I will give Global Customized a try. I am still at a loss as to why TWW is not working for me. I have tried mixing/shaking the gallon of water for minutes, let it rest overnight and then shake it some more the next day. I ran enough water through the group to make sure the old water is replaced with the new one. It makes no difference. The extractions are coming out very under extracted and they smell and taste horrible. If you ever pulled a shot with distilled water that's the flavor I get. The extractions are very light colored and blond very fast. As soon as I replace the TWW with Crystal Geyser it all changes immediately for the best. Coffee looks, smells and tastes wonderful.

jeffmattel wrote:As soon as I replace the TWW with Crystal Geyser it all changes immediately for the best.

Jeff, can you tell us which Crystal Geyser source you tried using? You'd need to look at the fine print on the bottle.

They all say "Bottled at the CG Roxane Spring Source" on the labels, but, for example, the Sierra Nevada / Olancha source has this:


The six different CG bottling plants have widely different mineral makeups. If we knew your source that might help us understand the difference between TWW and the water you preferred.

Mine says Mount Shasta, CA.

Thanks. The analysis for that is here:
http://www.crystalgeyserasw.com/docs/AS ... Shasta.pdf

Contrasting that Mt Shasta CG with the TWW espresso formula, it is much softer - has around one fifth of the hardness minerals (calcium and magnesium) that you'd get from TWW. It has around twice the alkalinity of the TWW water. So maybe your taste and preferred coffee lends itself to softer and higher alkalinity water.

TWW also differs in having relatively high sulfate ion (108 mg/L) and citrate ion (53 mg/L) that is absent from the Mt Shasta CG water. That shouldn't be enough to taste, but maybe you're especially sensitive to those salts.

I tried TWW, same experience as OP. Went back to Olancha.