If you want to get the best results from your glass vacuum coffee maker you cannot ignore the main ingredient that goes into the coffee, that ingredient is water. Water actually makes up 98 percent of any cup of freshly brewed coffee. As coffee lovers, we often fuss about this roast, that roast, or French roast; beans from Sumatra versus beans from Guatemala, but when it comes to water we use the stuff right out of the tap. Tap water is fine as long as you like the taste of it.
The alkaline in hard water or phosphates in soft water have a significant effect in how your coffee will taste. The alkaline found in many tap waters actually works against your coffee, dissolving an neutralizing the acids in the coffee that provide that wonderful taste we all try to achieve with our vacuum coffee. Soft water is also detrimental to your brewing results. Phosphates will react with the coffee acids to produce a unpleasant soapy taste….yuck.
If your tap water tastes like it came from the lake luckily there is a solution. You may already have one, but If not you need to get yourself a filter. Now I’ve tried both the type that screw onto your faucet and the filtration pitchers. Both work fine but my favorite is a Brita Filtration Pitcher because I can keep it in the refrigerator where the water stays cold.
This cold water is key. The starting water temperature is actually more important to your vacuum coffee brewing than many realize. This is because cold water contains more dissolved oxygen. This dissolved oxygen is the same reason oxygen loving trout prefer clear cold mountain streams. Some argue that coffee brewed from a cold starting temperature produces a much more animated and refreshing cup of coffee.
If you’re like me, you use a glass vacuum coffee maker to get the best possible extraction from the most delicious coffee beans. Just remember those beans only make up 2 percent of the process, please don’t ignore the most important part, please don’t ignore the water.
