Why water composition matters in coffee brewing
|
|
Time to read 4 min
Introduction
Hi friends, welcome to our first blog! It has been a little over a year since we launched évery. We wanted to connect a little more with you by sharing our knowledge and that this will hopefully enhance your specialty coffee journey, wherever that may be.
Our first blog covers some of the tricks we have used to maximize our coffees. We like to change the coffees on our menu from traditional to experimental, so we are constantly rotating.
Even our roast profiles change constantly, so if you had the chance to try our coffees a year ago and try them now, you would notice a big difference. We are also constantly rotating different kinds of coffee.
But one thing does remain constant: our quality control. This is the foundation of everything we do and helps select the coffees we bring to you.
We always want consistency in the brew, which will dictate what we change in the roast profile, grind size, grinder, equipment, etc.
But we like to go even further. We examine water, flow rate, and serving experience, and so that's what we wanted to share with you in this blog. We hope this will enhance your brew, make your cup even more enjoyable, and see if you can get those complex notes at different temperatures, the acidity, juiciness, and different notes all these coffees can bring.
In this blog, we want to focus mainly on water and presentation.
So, let's talk about water.
Founder, Denis
why water composition matters in coffee brewing
Water composition:
When talking about water, we mainly talk about temperature and filtration. You might already know that coffee is 98% water, so all the minerals stored in water, like calcium and magnesium, will play a significant role during flavour extraction. So, soft water can make your coffee taste flat, while hard water may induce more bitterness. If you can get the pH level, we aim for a neutral pH 7.0 using filtered water.
Another factor to consider is impurities like chlorine and heavy metals can mask some flavours during extraction. So, it will be nice to have good filtration, like a carbon filter, to help remove these impurities.
So, 100%, if you start playing around with water, see how that impacts your brew.
Temperature matters:
Since implementing this on our brews, we have enjoyed them much better and immediately noticed the difference. Brewing at higher temperatures will allow you to fully extract flavours, including the perceived sweetness, as the temperature cools. Starting at the highest temperature and gradually decreasing it can help you find the best option. Currently, we're happy at 205 degrees Fahrenheit. We even like to go as far as pre-heating all the glassware in order to keep as much heat retention at the beginning of the brew.
Material, a sensory ritual:
This is one of our favourites. Maybe you have not noticed yet, but we certainly encourage you to try drinking your coffee with different cups: glass, ceramic, metal, etc.
The material of the cup will influence your coffee's flavour and mouthfeel. We choose to go for glass cups because they are neutral and don't impart any flavours. We love to use a glass cup with a thicker lip and a round circumference for a more round mouthfeel because we like to perceive all the complexities the coffee offers.
Ceramic cups, for example, are great for retaining heat but may hide some bright flavours. On the other hand, metal cups can alter the taste due to their metallic properties. The same theory would apply to other cup materials. To us, glass is our go-to.
The tactical ritual between the glass, your tongue, and the coffee creates a connection, almost like meditation with the coffee, taking you back to the terroir where the cherries are grown.
The smoothness of the glass complements the texture of coffee, making each sip feel more deliberate and rewarding.
Even the weight of the cup in your hand, combined with the clarity of the glass, showing off the brew's colour, will make this a more sensory ritual.
We hope you enjoyed this first blog. We will put more content out there, so keep an eye on our socials. We have some new coffees and events, so watch out for updates.
If you haven't tried some of our coffees yet, some have sold out, but we recommend Jamison's. They are such a luxury to have. We brought them directly from Jamison Savage Coffee in Panama.
See you soon, friends; happy sipping!
Don't hesitate to message us on social media or through our contact page.
See u soon :)
image source credit to Savage Coffees in Panama
If you have some time, you can also check out our transparency post on Instagram; every few months, we like to share all the transparency information involving the supply chain.
This means that for us, quality is an indirect player that determines the quality. We want to partner with coffee importers who can share with us the prices they paid at the shipping port, which is called FOB, and the price paid by the farm for security measures of the communities. Sometimes, we keep it private.
There must be transparency in the supply chain so that we know that a good investment has been made at these farms; this means better terroir and better practices in the land and a better planet!
It's there if you want to check it out. Have a fantastic day!
Cheers :)
image source credit: évery