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The Best Water for Coffee - An Introduction — Transcript

by James Hoffmann · 3,460 words · 493 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:00[Music]
0:09today we're going to be talking about
0:11the best water to use to make the most
0:13delicious cup of coffee if that's made
0:15you roll your eyes and you're thinking
0:16now I have to worry about the water that
0:19I brew with it was already complicated
0:21enough well know that this topic makes
0:23me kind of angry more frustrated than
0:25anything else
0:26I wish it were easy I wish that any
0:28water would make any coffee taste good
0:30but that isn't the case and using water
0:33that has some problems means that you're
0:35not going to extract the coffee that you
0:37buy or you're gonna make the coffee that
0:39you extract taste much worse so you're
0:41gonna ask what makes water good or bad
0:44surely if it tastes clean and pleasant
0:46then it's good if it tastes kind of
0:48chlorine and disgusting then it's bad
0:50and that is true but it is unfortunately
0:53a bit more complicated than that but if
0:55you do know a little bit about water
0:57chemistry and coffee know that we're not
0:58gonna get super hardcore into the
1:01chemistry today so let me give you a
1:03very quick overview that is so simple
1:05that I might feel like I'm lying to you
1:07there are two aspects to water and it's
1:10its contents that are particularly
1:12important when it comes to brewing
1:14coffee the first are the mineral ions
1:16most commonly we're going to talk about
1:18calcium and magnesium these are really
1:22useful ions if they're in the water they
1:24actually help with the extraction of the
1:26coffee flavors helping them go into
1:28solution to create a delicious cup of
1:31coffee if you have no mineral ions
1:33you'll have very little extraction
1:35compared to having a lot of ions and
1:37then having a lot of extraction but that
1:40doesn't mean that more is necessarily
1:42better now the other thing to really
1:44worry about is what's called the
1:46bicarbonate or alkalinity of the water
1:49this refers to the ability of that water
1:51to sort of buffer its pH to maintain its
1:54pH around about 7 if you have a lot of
1:57bicarbonate if you have a lot of
1:59alkalinity it'll take a lot more acid
2:01added to that to turn the solution
2:04acidic in the case of coffee while
2:05coffee is pretty acidic when you extract
2:07a bunch of stuff in coffee
2:09those are acids it has a low pH when you
2:11brew it so the more buffer that you have
2:14the less acidity
2:16ultimately you're experiencing your cup
2:18of coffee and again more does not equal
2:20better to little bicarbonate is a
2:23problem those acids in the coffee will
2:25run rampant they'll be uncontrolled
2:27unbalanced unpleasant too much buffer
2:30then everything is just kind of boring
2:32dull brown tasting to be avoided with
2:35both of these things there's a middle
2:37ground where things tend to taste pretty
2:39great so what is that what is the
2:41perfect water again I can't give you a
2:43very simple answer for that firstly I
2:46will say if you buy from one roaster
2:48continuously if you buy their coffee all
2:49the time
2:50find out what their water is like
2:52matching your water to theirs as much as
2:55is possible or practical will get you
2:57much closer to those tasting notes that
2:59they're writing on the bag if you're
3:00brewing with water that's a long way
3:02away from theirs you'll just have a very
3:04different taste experience to them which
3:06can be a little bit frustrating as for
3:08what might be a good guideline well
3:10again it's tricky because calcium and
3:13magnesium while they are both mineral
3:15ions well they're a little bit different
3:17they don't do the same job exactly and
3:20having the same amount of calcium in one
3:23water as you have magnesium in another
3:25will produce different tasting cups of
3:27coffee when you brew with those two
3:29waters generally speaking a little bit
3:30more calcium is preferable if that's
3:32your primary ion a little bit less is
3:34preferable if magnesium is your primary
3:36ion there are ways to tell how much
3:38stuff is in your water you can very
3:41cheaply get a TDS kit but that's not
3:43terribly helpful a TDS meter will give
3:45you the total dissolved solids for the
3:48water but it won't tell you what those
3:49solids are could be your calcium could
3:52be your magnesium could be all something
3:54else that happens to conduct electricity
3:55it's not very insightful
3:58aside from tds meters there are really
3:59two ways that you can know about the the
4:02composition of your water firstly if
4:04it's coming out of your tap well in many
4:06parts of the world you can put in your
4:07postcode or your zip code into your
4:09water authorities website and they will
4:11give you an exhaustive breakdown of the
