“We love your coffee and we brew it at home but it never tastes as good as when we buy it in your café!”

It’s a phrase I hear occasionally, and I totally get it. There is something about the VIBE of our beautiful store, our Aharon Coffee & Roasting Co coffee oasis, that really does help transport each visitor to an elevated realm of joy. Plus, you have Aharon, me, and our amazing baristas meditating on joy, happiness, and yumminess while we brew, craft, mix, steam and serve each drink with a smile. (Never mind that you currently can’t SEE our smiles, as they are hidden underneath our mandatory masks. THANKS A LOT, COVID 19.)

But there is another reason your coffee may taste better when you buy it at our cafe. Two reasons actually. And they are such simple, easy to fix details - yet so crucially important to the creation of a great cup of coffee - that I decided to devote an entire blog to each of these two coffee basics:

IMPORTANT COFFEE BREWING TIP #1

Use the Right Water. For crying out loud, NO MORE using tap water to brew your coffee! I know, I know, tap water is accessible and safe to drink; be my guest and chug it down after a long hot workout or any time you are thirsty. Just DO NOT use it to brew your coffee.

Why? Because tap water is known to have a pretty high “TDS” (total dissolved solids) count – with minerals that are harmless to drink but pretty harmful to the flavor of a great cup of coffee. And that goes for any brew method – espresso, drip machine, pour over or Chemex, French Press, Turkish, you name it.

So, what water does Aharon recommend you use? NOT the high PH (alkaline) water. I hear that alkaline water is great for your health, but it is NOT good for producing yummy coffee! Just use simple bottled water, or tap water that’s been filtered in your home filtration machine.

If you’ve been using straight tap water to make your coffee all this time, you will be AMAZED at how good your coffee is about to taste…

Unless… you don’t follow the IMPORTANT COFFEE BREWING TIP #2 (read more in our next blog!)

[Spoiler alert: never use a BLADE GRINDER to grind coffee beans.]