Water for coffee extraction: 

Composition, recommendations and treatments

Dr. Marco Wellinger

Zurich University of Applied Sciences
ICBC - LSFM
Wädenswil, Switzerland
weli@zhaw.ch

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 Take-home messages

• Key parameter which characterize potable water for coffee extraction:

– Odor free
– Total hardness
– Acid buffer capacity
• Traditional hardness units (ppm CaCO3, °d, °f) provide an easy and
accurate way to assess a water’s suitability for use in coffee extraction

• SCAA/SCAE and the book “Water for Coffee” do agree largely on their
recommendations: large variation allowed for total hardness but a
small variation for the buffer capacity

• All water treatments can be compared using a simple chart of total

hardness and buffer capacity

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 How water acquires its mineral content

• Rain water takes up carbon dioxide and carbonic acid is formed:

CO2 + H2O -> H2CO3 => water becomes acidic pH < 5.7
• Acidic rain water that comes into contact with carbonate rock
(MgCO3/CaCO3) dissolves part of it and acquires magnesium, calcium
and hydrogen carbonate ions (HCO3-)
• In case of silicate rock (SiO4 compounds) the water stays very soft
• In general groundwater is harder than water in rivers and lakes
because it has been in contact with minerals for a longer period

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 Water composition illustrated

Ca2+ Mg2+ Na+ K+

Silicates,
organic
compunds
HCO3- CO32- Cl- NO3- SO42-

Why are the two bars of positive ions and negative ions equally big?
Because charge neutrality is always fulfilled!
Number of positive charges = Number of negative charges
Calculation is based on the number of molecules and their charge and not
on their mass.

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 Mole: the chemical dozen

Mole is a scaling factor transforming the mass of molecules

from atomic units to grams.

Mole is useful for counting the number of molecules that are

present in a water sample or a brewed coffee.

By multipling the molar concentrations of all ions with their

charge we can calculate the fundamental balance that has to
be fulfilled for every water sample (charge neutrality).

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 Mass versus molar versus equivalent concentrations

Example for mass concentrations compared to molar concentrations

and charge equivalent concentrations.
Zurich tap water composition – average for 2014

/L

/L
/L

Source: https://www.stadt-zuerich.ch/dib/de/index/wasserversorgung/Qualitaetsueberwachung/qualitaetswerte.html
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 Hardness and alkalinity

Total hardness: The sum of calcium and magnesium in

equivalent concentrations (or molar concentrations). In rare
cases other ions can contribute to hardness, for example
strontium.

Alkalinity = Acid buffer capacity: The amount of acid that

has to be added to a water sample to decrease pH to 4.3.
Therefore it is neutralizing/buffering the effect of adding acid
to a water.

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 Hardness and alkalinity

Total hardness
Carbonate hardness Non-carbonate hardness

Ca2+ Mg2+ Na+ K+

HCO3- Cl- NO3- SO42-

Alkalinity
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 Hardness and alkalinity

Total hardness ≈ carbonate hardness

Non-carbonate hardness is zero

+
Ca2 Mg2+ Na+ K +

HCO3- Cl- NO3- SO42-

«Not hard» carbonate

Alkalinity
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 Examples for water compositions: tap water

Composition of
186 tap water from
a small region in
Switzerland
(Baselland / BL)
baselland.ch

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 Examples for water compositions: bottled water

Composition of
some commercial
bottled waters

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 Water treatment – technical and sensory reasons

• Technical reasons for water treatment:

– Too high hardness and alkalinity -> Scale deposits
• Decrease in efficiency of heat transfer
• Clogging of valves and orifices (gicleur)
especially in the hot water sections Quelle: www.kaffeenetz.de
– Too low alkalinity -> Corrosion of metal parts (pitting)
• Sensory reasons for water treatment:
– Desired degree of buffering (reduction) of the acidity
– Influence on the extraction efficiency:
• Higher total hardness is suspected to increase extraction
efficiency
• Increase in wettability (for softer water)

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 Comparison of existing standards

