:27water in order to remove all that that
10:29it's got to go somewhere and so you have
10:31waste that's happening when you're using
10:33that water it's like you're running
10:34water and you're wasting a majority of
10:36it in order to get the part that you
10:37actually want now there are some systems
10:40that allow you to reuse that waste water
10:42and you can use it to like water plants
10:43or something along those lines because
10:45it is mineral Rich you're removing so
10:46many minerals where do they go bada bing
10:48bada boom in the Wastewater but it is
10:51inherently a more wasteful way of doing
10:53things you could also use bottled water
10:56like in Switzerland my favorite water is
10:57lurana and that has like a 30 PPM of
11:01very soft water and does a great job
11:03with coffee and with that soft base you
11:05can either just Brew with it if you
11:06enjoy really lightly roasted coffees
11:08without the water being too much of an
11:10artificial add-on or you can add some
11:12more minerals to it in order to act as
11:14if that was a base of some sort but that
11:17too is you know relying on you to go and
11:20buy those Waters now another way of
11:22doing this which I I really enjoy is you
11:24can go to local grocery stores if you
11:27have these in your area that have uh
11:30water refill stations sometimes they're
11:32using spring water for it that has a
11:33really respectable PPM for coffee
11:35brewing and as long as the overall parts
11:37per million is not crazy high then you
11:39know your bicarbonate count is not crazy
11:41high that's what is mostly affecting our
11:44coffee taste is that by carbonate count
11:46obviously if you have multiple hundreds
11:48parts per million of general hardness
11:49that will have a great massive effect
11:51but as regards small changes B carbonate
11:54will have the biggest tangible outcome
11:57on the flavor of your coffee because
11:59it's buffering that
12:00acidity there's also something called a
12:03zero water filter which strips all the
12:04minerals out of your water but again
12:06that's Reliant Upon A really heavy
12:08filter in there and you'll have to
12:09discard the filter which is very
12:11wasteful and the longevity of those
12:13filters highly depends on how hard the
12:16water is in your area the harder your
12:18water the shorter lifespan the filter
12:20has I live in a place where the tap
12:22water is about 140 PPM mine will last
12:25about 6 months of pretty heavy use if
12:28you're in a place where it's 400 PPM it
12:30might only last 2
12:32months other kind of ways you can deal
12:35with this is by diluting with distilled
12:37water so it's not ideal to buy deionized
12:39water all the time but if you're just
12:40using a bit of it to dilute your tap
12:43water it'll last a lot longer and
12:44there's a lot less waste or if you do
12:46reverse osmosis or anything else in
12:48going with a dilution route that can
12:51really
12:53help this is what's called an
12:55electroconductivity meter now these are
12:57not super sophisticated they're not
12:59super accurate they're not the best
13:00things in the world but they're really
13:02cheap like $8 or something like that and
13:04essentially it has two little diodes on
13:06the bottom you put it in water and it
13:08tells you roughly what the total parts
13:10per million is in your water does it
13:12tell us what parts per million are
13:15bicarbonates or what the general
13:16hardness or anything like that no it
13:18does not you can rest assured if you
13:21have 400 parts per million you've got
13:23hard water and it doesn't matter what
13:24the makeup is that is going to
13:26completely destroy your coffee even if
13:28it's perfectly divided between all the
13:29minerals we want that's still really
13:31hard overall if you put it in it's 30
13:33parts per million well that's really
13:35soft and you can build off of that which
13:37is
13:38great there's been an interesting kind
13:40of discussion happening lately and I had
13:42this talk recently with Maxwell Cola
13:44dashwood who helped co-write water for
13:46coffee which has some outdated things in
13:48it some of the equations there were a
13:50bit you know off and so they're
13:52renovating some of that but in any event
13:55uh something he was talking about with
13:57me is how that naturally occurring water
14:00is much tastier in coffee than when
14:02you're creating your own and I tend to
14:04agree with that I I prefer I have a
14:05reverse osmosis system and I like
14:07setting it down to 30 or 40 PPM I'm able
14:10to control the efficacy of the filter
14:12and then I just add a few minerals on
14:14top if needed so I try to use as little
14:17as possible whenever I'm making my
14:18coffees because I find that uh whenever
14:21it's naturally occurring when it's
14:22naturally in there it tends to taste
14:24better than when we're taking all these
14:25salts making concentrations and adding
14:27it an issue I see a lot of people make
14:31is whenever they are making their own
