I gave Crystal Geyser another try recently since Dasani(my go to water) is above the 3 grain recommended by the company from which I bought my latest machine. Since I made the change I have noticed this bitter like medicine flavor on every espresso I use. This are espresso blends like Hologram, Big Trouble, Black Cat, Red Bird that I am very familiar with. The moment I went back to Dasani the bitter flavor went away. The Crystal Geyser that is sold at my local grocery store comes from two sources(Olancha Peak and Norman). They both test between 2-3grains which is great for the machine, but pretty bad for the espresso flavor in my experience. Imagine licking a rock. That is what it tastes to me when I drink it pure.

Different strokes I guess. I prefer the slightly softer water for drinking at least. I've never used that brand. Add some sodium/potassium/whatnot to increase the TDS if it bothers you. OR based on newer trends, more magnesium.

Hmmm...the Crystal Geyser I get on the west coast has typically tested at 150ppm +/- for GH + KH.

Have you looked in the back of the bottle what source they are using? There are two sources in California(Mt Shasta and Olancha Peak). 150ppm is almost 9 grain if I am not mistaken. I have tested the Olancha Peak source water with this http://www.amazon.com/API-GH-KH-Test-Ki ... MGHATQWBKN

and the result varies between 2-3grain. Same result using Chris's Coffee test strips.

F1 wrote:Have you looked in the back of the bottle what source they are using?

Is very important - There are huge differences between the different plants' water. You can find detailed reports for each of seven bottling plants here.

They range from a total hardness of about 7 mg/l (as CaCO3) for the New Hampshire plant, to about 180 mg/l for the New York plant. (i.e., less than one grain to more than ten grains.)

Those reports contain measurements for ions and contaminants in addition to the basic measures for total and for calcium hardness and for alkalinity (both in mg/l as CaCO3.) When reading these waters with a typical NaCl calibrated TDS meter you should see a value that corresponds to 1/2 of the listed conductivity number in the report, which in some cases is a bit different than the actual (dry residue) TDS.

Does that Zero water pitcher work pretty good or is that taking out to much? Anyone have any results on it?

F1 wrote:I gave Crystal Geyser another try recently since Dasani(my go to water) is above the 3 grain recommended by the company from which I bought my latest machine. Since I made the change I have noticed this bitter like medicine flavor on every espresso I use. This are espresso blends like Hologram, Big Trouble, Black Cat, Red Bird that I am very familiar with. The moment I went back to Dasani the bitter flavor went away. The Crystal Geyser that is sold at my local grocery store comes from two sources(Olancha Peak and Norman). They both test between 2-3grains which is great for the machine, but pretty bad for the espresso flavor in my experience. Imagine licking a rock. That is what it tastes to me when I drink it pure.

I recently used the CG Norman sourced water with no issues.

espressoonmymind wrote:Does that Zero water pitcher work pretty good or is that taking out to much? Anyone have any results on it?

The zero water pitcher does as advertised, it removes everything down to 0ppm. Which makes it a great choice as a starting point to dilute other waters, or add dry minerals, or whatever, but you probably don't want to use it by itself.

I personally use a mix of Brita filtered tap water and zero water to arrive at about 60ppm TDS. The Brita doesn't do much for TDS, but it does remove the swimming pool like levels of cholrine my town adds to the tap water.

Evidently Zero water removes all of the dissolved solids, seems like it would be too soft for Espresso.

I've been fiddling with the Zero water today. I put the water in at 004 on the device that comes with it. Then it come out at .30 ppm at the group head. So I'm guessing it is descaling the boiler in some way. I've been using the Mavea system without knowing the % scale on top is about how effective it is on the water, not time left for the filter use.