by Ken Bradford

Created on: October 25, 2011

The quality of water used in brewing coffee or tea will definitely impact the taste of your favorite beverage. The preparation of coffee or tea is a steeping process in which the coffee grounds or tealeaves are mixed with near-boiling water. The flavor of both beverages is extracted through the exchange of the heat and the minerals in the water.

The four elements that are essential in brewing that perfect cup of coffee are; quality brewing equipment, quality coffee in the proper grind, the right coffee filter and properly filtered water.  It is important to note here that chlorine bleached coffee filters will not produce the best tasting cup of coffee.  The chlorine used to make these filters white will leach into your coffee.  According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), chlorine bleached coffee filters may contain other chemicals that could cause future health issues.

The flavor in coffee is mainly contained in the oils within the beans.  The brewing process is simply extracting these flavors from the ground coffee so they spread throughout the water.

In order to brew the best tasting cup of coffee, the water being used must have some mineral content. The coffee experts advise that the water used in making a good cup of coffee should have a minimum mineral content of 150-200 parts per million. Distilled water or water that has been softened too much will contain no minerals necessary to bring out the natural flavors of the coffee, therefore the extraction will be weak and the coffee or tea will actually be flavorless. Tap water may contain chemicals, like chlorine, that will affect the flavor of your coffee.  Filtered water and spring water are recommended in brewing a good cup of coffee.

Most coffee shops have an in-line water filter attached to their coffee maker.  This filtration process removes the chlorine and iron from the water, but leaves the right amount of minerals necessary to brew an excellent cup of coffee.  This is one reason why a cup of coffee bought at the local coffee shop tastes much better than the coffee made at home.

There are many types of water filtering systems on the market today and your choice will depend mainly on how much water you want to filter at any one time.  There are filters that will filter all the water coming into your home, jar filters and faucet filters. Many higher-end coffee makers have a built in water filter.  There is also the option of buying bottled spring water at your local grocery store.

If you are using freshly ground coffee in a quality coffee maker and your coffee doesn’t taste the way you would like for it to taste, it just may be the water.  You just can’t make a good cup of coffee with bad water.

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