# Best water for pour over coffee?



## Benjijames28 (Mar 29, 2017)

I've been using unfiltered tap water for my coffee at home, I've seen recommendations to use Tesco ashbeck water for espresso, would this still be ideal for pour overs?


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## Jony (Sep 8, 2017)

I use it for both at £1.10 for 5 litre's it's cheap.


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## MWJB (Feb 28, 2012)

Water for pour over has a wide tolerance, 'best' is very subjective. Without knowing anything about your tap water it's hard to say what would be better.

By far the most important thing is to dial in your method & be consistent, don't be constantly fiddling with it, or changing grind willy nilly.

Volvic, Essential Waitrose Lockhills are both fine, I also like softer waters such as Deeside (hard to find at the minute)/Royal Deeside & Voss (a bit pricey). For half the coffee I brew I use super hard Surrey tap water, still comes out pretty good.


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## Benjijames28 (Mar 29, 2017)

So it could improve my coffee but pour overs are not as sensitive to water as espresso.

Thanks. I will play around at some point.


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## ashcroc (Oct 28, 2016)

Benjijames28 said:


> So it could improve my coffee but pour overs are not as sensitive to water as espresso.
> 
> Thanks. I will play around at some point.


Pretty much. No boiler or pipes to worry about scaling up with pourover so your choices are much wider. Different waters will change the taste though dependant on their mineral content.


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## Step21 (Oct 2, 2014)

With espresso the danger is ruining your machines through scale or corrosion therefore your choice of water is limited.

With pourover the only danger is to your kettle so you can experiment with just about anything.

What you will find though is that you want a simple solution using water you can easily get a hold of. Bottled waters have a habit of vanishing from the shelfs e.g. Glaceau almost disappeared for over a year at one point.

If you are using Ashbeck, try it and see. Another very cheap water is Chase Spring which is currently widely available. It is a harder water than Ashbeck but you could mix them 50/50 or any other ratio you fancy.


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## DavecUK (Aug 6, 2013)

Use a water *you prefer the taste of *when it's used to make pour over coffee. Everyone is different...you might like tapwater, volvic, ashbeck, tescos own, morrisons value water at 17p. It doesn't matter!


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## the_partisan (Feb 29, 2016)

Look for low bicarbonate content, especially when brewing things like Ethiopian coffee, some others are not impacted that much by water, especially darker roasts. I do find quite significant difference between my tap water (extremely hard) and using very soft water when brewing certain beans.


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