The Water
Does your tap water taste good? Do you drink it every day? Without
making faces? Are there any little floaty things in it? Does it
smell? It's quite possible that your tap water passes every quality
standard that's ever been written, and still tastes or smells... well,
icky. The quality of your water is a very important part of the coffee
equation, as 98% of your cup is water, and bad tasting water makes bad
tasting coffee.
If your water isn't up to snuff, you have a
number of options. You can use bottled water - but stay away from spring
water that may be high in minerals that can cause odd flavors
themselves. You can filter your tap water with an inexpensive filter
pitcher, or by installing a filter on your tap, or under your sink. Don't
run off and buy a water softener in your quest for the perfect
cup... softened water can interfere with the extraction of coffee flavors
during the brewing cycle.
Now that we've got fresh, clean water, we need to
make certain it's hot. That is, just shy of boiling hot. The ideal
temperature for nearly every method of coffee brewing is between 195 and
205 degrees F. Water that is too hot [boiling, for example] can scorch or
otherwise cause ugly flavors. Water that is too cool simply won't
extract the full flavor of the ground coffee, and under extracted coffee
tastes weak, or bitter, or both. 
Attaining the right water temperature is a
fairly simple matter for most manual brewing methods. Home auto-drip
brewers are another matter - most simply don't reach proper brewing
temperatures - it's a persistent and pervasive design failure on the
part of most home brewer manufacturers, and frankly, they should be
ashamed.
Maybe you can't design your coffee brewer, but
you can determine just about every aspect of the coffee you use. Let's
take a look at the next part of our formula... coffee
and grind.
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I
Forward to Part III
>
