What is the best water for brewing coffee?

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Making a good cup of coffee is not only an art but also a science. From the selection, storage and grinding of coffee beans to hand-brewing or French filter pots? Coffee lovers have to make countless choices in the brewing process. One of the most important but often overlooked choices is the "water" for brewing coffee.

Generally speaking, it is generally believed that filtered water is the best choice, but scientific experiments do not agree. Experiments by scientist Christopher H. Hendon have found that the minerals contained in "tap water" can greatly improve the taste of coffee, according to the Journal of Agriculture and Food Science. Tap water in different regions contains different minerals, magnesium, sodium and other elements, which can determine whether tap water is hard water or soft water. Coffee itself already contains a lot of natural chemicals and thousands of aromas, brewed in hard or soft water, and the results are very different.

Substances in hard water can enhance the flavor of certain types of coffee beans, while soft water lacks such substances and has no way to achieve the same benefits. But this is not a simple dichotomy. Hard water and soft water have their own advantages, depending on the mineral composition of tap water and the role between tap water and coffee beans.

What we can do is to first find out whether the tap water in the place of residence belongs to hard water or soft water, and then use it as a basis to select the right coffee beans. If necessary, professional bakers can also recommend suitable coffee beans according to the local water quality.