Better tasting Espresso by blending the water?

[j7on]

Hi All!

I have experimented for a while with "water blending"(not a term, yet ).

Dont really know why i started trying but it must have been in search of better water, ok, i tried all the bottled stuff & all but see, i live in Finland, EUROPE and the water we export around the world is actually the same we get from our tap!(which is why NO ONE(yes, NO ONE) buys bottled water in Finland)

So, i wanted a little more oxygen in the water to make it "lighter" or "fluffy"(whatever..) and started blending it with a household industrial standard blender(Bamix of Switzerland: http://www.bamix.com/) and a blade that really mixes everything up :



I tap some water into a bowl and go through with this for like a minute or two and then pour it into my Pavoni, the texture is so much finer and it it somehow lighter and not so "hard".


I am not joking! Really!

My brother(who i regard an expert in Espresso tasting) even asked where i bought THIS coffee(cuz he knew i already had the best i can get in this country), we started doing tests(with same settings & same beans) to our friends and they ALWAYS chose the "smoother"(blended water) cup as the better one.


Try it, tell me your experiences.

[kbuzbee]

Fascinating... You can tell the difference?? I would think by the time the boiler got the water hot the entrained air would have effervesced out....

I've got a Bamix too (great little tool, aren't they???) I would think the smooth blade would do this better than the puree blade.... Have you tried that as well???

I'll let you know how this works out

By the way, our tap water is pretty good too but I run it through a RO filter anyway. You bring up an interesting point. Tests here have shown that MANY bottled waters sold in the states are simply tap water from the area where the bottling plant is.... Marketing! And not cheap! Personally, I DO buy bottled water but it's for convenience when I'm out. I try to remember to fill a bottle for the car at home but usually forget

Ken

[j7on]

Fascinating... You can tell the difference??

Yes, i believe i can, i would not have posted this here if i did not think it works(actually i thought about it for quite awhile before posting... people would think i am crazy, besides, i did tests with friends), i have now been adjusting my Pavoni for like a year so i think i have my technique somewhat dialed-in, i am nowhere near a Barista but i do not make horrible mistakes anymore (i can make every cup tasty and not the 50/50(or worse) as it was in the beginning)

I would think the smooth blade would do this better than the puree blade...

Well, i hold the puree blade up so high on the surface that it really draws air in the water so i think it works better.



About the bottled water, we have quite many companies now setting up selling water to Saudi-Arabia etc. cuz the best water seems to come from the Nordic countries nowadays?(colder, unpolluted, scarcely lived areas or just trendy..huh?)
Anyway, there is this one bottled water that is EXACTLY from the same source i get my water at my home(from the tap), ok, it is not "super filtered" and has traveled miles in pipes..

[kbuzbee]

It'll be a couple days before I try your suggestion... Got hit with a head cold/chest cold/sinus infection that is kicking my b$$t. I wouldn't be able to tell if the shot was extracted with gasoline today! Yuck!

Ken

[Marshall]

Hi All!

I have experimented for a while with "water blending"(not a term, yet ).

Dont really know why i started trying but it must have been in search of better water, ok, i tried all the bottled stuff & all but see, i live in Finland, EUROPE and the water we export around the world is actually the same we get from our tap!(which is why NO ONE(yes, NO ONE) buys bottled water in Finland)

So, i wanted a little more oxygen in the water to make it "lighter" or "fluffy"(whatever..) and started blending it with a household industrial standard blender(Bamix of Switzerland: http://www.bamix.com/) and a blade that really mixes everything up :

<image>

I tap some water into a bowl and go through with this for like a minute or two and then pour it into my Pavoni, the texture is so much finer and it it somehow lighter and not so "hard".


I am not joking! Really!

My brother(who i regard an expert in Espresso tasting) even asked where i bought THIS coffee(cuz he knew i already had the best i can get in this country), we started doing tests(with same settings & same beans) to our friends and they ALWAYS chose the "smoother"(blended water) cup as the better one.


Try it, tell me your experiences.

No. You're not crazy. My wife, the water treatment chemist, sometimes gives a jug of water a long shaking to reintroduce air into it.

But, I wouldn't call what you do "water blending." What I do is water blending. I pour a 50/50 mix of low mineral bottled water and our high mineral tap water into my coffee makers to get a proper TDS level for brewing coffee.

[dbartramr]

Indeed the reason tea enthusiasts and presspot folk insist on starting with cold water is because it's more oxygenated, which does have an impact on flavor.