Sometimes I Brew with Tap Water

Does this make me a BAD PERSOn????

It’s not my proudest moment. I roll out of bed and am confronted with a choice: do I walk to the coffee shop to get a good cup or I do I botch something at home? I have everything else I need — fresh beans, scale, grinder, the right size filters — I just don’t have any filtered water.

This morning, I botched it. I followed my intuition and boiled some tap water in my gooseneck kettle, thinking maybe somehow I could evaporate all the bad stuff and be left with more or less perfect water for brewing. This isn’t totally false; boiling water does evaporate volatile compounds like chlorine and some dissolved gasses. But it’s definitely not perfect.

That, of course, is a hard way to wake up in the morning. Confronting your own imperfections, or in my case laziness, or maybe it’s more like overwhelm, too many things happening at once, not enough time to do the little things like put this tomato plant in the ground or make water.

For those of you who are wondering what the heck I’m talking about, coffee is 98% water. The quality of that water is going to make a big difference in the quality of your brew. The general consensus is the water should be free from any odors, chemicals, or chlorine. It should have a total hardness between 50-175 ppm and an alkalinity between 40-75 ppm. The pH should be around 7, neutral, but that doesn’t matter so much as the total hardness and alkalinity.

An expert brewer might go to great lengths to achieve these parameters — water chemistry is an essential touch point in any World Brewers Cup routine. I like to think that adjusting water chemistry is like adding shading to a 2-dimensional drawing; your coffee will still taste like coffee without it, but there is way more potential for depth, clarity, and complexity. In the cafe, water quality is crucial for providing a consistent taste experience for your guests, as well as keeping your equipment in top-notch shape. Too many minerals in your water, and scale will start to buildup. Not enough, and you might see some corrosion.

When I teach my brewing students about water quality, I would be lying if I said there wasn’t a small part of me that thinks it’s a bit ridiculous. Do we really expect the average person to go out and buy water specifically for brewing coffee? Or worse, install an R/O system in their home and design the perfect balance of minerals to add to the water for their unique taste preferences? There are some parts of the world that have no access to clean drinking water at all, and here we are in the Global North fighting in the comments about whether magnesium or calcium is more effective for improving extraction.

This is where specialty coffee starts to feel stale, out of touch, irresponsible. But rather than draw a line in the sand between us and them, the yuppies and the average joes, perhaps I could try and see our world as an interconnected ecosystem where all things have a right place? What does that look like?

When we brew a cup of coffee to the nth degree, we respect the plant and all the humans that played a role in the supply chain. Imagine the land where this coffee was grown was abundant and lush. The farmer took great care to grow, harvest, and process the cherries. The intermediaries treated the producers with respect and curiosity. They paid a fair price for the coffee, at best starting or strengthening a relationship with this farmer or group of farmers, then went through great lengths to transport the harvest from a remote area of Mexico to the nearest port city. The workers at the port cities took care with the containers, and the coffee arrived in perfect condition and on time to its destination.

Later, a roaster used their artful discernment to unlock an optimal profile for this specific coffee, accentuating its acidity and developing a full and syrupy body. I purchased the freshest bag of roasted coffee I can find, let it rest for 7 days, and made a single-cup pour-over using a scale, a recipe, my whole attention, and yes, TAP WaTeR!!!! I’m skipping steps, but you get the gist.

A few months ago, a woman in a private class asked me an interesting question that I haven’t been able to stop thinking about. “Why do you think people get so into coffee?” she asked. “It’s not like it’s essential or anything like that. Why do we care so much about frivolous things?” (”while others are suffering,” was the context I silently provided).

I guess when it all boils down (ha), we care because of whatever meaning we assign to it... For me, it’s connectedness, both to my community and the earth, plus the opportunity to experiment and learn, and for pure fun, and joy.

I cannot let the suffering of the world stop me from experiencing joy. And I cannot let my joy stop me from acknowledging the suffering of the world and doing what I can to ease it in my community. And also, maybe you need to hear this, it is no one’s sole responsibility to solve all the world’s problems.

I must, at the end of the day, forgive myself for brewing with tap water and fill up my gallon jugs for tomorrow.

Here’s a quote I stole from Rob Brezny’s Astrology Newsletter, of which I am an avid reader (shocker, I know, the barista believes in astrology):

“Do not be dismayed by the brokenness of the world. All things break. And all things can be mended. Not with time, as they say, but with intention. So go. Love intentionally, extravagantly, unconditionally. The broken world waits in darkness for the light that is you.” —L.R. Knost

What do you think? Is water chemistry a total waste of time, or a celebration of life on earth? Something else? Would love to hear from you in the comments or anonymously via my advice column. Thanks for reading my diary!!!

PS - Taurus sun, Libra moon, Aquarius rising, if you’re curious ;)