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No

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No, because water is just the universal solvent to extract the essence of the flavors from ground coffee beans and tea leaves or dust.

The solvent therefore ought not improve or spoil the original taste of the coffee and tea it sought to extract, but act only as the carrier.

In other words, water, filtered or otherwise ought not improve or worsen the taste of coffee and tea, it ought to be neutral to do its intended work as a solvent.

However, having said that, whilst filtered water will not improve the taste of fine coffee and tea, bad tasting water will definitely destroy the taste of good coffee and tea, all things being equal.

This being the case, there is a valid argument in using filtered water that tastes neutral or "tasteless" in domains where unfiltered potable water tastes nothing but peculiar.

The art and science that goes into making an excellent cup of coffee and tea begins with the most basic foundations: high quality and fresh ingredients, clean utensils, pure neutral pH and tasteless tasting water, right brewing water temperature, optimum brewing time etc.

The secret to a great cup of coffee or tea is in extracting the essence of the flavor from the ground coffee or tea leaves through infusion with the correct water, water temperature and brewing time, without introducing other flavors either through improperly cleaned utensils, undesired oxidation or even foul tasting water in the first place.

No, filtered water per se does not improve the taste of coffee and tea; it helps not to spoil their taste, all things being equal.

There is another important aspect to making a great cup of coffee or tea: dissolved oxygen in water.

While there is still a big debate out there amongst tea and coffee connoisseurs over the role of dissolved oxygen in brewing water, some believe that the more oxygen the better tasting and some the reverse, the consensus is always to bring water to just under the boil i.e around 95 to 98 degrees C.

The idea is not to continuously boil and therefore drive away existing dissolved oxygen in the water, but bring the brewing water to its optimum temperature, high enough to extract the maximum amount of flavors from the ground coffee beans and tea leaves, but not too high a temperature to vaporize the volatile aromatic essence and lose them to the atmosphere which otherwise would have remained in the infusion.

Therefore, it is also a good idea to always cover the brewing utensil like coffee and tea pots. It actually serves two purposes: stop the water temperature from cooling down faster than it should and secondly to avoid the lost of volatile aromatic oils to the atmosphere.

After all, just like people, aromas cannot be at two places at one time: it is either in the pot or in the air.

Enjoy your next cup of great tasting coffee or tea!

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