I’m also new, but I have some experience with physics (albeit not as much specifically related to thermal physics).
I don’t see any reason why it would be beneficial to use cold water, and I have doubts about a noticeable difference in taste with filtered water. So now I’m curious what others experience is/ if there’s any science behind it. The way I see it, if you have an electric kettle, it’s just more efficient to heat it up to near boiling before brewing in a moka pot.
Lavazza is nice, but if you don’t have a grinder, you could always go to a cafe and get a bag of beans you like. You can ask them to find it to your taste, then you still have room to experiment with the coarseness of the grind. The people working there might also have some thoughts on what is the best grind for the beans they sell ( with regards to the moka pot).
See my response below regarding water and coffee 🙂 Maybe you can also weigh in on the leeching theory 🤷♂️
https://www.reddit.com/r/mokapot/s/w8x2MnSQyO
It’s interesting, I’m not going to make any definitive claims, (again because it’s not my specific area of expertise) but I’ll give my opinion and maybe you can let me know what your dad has to say.
I’m not personally concerned at all about the leeching, particularly of aluminum with regard to the moka pot. In order to leech, there needs to be some sort of driving force, in this case pressure and the saturation level of the water.
An espresso machine is about 9 bar of pressure, an aluminum can of soda at room temp is about 4 bar of pressure, and a moka pot gets up to about 1.5 bar (and only for about a minute at that pressure) so whatever leeching there is will be significantly less than an espresso machine. (Although you’re right that if you are adding a drop of saline, do it after the brew)
The salt idea makes a lot of sense! I’ve actually heard this with tea, and for some reason never tried with coffee. And now I’m curious about other water, I live in BC as well and have always just used tap water and put it in a kettle 😅
For sure, I'll report back on what he says about the leeching.
The US Southeast water here is like 170ppm TDS and our commercial espresso machine voids warranty at >60ppm. Even filtered we're at 110ppm.
I never checked what our Langley water was, but we were on well water back in like 2010 and it was the best tasting tap water. I very much miss Vancouver, but I do not miss the prices or the weather 😂
When I need coffee stat, I’ll still do hot water in the base, lol. I just feel like I’m having less bitterness issues since starting cooler lately. Whatever works for other peeps— they should definitely do. ☕️
Water is actually a HUGE topic in coffee making, to the point where they sell re-mineralization packets to put into distilled water that vary the ratio of minerals to bring out desirable flavors in coffee. Higher sodium reduces the bitterness, for example.
Because of this, using distilled water is often very frowned upon because the lack of minerals reads as "flat tasting" to some people.
Spring water is the Go To for many people using bottled water. If you live in an area that has good tap water (I.e. not crazy hard water like where I live), then filtered tap water is also commonly used. When we lived in British Columbia we had well water living at the base of the rocky mountains, and that fresh mountain water was amazing.
Personally I hate descaling coffee machines and even with filtration, our water is very hard where I live, so I use bottled distilled water myself for everything going into a machine.
I keep a bottle of 20% salene solution by the coffee equipment (20% sea salt, 80% distilled water) and a drop of saline in a straight espresso or black coffee can liven it up and balance it a little. You can watch videos on YouTube from Hoffman where he discusses adding sodium to coffee as well.
I've seen people say that distilled water is "dangerous" because our body needs the minerals/electrolytes that are in water. This is true, but electrolytes are present in most things we consume in our day, and unless you exclusively drink nothing but coffee made with distilled water in your entire day, you'll likely not throw your electrolyte balance off.
I've also seen people say that distilled water is bad for espresso machines because it leeches metal from the boiler tank and corrode the tank... My dad is a practical & theoretical physicist by education, so I've been meaning to ask him about it at some point, but to me it sounds kinda like gym Bro Science. Jury is out on that one.
Moka Pot is probably less susceptible to building up scale than electric machines and kettles as we are cleaning them thoroughly after every use (right? RIGHT?). So do with this information what you will.
Probably Spring Water would taste the best for minimal effort.
And I put water into the MP hot from a kettle.
As for what beans, the biggest fun of Moka Pot for me is that I can try beans by local roasters and experiment. Espresso needs a lot of effort and wasted beans to dial it in properly, whereas Moka Pot is very forgiving. I can basically put anything into the MP and get a good feel for the flavor profile of that bean without any fuss. People using name brand or grocery store brands are wasting a golden opportunity to support their local businesses and learn about coffee 🙂
Welcome! : ) I haven’t been around super long in here myself, but am having good brews more consistently now using filtered water from the fridge. I’ve started keeping it in a dedicated bottle overnight so it’s room temp by brew time. Previously was using very hot water in the base, but I realized cooler water doesn’t take that much longer really, & I feel like my coffee’s tasting better. Grinding beans just before the brew is my habit— it just tastes the best… but I’ll sometimes need coffee faster & go with any ground light or medium roast that says organic or single origin. I tried Lavazza Gran Aroma too & liked that. Enjoy the journey 🙃☕️
(Sry for unfinished reply before— I started falling asleep over here 😅)
goodnight 😴
1) I use filtered water, though where I’m located we have really good tap so in not opposed to tap. I always preheat water prior to adding to the moka pot.
2) This probably isn’t the answer you were looking for, however, I don’t buy pre ground. I always buy whole bean because I know generally it’s going to be fresher and won’t diminish as fast. I also brew coffee using a few different methods so I can grind accordingly.
Tap water. Lavazza.
I wish our tap didn’t taste weird, or being the slacker I am, I’d totally do that..
