Let's chat about Brew Water ✨ 💦 What water you should use for coffee?
While there is no short answer, here are the basics👇
TDS:
Some of you may already be familiar with TDS in coffee and while TDS refers to the 'Total Dissolved Solids' you can't use a coffee refractometer to test the minerals in water. However you are in luck as Water TDS pens are WAY cheaper than coffee-specific refractometers and are readily available as pool testers.
While TDS is an important component to your brew water, the problem with just measuring TDS is that it doesn't take into consideration what minerals are used.
TDS (Total Dissolved Solids) only measures the total and not the individual minerals, while there are instruments available to measure the individual mineral content they are very expensive and are not a suitable method for most coffee companies let alone home hobbyists.
Distilled:
Distilled water is no good for brewing coffee, having no minerals in your water will result in a weak, boring cup of coffee.
But you can use distilled water as a starting point to then mineralise and customise your water.
This doe's have the added advantage to knowing that you are starting at zero mineral content and then adding your exact amount of minerals, compared to starting off with tap water (unknown mineral content).
It is also important to know that it is not recommended to consume just distilled water and furthermore distilled water is no good for brewing coffee, having no
minerals in your water will result in a weak, boring cup
of coffee.
But you can use distilled water as a starting point to
then mineralise and customise your water.
So... Minerals are good:
100% Minerals are good, but it's all about finding which minerals to use in your water and how much of those minerals to reach the desired taste.
When brewing with no minerals your coffee can taste boring and dull, when brewing with too many minerals your coffee can taste unbalanced and even metallic / all sorts of wrong, depending on which minerals you are using.
You have a couple of options to now make your own brew water for your coffee, Aquacode (as pictured) is a pre-made concentrate that you add to a 5 / 7L of distilled water. You can use tap water however consistency will be an issue.