3 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Make Coffee with Distilled Water

If you are thinking about using quality water to improve your home brewing you should know that using distilled water in your coffee making process is not the best choice and you’ll consider it not a choice at all once you see the reasons why you should avoid it.

Distilled water –  this sounds like a super pure filtered water that has the essential minerals removed. The essential minerals are what helps in brewing a delicious cup of coffee at home.

Here are five reasons why you should not consider using distilled water in your coffee brewing.

Distilled water does not have minerals and it will affect the coffee taste

Distilled water is created through a seemingly simple process of boiling water, which removes most, and in some cases all of the impurities including the minerals. You would think that this is a good thing but the minerals are actually helpful in coffee brewing.

Minerals in the water: calcium, magnesium, and sodium are what helps to bring out the flavors and essential aromas of coffee. A coffee made with distilled water will just be coffee that tastes very bland, in the useless brown water category. The minerals also help in the extraction process of brewed coffee, which helps the strength of the home brew.

Do not use distilled water in coffee it changes the coffee pH levels

The water pH is very important in coffee brewing. The standard pH range for brewing coffee is in the range of 6.5 to 7.5. Distilled water typically has a pH level of 7, which can ruin the pH levels of the brewed coffee. The higher pH level changes the acidity levels making the acid level either too high or too low. A coffee brewed at home with seemingly pure and clean distilled water may cause your coffee to have a bitter taste that borders on really old and stale coffee.

Brewing coffee with distilled water can cause damage to the coffee maker

Distilled water is known for the low pH levels. The distilled water helps in dissolving minerals in the coffee maker. This wouldn’t happen if you used it once but over time, this can cause damage to your coffee maker such as the auto-drip or percolator. distilled water can corrode the metal parts and plastic, which will cause the coffee maker to degrade to the point you would either repair the coffee machine somehow, or you’ll just toss it and buy a new coffee maker.

Why distilled water is bad for coffee and the environment

Finally, using distilled water to brew coffee is actually not very Eco-friendly. If the environment and conserving energy concerns you, then read on to see why. The process of making distilled water requires a energy and other resources, which contributes to unneeded carbon emissions and the waste of water. A better choice for cleaner water is tap water that has been filtered through a home filtration system like the Britta, that still keeps the necessary minerals intact for better home coffee brewing.

However, if you still have your doubts, you could always make a coffee at home with distilled water and quickly learn how horrible it is as a choice for clean and pure water.

There you have it – Reasons you should not use distilled water in a coffee maker.