5 Tips for Filtering coffee and espresso Water

About 400 million cups of coffee are consumed in the United States every day. If you’re one of the 150 million coffee drinkers in America, you’ve probably sipped a cup of coffee or espresso and found the taste substandard. While coffee beans are often the star of the show, the water used to extract flavor from these beans is an often underrated aspect of the coffee brewing process. In this article, you can learn five tips to follow when choosing the best water filtration system for your coffee shop or home coffee maker.

Why do we need to filter water for coffee and espresso?

Water makes up about 98% of coffee and espresso drinks, so creating these drinks with the best water possible is essential. When minerals, chemicals or other unwanted elements contaminate water, they overpower the flavor of your drink. Finally, don’t pay attention to the water in a cup of coffee or espresso. Instead, it should provide a clean base for the drink’s flavors and aromas to shine through. In a competitive market, a quality water treatment system can make the difference between retaining customers and losing them.

Tips for filtering water for better coffee and espresso

1. Determine the water content

Knowing the composition in your water is the first step in choosing any water filtration system. If you understand what chemicals, elements or minerals are present in your water, you can choose a water treatment system to remove them in the most effective and efficient way. For example, if your home uses well water, you probably have a lot of iron in the water. On the other hand, municipal water supplies always contain chlorine or chloramines that need to be removed before the water is used to make coffee or espresso.

2. Always remove chlorine from your water

If you are using city treated water in your home or coffee shop, your water could contains chlorine and chloramines. These chemicals must be eliminated if you want to create a quality cup of coffee. Chlorine and chloramines can be removed with the use of a simple activated carbon filter, such as in a refrigerator filter, under-sink carbon filter, or pitcher filter. Reverse osmosis systems, a more advanced water treatment method, remove chlorine, chloramines and countless contaminants from water. Some RO systems also add beneficial minerals to the treated water.

Activated carbon filter removes: chlorine, chloramines, unpleasant tastes and odors, trihalomethanes, herbicides and pesticides, mercury, lead, iron.

Reverse osmosis removes: chlorine, chloramines, fluorides, salts, sediments, arsenic, VOCs, PFAS, microplastics, herbicides and pesticides, heavy metals, many other contaminants.

3. Managing the content of mineral in your water

The mineral content in water enhances its flavor, especially when used in beverages such as coffee and espresso. The ideal processing system for coffee allows you to control the mineral content remaining in the final product. Commercial water filters for coffee, tea and espresso are specifically designed to provide perfect water quality for their applications.

If you want to improve the quality of your coffee at home, you can keep minerals in your water in one of two ways: use a filter that doesn’t remove these minerals, or treat the water with a demineralizing filter. If your home water source has a good mineral balance for your beverage, you may only need an activated carbon filter for the perfect cup of coffee or espresso. If there are too many unwanted or excessive minerals in the water, you may want to use a reverse osmosis system with a post-remineralization filter.

These systems clean your water of most impurities and provide the ideal balance for the extraction process.

What is the best mineral content for coffee?

According to the Specialty Coffee Association (SCA), the ideal water for making coffee contains the following mineral content:
– TDS (Total dissolved solids): 75-250 ppm
– Calcium hardness: 1- 5 grains or 17- 250 ppm
– Total alkalinity: equal to or near 40 ppm
– pH: 6.5 – 7.5
– Sodium: at or near 10 ppm

4. Prevents limescale buildup in machinery

If you live in an area with hard water, you may be familiar with the unpleasant condition of gray or white limescale in appliances and pipes. While you should clean limescale from your filter with distilled vinegar, you also want to address the source of limescale, calcium and magnesium in the water. Calcium and magnesium are water hardening minerals found in many water sources in the United States. Calcium not only creates unsightly deposits on water treatment systems but also makes coffee taste bitter. On the other hand, magnesium brings out the flavor of coffee beans. Ideally, both magnesium and calcium should be removed from the water, then magnesium can be reintroduced by a post-remineralization filter after the water has been treated. Remineralization is important because it allows you to add minerals that enhance the flavor of your coffee and remove minerals that are not present.

The best method to remove water hardening minerals from water is a water softener. You can remove hardness with a reverse osmosis system, but the RO membrane will suffer as a result. Water softeners can treat all the water coming into your home or business, protecting your plumbing, appliances, and water treatment system. During the softening process, salt is added to the water, so you must ensure the water treatment system you use can remove this salt before it bitters your coffee or espresso. Salt-free water softeners, also known as water conditioners, are popular for treating limescale in homes with hard water. However, they only prevent limescale and do not actually remove these minerals from the water. Therefore, they should not be used over water in coffee or espresso because the flavor of these minerals will remain.

5. Choosing the best system for your specific needs

There is no one-size-fits-all water treatment system for the best cup of coffee. In many cases, the water treatment system that is best for you may be too weak or overkill for someone else. Whether you’re looking to improve your cafe’s drinks or your coffee at home, there’s a water treatment system that best suits your needs.

What is the best filtration system for a coffee shop?

The best water filtration for a coffee shop depends on the chemistry of the input water. Water used to make coffee and espresso must have mineral content to enhance flavor. For example, TDS levels should be between 75 and 250 ppm. A little hardiness, about two to five grains per gallon, can also be beneficial. The right mineral content allows the extraction process and the oil to escape from the grain, while too much mineral binds to the oil and hinders the extraction process. Without sufficient mineral content, the coffee or espresso will taste bland due to low extraction.

To get the best water source for your coffee shop, you must pay attention to the pollution level of the input water source. Maybe the mineral content in the water is moderate so you only need to filter chlorine and chloramine. If there are too many minerals then you will need to invest in a treatment system to reduce them. Many products can blend some raw water while also removing water hardening minerals, allowing you to achieve the best water quality to enhance the flavor of your coffee and espresso.

Which water filter is best for home coffee makers?

The best filtration process for your home coffee will remove contaminants specific to your local water quality. In some regions, only removing chlorine and chloramines from the water results in a great cup of coffee. Some wells or municipal water supplies may contain minerals that harden the water. In this case, you will want to invest in a water softener, not only for your coffee but also for the health of your plumbing and appliances. Water softeners add sodium to the water, adding a bitter taste to your coffee. A reverse osmosis system removes this sodium and virtually all other contaminants from the water. Some RO systems even have a demineralizing filter, which adds beneficial minerals back into the water to provide just the right amount of water.

To learn more about other powerful and unique water filtration systems distributed by Song Phung, order online at the website https://thietbinganhnuoc.com/san-pham or call hotline 0913.90.72.74 – 0984.620.494 to be consulted in detail.

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Translator: Duong Nguyen Hoang Khang