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Water

PostPosted: Fri Sep 26, 2003 7:53 pm
by phil
I know, I'm beginning to sound like Jim Schulman (OK, I wish, if I had half of Jim's experience, discernment and common sense I'd be very, very happy and very, very big-headed (which he's not)! :D )

Anyway, back to the topic. I have an RO (Reverse Osmosis) water filtration system for drinking water, in addition to a softener for my domestic water supply. After reading (mainly Jim's) posts on a.c and the SM list about the effect of water hardness on coffee, I started buying bottled water for brewed coffee. In 5 litre bottles it's pretty cheap.

I've used two different brands, both cheap from the supermarket. Sainbury's "Caledonian Spring" (or some such nonsense) and Buxton Spring. The Buxton has about 50ppm hardness as Ca, the GS only 25ppm or so.

I definitely thought my french press and (recently) vac pot coffee tasted better, so I was well pleased.

Last weekend I roasted some Colombian "La Manuela" from you-know-who (no not from CM, from the nice guy in Stafford!!!! :D ) to just before 2nd crack, and some KBM (Kowali Blue Mountain) from Tom to long past first but not showing any sign of second.

All week I've been thinking "well, this coffee is pretty disappointing - how do I tell him?". Then yesterday, I brewed some KBM and though "hang on, this tastes sour". Now I know I messed up the last batch of KBM and took it too light, but this batch had been seeming OK. I was still getting my head round it, and then what????.

After a bit of thinking, I thought "I bet it's the water". I got Allyson to get me some Buxton from Sainsbury's yesterday (I had been using the other Sansbury's stuff). Voila!. Much better and no longer sour. Even Allyson, who insists on putting moo juice in my lovely coffee, said "today's coffee is much better".

(BTW my beloved is dead p***ed off with me 'cos I've spoiled her for anything but good coffee! Hah! Another one bites the dust!)

So there you go folks. Anecdotal evidence it's all quite true (about the effect of water hardness on coffee quality). Now how do I sort out the water for my espresso machine, which is plumbed into the (softened) main supply? It won't be as soft as the RO stuff, but it will be very slightly salty. Not that I've noticed before. Someone (maybe David Lewis?) on the SM list mentioned adding hardness back in via some sort of cartridge - I've got the email somewhere. That and maybe a charcoal filter inline - oh dear, more expense.

Yet another bit of compulsive dottiness from yours truly!

Water

PostPosted: Fri Sep 26, 2003 11:07 pm
by HughF
I think the device for adding hardness back in is called a calcite filter.

Cheers,

Hugh
P.S. Most of my knowledge is eco-friendly - guaranteed recycled....

Yes

PostPosted: Sat Sep 27, 2003 10:52 am
by phil
Re the calcite filter, I remember something like that too.

who's the coffeegeek here

PostPosted: Sat Sep 27, 2003 2:13 pm
by Sunnyfield
So, Phil, who is the real geek here, huh?