14:33water and they're using calculations you
14:35can find online recipes in order to make
14:37your concentrates they will say okay if
14:40I have added 40 parts per million
14:43magnesium chloride and 50 parts per
14:45million of potassium bicarbonate then
14:48this should read 90 parts per million
14:50that's not how it works I won't get into
14:52the weeds as to why but just know that
14:54is not how it works this little guy is
14:56mostly to see what you're working with
14:58to start off with and to see how
15:00effective whatever filtration method
15:01you're using is like if you use the Zero
15:03Water picture to see how effective it is
15:05over time or if you're using reverse
15:07osmosis or whatever it might be in order
15:09to see where your water is actually
15:11situated with regards to Total
15:22PPM I'm going to use essentially a zero
15:25PPM water I'm going to get my water as
15:26soft as possible and I'm going to brew
15:28coffee with that with almost no minerals
15:30in the water itself then I will add
15:33minerals in a heavy concentration and
15:36we'll do a tasting in order to kind of
15:38see the effects of these different
15:42minerals I made a video with Dr s SM a
15:46couple of years ago we talked uh briefly
15:48about the effect of minerals on
15:51extraction and at the time there had
15:53been a a study that came out sort of it
15:55was more of a sensory study without any
15:57type of objective backing Beyond a I
15:59believe 13 trained panelist in order to
16:01taste but it seemed that there was no
16:04difference no statistical difference not
16:06significant at least between coffees
16:09that were brewed with minerals added to
16:11the water beforehand and coffees that
16:12were brewed with minerals added
16:14afterwards and then in 2024 a paper came
16:17out that actually looked into this on a
16:20more uh more objective scale using some
16:22really nice equipment and which I'll
16:24I'll link down below but in any event it
16:27doesn't seem like there is is any effect
16:29on extraction based off of the minerals
16:32in the coffee it seems that the organic
16:34acids that are coming out are going to
16:36come out early on Independent of water
16:39they're very easily extracted and are
16:41not really affected by the minerals in
16:43the water itself it seems more likely
16:46that the minerals are affecting the
16:48flavor in the cup afterwards with the
16:51temperature inside as well as with the
16:53acids that have been extracted so we
16:55might have some sort of changes in the
16:57cup once it's been brewed not
16:59necessarily aiding in the extraction of
17:01organic acids again those extract in
17:04incredibly easily now speaking of Dr s
17:07Mar I was just with him in Zurich last
17:08week to do an experiment of my own and
17:11well in Zurich that's outside of the EU
17:13my phone plan is for the EU so I needed
17:16a way to get online in order to double
17:19check some of these papers we were
17:20talking about in order to get on Google
17:22Sheets to input the data that we are
17:24collecting and the way that I was able
17:26to do that is with s s is a company that
17:30is under nordvpn which is a VPN I use
17:32and love and it is an eim app what that
17:35means is you download the app you can
17:38buy an eim so not a physical SIM card
17:41but an electronic SIM card for whatever
17:43country or region you're going to and
17:46this is based off certain data plans
17:48that you can buy so instead of going to
17:49an airport and waiting in a long queue
17:51to get a local SIM card you can actually
17:53buy it electronically and it has a
17:55specific range of days that you can use
17:57it for now now because I do a decent
17:59amount of travel in and out of the EU my
18:02phone plan is Hit or Miss I don't have
18:04great data outside of
18:06EU this is something that has helped me
18:08quite a bit and I actually was using it
18:10in Zurich just last
18:12week being owned by nordvpn you're able
18:15to set your location in the US or in
18:18Kazakhstan or wherever it might be you
18:20can change that you can do ad blockers
18:22for malware blockers and you can do a
18:24safe search so that you are protected on
18:27the websites that you enter
18:32on if this is something that could help
18:34you you can get an exclusive 15%
18:36discount on one of the data plans using
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18:41download the app check out the data
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18:55simple as downloading the app picking
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18:59turned on but anyway thank you s for
19:02sponsoring this video and thank you for
19:03keeping my searches safe when I'm
19:05traveling the world let's continue with
19:07this taste
19:08experiment I've marked on the bottom of
19:11these cups what I'm going to be adding
19:12to it so this is just zero I'm not going
19:14to add anything to this cup so it's just
19:16going to be
19:17coffee this one I am adding potassium
19:20bicarbonate there's a k there so we're