4:13minerals inside that water that is
4:15definitely useful it's usually free in
4:17most parts of the world go and check
4:19that out that's essential if the waters
4:21been treated or softened in some way
4:23then pretty much the best way to assess
4:25it is with a dropper kit they're pretty
4:27cheap well I'm sure there are links
4:28available
4:29and you take a sample of water and you
4:30add drops to it until it changes color
4:32and those droplets give you an
4:34indication of total hardness and
4:35carbonate hardness those can be
4:38converted so you can find out sort of
4:39how much mineral hardness is in there
4:41and how much bicarb is in there two
4:43really useful not incredibly accurate
4:46but will certainly get you to a useful
4:49place so let's take an example let's
4:51take my water let's say it's three
4:53hundred parts calcium it's got a really
4:56high level of bicarbonate what should it
4:58be what should I be aiming for if I'm
4:59trying to treat this water where should
5:01I be going and that's a really difficult
5:03thing to tell you right like just to
5:05give you some numbers we'll give you a
5:07recipe but there is no one answer all of
5:09this exists in a range in a spectrum and
5:12so if I was talking about calcium I
5:15might say 30 to 50 parts calcium is good
5:17but if it was magnesium I might say more
5:19like 15 to 30 parts per million or
5:22milligrams per liter is good
5:24similarly with buffer I might say so
5:26between 5075 maybe ppm so while that's
5:31my recommendation know that there are
5:33other recommendations there are specs
5:35that are used in international coffee
5:36competitions that are available online
5:38the sca the Specialty Coffee Association
5:40they offer a guideline I kind of range
5:43for various things when it comes to
5:45water quality that's free and available
5:47online so check that out too and if you
5:49really want to experiment at the end of
5:51all of this well we'll talk about that
5:53we'll talk about creating your own
5:54custom mineral water and how you might
5:57do that but we'll save that to the end
5:59so let's talk about treating water in
6:02the home right many people have bought
6:05things like Brita water filters and to
6:09some extent for some good reason you
6:10know what I'm talking about these things
6:12and these things are not what you want
6:15them to be they're not a solution and
6:17they're not an easy fix but they're not
6:18entirely bad these things do a little
6:21bit of softening but not too much they
6:23definitely improve the taste of the
6:24water if your water has off tastes like
6:27chlorine or other unpleasant flavors but
6:29they don't really do a great job
6:31softening so I'm not against them but
6:33they don't fix the problem and bear in
6:36mind the problem with hard water is not
6:37just that it doesn't make great tasting
6:39coffee
6:39the problem with hard water is limescale
6:42and when I
6:42two coffee machines espresso machines
6:44filter machines heating that water up
6:46causes limescale to precipitate out and
6:48that can easily damage break clogged
6:52frustrate your coffee machine in case
6:54you're curious how these things work
6:56well we can take out a filter from these
6:58things well cut it open and we'll talk
7:00you through what's going on inside one
7:02because I just think that's interesting
7:04so here's your familiar Brita filter and
7:06if we just open it up like this you can
7:08see that they're not particularly
7:09complicated things inside at the top
7:11here you've got a pretty simple filter
7:13mesh that is just like a tiny sieve to
7:16remove any particulate matter
7:18make sure there's no floaty bits in the
7:20water as it goes into the main
7:21filtration section and below that there
7:24are lots of these little tiny kind of
7:26beads and there's there's two types here
7:29now I'm pretty confident that the darker
7:31ones are active carbon they're
7:33essentially kind of charcoal and what
7:34they do is mop up off tests any kind of
7:37chlorine II flavors will get cleaned up
7:39by active carbon if you see something as
7:41charcoal filtered for flavor that's
7:44what's going on the other little beads
7:45are essentially ion exchange beads that
7:49they're negatively charged and they
7:51attract the calcium and in their place
7:53release a sodium ion now that doesn't
7:55make the water salty typically you're
7:57not releasing sodium chloride which is
7:59table salt you're just releasing the
8:00sodium ion on its own that does not form
8:03lime scale and there's no health
8:05concerns ring like that with your salt
8:07intake don't worry about this stuff it's
8:09just a nice way to essentially switch
8:11out a calcium for sodium it will do an
8:13okay job but it is finite alright at
8:16some point it will release all of the
8:17sodium that it has and so it will not do
8:20any more softening and even brand new
8:22fresh they're not super super effective
