3 Ways Water Affects Coffee Taste

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Coffee is 95% water. Are you properly preparing your coffee to ensure consistency and quality across the board at your restaurants?


You may be a quick service restaurant serving breakfast or a fine dining establishment pairing coffee with dessert but either way coffee is most likely a part of your menu offerings. However, as a restaurant operator or chef you may see that a large struggle is keeping consistency across your locations with your coffee. You are losing money if your customers are coming in, buying coffee on different days and getting a different tasting product/experience. Here's 3 simple ways we've found to help keep quality and consistency across the board for your coffee offerings!

  1. Water Quality - Do you like the taste of tap water? It's an honest question to consider. Maybe you're in a city with a fantastic water filtration system and your tap water is the same as bottled water. Maybe you're in a place with less than great water filtration and the water has a weird aftertaste. Unless you are in a city with high quality water filtration you probably want to use filtered water to ensure a clean taste in your coffee. It may be an extra step in the brewing process but it will ensure there is no subtle hints of chlorine or other unwanted flavors.
  2. Water to coffee ratio - Do you ever make a pot of coffee and despite using the same equipment and the same coffee it seems to have a different flavor than someone else's, why is that? More than likely it is the amount of water you placed in your brewing method. Now tastes and preferences will differ between people but according to the National Coffee Association a good standard to abide by is 1-2 tablespoons of coffee per 6 ounces of water.
  3. Water temperature - What is the ideal brewing temperature to brew coffee? The answer is 195 - 205 degrees Fahrenheit. If you do not have a temperature gauge a good rule to remember is water boils at 212 degrees Fahrenheit so 205 is just before boil. There is plenty of equipment on the market that ensures your water temperature is at the proper temperature but it's always a good idea to double check and make sure.

Water plays a huge part in your customers' coffee experience. Hopefully these 3 tips will help ensure quality and consistency across your locations and help give your loyal coffee consumers the best experience possible! Another variable to consider is your coffee brewing equipment. We pride ourselves on having the best equipment and service around so if you have any questions about proper brewing methods we'd love to talk to you! Visit our Contact Us page and we'll be in touch shortly!