19:22going to add potassium bicarbonate to
19:23this one and then the final one I have
19:25ca for calcium so we're going to add
19:27calcium to this
19:30and I'm going to do three drops now this
19:33is to make about 30 parts per million
19:36when you add it to 450 Millers of water
19:39so this is going to be a very high
19:40concentration in in such a small amount
19:42of coffee probably 60 or 70 MLS but I
19:44want to like overemphasize this is
19:46something when I'm doing inperson
19:47classes on water at different events
19:50Expos or whatever I like to do this as a
19:52taste experiment so you can see the
19:53extreme of what these will taste like so
19:56we're going to add potassium
19:59you know what I'll do four drops because
20:00this one has less parts per million per
20:02drop so in order to make it really nice
20:03and concentrated I'll add four there so
20:06we would expect this acidity to be
20:08really low we would expect this one
20:10right here to be quite chalky and this
20:12one depending on the coffee it could be
20:14quite nice with distilled water or it
20:16could be uh you know maybe too intense
20:17on the acidity based off of the fact
20:19that we have nothing buffering it it
20:21could be sharp it could have low balance
20:24but with in any event let's go ahead
20:26stir these up and mix them around
20:33for those of you with misophonia you may
20:35want to check out for a second because
20:37there's going to be a little slurping
20:38here anyway let's get to
20:44tasting
20:51okay
20:53o that one is rough
20:59yep that's got to be the one with a ton
21:01of bicarbonate in it that one has like
21:04it's flat it's dead there's like a
21:07minerality about it that's not pleasing
21:09um not like a good minerality when
21:11you're drinking a nice wine but it's it
21:13is right off the bat that was a mediate
21:14these two are definitely closer but
21:16there's still quite a big
21:18difference they both have good
21:21acidity but this one tastes pretty
21:24chalky this one tastes like it is you
21:27know good to go so I'm going to take one
21:28more it just to
21:32ensure y
21:36chalky that one's just that's really
21:41bad that just you know it tastes
21:43Pleasant it's um it's light it's Breezy
21:46it could actually use maybe a little bit
21:47of I would say a little magnesium or a
21:49little calcium would make this taste a
21:50lot better I think the acidity is
21:52actually quite nice and it wouldn't even
21:53require any bicarbonate let's
21:56see that is potassium bicarbonate
22:00that is calcium and that is the zero one
22:03so as I like to show on the extremes of
22:06course th those were adding quite a bit
22:07in each one to really showcase the
22:09differences now there are people who
22:11claim they can taste the difference
22:12between even a single PPM and I call
22:15rubbish on that but um and even in these
22:17tests which I have linked below they say
22:19that in water it takes about a th000 PPM
22:22for people really notice a difference
22:23with calcium in these different things
22:25but they did notice that there were
22:26differences between 100 PPM of of these
22:29when it came into coffee they say that
22:31if there is an interaction during the
22:33extraction it's likely between excessive
22:37calcium or magnesium divalent catons and
22:40phanes or in chlorogenic acid which can
22:43actually hurt the cup of coffee quite a
22:45bit by adding bitterness or
22:47astringency the water itself is what is
22:50really driving the extraction those
22:52organic acids are being laid bare when
22:54you're using distilled water they're
22:56coming out in their most raw form and we
22:58are seasoning them with these different
23:00minerals that are naturally occurring
23:02but that have an obvious effect on our
23:05taste
23:06perception the effect of the bicarbonate
23:08is so much higher than the effect of
23:11calcium or magnesium even in high
23:12concentrations and the reason is because
23:15the acidity is what is most prevalent in
23:17your cup of coffee so whenever you're
23:19changing even slightly the bicarbonate
23:21you're greatly cha changing your
23:22perception of the acidity now we know
23:24from past videos and papers that I've
23:27you know discussed in the past
23:29that acidity and coffee is a very
23:31difficult thing to understand for
23:32instance a Brazilian coffee a natural
23:34Brazilian coffee has a lot more citric
23:37acidity in it than a Kenya coffee but we
23:39taste citric acidity and Kenya coffee a
23:41lot more than we do in a natural Brazil
23:43the Kenya actually has overall a lower
23:46pH than the Brazil by quite a bit so the
23:48acidity level is much lower or I guess I
23:51should say higher it's just a lower
23:53pH so when we use bicarbonate on it we
23:56are taking away buffering that acidity
23:58in increasing the ph and it greatly
24:00drastically affects the flavor when we
24:02add a lot of calcium it affects some of
24:04the flavor but in reality it's mostly
24:07affecting tactile at least in my
