Hard Water Is Affecting the Flavor of Your Morning Brew

If you need one or more morning cups of coffee before you can face the day, or even a brief conversation, your coffee maker is probably well-used. For those who enjoy home barista duties and love to serve creamy lattes in a variety of flavors, the quality of the brew process matters. No matter how you love your coffee, if you rely on brewed beans for caffeine or an afternoon treat, knowing how hard water affects the taste of your beverage and the maintenance of your coffee-making equipment is important.

This May Also Interest You: How to Descale a Coffee Maker

What Is Hard Water?

Hard water contains high levels of dissolved minerals, commonly magnesium or calcium, which enter water supplies from rocky mineral deposits. Water hardness can be measured in grains per gallon (GPG); water is considered hard at 7 GPG or higher.

The minerals in hard water aren't typically a health hazard, but they can be a concern for homeowners and others. The minerals can build up on pipes and in appliances, creating scaling that's cumbersome to deal with.

How Can Hard Water Affect the Taste of Tap Water?

One of the most common hard water effects is a change in how tap water tastes. Some people can taste minerals in their water while others may not notice, and the way water tastes depends on what's in it:

• Calcium in water can lead to a chalky taste.

• Magnesium in water might lead to a bitter or medicine-like taste.

• Gypsum in water at low levels can create a crisp, clean taste; at higher levels, it may create a sulfur-like taste.

• Iron in water can create a metallic taste.

How Can It Affect the Taste of Coffee?

Pass hard water through coffee grounds, filters and machines, and the impact on taste increases. A few ways hard water affects the taste of your coffee include:

• It can interfere with extraction. Certain minerals, like calcium, can bind to flavor compounds in coffee particles. When this happens, they don't dissolve appropriately in the water, leading to reduced flavor.

• It can also enhance extraction. Magnesium can actually help with extraction in small amounts, creating a brighter, complex flavor.

• It may reduce heat efficiency. If mineral buildup from hard water reaches a certain level in a coffee machine, it can reduce heat efficiency. Water may not reach optimal brewing temperatures, reducing the quality of flavor.

• It can add different flavors to the coffee profile. Very hard water can contribute a chalky or bitter flavor to your cup of coffee, and minerals in hard water may react with chlorine or other additives in municipal water supplies to create other off-flavors.

Some coffee is more sensitive than others. The delicate balance required to brew espresso can be especially upset by too many minerals in your water, for example.

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Is Hard Water Hard On Your Coffee Maker?

Yes, dissolved minerals in water supplies can be hard on your coffee maker. Limescale from certain minerals can build up inside your coffee maker parts, including in tubing and on heating elements. Over time, it can become enough to reduce heating efficiency, which means your coffee maker has to work harder to do the same job or can't quite accomplish a good perk or brew. In extreme cases, heavy scale may block water entirely.

If you have hard water and don't maintain your coffee maker properly, it can lead to additional issues like:

• Heavy buildup on screens in drip machines and other parts that prevents even distribution of water and quality brewing

• Pressure problems in espresso machines that lead to a lackluster cuppa

• Breakdown of the machine or certain components, leading to functional failure

If you have hard water, you usually need to descale your coffee machine every few months. Not cleaning your machine appropriately could void any warranty you have on it if buildup is the cause of broken parts.

How Do You Descale a Coffee Maker?

It depends on the type of coffee maker you have. For most machines, you can use either a commercial descaling solution or a homemade solution made with one part water and one part white vinegar.

To descale drip coffee makers, you simply fill the reservoir with the descaling solution and run a partial brew cycle. Let the solution sit in the pot and reservoir for up to an hour before pouring it out. Rinse the machine by running three brewing cycles with clean water. You can use a similar process to descale a stove top or electric percolator.

Specialty machines, like espresso makers, typically come with model-specific instructions for descaling, so check your manual if you have one.