London: Scientists have revealed the secret yet simple ingredient behind every perfect cup of coffee – water.
Experts tried compositional chemistry methods to examine the impact of different kinds of water on the flavor of coffee and found that “reasonably hard” tap water yielded the best flavor.
Christopher Hendon, chemist at the University of Bath said that coffee contain hundreds of chemicals and good taste depends on how much of these chemicals are extracted by the water, which is influenced by roast profile, grind, temperature, pressure and brew time.
The findings suggested that high bicarbonate levels were bad for flavor and high magnesium ion levels increased the extraction of coffee flavor into water.
Colonna-Dashwood, who owns Colonna and Small coffee shops in Bath said that traditionally the coffee-making industry is most concerned about using water that doesn’t scale up their machines.