How Unfiltered Water Can Ruin Even The Best Coffee Beans

Making coffee sounds like a fairly simple ordeal: grind beans and pour hot water. Anyone who loves the drink, however, knows that getting a perfect cup of coffee is not that simple. The magic's in the details in both a good and bad way. There are countless ways to mess up your coffee, but most come down to tiny mistakes which have disastrous results. Similarly, if you pay attention to the small things, you can get a superior cup with little extra effort. One factor that most people overlook is water. Matt Woodburn-Simmonds of Home Coffee Expert cautions against using tap water.

"Tap water is hugely influenced by the mineral content in terms of flavor. You may have heard of 'hard' or 'soft' water, referring to having more or less dissolved minerals," Woodburn-Simmonds told The Takeout. "Hard water can easily contribute to over-extracted coffee and sometimes adds a metallic taste. It will also dull the natural acidity of the beans." The coffee expert speaks from experience, saying, "As someone who grew up in a soft water area, drinking 'hard' water is quite a change and has a vastly different taste."

So, what can you do? Put a water filter to work. "Filtered water is ideal as it doesn't contain too many minerals or any chemicals that will affect the final flavor of the cup. You want to use this neutral water whenever you brew coffee."

Of course, filtered water isn't always available. Maybe you're on vacation and your accommodation doesn't have a filter. Or maybe you forgot to refill your pitcher and are now facing the consequences of your neglect. In these cases, will tap water really ruin your coffee? "It depends on your tap water," Woodburn-Simmonds said. "If you have really good, low mineral quantity, and chemical-free tap water, then you can just use the tap and it'll be fine." However, this advice didn't come without warning. "If you live somewhere with lots of minerals in your water (especially calcium and magnesium), then filtered water is more likely to get you that perfectly balanced and bright cup of coffee than your tap water."

If you're not sure if you have hard or soft tap water, check your local water utility company's website. It should have information there about mineral content. Alternatively, you could try the scientific method and test it out. Make two cups of coffee at the same time with the exact same measurements. Use tap water for one cup and filtered water for the other. Once they're both done, do a taste test and see if there's a difference. After you've determined whether using filtered water improves your coffee's flavor, you can fix other small things. For instance, your water shouldn't be boiling and you shouldn't get your coffee from the grocery store. These easy changes can drastically improve your home brewed coffee.