The Water Problem

Most coffee obsessives will spend $20 on single-origin beans but use whatever comes out of their tap. Ridiculous. Your water is 98% of your coffee - and I'm going to die on this hill.

I used to think water was water. Then I moved from Copenhagen to San Francisco and suddenly my coffee tasted like it was brewed through chalk. Same beans, same technique, completely different cup. The culprit wasn't my grinder or my method - it was San Francisco's hard water strangling every cup.

You don't need a PhD in chemistry to fix this. Skip the cheap Brita filters that do nothing but remove chlorine. Get a proper water filter that adds magnesium while removing the bad stuff. Cost me $35. The difference isn't subtle - it's transformative.

The coffee industry stays quiet about water because they can't package and sell it to you. But every serious café uses filtered water. They're not doing it for fun - they're doing it because it matters more than your grinder, your technique, or even your beans.

Try this: Brew two cups tomorrow. One with your tap water, one with filtered water. Same beans, same everything else. The difference will make you angry about every cup you've made before.

And no, bottled water isn't the answer. Most of it is just expensive tap water with good marketing.

Stop disrespecting good beans with bad water.