How specialty coffee woke up to water’s role in flavour

How specialty coffee woke up to water’s role in flavour

For the longest time, the coffee community only cared about water’s impact ruining espresso machine boilers and kettles. But what about water’s impact on coffee flavour?

In this episode, I tell the story of how the specialty coffee community came to understand water chemistry: the pioneering work of the computational chemist Christopher Hendon and British roaster Maxwell Colonna-Dashwood, the genesis of the SCA’s Water Quality Handbook, and where we are today understanding the impact of minerals on our water.

I strongly recommend listening to the two episodes before this one first Getting great water for coffee, step-by-step & The two ingredients in water that ruin your coffee, and the ancient story behind them

Please spread the word about The Science of Coffee! Leave a 5 star rating on Spotify Follow me on Instagram and tag me in an Instagram story Write a review on Apple Podcasts

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Want to go deeper into water chemistry?

Read the SCA’s Water Quality Handbook BWT White Paper on the effects of magnesium (German) Christopher Hendon’s Instagram where he’ll announce his new version of his book, Water for Coffee Do an online Certificate of Advanced Studies at the Coffee Excellence Centre

Season 3 of The Science of Coffee is made possible by these leading coffee organisations:

The Coffee Quest | BWT | TODDY | Algrano | Probat

Note: this is a reworked version of my 2022 episode Water for Brewing Coffee, including portions of my 2024 episode How to think like a scientist, part 2.

Check out Standart, the award-winning coffee magazine. Get a free magazine and a free bag of coffee by clicking here. How does Perfect Moose detect what kind of milk is in the pitcher? Click here to find out. What kind of racing car does the Gaggia Classic GT home espresso machine remind you of? Use discount code FS202610 to get 10% off. What does the Marco MilkPal look like to you? WALL-E? Something Steve Jobs would be proud of? Check it out here.

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Getting great water for coffee, step-by-step. Part 1: Alkalinity, hardness and why it matters

Getting great water for coffee, step-by-step. Part 1: Alkalinity, hardness and why it matters

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Farm to port: why specialty costs more

Farm to port: why specialty costs more

Every time we open a bag of beautiful specialty coffee — like Erick Bravo’s from Finca El Chaferote in Huila, Colombia — we’re drinking something that’s been on a long journey.   And I mean long! Ove...

23 Kesä 202554min

Why one Colombian farmer chose specialty, and the other walked away

Why one Colombian farmer chose specialty, and the other walked away

I travel to Colombia’s Huila region to answer a question that’s puzzled me for years: if specialty coffee pays more, is better for the environment, and brews tastier cups—why don’t more farmers grow i...

9 Kesä 202546min

The hard business of selling beautiful coffee, part 2

The hard business of selling beautiful coffee, part 2

Volume. Cheap. Lame flavours. This is the traditional way of growing coffee in Brazil, and almost every farm does it this way.    But what if you wanted to produce beautiful, distinctive flavours inst...

19 Touko 202539min

The hard business of selling beautiful coffee, part 1

The hard business of selling beautiful coffee, part 1

Volume. Cheap. Lame flavours. This is the traditional way of growing coffee in Brazil, and almost every farm does it this way.    But what if you wanted to produce beautiful, distinctive flavours inst...

19 Touko 202529min

The Speed of Heat: How to roast more coffee, faster!

The Speed of Heat: How to roast more coffee, faster!

To roast coffee faster, you need to turn up the heat….right?   No!    In this episode, we explore the three powerful methods of heat transfer that revolutionised roasting. We’ll journey from humble be...

24 Maalis 202552min

Coffee Roasting: How baby plant food transforms into delicious coffee flavours

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A mother coffee plant gifts its baby everything it needs to grow—a green seed packed with food. But when we roast coffee, we hijack that gift and turn it into something else: flavor.   But what is fla...

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Fruit juice or creamy almonds? Your guide to controlling cold brew flavors

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When I started making cold brew this last year, I treated it like hot brew filter coffee. But no matter how I adjusted the grind or tweaked the brew time, I hardly got any differences in flavor…   The...

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