Tap water is an excellent choice for your coffee machine as this water is cleaned before it gets to you, but the purity depends on where you live. Tap water can taste different in many cities and places, which is why it’s recommended to run the water through a Brita or Pur filter to get rid of minerals that reduce acidity, such as chlorine. This has a massive effect on your cup of coffee.
Have you ever taken your coffee machine’s water reservoir, filled it up with tap water as usual, and thought to yourself “Is what I’m doing even the right thing?”
Don’t worry because I’m here to tell you all about tap water and your coffee machine.
Let’s get started.
Contents
Can I Use Tap Water For My Coffee Machine?
Yes, absolutely! There’s nothing wrong with using tap water for your coffee machine. In most places, tap water is cleaned before it gets to you, but not necessarily purified. So running it through a Brita or Pur filter won’t hurt it as this will get rid of minerals such as chlorine which is common in tap water. But in general tap water is a completely fine option for your coffee machine. A good rule of thumb to go by is: if it tastes good to drink, then it can make a great-tasting cup of coffee.
It’s important to know how hard your water is, this is to determine how often you will need to descale your machine. You want it around 50 ppm (parts per million), or between 1 – 3 gpg (grains per gallon), depending on which hardness scale you use. The good thing about using tap water is it will make your coffee taste familiar. The downside is you will need to descale your machine at the proper intervals, or it will ruin your machine over time.
Does Tap Water Affect The Taste Of Coffee?
Tap water may have high mineral content, while on other days it will have low mineral content. This means the flavor and extraction will vary which means you may experience different tastes in your coffee.
The minerals in the water and the temperature you use to make coffee are responsible for the extraction of flavors from oil in coffee beans. This is why water should have balanced minerals, and the right temperature to produce great-tasting coffee.
You want your water to have the right amount of minerals, and rather be soft water instead of hard.
Hard water does a poor job of extracting coffee, while extremely soft water also struggles to extract coffee properly.
It all depends on where you live and what the quality of your tap water is. Ideally, you want balanced quality water with not too many, or too few minerals. This ensures to brew a great-tasting cup of coffee.
Tap Water and The Acidity of Coffee
Tap water has quite a balanced pH level of around 6 to 9, which means your coffee will have a balanced acidity level.
However, chlorine is used to clean out the water before it gets to you, and this will bring the pH level down. This means your cup of coffee won’t have a sharp taste. But running it through a Brita or Pur filter can fix this issue.
So, if you don’t run it through a filter, you may find your coffee tasting quite flat.
What About Bottled Water?
I hate to break it to you, but most bottled water is water from the tap. Bottled water goes through a filter, which lowers the chlorine, and gets rid of other minerals. This means a sharper taste in your cup of coffee.
Bottled water is also a lot more expensive, so buying a filter such as Brita or Pur is your best option to cover the long-term costs.
The Bottom Line
Overall there’s nothing wrong with using tap water for your coffee machine, but I do recommend getting a Brita or Pur filter to get rid of minerals such as chlorine. This will enhance your coffee’s sharpness and won’t make it taste flat.
Descale your machine at the proper intervals and you will be good to go. Happy caffeinating!