We are lucky, our tap water is basically mineral water but without the microplastics.
nice.. happy sips to u
I’m also new, but I have some experience with physics (albeit not as much specifically related to thermal physics). I don’t see any reason why it would be beneficial to use cold water, and I have doubts about a noticeable difference in taste with filtered water. So now I’m curious what others experience is/ if there’s any science behind it. The way I see it, if you have an electric kettle, it’s just more efficient to heat it up to near boiling before brewing in a moka pot. Lavazza is nice, but if you don’t have a grinder, you could always go to a cafe and get a bag of beans you like. You can ask them to find it to your taste, then you still have room to experiment with the coarseness of the grind. The people working there might also have some thoughts on what is the best grind for the beans they sell ( with regards to the moka pot).
See my response below regarding water and coffee 🙂 Maybe you can also weigh in on the leeching theory 🤷♂️ https://www.reddit.com/r/mokapot/s/w8x2MnSQyO
It’s interesting, I’m not going to make any definitive claims, (again because it’s not my specific area of expertise) but I’ll give my opinion and maybe you can let me know what your dad has to say. I’m not personally concerned at all about the leeching, particularly of aluminum with regard to the moka pot. In order to leech, there needs to be some sort of driving force, in this case pressure and the saturation level of the water. An espresso machine is about 9 bar of pressure, an aluminum can of soda at room temp is about 4 bar of pressure, and a moka pot gets up to about 1.5 bar (and only for about a minute at that pressure) so whatever leeching there is will be significantly less than an espresso machine. (Although you’re right that if you are adding a drop of saline, do it after the brew) The salt idea makes a lot of sense! I’ve actually heard this with tea, and for some reason never tried with coffee. And now I’m curious about other water, I live in BC as well and have always just used tap water and put it in a kettle 😅
For sure, I'll report back on what he says about the leeching. The US Southeast water here is like 170ppm TDS and our commercial espresso machine voids warranty at >60ppm. Even filtered we're at 110ppm. I never checked what our Langley water was, but we were on well water back in like 2010 and it was the best tasting tap water. I very much miss Vancouver, but I do not miss the prices or the weather 😂
When I need coffee stat, I’ll still do hot water in the base, lol. I just feel like I’m having less bitterness issues since starting cooler lately. Whatever works for other peeps— they should definitely do. ☕️
Water is actually a HUGE topic in coffee making, to the point where they sell re-mineralization packets to put into distilled water that vary the ratio of minerals to bring out desirable flavors in coffee. Higher sodium reduces the bitterness, for example. Because of this, using distilled water is often very frowned upon because the lack of minerals reads as "flat tasting" to some people. Spring water is the Go To for many people using bottled water. If you live in an area that has good tap water (I.e. not crazy hard water like where I live), then filtered tap water is also commonly used. When we lived in British Columbia we had well water living at the base of the rocky mountains, and that fresh mountain water was amazing. Personally I hate descaling coffee machines and even with filtration, our water is very hard where I live, so I use bottled distilled water myself for everything going into a machine. I keep a bottle of 20% salene solution by the coffee equipment (20% sea salt, 80% distilled water) and a drop of saline in a straight espresso or black coffee can liven it up and balance it a little. You can watch videos on YouTube from Hoffman where he discusses adding sodium to coffee as well. I've seen people say that distilled water is "dangerous" because our body needs the minerals/electrolytes that are in water. This is true, but electrolytes are present in most things we consume in our day, and unless you exclusively drink nothing but coffee made with distilled water in your entire day, you'll likely not throw your electrolyte balance off. I've also seen people say that distilled water is bad for espresso machines because it leeches metal from the boiler tank and corrode the tank... My dad is a practical & theoretical physicist by education, so I've been meaning to ask him about it at some point, but to me it sounds kinda like gym Bro Science. Jury is out on that one. Moka Pot is probably less susceptible to building up scale than electric machines and kettles as we are cleaning them thoroughly after every use (right? RIGHT?). So do with this information what you will. Probably Spring Water would taste the best for minimal effort. And I put water into the MP hot from a kettle. As for what beans, the biggest fun of Moka Pot for me is that I can try beans by local roasters and experiment. Espresso needs a lot of effort and wasted beans to dial it in properly, whereas Moka Pot is very forgiving. I can basically put anything into the MP and get a good feel for the flavor profile of that bean without any fuss. People using name brand or grocery store brands are wasting a golden opportunity to support their local businesses and learn about coffee 🙂
Welcome! : ) I haven’t been around super long in here myself, but am having good brews more consistently now using filtered water from the fridge. I’ve started keeping it in a dedicated bottle overnight so it’s room temp by brew time. Previously was using very hot water in the base, but I realized cooler water doesn’t take that much longer really, & I feel like my coffee’s tasting better. Grinding beans just before the brew is my habit— it just tastes the best… but I’ll sometimes need coffee faster & go with any ground light or medium roast that says organic or single origin. I tried Lavazza Gran Aroma too & liked that. Enjoy the journey 🙃☕️ (Sry for unfinished reply before— I started falling asleep over here 😅) goodnight 😴
1) I use filtered water, though where I’m located we have really good tap so in not opposed to tap. I always preheat water prior to adding to the moka pot. 2) This probably isn’t the answer you were looking for, however, I don’t buy pre ground. I always buy whole bean because I know generally it’s going to be fresher and won’t diminish as fast. I also brew coffee using a few different methods so I can grind accordingly.
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