• Recommended range for optimum/ideal hardness vary

strongly

– Lowest suggested optimum is the revised World Brewers

Cup at 51 ppm CaCO3

– Highest suggested optimum is from “Water for Coffee” at

175 ppm CaCO3

• Recommended range for alkalinity is much smaller:

– Lowest suggested optimum is at 40 ppm CaCO3

– Highest suggested optimum is at 75 ppm CaCO3 – apply
only for total hardness values of 150 -175 ppm CaCO3

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 Measurement methods

Determination of hardness and alkalinity by titration:

A solution is added drop by drop to a specified amount of water until a
color change occurs (for instance from green to red).
Available from water treatment suppliers or also in aquarium stores –
minimum recommended resolution is 20 ppm CaCO3 (or 1°d).

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 Conductivity meter aka «TDS-Meter»

For a known water composition (or more precisely ratio of ions)

conductivity measurements can be transformed into a value for total
dissolved solids.
TDS measurements as used by the vast majority has an error of
typically +/-30% (and in extremes over 50%) and therefore should
not be used as a significant parameter:
1. The conversion factor depends strongly on the exact composition;
the conversion factor can vary between 0.5 -1.0 for the
transformation of electrical conductivity in µS /cm to TDS in mg/L -
SCAA for example uses 0.7.
2. Most cheaper models do not measure and correct for the water
temperature: Though a 10°C change (e.g. tap temperature to room
temperature) adds another 20% of error to the measurement.

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 Water treatments

• Methods:
– Filtration: Removal of particles
• Activated charcoal to remove off-flavors such as chlorine
– Reverse osmosis: Non-selective removal of all dissolved solids
– Ion exchanger: Exchange of magnesium- and calcium ions by
protons, sodium or potassium ions
– Distillation: Evaporation and subsequent condensation of water

– Precipitation

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 Impact of water treatments on total hardness and alkalinity

a
a   : Softener: Ca 2+ and Mg2+ against potassium (K+) or sodium 

(Na+) – only affecting hardness and therefore vertically oriented
b
b  : Decarbonizer: Ca2+ and Mg2+ against H+ ‐ oriented diagonally 
with a slope of 1 (change in alkalinity equals the change in 
hardness) 
b*
b*  : Combination of mostly b‐type ion exchanger with a small 
fraction of a‐type ion exchanger
c : Reverse osmosis (RO) – removing ions non‐specifically and 
c  
producing a scalar/multiple of the initial composition – oriented 
towards the point of origin (0/0) or away from it
d
d   : Dealkalizer: HCO ‐ ‐
3 against Cl ‐ not yet commercially 
available for coffee applications ‐ or addition of a strong acid 
(e.g. HCl)
e – not shown: Cation exchange of Ca2+ against Mg2+ ‐ does not 
change either hardness or alkalinity so the water stays at 
constant values of both

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 An applied example for espresso extraction

A local roaster in Switzerland had complained that following the

softening of his very hard water (above 300 CaCO3) by a
decarbonizer (b-type ion exchanger) his espresso was always
very foamy (large bubbles that collapse quickly in the crema).

In fact calculations have shown that a reduction in

200 ppm CaCO3 alkalinity will increase dissolved carbon dioxide
by 240 mg/L.

=> For a standard double espresso recipe (1:2 brew ratio) this
means that even for a very fresh coffee 1h after roast and 2min
after grinding the water can add another 20 % to the carbon
dioxide already contained in the coffee grounds.

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 Summary

• Using equivalent units (e.g. ppm CaCO3 or °d) is paramount to facilitate

the understanding and application of insights on water
• With regard to sensory aspect the acid buffer capacity should be
referred to as alkalinity (“carbonate hardness” is not necessarily equal
to it!)
• Most waters in central europe have an alkalinity slightly lower than total
hardness – and with respect to coffee they are several fold too hard
– “Moving left” into the range of high total hardness and low alkalinity
require the introduction of new cartridges (which exist in other
industrial applications)
• As long as alkalinity is kept above 40 CaCO3 the water is sufficiently
buffered to avoid the risk of corrosion

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 Thanks for your attention

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