Water quality is the key to great coffee. Coffee is made of 98% water! Because of this, you want to use the best water possible to brew your favorite coffee.

The Specialty Coffee Association (SCA) created a water standard to help guide the specialty coffee industry. This was a pivotal guide to Third Wave Water's initial requirements as they have multiple water profiles that comply with SCA water standards (Classic Profile & Espresso Profile). 

Reasons why water quality is important:

Flavor:

Water can flatten the taste of your coffee. If your water does not have the correct amount of buffer or kH (alkalinity) it can be overwhelmed with acidity or have a massive loss in flavor due to not allowing enough acidity. Coffee is naturally acidic, trying to change the water and water buffers can inhibit this exchange of flavor or even the perception of some flavors on your tongue.

Extraction:

Coffee requires certain minerals present to properly extract, pulling the coffee flavors out of the bean and into your cup. Calcium is one of those important minerals necessary to extract the coffee oils into the water; all three water profiles contain calcium.

Protect Your Investment:

If you purchased all of the right brewing gear and spend $10+/lb for coffee, why ruin the experience with bad water? Protect your investment and get the most out of your coffee by using the final tool, the right water, to brew your coffee. Using water that contains the wrong minerals can cause your equipment to scale up or experience corrosion. Our minerals utilize permanent hardness rather than temporary hardness to alleviate this issue. Once our minerals are mixed, they will never "unmix." Our President, Taylor, made a short video explaining this principle here.