24:08experience with that specific tasting I
24:10just showed you so the acidity level was
24:12very similar to that that without any
24:15calcium but we were changing some of the
24:17tactile and maybe some of the acidity
24:19presentation it didn't take away the
24:21intensity though at least in the amount
24:23that I added to that cup of coffee
24:26carbonate hardness is also referred to
24:28as temporary which means we can remove
24:30it how can we remove it we can take a
24:32kettle put your tap water in it
24:34hopefully you have some sort of filter
24:35that can remove maybe the chlorine or
24:37some of the different irons or something
24:38like that and let it boil for about 10
24:42minutes now I know this is not a
24:44sustainable thing to do but what will
24:46happen is those bicarbonates will
24:48actually convert into carbon dioxide and
24:50into precipitates you may not get many
24:53precipitates at 10 minutes but you will
24:54get a lot of carbon dioxide that is
24:56released which is getting rid of the
24:58bicarbonate we don't have that molecule
25:00anymore that whenever that CO2 is
25:02released of course there's still a lot
25:04in there you're only going to get rid of
25:05about 30 or 40% of your bicarbonates by
25:08doing that depending on the volume of
25:10the water and how much concentration of
25:12bicarbonates you have Etc but it can be
25:14a decent amount we can rid of through
25:17evaporation of carbon
25:19dioxide then put the lid back on and
25:22Brew with it side by side with a freshly
25:24brewed one with unperturbed water and I
25:26believe you'll see quite a big
25:28difference especially if you have a high
25:29bicarbonate count now of course if your
25:32bicarbonate is through the roof where
25:34you live like an Evan bottle of water
25:36that has over 300 PPM of bicarbonate in
25:39it then you may not see a difference
25:41even with a 40% reduction because once
25:44you're over in my opinion on filter
25:46coffee once you get over about that 60
25:48to 70 PPM of bicarbonate you are at a
25:51point where your acidity is pretty much
25:52all muted at least for your perception
25:55depending on the roast level you prefer
25:57and the quality of coffee that you
25:58choose so it is important to stay in a
26:01lower range now historically people have
26:03advised around 40 parts per million of
26:05your bicarbonate and around 40 to 80
26:08parts per million of your general
26:09hardness now this is obviously
26:11insufficient we need to speak in terms
26:13of actual cations but for most people I
26:16think this is pretty proper I think you
26:18need to be really nuanced in flavor and
26:20in taste and in cupping to really see
26:22the differences between 80 parts per
26:24million of calcium versus magnesium or
26:264040 of each or whatever it might be now
26:29I've never been too big of a fan of even
26:3140 parts per million bicarbonate I like
26:34it a lot lower uh the coffees that I
26:36tend to drink I like to really allow the
26:38tear water to shine through a bit more
26:40and let the organic acids kind of speak
26:41for themselves and I tend to live around
26:43the five to 20 parts per million of
26:46bicarbonate and that's because I like
26:48the natural acidity coming out of the
26:49coffee when it comes to general hardness
26:52I can live in a range of zero up to 120
26:55or even higher it really depends on the
26:57coffee itself self there's a lot more
26:59wiggle room there now the good news is
27:01since you can post add the the the
27:03minerals if you have something in a
27:05concentrate form with a Precision
27:07dropper as I do with lotus or as Apex
27:09lab offers you can add afterwards if you
27:12need a little bit extra now it's
27:14obviously important to have it in small
27:16concentration so you can add just a
27:17little bit here and there but that is
27:20something that you can definitely make
27:21at home with some simple maths and a an
27:24accurate scale of course you need to get
27:26the salts but you're able to do that
27:29now if you are an espresso Enthusiast at
27:32home you definitely need to look into
27:33making your own water for the longevity
27:35and the goodness of your machine we want
27:37to be sweet to those sweet machines cuz
27:38they're sweet to us now as far as using
27:40tap water in your espresso machine that
27:43it's a bit tricky you definitely want to
27:45use a water softener in order to not
27:47have crazy scale buildup but uh it's
27:49something that a lot of people are going
27:51to rely on anyway but just know that
27:53this will cause more issues with your
27:55Express machine over time so then you
27:56have to weigh in the balance whether or
27:58not you need to get a new Espress
27:59machine and send that one to the
28:00landfill which please don't do that you
28:02can fix most anything or you got to pay
28:03for a lot of repairs replace parts that
28:05would otherwise need to be replaced etc
28:07etc what is more wasteful doing that or
28:09making water now a fear is you could
28:12cause corrosion with too little hardness
