Check the Water Before You Brew Kona Coffee

Customers call us and tell us that Hula Daddy Kona Coffee doesn't taste as good at their house as it did on our plantation. The difference isn't geography it is the water.

Ninety-eight percent of a cup of coffee is water. If the right water is in the brewer the flavor of great coffee comes through. There are as many as 315 different minerals and chemical compounds that are distributed to consumers in city water supplies. If your brewing water contains hard chemicals, chlorine or organic matter it is going to affect that taste of your coffee.

Perfect Coffee Brewing Water

The Speciality Coffee Association of America (SCAA) recommends brewing coffee in water that contains 150 parts per million of total dissolved solids, 5 grains of hardness and a PH close to 7. Also the water should be free of calcium, magnesium, chlorine, iron, organic compounds and foreign odors and flavors.

You could send a sample of your water to a laboratory, but that isn't necessary. If you call  your city water department or your bottled water distributor they will give you a written report on their water quality. The city water is going to fail because it has chlorine in it. Your bottled water should be close to the SCAA requirements.

Use a Water Filter

If you do not want to use bottled water another choice is filtered water. However, all water filters are not created equal. Check the manufacturers specifications and make sure that the filter creates water close to the SCAA recommendations. Many filter remove odors and organic material but do not get out the hard chemicals.

Reverse osmosis filters do a great job of taking everything out of the water. However, you do not want everything out. RO water, just like distilled water, tends to be flat and uninteresting. RO water does not make great coffee. There are commercial additives that you can add back into RO water to make it more like spring water.

Water softeners add salts to the water and will change the  flavor of the coffee. Do not brew coffee with water from a water softener.

Taste Your Water

The simplest test for water is to taste it. If the water tastes like spring or bottled water, it should be good for coffee. If it tastes like chlorine or has an off flavor it will affect your coffee.

Good Kona coffee is expensive. Brewing gourmet coffee with bad water is a waste of money. Use great water and great coffee beans to make a great cup of coffee.