TIL the water hardness in my city was ruining my espresso shots for 6 months

Moved to Austin back in March and my shots kept pulling bitter no matter what I did with my grinder. I swapped beans, changed my dose, even bought a new basket. Last week a barista at a shop downtown asked if I'd tested my water and I laughed it off. Got a cheap TDS meter for $15 and found my tap water was at 380 ppm, which is way too high. It clicked that all the scale buildup inside my machine was messing with temperature stability. Has anyone else had to switch to bottled or filtered water just to fix their brew at home?

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1 Comment

oscarcooper21d ago

Honestly think you're overthinking this. 380 ppm is high but tons of people pull great shots on way worse water, and half the time those bitter pulls are just from dialing in wrong or stale beans. You probably just needed to adjust your grind a little more or brew a bit shorter, not run out and buy a whole filtration setup.