Why Water Quality is Critical for Great Coffee
Often overlooked but vitally important to the final product is water quality. Water makes up over 98% of each cup. For specialty coffee, where depth of flavour and body one of the main reasons we are sourcing higher quality coffee, using the right water is not just a detail, it’s a key ingredient.
Flavour
Water isn’t just a medium for brewing, it plays an active role in extracting the flavour and body in the end cup. Different minerals in the water influence the final taste, aroma, and texture of your coffee:
Calcium - Adds body to the coffee and helps balance acidity.
Magnesium: - Enhances flavour extraction, making your coffee taste more vibrant and complex.
Bicarbonates: Provide buffering to reduce excessive acidity, which can lead to an overly sharp or unbalanced cup if not properly controlled.
The balance of these minerals is crucial. Too much or too little, and your coffee’s taste will suffer. This is where water filtration and remineralisation come into play.
For any café or coffee business serious about serving excellent coffee, the choice of filtration system is essential. It’s not just about protecting your equipment (although that that is a massive part of it), it’s about creating the right water profile to get the most out of well sourced and roasted coffee. This is my recommendation for water filtration in Cyprus especially when using higher roasted, more complex coffee:
Reverse osmosis (RO) systems because of the natural volatility of water content here. RO removes impurities, minerals, and contaminants, giving us a clean slate to work from. This allows us to remineralise the water with the right balance of magnesium and calcium, optimising it specifically for specialty coffee. By using RO and then remineralising, we ensure the water has just the right mineral content to make each cup of coffee taste as it should, in the Odyssey Blend that is —bright, balanced, and full of depth.
UV Filters
In addition to RO systems, we also use UV filtration. This process sterilises the water, ensuring it is free from bacteria and other harmful microorganisms. The local water supply can be unpredictable here in Cyprus and can be effected by many external factors. This extra step not only guarantees safety but ensures that nothing interferes with the purity of the coffee.
Protecting Your Equipment
Another critical reason to invest in a proper water filtration system is to protect your equipment. Hard water—water with too many dissolved minerals—can cause scale buildup, which can gradually cause issues with your coffee machine. Over time, this leads to reduced efficiency, increased maintenance costs, and equipment failure. Down time is costly and any preventative measures will ultimately, in time be good for the bottom line.
It’s an investment
Achieving great coffee in the final stage of it’s journey is in our opinion is to obsess over the many small details, each detail in the whole process matters and has an accumulative effect. Investing in your water set up is crucial, it’s your main ingredient and one of the most important details to obsess over.
