The quality and taste of the water with which you brew your coffee has a substantial impact on the taste of your beverage. This seems fairly obvious when you think about it, but it’s easy to get wrapped up in the exciting flavour notes on a new bag of beans and forget that if your water is suboptimal or flat-out bad for brewing, your coffee’s flavour isn’t going to be at its best. Brewing with high-quality water is essential to brewing delicious coffee consistently.

The relationship between coffee and water is interesting and somewhat complex, and you can learn more about it right here, but here’s the gist of what you need to know: tap water is typically filled with a number of dissolved solids, minerals such as calcium, fluoride, and magnesium. Tap water’s taste and texture (you may have heard the terms “soft” and “hard” water before) is altered by these compounds. Moreover, water’s extraction potential is affected by its mineral content, which plays a significant role in how your coffee will brew and taste. Finally, it’s worth noting that water’s mineral content is also the reason for limescale buildup in coffee and espresso machines, which can be a massive pain to deal with if you aren’t careful to maintain and protect your equipment.

Water filters are a great place to start when trying to improve your brewing water, by removing some unwanted minerals and bad flavours caused by the chemicals used to treat tap water. Some, like the BWT Penguin water jug, even add magnesium back into your water, but they still can't fully optimise your brewing water. Buying bottled mineral water is another option, but plastic waste and wallet damage makes it a pretty untenable one long-term. Fortunately, there’s a better way: meet Third Wave Water.

About Third Wave Water

Third Wave Water is an award-winning company that provides in-line water filtration systems and water enhancement products. It is most well known for its line of mineral supplement sachets formulated specifically for brewing coffee. These sachets contain a mixture of sodium, magnesium and calcium in optimal ratios for brewing coffee when added to distilled water. Not only does this improve the taste of the water itself, but specifically optimises its pH and TDS (total dissolved solids) for coffee extraction.

Third Wave Water’s sachets are formulated using the Specialty Coffee Association’s water standard as a template, which most specialty roasters adhere to when tasting their coffees. This means that when using Third Wave Water, you can be sure you’re tasting the same flavour notes that the roaster tasted, and thereby getting the most out of your coffee. Moreover, Third Wave Water’s mineral sachets also minimise limescale buildup, so they protect and extend the lifespan of your kettle, espresso machine and other brewing equipment too.

Third Wave Water offers a handful of different mineral profiles formulated for specific roast levels and brewing types, and a full sachet of each is meant to be used with 2 litres of distilled water. We currently offer the Light Roast, Medium Roast and Dark Roast profiles, as well as the Espresso profile. Pick some up if you want to take your brewing to the next level, and brew truly delicious coffee, more consistently.

Directions for use

Using Third Wave Water sachets is pretty simple. Simply tear open one sachet and add it to 2 litres of distilled or reverse osmosis water, or adjust your dose accordingly if you don’t want to make a full two litres. You can also adjust your dose by taste, and using a scale would make this a lot easier and more consistent.

Where to get distilled water

On distilled water and where to get it, in South Africa some chain supermarkets like Checkers and Pick ‘n Pay sell it from large tanks in-store, and you just need to bring your own container. Not every store offers this though, so you may have to do some looking around. Look up where you can buy distilled water in your area online. You may find a nearby pharmacy, a petrol station, or even a pet store that sells distilled water. Finally, it’s not overly complicated to make distilled water at home if you’d prefer that - here’s a handy guide on how to do it.

Third Wave Water Mineral Sachet Profile contents and features

Light Roast Profile: Magnesium Sulfate, Calcium Citrate and Sodium Chloride - Highlights brighter flavours
Medium Roast Profile: Magnesium Sulfate, Calcium Citrate and Potassium Bicarbonate - Balanced acidity and bitterness
Dark Roast Profile: Magnesium Sulfate, Calcium Citrate and Sodium Bicarbonate - Brings forward chocolate, caramel and nutty flavours
Espresso Profile: Magnesium Sulfate, Calcium Citrate and Potassium Bicarbonate - Bright and balanced flavour, protects espresso machines from scale and corrosion

Third Wave Water Mineral Sachets specifications

Comes as either a box of 20, or as a single sachet
Each sachet makes 2L of optimised water
Box dimensions (L x H x W): 8 x 8.5 x 1.9cm
Box weight: ~0.16kg