How I Unlocked Hidden Coffee Flavors for $10

In this episode, I dive deep into the one piece of coffee equipment that changed everything for me—a simple TDS (Total Dissolved Solids) meter. For less than $10, this unassuming device has unlocked flavors in my coffee that I didn't think were possible anymore. I talk about how understanding water hardness through this meter has made my lightly roasted Kenyan coffees finally show their sweetness, made my Brazilian coffees more expressive, and eliminated the inconsistency that used to plague my brewing. I share why we fixate on grinders, brewers, and technique while ignoring the fact that coffee is 98% water, and how this inexpensive tool gets you 95% of the way to perfect water without diving into complex chemistry.

By listening to this episode, you'll learn why a TDS meter is the most underrated piece of coffee gear you can own, how it empowers you to manipulate acidity and sweetness beyond just brewer choice, and why understanding your water is the key to unlocking the true potential of every coffee you brew. I'll explain how finding my sweet spot around 110 PPM transformed my daily brewing and why this $10 investment might be more valuable than your next grinder upgrade.

Transcript

[00:00:04] This right here, a TDS meter. It tells us how hard our water is, how drinkable it is. This is the one piece of coffee gear that we don't talk about enough. It's not sexy. It's very basic. It does one thing. It doesn't lie to us. It just tells us the information that we need, that we want to know, that we didn't know that we wanted to know.

[00:00:51] I've been doing this coffee thing for a while now, nearing almost a decade or even more than that. I've had a couple TDS meters from time to time, but now that I'm diving deep into this rabbit hole of mastery, coffee and all that stuff, it was really time to get serious about the numbers. Not the drawdown of this particular brewer, not how fast and quick this basket filter is so I can go finer or anything like that, not a drip assist, not whatever it may be that we seem to get accustomed to when it comes to coffee and gadgets, gear and all that stuff. I'm not even talking about the coffee here. This is the device that we all need.

[00:01:51] Yes, you can easily tell me or say, "But I don't want to go down that rabbit hole." You're already in the rabbit hole. You're buying coffee. You're paying your money. You're doing it every day. You get mad when you don't get the notes on the bag. You're already in the rabbit hole.

[00:02:19] This right here makes you or allows you to not be naive. It allows you to be aware. Trust me, with water chemistry, you can really get into the weeds. I barely even scratched the surface. But I would say for the methods and the things that I've learned about water in general, this gets you 95% there.

[00:02:59] You can explore, test water, see if third wave water works for you. You can see if it's way too strong for your palate. It allows you to really be free, free to really explore the things that are out there for us for coffee.

[00:03:22] As I was messing around with this device that I got almost less than a week ago, I started to play around with my coffees. They've been livelier. They've been more direct instead of cloudy, less muddied. My lightly roasted Kenyan coffees are starting to talk to me. I am getting some of that sweetness there that people always say that's there. All the other stuff that I do with my Brazilian coffees, with all the coffees that I do have that I've roasted, they're more expressive. They're exactly the thing that I thought that wasn't possible with coffee anymore, or once in a blue moon whenever I do make a cup and it just works. Even when I do the exact same recipe, it falls flat on its butt.

[00:04:31] But now, since I know the numbers, I know the sweet spots of my concoction of water or even just my dilution of third wave water, which is a story for another day, I'm able to taste things that I didn't think were really possible. I can manipulate the coffee a little bit more. I can see what it's all about because of this particular piece of gear.

[00:05:20] Yeah, don't get me wrong, I have my refractometer. I love that thing. That thing has taught me so much about my palate, about things that I do like, about what's actually under-extracted, what's over-extracted, and where it doesn't work. But this thing right here, it still shocks me as I play around with it and use it. And now I'm pairing it with my coffee and how I can manipulate acidity and sweetness more than just depending on the type or shape of the brewer. It's magical. It's really empowering.

[00:05:45] It has me sit here, think and wonder. Not enough people talk about it. It's interesting how certain things that we do talk about, we're very adamant about them. We want everybody to know about it. We want everybody to get it. If we spend some time understanding our water, then it gets us closer to understanding our coffee. It does. And that's pretty cool.

[00:06:31] We've all heard it. Coffee is about 98% water. A little less than that with espresso, right? But we stay fixated on our gear, on time. Do we swirl here? Do we not swirl there? This Kenyan isn't tasting up to par. And water seems like it's just an afterthought.

