I got lazy and stopped my water additions (here), instead just brewing with only RO water. Somewhere along the line I also changed my pour-over brew ratio from 1:16 to 1:15. When I visited my folks over the holidays I was brewing coffee using just their Brita filtered water and my Mom complained that the coffee was too strong and making her heart race, so I backed off my brew ratio back down to 1:16. I also noticed that the flavor of the coffee was much more present with their filtered tap than what I get at home.

Coming home, I've cleaned up my water addition equipment and mixed up another batch and am finding the coffee much more flavorful at home now using my water additions of Epsom salts and baking soda even at a 1:16 ratio. I'm even thinking of bringing up some of the water addition to work for when I brew up a cup of coffee using their water cooler in my Bobble Presse brew mug.

Based on this book and Maxwell's research we know Calcium, Magnesium and Carbonate hardness all play a role in flavor extraction for coffee.

My question is will my water that contains Calcium and Magnesium crystals work the same when it comes to coffee flavor extraction? Or does that only work with Calcium and Magnesium in the ionic form?

The reason my house water has Calcium and Magnesium in crystalline form instead of ionic form is because I have a salt free water softener that uses "Template Assisted Crystallization" or TAC, which converts calcium and magnesium ions to calcium and magnesium crystals.

Peter J. Cartwright describes TAC technology as follows:

This process, which came on the scene in 1998, appears to minimize scaling without requiring regeneration or utilizing ion exchange. TAC utilizes polymer beads, not unlike the ion exchange resin in traditional water softeners. These beads, however, contain microscopic nucleation sites that cause calcium and magnesium crystals to form at the site and ultimately detach from the resin into the water as insoluble particles. These colloidal-sized particles do not attach to surfaces and are carried out with the water. As a result, although TAC does not actually remove hardness, it does minimize scale attachment to surfaces.

http://www.wcponline.com/2016/10/15/wat ... ma-part-1/

Dennis