My water has reasonable hardness (~100 mg/L) but slightly high pH (~7.8). Using the suggested ratios from the Insanely Long Water FAQ, this puts my alkalinity at about 3 times what it should be for espresso brewing. What is the effect of this on taste? If the effect is negative what can I do about it?

It's very unusual for drinking water to have a higher alkalinity (bicarbonates) than hardness (calcium & magnesium). If the water picks up its hardness from limestone, the ratio of hardness to alkalinity is usually 3:2 in favor of hardness, whereas yours is the other way around. Alkalinity relates strictly to equilibrium pH, i.e. carbon filter the water and let it stand 24 hours before measuring since dissolved oxygen, CO2, and chlorine affect the reading.

If your water indeed has higher alkalinity than hardness, it comes from an unusual source, and you might consider using RO filtering and calcite.

Tucson has a nice water information site with a map where you can see the results of samples taken from near-by extraction points. From the pH link on their web-page:

"Tucson's water supply is slightly alkaline, averaging between 7.5 and 8.2 in the distribution system.

So, is the RO filtration is to bring down the the alkalinity and the calcite is to add back some hardness?

Ah! Thanks. There's lots of sodium in the water too, and the extra bicarbs neutralize that. This is close to some European mineral water levels. If you ion exchange this water, you'll get something with lots of sodium and bicarbs. This won't cause scale, but may have taste issues. Italy has very hard water, and ion exchangers are routine on espresso machines. In other words, your ion exchanged water would be very Italian. Tradition is fine, but I think the taste will probably be better using an RO unit and a calcite filter.

Did some experimentation with 14.5g PR Espresso Nuevo at 200f (226 on the MLG) and some test strips from the pet store.

Tap Water tested out at ~200 hardness and 8.0 pH. Not quite in line with the city test results. Shots with this were way off. There was a bad aftertaste and noticeable astringency. I would not drink this daily.

Brita filtered tap water tested out at ~20 hardness and 7.0 pH. I was surprised the Britta balanced the pH. This makes an ok shot but is what got me looking at my water setup in the first place. Crema and body are weak but its better than the tap water.

Crystal Geyser bottled water tested out at 80-90 hardness and 7.0 pH. Its really amazing how much better the shots taste with this water. Actually, I discovered this by mistake. A few weeks ago my shots of Nuevo were just killer....for about a week. And then things went south. The shots were ok but lacked the body and taste I loved so much. I attributed it to aging coffee but never really believed that. I got another batch of Nuevo but even fresh beans didn't bring back the killer shots. The other night while reading the ILWFaq I remembered that I had run a gallon of CG through the Silvia right before switching to the Brita. If I had understood how truly important water is I probably would not have overlooked this significant change.

I'm not sure what made me happier, the taste of the first shot with the CG back in the tank or the fact that I was actually able to figure out what was wrong and correct it. The icing on the cake was seeing the test strip results totally align with what "should" taste good. Now I need to find a filtration setup that fits behind my refrigerator and can get close to the 90/50 mark.

My new order of importance in espresso making is coffee, grinder, water, barista, machine and everything else. Sadly, I will now have to go back and retry all of those blends I dismissed over the last few months

The upside is that you'll discover some very fine coffees all over again.

I just purchased a softener, calcite, and carbon filter and 10" housings. Would you recommend putting them in that order before the machine?

I have an RO system, but am choosing to run a different line (non-RO'd) and run whatever filtering specifically for the espresso setup.

Water hardness shows greater than 25 grains / 425 ppm on the hardness strips from Chris Coffee.

Thanks

A softener is totally wrong for water that is more alkaline than hard, and which has a lot of sodium. It doesn't remove alkalinity, and replaces calcium with sodium. You need to RO purify this water first, otherwise it will interfere with the taste of all the foods you cook. For espresso and coffee, use a calcite cartridge on the RO water. Throw out the softener.

In general, no matter what the water, one never uses a calcite cartridge after a softener.

So I should just use the calcite and then the carbon filter (to catch any calcite particles?) and not use the softener at all?

Chris Coffee sells a softener and carbon cartridge kit. What would be the use?

I am not saying my water is alkaline or anything, but picked up the thread searching for "calcite".

Thanks for the tips! any tips for getting good (hopefully great) espresso water is appreciated.
Darren

I'm not sure why you are posting on this thread, or what you are talking about. Please read up.