The Most Important Ingredient For Making Great Coffee

The quality of your favourite hot beverage is largely determined by the quality of the water used to make it.

When you consider that coffee and tea are more than 98 percent water, you can see how absolutely crucial it is to get things right. It is no good using the world's most expensive coffee on the latest coffee making equipment if the water supply is inferior. The trouble with mains water is that is varies so much. It may be relatively good one day, but very poor a few days later. This is a difficult situation when trying to serve quality beverages that are consistent in taste and appearance.

The best and easiest solution is to fit a water filter. Filters should be fitted to espresso machines, vending systems and coffee makers. They should be fitted between the mains water input and the equipment itself. Sometimes water filters are referred to as in-line filters or cartridge filters. Once fitted they should be flushed through a few times to clear any loose particles before connected up to the equipment.

Water filters are a neat way of ensuring good quality and consistent drinks are served. They will often improve the appearance, taste and aroma of hot and cold beverages. They will ensure clear bright tea and superb looking espresso based drinks that taste as good as they look.

Water filters remove impurities such as heavy ions like lead and copper. They will eliminate organic impurities that can cause cloudiness, together with chlorine that can impair the quality and taste of the beverage.

Scale deposits are also largely removed by using a water filter. By reducing the amount of calcium and magnesium ions in the water, they will ensure the coffee making equipment lasts longer. Scale found in mains water will build up on heating elements, water pipes and clean surfaces. This means the heating element uses more power, pipes become clogged and ugly marks are seen.

It is clear that the benefits of a quality water filter far outweigh their cost. Engineer call out charges are high, parts are expensive and equipment down-time costly. Avoiding engineer costs and possible malfunctioning equipment alone warrant a filter to be fitted. When you consider they also provide consistent high quality, great tasting beverages too, the case is overwhelming.

In line water filters are available in different sizes to match water volume requirements. Make sure you select a capacity large enough to cope with your estimated beverage consumption. Filters need to be discarded and a new one fitted every six months or when a certain amount of water has passed through them.