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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We Built This City…On Coffee: Hamburg and the making of Europe's coffee trade

We Built This City…On Coffee: Hamburg and the making of Europe's coffee trade

On a long walk through Hamburg, somewhere between the fish markets and giant cranes, you might stumble a giant bronze coffee bean looks like its crash landed from space.    But this giant coffee bean ...

5 Jan 50min

Introducing: Series Three of A History of Coffee

Introducing: Series Three of A History of Coffee

We’re back with more stories about the tiny psychoactive seed that changed the world and continues to shape our lives today. Is it possible to follow the story not just to Ethiopia, not just to a sin...

29 Dec 20252min

Coffee Quality, Part 3: When the “quality” myth hits the farm

Coffee Quality, Part 3: When the “quality” myth hits the farm

For twenty years, the 2004 cupping form profoundly shaped the specialty coffee world.   But on the hillsides of coffee farms, some of the form’s byproducts have been disadvantaging producers.    In th...

8 Dec 202530min

Coffee Quality, Part 2: How “quality” became a myth

Coffee Quality, Part 2: How “quality” became a myth

If you ask two specialty professionals what makes a high-quality coffee, you’ll likely get a surprisingly consistent answer: clean, sweet, juicy, bright. To an outsider, they would be forgiven for thi...

8 Dec 202525min

Coffee Quality, Part 1: The birth of specialty coffee flavours

Coffee Quality, Part 1: The birth of specialty coffee flavours

For the longest time, coffees were dull and bitter. But then a small group of pioneers changed the world.    In this episode, we travel back to the 1960s and ’70s to meet the trailblazers who realised...

8 Dec 202523min

The two ingredients in water that ruin your coffee, and the ancient story behind them

The two ingredients in water that ruin your coffee, and the ancient story behind them

550 million years ago, earth was perfect. We had perfect water for coffee AND we were living in a vegetarian paradise!   But then Earth changed—violently. The planet shifted from a peaceful, plant-eat...

28 Juli 202538min

Getting great water for coffee, step-by-step. Part 2: How to measure and treat your water

Getting great water for coffee, step-by-step. Part 2: How to measure and treat your water

Water massively impacts your coffee’s flavours. But most of us struggle to fix our water because water science is confusing…   …until now! In this special collaboration with Lucia Solis (Making Coffee...

14 Juli 202543min

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