Kaleb Jordan discovered a secret in making good coffee and that secret is water. According to his findings, minerals in the water also play an essential role in the taste along with great coffee beans.
When talking about coffee flavors, most people will think about the beans first. But, since 90% of the coffee we drink consists of water, we should consider it a vital factor in determining the flavor of the coffee.
Kaleb Jordan discovered a secret in making good coffee and that secret is water. According to his findings, minerals in the water also play an essential role in the taste along with great coffee beans.
From our trip to Kaleb’s coffee farm, one of the things that surprised us was his deep interest in the water that is used in coffee making.
When talking about coffee flavors, most people will think about the beans first. But, since 90% of the coffee we drink consists of water, we should consider it a vital factor in determining the flavor of the coffee.
Kaleb used to work at a coffee roaster in Indiana, USA. He told us that the water there was probably the worst in the world. The smell of sulfur was strong and it had too much minerals. The TDS level was around 800-900 ppm, which is 2-3 times higher than the water in Thailand. The quality of the water in Indiana made it almost impossible to make good coffee because the flavors would be affected so badly. Kaleb had to buy bottled water from a supermarket to make his coffee. However, he didn’t expect that this habit would lead to a bigger discovery.
He bought several water brands. Before using each bottle, Kaleb tasted them separately. That was the moment when he found out that each brand offered a different flavor. He took his discovery to the next level by performing a coffee experiment. He matched each type of beans with a particular brand of water while taking notes of the differences, the goods, and the bads. Then, he tried mixing them together and came up with his own water blend.
That was his first attempt in matching good quality water with nice coffee beans which led him to start using his own water blend at his café. Funnily enough, when his customers bought the beans to make coffee at home, they told him that it didn’t taste as good as when they tried it at the café.
Kaleb figured that recommending his customers to mix the water as he did would be too complicated. So he came up with the idea to make powdered minerals that can be mixed with low-mineral water or RO (Reverse Osmosis) water available at supermarkets. The powdered minerals will make the water at home good enough for coffee making. With the help and support from his dad, who has a degree in chemistry, Kaleb’s idea materialized.
It took Kaleb two years in differentiating and experimenting with minerals to finally find the right proportion for his mixture. His creation, Flavor Scan, consists of calcium, sodium nitrate, and magnesium.
Calcium adds more body to the beverage, while 1-2% of sodium nitrate allows people to taste the flavor better. Magnesium helps to extract hidden flavors in the beans like vanilla, chocolate, and even fruitiness. With the help of magnesium, anyone who enjoys coffee cupping or tasting will be able to taste the complexity in flavors of the coffee more distinctly.
Flavor Scan is easy to use. Just mix the powder with 6 liters of RO water until it is completely dissolved. Then that’s it, the water is ready for coffee making.
For more information about Kaleb’s Flavor Scan, visit GemforestCoffee
