Coffee, on its surface, is an incredibly simple beverage: just add hot water to ground up roasted beans. However — as in any great pursuit — achieving perfection remains elusive.
In the quest for the flawless cup of coffee, aficionados have looked at everything from roasting technique, to method of grinding, to the perfect ratio of water to coffee (said to be 17.42 units of water to 1 unit of coffee).
But less often considered is the water itself. While we tend to view tap water as a pure ingredient, it’s actually loaded with minerals that can influence coffee’s flavor. And now chemists have pinned down how the chemicals in different types of water interact with coffee beans to shape the taste of the brew that results.
Science to the Rescue
Coffee is loaded with a tremendous amount of natural chemicals and over 1,000 aroma compounds. Water, on the other ...
