Marshall wrote:The coffee industry has a great deal riding on which methods produce the best extractions. To this end they directly and indirectly employ a large number of chemists, who have conducted a great deal of testing. I believe their fairly unanimous conclusions disagree with you.

Unfortunately I no longer have access to chromatography columns to be able to give you the exact data you are requesting, but nothing in Illy's book, Coffee Chemistry, etc. contradicts what I am saying as far as I can see. Remember, I am saying that distilled water does NOT make a difference to the extraction. There is no advantage to using distilled water in this regard. It is all about scale buildup. It is, however, clear that minerals in the water add flavor.

I use an admixture to achieve a final solution of:
Calcium 94 mg/L
Magnesium 20 mg/L
Sodium 7 mg/L
Potassium 1 mg/L
HCO3 250 mg/L
SO4 120 mg/L

Why sulfates? Well, it is kind of wonky, but I started out basing my admixture on my favorite water for making espresso, which happened to be a Swiss/Italian mineral water with a modest sulfur content. I really like the "roundness" it adds to the flavor of the espresso, mellowing out the other salts and helping to unify the flavors. You really ought to try it!

So, basically, you're sprinkling your PF with calcium carbonate and calcium sulphate from the vitamin store?

So Adrian,
Would you be able to share the exact ingredients and amounts you use in a form for us non-chemistry majors? I.e., what vitamins, how much, etc. Thanks. I'd be happy to try it out. Michael

mgwolf wrote:So Adrian,
Would you be able to share the exact ingredients and amounts you use in a form for us non-chemistry majors?

I sense a marketing opportunity for Adrian: drdna's dehydrated spring water

I have been sprinkling the cake of grounds (post tamp) with Calcium Carbonate (CC) for a couple months to supplement my RO water. I found it did indeed improve the taste quite a bit even over, and in addition to, an inline calcite filter. I have always thought that this would be due to the straight RO water aggressively extracting too many undesirables.

I suppose a simplistic test would be to put the minerals in the demitasse afterward, compared with on top of the cake, and see what you come up with.

I just did a quick informal test of this and I liked my double with the CC added afterward better - but I am 95% sure that it was how I pulled my shots so I would like to test it further.

For me there is a huge difference visually with a bottomless portafilter. Non CC shots blonde faster and 100% of the time do not look as visually appealing. Not really much tiger striping, if at all. So far the best combination for me (taste and look) has been a Calcite filter and CC sprinkled on top of the coffee bed.

I am now quite interested to see how much better the taste would be with the added salts and minerals that Adrian uses. I am thinking it would be dramatic.

I forgot to mention:

I talked to Cirqua and was told that they are working on a mineral combination system that could be mixed into a 5 gallon jug of distilled or RO water to create the perfect water formulation. It sounded like it would be one or two small bottles of liquid. I left a message for Phil today so I will post results after I hear from him, if they're cool with it.

Yes, Cirqua is pushing the envelope in formulated water...

Check out the thread on Coffeed - http://www.coffeed.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=2299

My first suggestion is to test your water (hardness, pH, total dissolved solids (TDS), and chlorine), and then go from there.

I hope to install shortly a softener + RO (at the each sink) and utilize the Cirqua AB Formulator to make batch (5 gallon) water to supply for my machine. I will let you know if I can taste a difference in the water.

My current water is:
Hardness = 6 grains
TDS = 205 ppm

My Ideal water (after softener + RO + Cirqua AB Formulator)
Harness = 4.5 grains
TDS = 150 ppm

mgwolf wrote:So Adrian,
Would you be able to share the exact ingredients and amounts you use in a form for us non-chemistry majors? I.e., what vitamins, how much, etc. Thanks. I'd be happy to try it out. Michael

Well, that is a good question. I decided to make a simplified version that most folks can use at home. It is not exactly what I use, but it okay, and it is a simple recipe to make:

4 tsp. of Calcium-Magnesium supplement capsules (or crushed pills)
2 tsp. of "black salt" (kala namak, available cheap at ethnic/Indian grocers or internet sales).
3/4 tsp. of baking soda

Add a tiny amount to the top of your tamped cake, roughly a "super small" pinch. (The minimum would be about 25 mg based on 100% solubility, which is unrealistic. I use about 50 mg).

I hope that helps, and some people will experiment with this and have fun. Remember that I am using 4X distilled water in my machine , to minimize scale buildup and to allow me to control the mineral content in the cup. If you are using spring water, you will have to alter your mixture!

By the way, I wanted to clarify that I have tried:
1. adding the salt mixture to the water before extraction
2. adding the salt mixture to the basket before extraction
3. adding the salt mixture to the cup after extraction

I thought that the alkalinization of the water by the salts might alter the extraction of solutes, but I could not detect a difference in the taste any way I did it. This supports the concept that espresso "extraction" is really a washing of solutes off of bean particles, rather than a true chemical extraction, for the most part.

Talked to Phil from Cirqua and he confirmed that they are going to be offering an A/B formulation that one would mix into your RO/Distilled water to make the perfect water. All aimed to be easy for the home user to do. I told him I thought it was a great idea - feeling that a lot of home users would like to be able to have access to something like that. I know they are unveiling some new stuff at SCAA next month, but not quite sure if the home packs will be part of that or not.

Phil said that softer water - I think it was Sodium in particular - cause the bean to swell and trap certain flavor compounds. Thus saying that adding hardness to a shot after pulling isn't the same as doing so before hand. He did only say it "was debatable" though, not a sure thing. He also said there is a lot going on with the effect of the water on the extraction process. Far too technical for my knowledge of it all.

Can't wait to stop sprinkling the coffee bed with Calcium Carbonate!

It is true that Cirqua is working in fact will be releasing our AB Packets at the SCAA show in Atlanta. Here is a little tidbit that Joshua Lurie did on Food GPS. Enjoy and would love to hear your feedback.

http://www.foodgps.com/review/imp...on-coffee-and-tea/