[00:07:10] A lot of times whenever we do buy or give a damn about our water, we leave it to others. We let others decide and pick for us what it is. And then initially we taste it. It's better than the regular water. But do we understand why? And again, I'm not telling you to go really deep into the rabbit hole. Because here, with this TDS meter, you can just know enough to where your coffee's better.

[00:07:53] But when you know the reasons why things are what they are, then you can make those judgment calls on the fly. You can make those educated decisions on the fly. You can really ponder and think, and then once you actually make that decision, you're ready to make your cup of coffee because you understand what the water's going to do for you, if it is actually going to impact some acidity where you want it to or some sweetness, or it may give you that possibility of knowing that all you probably would need is spring water, especially when it comes to lighter roasted coffees.

[00:08:46] So you just want to have a good go-to. For me, at least for now, it's about 110 PPM. Does it tell you everything that you need and want to know about the coffee? No, it doesn't. It doesn't tell you the split of how many minerals are actually in your water, how you can manipulate that. It doesn't tell you the pH of the water. It doesn't do any of that. Just one simple device that tells you how hard your water is, and how that's going to translate when you actually brew and make your cup of coffee.

[00:09:26] I'm not kidding you. Coffees are already amazing. And I just think about it. I'm like, wow, what about all the ones that I missed? Why did I miss them? Was it because the water was a little bit too hard? It was too minerally. It was too volatile, as we say, where I'm just using tap water and it doesn't make it better.

[00:10:00] What are we talking about here? And trust me, I tried to spend as much money as I could on this device. I was trying to find something probably even more accurate, something that was $20, $30. But they all hovered around the $10 range. Just need one, a reputable brand, decent reviews, and you use it from time to time. If you want to use it each and every day, you can. You can use a gallon to make your concoction, make sure that you're right at the levels that you want to be at. Make sure water was distilled, tap water, spring water. Play around with the dilution levels of third wave water.

[00:10:54] And then once you get there, that's when your coffee is going to start singing to you. That's when it's going to start talking to you and saying, "This is the way I like to be." And when we let it and allow it to do the thing that it wants to do, be able to extract the coffee as much as it can for our palates, for our desire, then we're going to be in a good place. We're going to be in a happy place. We're going to be in a place where we didn't realize or know that our coffees can taste like this. We'll realize that just a little bit more information, we can manipulate and do the things that we thought weren't really possible.

[00:11:51] We'll stop blaming our technique, our swirl, the coffee itself, the way we feel that day. We'll stop guessing, second-guessing ourselves. We're really getting to the point, the meat and potatoes of coffee and enjoying and experiencing it for what it is.

[00:12:16] I'm still not a light roasted coffee drinker. But I'm starting to see it for what it is. I see that acidity coming in my face. But I do like the fact that now I can actually taste some of the sweetness of the coffee. I'm looking to explore, to understand all the things that I do like about coffee. Like this weekend when I over-extracted the heck out of this Brazilian coffee, it was heavy, but that sweetness just stayed there. It'd be cool to get some acidity back by just manipulating, playing around with the PPM, the TDS meter, to see if I can get a little bit more balance, more nuance, so to speak. And that's just playing around with the water.

[00:13:16] I haven't played around with the temperatures, the ebbs and flows of all that, which we can. We can have all these variables that we play around with. But this right here is magical. It's $10, $12, $8 on Prime Day. I don't know. This is a no-brainer.

[00:13:45] So if you don't have one, get one. And if you have one you haven't used in a while, use it. Start to understand your water. Taste your water. See what it's all about. See if you like it this way, that way. Just like we have preferences in roast degrees and actual coffees that we love, we're going to have a preference. Things are going to start coming up to the point where we're like, "Oh, I like this PPM because of this. If I mix this and that together, it can work."

[00:14:27] Diving into the minerals and all that stuff, that's a story for another day. That's that extra 5% or even those little drops that people think do something. We'll get there. But this will get you 95% there. It will give you depth and power that you didn't know you needed or could have.

[00:14:54] So $10. Just do it. Just do the thing. You won't have any regrets. You'll feel more empowered. And that's all I have to say about it. I'll give you a deep dive soon. But this thing right here is pretty cool. Talk to you later. Let me know what you think. Let me know if you have one. If you don't, you're on the fence, this should be a no-brainer. It really should. Talk to you later.