Coffee is 99% Water: To Brew Great Coffee You Need Good Water!

Dillon — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 00:56:21 +0000

We never really think about it but by most estimates drip coffee is actually around 99%. So really what are we drinking? A small amount of coffee oils and flavor compounds simply suspended in water. When brewing coffee it’s always a good idea to use clean treated water that is not too “hard” and not too “soft” Water that is too hard just plain tastes bad, and water that is too soft usually lacks the free floating molecules that the coffee oils will “stick” to when brewing. After all water and oil don’t mix!

Great, water should be clean and not too hard and not too soft. Depending on where you live, the water straight out of your tap may be perfectly suitable for brewing excellent coffee. Usually areas with higher annual rainfall have softer water which is more frequently drawn from surface supplies. While in dryer climates the water often comes from calcium laden limestone aquifers and reservoirs.

The most common way to measure the “hardness” of water is a measurement called “TDS” for Total Dissolved Solids. Most professional commercial coffee bars monitor their TDS very closely and spend a good deal of money tweaking their water filtrations systems to get it just right. Believe me it really makes a difference. You can find more info on TDS here, here and here. David Shomer’s blog also contains some great posts regarding TDS.

We use a TDS meter made by HM Digital. They are fairly inexpensive and we find them to be durable and accurate. Since different meters use different scales to measure TDS it’s difficult to give an exact TDS value for ideal water quality. However using this HM meter our ideal TDS at the shop is right around 140 on a 442 scale.

Every ingredient is important in the final product, in this case both water and coffee.

Welcome!

Dillon — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 07:25:23 +0000

Well here we are! After many years of roasting, Centri Coffee finally has an online presence! I thought about what I would write in my first post for quite awhile. There are so many things that I want to share about coffee, brewing, roasting and taste it would take a lifetime just to scratch the surface. But never the less that’s no reason not to try!

I figured it would be worth while to share why I am interested in coffee. As a child I was an extremely picky eater, and as I have aged my palate has become more receptive to an amazing variety of gustatory experiences. I am very passionate about food and drink. This interest in taste has driven my exploration of cooking, beer, wine, spirits, vegetables, world cuisine and most importantly coffee! I find it interesting that for some, taste has little if any importance and that for others its so important that it almost becomes a way of life. Centri Coffee focuses on producing coffees for those that fall into the latter group.

Centri Coffee is founded on the idea that every cup of coffee should be excellent. We meticulously hand select all of our coffees, painstakingly roast them in small batches, and only roast on order. We do everything we can toguarantee the quality of every cup!