Coffee encyclopaedia · Brewing water
Coffee water: most of the cup, routinely ignored.
Most brewed coffee is water, and its mineral balance changes what the cup can extract and how acidity, sweetness and bitterness are perceived.
Section 01
Most of the cup is water. It gets a vote.
Good coffee water is neither perfectly pure nor simply “hard” or “soft”. Minerals help extraction, while excessive alkalinity can flatten acidity and very hard water can create scale.
Section 02
Change the water, change the cup.
Using the same coffee and recipe with different water can produce noticeably different cups. That makes water one of the most useful variables to control when troubleshooting brewing.
Section 03
You do not need a laboratory.
Filtered tap water, bottled water or remineralised water can all work. The best option depends on local water chemistry, machine protection and the flavour you want.
Put it back into the cup