Coffee taste better with tap water instead of bottled water.

[CCafe]

Yesterday I was at my local cigar shoppe and the sales lady also sells water purification systems from Korea as a part time side business. She could barely explain how it worked and it was $1200. I could make monthly payments or buy one at $600. Or there was a $400 model. So depending on how much money I had, my water quality would improve. No thanks.

I hope she's at least using it on the humidifier system. Heaven forbid you use tap water with all those wonderful cigars!!!

 

[coffeeloverlisa]

Nope... I see her go to the tap every time. And the fancy water system is sitting under a piano at the front of the shop. They have not bought it yet.

And then the owner comes and goes on and on about the bottled water.

Had another thought. What about the fluoride and germs that are in your mouth when you walk in the shop? And bad breath, garlic and cigarettes? When I competed in the Canadian Cupping Championships, I went without smoking and garlic or strong flavors for three days before cupping. Or the chocolate croissant and carrot muffin you are eating with your coffee? Does this not affect your coffee taste?

They guys also said that putting milk or sugar in your coffee was bad form. Screw that. I like milk and sugar in mine. They are like coffee dictators.

A recent business ordered 12 pounds *GROUND* to give out for Christmas. *GASP*
Cheers!

 

[shadow745]

Lisa, I say drink your coffee the way YOU like it. I'm a purist and like all coffees black, but do toss in a pack of raw sugar or a bit of orange blossom honey into my doubles when I want to accent the flavor of the coffee with something else. I just happen to like those 2 sweeteners more than any other. I do tell our customers they may not need as much sugar or half-n-half as they're used to using because our coffees don't have the harshness/off tastes they may be used to with what they normally choose to drink. BUT I never tell them it's wrong to add something to coffee. To each their own. I have a husband/wife that want nearly 1 oz. of sugar per drink they get from us. They just love everything they drink really sweet and at this point I don't open packets, but rather sit the cup on the scale and let the pouring from the bulk sugar dispenser begin.

I recently ordered (BIG GASP) preground, flavored coffee to sell to our customers. Went the preground route because there is no way I would put flavored beans in any of our grinders. Not that I'm going to make a habit of it, but Christmasy flavored coffee can be a big hit around the holidays, as can be our other treat, Davinci Dark Chocolate covered coffee beans. Later!

 

[coffeeloverlisa]

At the Food & Wine Show, we give out dark chocolate coffee beans in a little gold packets to customers who buy our coffee. They go nuts. And it keeps us awake. YUM.

 

[Smiith]

I do not debate the benefit of water quality. Since the drink is 98% water, it is certainly important. My point is that to criticize customers for their water or to assume what source they use is not a great marketing choice. I want folks to buy my coffee. They can use any kind of machine or water they want, and it will be incredible. When I sell online, I am not really selling a water story as a benefit.


Try this... buy some pool test strips, the type that indicate 5-6 things in your water such as chlorine, PH, alkalinity, hardness and test your tap water to see what it's showing.

And yes 30gpg of hardness is quite high, but if the softener is properly SIZED for the task at hand, regenerating properly and high quality salt is used there should be no noticeable hint of sodium. Furthermore I wouldn't want perfectly soft water hitting 0 gpg simply because a bit adds to taste/texture of the water IMO. And of course 1-2gpg won't cause any noticeable buildup of scale in most situations.

Finding great water for coffee can be tough. The most common things used are the filter pitchers/faucet mounted type that really only mildly filter, leading to better taste, but not performance.

 

[DylanAsdale]

No disrespect to you Lisa (and I don't say that to many people ), but if you don't pay any attention to the water you're using to brew your coffee then you're probably not maximizing that superior quality/freshness provided by your highly sought after RocketFuel. Chlorine, PH balance, hardness, etc. make a rather large impact on how coffee is brewed/extracted and to what degree equipment needs to be maintained. Later!

You still haven't gotten back to me on what type of water you think is the best for coffee. I'd still be interested in hearing your opinion on the matter, as your experience seems similar to mine (also, West Virginia is very close to Indiana, so perhaps your water is slightly similar to mine).

All I am saying is that by the time we boil the water, filter our complex coffee, eat a cookie with it, or in my case, maybe smoke a Cuban cigar with it, maybe we cannot taste that much of a difference if we are just a lay person. And a latte or capp? Now we are even further away.

Perhaps that would be closer to the case if everyone who drinks coffee puts something in it or drinks it with something. However, that isn't the case.

Trying to tell me that I can't taste the difference between coffee made from 3 different water sources isn't doing your side any justice, I can assure you. Unless that wasn't what you were trying to do, then I apologize.

They guys also said that putting milk or sugar in your coffee was bad form. Screw that. I like milk and sugar in mine. They are like coffee dictators.

This must be why you don't care what kind of water you use in your coffee. When you bog it down with creamer and sweetener, it becomes much harder to differentiate between water sources. At least in my experience.

 

[DylanAsdale]

So far, the only person who is making much sense to me in regards to the intended topic is shadow745.

Lisa drinks her coffee with creamer and sweetener, and from the sound of it, eats things with coffee as well. I'm not saying that this devalues her opinion when it comes to coffee in general, but I think it greatly devalues her opinion in regards to water sources, since when you have so many other flavors dazzling around in there, the taste that the water imparts becomes less noticeable.

Went the preground route because there is no way I would put flavored beans in any of our grinders. Not that I'm going to make a habit of it, but Christmasy flavored coffee can be a big hit around the holidays, as can be our other treat, Davinci Dark Chocolate covered coffee beans. Later!

I don't blame you one bit. I had some Christmas-type coffee (some sort of "spice"-type seasonal coffee) and the first cup was pleasant, but every single cup after that tastes absolutely obnoxiously spicy. I couldn't imagine imparting such a flavor into the cups of purist coffee drinkers.

 

[CCafe]

Were all saying the same thing, some types of purified water are not the best at producing coffee. Purified is the key word. Unless you know what they did to purify the water its hard to say how the coffee will turn out. A lot of places are using Reverse Osmosis for their treatment of water. It can cause the coffee to have negative tones because all of the minerals have been stripped from the water. That is why there are now systems in place that put some of that mineral content back in to help with quality issues.

I know from experience that when I use my tap water to make coffee it tastes sour because of the chlorine and fluoride in the water. Upon filtering it removes that sourness for me. Then that allows me to make the best cup possible at home.

Back to your original question of why you don't know why people use bottled/purified water. Because they have had water quality issues of one kind or another. Everyone is going to have a different opinion when using different types of water. Its hard to narrow down your experience with other peoples as there are just to many different variables at play here. Where you may have had a bad experience someone else may have had a great experience using bottled water. Again its all about the variables, don't know what types of purified water you have used in the past.

 

[coffeeloverlisa]

Glad to see my opinion is devalued! Gee, is that like the Canadian dollar?

I sell coffee. What my customers do with it a home is an unknown factor to me so to belittle them at home, or here, is bad for business. So better to make them feel welcome than unwelcome.

My opinion stands that a great coffee bean, roasted right, fresh and of premium quality, made properly into great java, withstands a bit of crud in the water.

So put that in your filter and brew it.

xo

 

[shadow745]

Elegant comeback Lisa and I must say I respect and value what you have to say. Only wish I could say things in such a tasteful way, but I usually get banned for putting my thoughts into words 8)

We always have customers saying "why is the coffee you serve so good and when I make coffee at home it is usually undrinkable".... I tell them it's a handful of factors.... FIRST you must have FRESH properly roasted beans that are freshly/properly ground for the brew method at hand... THEN you must have decent brew temperatures.... AND lastly you must have decent water quality. If you master those 3 things it all falls into place. Later!