There was an article I read a few months back about Phil + Sebastians running into this issue every year that they've submitted their beans to be judged internationally. I can't quickly find it now (I'm sure a deeper Google search would provide the article!), but it touched on the fact that they roast their beans to their water source in Calgary, and the water source used for judging in the Netherlands made the coffee taste COMPLETELY different ... they had trouble finding the culprit/reason, but ended up with the water being the primary culprit.

As everyone has mentioned, it might be difficult to adjust ones own water to specifications of roasters. That being said, 1 option that COULD potentially be viable is having the roasters themselves SELL bottled water from water they're using ... I know there would be some hoops to jump through, etc, but it could possible be a much easier solution.

I must admit the idea is not my own - there is a company that does something similar in the whisky world. They produce small bottles of water from sources around Scotland - ie. Speyside water for whisky's originating from there; Islay water; etc. Water in the whisky world is used infinitely less than in the coffee world, of course (a small 125ml bottle can literally last years), but if it could be done to a smaller scale for people who cared, it could be an interesting idea!

OldNuc wrote:Experience shows that bottled water is less than consistent. If you want a universal standard then there are 2 choices, steam distilled or deionized through a final monobed column.

I use a steam distiller and process 45 gallons as a batch, works just fine. This is not for the majority though.

Wow. We used a steam still to make up a gallon or so a day to run lab tests at the plant. You are dedicated to the cause!

I have it setup as a self contained softened water supply and it outputs into 5 gallon jugs. Not a real hassle to startup or store when done. Nuc plants have thousands of gallons of pure deionized water on hand and a production capability of 100-2000 gpm. We always made the controol room coffee with demin water. Actually almost makes coffee from a can taste semi-decent.

One of the items of interest is that the espresso machine boiler system will survive longest on a diet of pure water, either distilled or deionized. The addition of any minerals will eventually end up as scale in the boiler. The coffee should be roasted to work with pure water and not the local tap at the roastery.

I have to interject a bit of reality, in terms of commercial roasters/cafes. What they say or pretend to do on social media to attract more followers, customers, to what really happens in the daily world of reality don't exactly intersect as much as they'd like to pretend. Their only direct control on their coffee is what they serve in a cafe, if they're set up for such business (not just a roaster). In that case, <80 % or so of what they make gets drowned in milk.

For those who roast only and ship to their customers; they cannot control for even the faintest ideal option of what the coffee should be brewed with, seeing how every end user is more than likely just going to end up using what they regularly do, or else they'd probably not bother and just move on to something else altogether if their results are bad. They'd be better off brewing their coffee using a $15 Target or Walmart auto-drip using tap water, if they want to know what the largest percentage of their market are experiencing.

What percentage of the market could these businesses truly hope to draw from, who'd go out of their way to acquire a very specific water just to make the coffee taste "the same way as it did on the cupping table" at a roastery?

Few. And not enough to sustain a business. But it certainly makes for interesting books and Sprudge articles and internet coffee talk.