What is the best water for coffee ?

[13mh13]

I've been researching the topic "best water for coffee" -- and coming up somewhat mixed suggestions. Many web articles say tap water is fine (may be best because it has ideal balance of minerals, etc.)
I used to use distilled, and that tasted good (to me). Heeding the various comments on "importance" having minerals, I tried mountain water; and, then, purified water (with mineral added). (Both these were purch'd at grocery store in the common 1-gall plastic jug). These were about on par with distilled.
This morning I finally tried tap, and the coffee was not so good (more bitter, less flavor). I live in the Los Angeles area where tap water is reported to be above average.

Any one with similar or different experience?

 

[Musicphan]

Ideally you have a water with some mineral content.... a lot of shops use RO water and minerals back into the water. The challenge with tap water is typically the cholrine - mineral content and other nasties in the water vary by your region. Distilled should have tasted a little flat... out of your options the purified water w/ minerals would probably be best (or maybe tap through a filter system). There is a product on the market called 3rd wave water.. its basically a mineral additive for distilled water - it may be your best bet if your local water is not great.

 

[13mh13]

The gallon-jug purified water (w/minerals) I use is Nestle or Gerber Baby water. Avail. at WalMart.

 

[Duffyjr]

I'm in the middle of experimenting with Third Wave water right now and while it does make the coffee taste different I can't say it's better. I'm going to try a different brand of distilled water and see it that makes a difference. I have been using the Pure filtered pitchers which does a great job of removing the chlorine and makes our water taste much better.

 

[Musicphan]

DuffyJr... I'm kinda where you are with 3rd Wave water... it certainly made a difference in taste but it was relative. However, we are in the midwest and have very good tap water (at least here in KC we do). At least I don't have a lot of crap in the water to filter out.

 

[13mh13]

I sampled-tasted just the (raw) water of 3 different (commercial) gallon-jug varieties incl. Arrowhead (spring), Nestle (purified w/added minerals), and another purified variety. All are around $1/gallon jug.
And I also tasted tap.

Hmmm .... the tap tasted best. Not sure why? Maybe the plastic in jug adds some flavor????

I'll have re-try the coffee with tap (btw: I always French press).

I used to use mostly distilled and that, IIRC, made good coffee. It's been a while .... maybe another experiment. Yeah, yeah .... all the coffee experts say it's not good. Stay tuned ....

 

[13mh13]

I have been using the Pure filtered pitchers which does a great job of removing the chlorine and makes our water taste much better.

From their product literature, none of the filtered water pitchers (Pur, Britta) remove chlorine. And they also don't filter out fluoride. RO and distilled are your best bets if you don't want these elements.

 

[Duffyjr]

From their product literature, none of the filtered water pitchers (Pur, Britta) remove chlorine. And they also don't filter out fluoride. RO and distilled are your best bets if you don't want these elements.

I haven't tried using just plain distilled water to brew a cup, I will try it.

Our water has a strong chlorine smell that about makes me sick to smell it when it first comes out of the tap. If you leave the water sit out the smell will go away after a few hours but the taste still lingers for much longer. Before I started using Pur pitchers I had a huge pickle jar I would fill and let site out for a couple days and then transfer to smaller manageable jars and put in the fridge. While this did work it was a somewhat of a pain. As far as fluoride the city voted it down so it is not added to our water
.

Here is a link to the Pur site, under the Home Filters section it does say it removes the chlorine taste, believe me it does work.

https://www.pur.com/the-lab/water-filters-how-do-they-work

 

[meetjoeblack]

I use a Berkey water filter. Great system!

 

[13mh13]

I experimented with water as follows.

I re-tried plain ol' tap and found the coffee to taste very close to the RO/mineral jug water. I have no idea what I did this time, which led to improved flavor.

I tried commercial distilled. Coffee was slightly smoother, but in a pleasant way.

Maybe my coffee taste buds are not so picky after all. Or maybe my experiment methods are flawed

 

[win231]

I've tried many water filters and the "3rd Wave." I found the 3rd Wave to be useless. The PUR pitcher filters were fine for a couple of years, but the recent ones are probably made cheaper because the water tastes bad, so I trashed them.
I currently use the "Zero Water Filter & Pitcher." So far, they've been great. Excellent water & coffee.
There is a trick to making these pricey filters last much longer. I read about it in a review on Amazon by a research scientist & it really works:
After the water runs through the filter, use ALL the water immediately or pour the unused water into a different container for storage. That allows the filter to dry out between uses. Otherwise, the filter stays wet & develops bacteria & mold, spoiling the water's taste. The included water tester with the Zero Pitcher verifies that the filter lasts much longer when used this way.

 

[lattelover888]

I just used purified water.

 

[irobinsonmark8]

spring water!

 

[Duffyjr]

spring water!

I have to ask, are you talking about water you dipped out of a spring or bottled water labeled "Spring Water"? I've used water out of a Canadian lake that made some pretty good cowboy coffee.

Update on the 3rd wave water testing!

I've given up. I've tried two different brands of distilled water and couldn't tell the difference so I don't believe the brand makes a difference. I don't like it because I like coffee that has the nutty/chocolate notes and the 3rd wave water seems to diminish these notes. For now I'm sticking with my Pur pitchers.

 

[211bma]

The Specialty Coffee Association of America has standards for water, and there are ways to manipulate the mineral content of your coffee water.

There are filtration systems that can be installed before your coffee maker. There is at least one company making a powder that is intended to dissolved into reverse osmosis water. I also saw a video (I believe it was a Whole Latte Love video) on YouTube.