8:24with very hard water so what else can we
8:27do well you could add in a commercial
8:29water fill for at home but most of the
8:32time that's just doing what the proto
8:33filter is doing on a much larger scale
8:35and it does make it much more effective
8:37but it also makes it way way more
8:40expensive and then you have options like
8:42reverse osmosis and I'll do my best to
8:45explain it quickly you press your your
8:47mineralized water against a mesh that is
8:50so fine that only water can get through
8:52but the minerals can't it's applied with
8:54pressure and anything else is
8:56who runs off down the side of the filter
8:57and out and becomes waste reverse
8:59osmosis units are incredibly wasteful
9:02what you get out of it though is nearly
9:04pure water which again isn't actually
9:07ideal if you put distilled water into a
9:09coffee machine
9:10well that's typically bad because it can
9:12become quite corrosive and again we know
9:15that we need some minerals in order to
9:17get the best tasting coffee from an
9:20extraction perspective so pure ro is not
9:22desirable and there are some home units
9:24available and I'll be looking at a
9:25couple in the not-too-distant future but
9:29in most cases they produce water there's
9:31actually too soft it'll taste fine and
9:33it won't be so soft that it's actually
9:34corrosive but it won't be their best
9:36possible water you may need to find some
9:38way to remineralize it which can be
9:40complicated so again that's not a great
9:43solution if your water is just a little
9:45bit hard it's not super hard then
9:47something like a Brita is kind of
9:49actually okay and not a terrible
9:51solution it'll get you kind of ballpark
9:53but certainly hard and waters they are a
9:56frustration so what else your options
9:58well there's one option that's pretty
10:00popular but it is one of my least
10:02favorites
10:02it's inelegant frustrating wasteful
10:06environmentally unsound and then of
10:09course is bottled water in Europe and
10:11many parts of the world it's a kind of
10:13requirement in bottled water to put the
10:15mineral content on the label often on
10:17the back and they'll give you the exact
10:18quantity of magnesium and calcium and
10:21your bicarbonate and a bunch of other
10:22stuff in milligrams per liter which is
10:24really useful and you could go out and
10:26find a mineral water that works well for
10:28you I quite like this one even though
10:30it's way low on the mineral content but
10:32it still makes a good tasting coffee but
10:34do remember you're looking for a balance
10:36a balance of those minerals and that
10:38bike up there are plenty of waters out
10:40there that have what seemed like the
10:41right mineral content but have
10:43inadequate bio-cop they producing with
10:45its harsh and acidic in a kind of
10:47unpleasant way so to be avoided but I
10:50just can't recommend this to you I can't
10:55in all good conscience in good faith
10:56recommend something that is ultimately
10:58wasteful and environmentally unsound
11:00it's definitely a solution and if you
11:02are occasionally in need of some special
11:05water or some better brewing water yes
11:07mineral water is an option
11:09I just feel like it's a very stupid
11:11solution to a problem but I can't deny
11:14it's a solution and so I have to talk
11:17about it here so what else have we got
11:18well one option is to get water from a
11:21local cafe or a local roastery that
11:23treats its water not every business is
11:25going to do this for you not every
11:26business is going to be interested in
11:27that but I hope more and more get on
11:30board with the idea of sharing the water
11:31that they're making now I don't think I
11:33could ask a cafe to give that away for
11:35free there is a cost for them in
11:37creating good tasting water for coffee
11:39so I would expect to pay something not
11:42just expect them to give you two three
11:43five liters of water free but talk to
11:46your local cafe they may be open to this
11:48now we've covered a lot of ground here
11:50there's a lot of information and you may
11:52want to do some more reading so I've put
11:55together a kind of reading list on my
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12:47now we're getting pretty low on options
12:50on solutions to their particular problem
12:52but there is one big one left that I do
12:54need to talk about but there's no way I
12:56can really really get into it without
12:58doubling or tripling the length of this
13:00video so perhaps when we'll talk more
13:03about in depth in the future and that is
13:06about creating your own custom mineral
13:08water if you joined me for the world's
13:10largest coffee tasting which we may do
13:13again soon then you've already been
13:15through that experience of buying pure
13:16demon realized water and adding a sachet
13:19minerals to it in order to create
13:21custom recipe and doing that in that
