We’re pretty lucky here in Melbourne when it comes to water quality.

Conveniently, our tap water sits neatly in the middle of the recommended specs for brewing coffee, leaving most cafe operators the rudimentary task of whacking on a water filter and off they go. Not quite the case for cities like London or Copenhagen where the water is problematically hard.

Until now, having great water in Melbourne has deemed ‘designing’ water through reverse osmosis units and other means superfluous. Yet this blessing has also cursed us with a pretty shaky understanding of the importance of water when brewing coffee.

In recent years, an international troupe of coffee people have inspired a worldwide ‘water-awakening’, calling our attention to the thoroughly ignored, but essential, ingredient in our cups. Our event title has been borrowed from Maxwell Colonna-Dashwood & Christopher H. Hendon’s ‘Water for Coffee’ book, which has been a crucial resource for many coffee professionals and enthusiasts. With a second edition of the book to be released this year and the widespread success of Third Wave Water capsules, it’s obvious that our brew water needs some attention, and we’ve got plenty of questions to ask.

Have you given your water any thought lately?

Well, our next ‘Spotlight On’ event seeks to get your juices flowing. Our friends and leading espresso machine manufacturers, La Marzocco, will be sharing their knowledge on everything hidden between the Hydrogen and Oxygen and how they impact the way that we brew coffee.

As a leader in the industry, they have a vested interest in researching and improving the health of water going through their espresso machines, determined to avoid boiler-scale horror stories similar to the tooth equivalents found in The Big Book of British Smiles. Health of brewing equipment is one thing, but flavour surely is of greater influence and certainly a more absorbing topic. We’ll have plenty of time for both.

So what is in our water? And, ultimately more importantly, how does it affect the taste of coffee?

Coffee will only taste as good as the water you start with, so perhaps it’s time you looked at improving the H2O-so vital ingredient we have perhaps taken for read.

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Don’t miss out on this one, get your tickets now, space is limited.

Spotlight On: Water for Coffee
Thursday, February 15th
6:00pm — 9:00pm