Hey everyone, so I tried grinding the same beans we use at the coffee shop with the EK43 and brought it home to brew with my Chemex, and I am still getting the same result. I am convinced it is my water! But I am using the Third Wave Water supplements in my gallon of distilled water to supposedly bring it up to optimal brewing water. Can you guys suggest any water fixes? I feel I am being picky but I know this is not right. The smell is even completely different upon the first pour (bloom) from when I do it at the shop. Thank you!

Unless you brewed the beans 15 minutes after grinding them then I'd expect the results to be widely different. I'm guessing the beans were brewed at least an hour after grinding if you took them home right??

If you think it's the water, bring some water home from your shop to test that theory. TWW works well for me at home, in the sense that I get good flavor separation with many coffees at brewing methods. But it's more of a short cut to get you 85% of the way to cafe quality water than it is a recipe for perfect brewing water. It's the best recipe that Taylor could come up with that is stable in a pouch for a long period of time.

Out of curiosity: Are you using TWW's Classic formulation or the Espresso formulation? The former brews a sweeter cup, in my experience. The latter is optimized to minimize scale build up and corrosion in a boiler.

Any updates on this? I find this topic very interesting, as I'm trying to match the quality of my local third wave coffee shop as well.

With the grinder out of the equation, my money would be on the water next. Have you tried bringing home some water from your shop as mentioned above+? I would be very interested in your results if so.

I've been using the original Barista Hustle water recipe, found here:

https://baristahustle.com/blogs/barista ... er-recipes

It's definitely better than my tap water, but there's a flavor in there that isn't my favorite. I *think* it's the magnesium concentration, so I'm going to try making the "Budapest" or maybe even the "Melbourne" recipe next. You might want to try this route too - it lends more ability to experiment than the Third Wave Water does. Just because a water is right for some coffees and some people's taste buds doesn't mean it's right for everyone. I plan on "dialing in" the water that I like.