28:15in your water which is a fear if you
28:16brew with distilled water in your
28:18espresso machine those metal internal
28:20components will corrode do not use
28:23distilled water instead I recommend what
28:25is called the Dr pavas water Dr pavas is
28:28a a home Enthusiast but also a water
28:29chemist and he has made a recipe that
28:32disallows any corrosion and disallows
28:34any scale disallowing scale is easy
28:37don't put scale potential minerals in
28:39there no magnesium no calcium by adding
28:41just bicarbonate we're able to play that
28:43game of buffering acidity his
28:45recommendation I believe is around 45 to
28:4760 parts per million of potassium
28:50bicarbonate specifically which you can
28:52buy in bulk form and you can create your
28:54own mixture in order to make your water
28:56for the espresso machine
28:58now in my studio that's all I use for my
29:00espresso machines cuz I can't be hassled
29:02to go through and descale them all the
29:05time that's annoying I don't want to
29:06deal with it I also don't want to worry
29:07about corrosion by using too soft of
29:10water now if you are like I really need
29:12magnesium in it I want to bolster the
29:14body with calcium you can always make a
29:16concentrate with just a simple Precision
29:18dripper in order to post mineralize your
29:20brew that is a great option that will
29:22allow you to never have to descale your
29:24machine again just make sure your water
29:25source is clean and deionized before
29:27adding your potassium bicarbonate or you
29:29could use a really low PPM water like I
29:33said you could use a you know reverse
29:34osmosis or something like that and
29:36lessen it all the way down or you may be
29:38someone that uses third wve water at
29:39home I found when measuring you get
29:42about 150 total PPM with any of those
29:45when you add it to a full gallon of
29:46water which is their recommendation 150
29:49is quite a bit instead you could shove
29:51that into four different containers get
29:53about 40 or 38 PPM in each and that's
29:56pretty good for filter coffee now if you
29:59want to add some extra bicarbonate you
30:01can my goal with co-founding lotus which
30:03again I want to say I co-founded it so
30:05this is not a plea to go buy it I don't
30:07you do what you got to do my whole goal
30:09with lotus is to provide the these
30:12different concentrates I'm I'm talking
30:14about making so you can make water easy
30:16you can play with potassium bicarbonate
30:18and sodium bicarbonate do little drops
30:19in order to see how those react if you
30:21want to play with your body or your uh
30:23your bitterness or your you know
30:26complexity or whatever you can play with
30:27the ium and you play with the magnesium
30:29and we use pure salts in order to do
30:31these things the idea is more so to use
30:34those as a building block to understand
30:37water chemistry so you can then kind of
30:38make your own you know you can buy these
30:40things in bulk and do it at home on your
30:42own at your own Leisure it it's not a
30:44very difficult process to do at first it
30:47seems intimidating but and there is an
30:49initial investment because you need a
30:50quality scale in order to make these
30:52mixtures but in the end it's really not
30:55as difficult as you might think and when
30:56you make them in bulk and refrigerator
30:58them they're kind of good to go in
30:59perpetuity so you just got to keep
31:01adding your mixers and diluting it and
31:03yada yada yada and you're good to
31:06go but anyway the whole idea of this is
31:09to help you brew better coffee once you
31:11have your good beans once you have even
31:12a decent grinder the number one
31:14modulator of flavor is that water in
31:17fact I would take great water a decent
31:19coffee and a decent grinder way over
31:21great coffee a great grinder and crappy
31:23water there's just no question about it
31:25crappy water is going to completely mute
31:27out everything as I just showed you with
31:30that cupping the one with all
31:31bicarbonate in it was so putrid I would
31:34have preferred I mean an instant coffee
31:37to that like no question it was very
31:39very very bad because all the acidity
31:41was mutant it left this weird kind of
31:44metallicy taste on my tongue because of
31:46the excess of potassium it was not a
31:48good time at all and a lot of people's
31:50tap water is going to be similar to that
31:52where it's just going to mute everything
31:55I cannot stress this enough water is so
31:57very important so take this video
31:59seriously hopefully you learned
32:01something nice if you enjoyed it I would
32:03highly highly enjoy you hitting the like
32:06And subscribe that would just help the
32:07channel a whole lot thank you again to s
32:09for sponsoring this video and for you
32:11know helping fund uh what I do here but
32:14anyway thank you so much for watching
32:16and I hope that you brew something tasty
32:18today and cheers

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