13:23case let people all around the world
13:25brew with identical water which I
13:27thought was just the coolest thing but
13:29you don't even need a sachet as much as
13:31third wave water is a nice little
13:32solution that is available just off the
13:34shelf if you want to go harder than this
13:37you can you can get a bunch of distilled
13:39water and go and buy your individual
13:42components for the mineral content you
13:44can use magnesium in the form of Epsom
13:46salt that's cheap and easier to get hold
13:48of and for the bicarbonate you can just
13:50use sodium bicarbonate which is baking
13:52soda which is incredibly cheap and easy
13:54to get hold of and you can very simply
13:56put a small amount of those into
13:58distilled water and then carefully
14:00dilute that down again into a much
14:02larger quantity of distilled water to
14:04very accurately very carefully compose
14:08mineral water now I I just can't talk
14:10about this subject without giving an
14:12enormous shout out to barista hustle
14:14many of you are familiar with Bristol
14:15it's Matt Berger's kind of coffee brain
14:17trust that puts out enormous amounts of
14:19information into the world if you are
14:21not aware of it go to Bristol hustle
14:22calm right now and stop watching this
14:24video and go and learn some really cool
14:26stuff they did a ton of work on
14:28composing your own water they really
14:30popularized this they have calculators
14:32to do it yourself to creator and recipes
14:34they have calculators for taking very
14:36soft water from your tap and
14:37mineralizing it a little bit more to get
14:40it into a really good zone for coffee
14:42brewing this is unquestionably extreme
14:44as a solution it's a little bit
14:47expensive to buy demineralized water
14:48it's a little bit of your time and
14:50effort to do this stuff it requires
14:52accuracy and patience and a willingness
14:54to do it but the results are really
14:57really interesting and are definitely
14:58enjoyable when it comes to making
15:00delicious coffee in the morning it's
15:01really nice to just not worry about the
15:04quality of water that you're brewing
15:05with and if you live in a hard water
15:06place that's an almost unimaginable
15:08thought so
15:09go and check out Bristol hustle have a
15:11little look at that there are
15:12recommendations from various people like
15:14Scott Rowe and others on their
15:16recommended water and recipes and you
15:17can begin to understand how wide a range
15:19there is around this and one more shout
15:22out has to go to Maxwell Colonna
15:23Dashwood and Christopher Henderson with
15:28for coffee which really dug into what's
15:31doing what and why
15:32it gives you a great primer on water
15:34chemistry I think it's pretty hard to
15:36get hold of at the moment but I'll stick
15:37some links in the description down below
15:39if you really want to understand this a
15:41little bit more I think it is great
15:43reading and again this is not entirely
15:46new I remember reading great stuff by
15:48Jim Shulman way way way back in the
15:50early 2000s he'd done a bunch of work on
15:52this stuff too it's been a known problem
15:54for a long time water really is the most
15:56frustrating thing it can hold you back
15:59from getting out the value and quality
16:01that is in the bag of beans that you
16:03bought it drives me kind of crazy that
16:05it seems so simple but it's so
16:08complicated and little changes can have
16:10a massive massive impact and you know
16:12what don't believe me think this is all
16:14a nonsense go and go and brew two cups
16:16of coffee get a French press brew two
16:17cups of coffee one with soft water one
16:20with hard it's not difficult to do and
16:21it will ruin your day because the
16:25difference is enormous and it's not just
16:27testable by professional tasters or
16:29coffee geeks or obsessives it's anyone
16:31everyone can taste the difference
16:33between good water and bad but I'd like
16:35to hear your thoughts what are you doing
16:37for water at home you just use the tap
16:39water as it's soft enough or is it hard
16:41do you feel frustrated sometimes that
16:43the coffee you make simply is not as
16:45good as the coffee from the local coffee
16:46shop that certain Sparkle that sends
16:48sweetness that their coffee has you just
16:50can't get no matter how good your gear
16:52and how good your technique and so I
16:53hope this is a useful introduction to
16:54the topic let me know what I missed let
16:56me know if there's another treatment
16:58method that you're using or another
16:59solution that you have share it with us
17:02share it with this community we would
17:03all appreciate anyone's ideas and
17:05innovations on the subject I'm going to
17:07say thank you so much for watching and I
17:10hope you have a great day
17:12[Music]
17:22you

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