A small change with a surprisingly big result

[plonq]

Not anything life-changing, rather I did something a bit different this morning when making my coffee, and I'm not quite sure how to feel about it.

I am pretty happy with my current method of brewing coffee. So far it is giving me consistently good results, regardless of the blend or roast I try. I made a couple of cups this morning using that method, then when I went back to make my final cup, I decided to shake things up a bit by using different water.

Our tap water is fairly soft here, but as I was grinding more beans, I noticed that we had some bottles of water on the fridge that were left over from our last road trip. Curious to know how much difference it would make, I used one of them for my coffee. I had not been expecting to taste much of a difference, but the change in my coffee was quite pronounced.

It was quite noticeably better.

I don't drink bottled water that often (I only grab it when I don't have ready access to tap water - like on a road trip, long hike, etc), so I don't want to get into a trap of making my coffee from it.

... but it was so good.

I may try the filtered water again the next time I make coffee and see if that is a more sustainable alternative. The last time I tried it, I was slightly unimpressed with the results, but I've got some ideas for the next try. What I am not going to do is start burning through bottled water for my coffee - we produce enough plastic waste for my liking.

Comments

[frith]

To avoid scale buildup, I use the same water I use to water my indoor plants: either rainwater or water from my dehumidifier. I don't know if it changes the taste.

[plonq]

I can't imagine that either of those could help but improve the taste. I don't know what the tap water is like in your area, but I imagine it has more metals and alkalinity than what you are getting from your rain and/or dehumidifier.

Also, none of the bonus chlorine (though that will evaporate out if you let the tap water sit for a while before you use it).

[frith]

I have well water and it is generally very good. I do not use a water softener (or whatever that salt-based filter is called), the water rarely smells of sulfur when heated and calcium deposition is slow. But eventually there would be white deposits on the soil of my potted plants. I switched to only using rain, snow and dehumidifier water for my plants when I bought a few pitcher plants about ten years ago. A clay pot killed my Saracenia pitcher plant. It had be thriving until I repotted it.

The only thing that I worry about is bacteria in my rain/snow/dehumidifier water, but I expect that the coffee maker takes care of most of that during the heating process, assuming that there are significant numbers of bacteria in it. Between work and the llamas in my back yard, I'm already exposed to a wide variety of bacteria, so I'm not that worried. I do select the clearest rainwater and I scrub out the dehumidifier catch-basin and the rainwater bucket when it looks like it needs it.

[neowolf2]

Small amounts of sodium inhibit the perception of bitterness. Maybe try tap water, but add just a touch of salt?

[aurifer]

You can get refillable jugs that you take to a water store. Otherwise there are those 4L jugs of distilled water.