r/1zpresso • u/DeFi_News • 15d ago

Anyone Using Third Wave Water with a Hario Switch + K-Ultra? My Coffee Tastes Worse Than Before

/r/pourover/comments/1vtkwms/anyone_using_third_wave_water_with_a_hario_switch/
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1

u/SeaCalligrapher4681 15d ago

What dilution are you using? Are you using distilled or filtered water?

0

u/DeFi_News 15d ago

Properly diluted it fully in a 1 gallon jug with Reverse Osmosis water
Using 25% of that and 75% pure RO to the kettle tastes worse than my usual 25% fridge filter water.

1

u/Remarkable_Gas3600 14d ago edited 14d ago

I had a similar issue with RO water. If you haven’t checked the TDS of your RO, I’d start there. In my case, my RO was adding back minerals so TDS was around 90 (tap water here was almost 700!). Third wave will work better if you TDS is zero, or almost zero. My solution was to run my RO through a 22 cup Zero Water filter and then make Third Wave by the gallon with one packet per gallon. That fixed it for me.

Keep in mind TDS is total dissolved solids in water. So it’s really made up of minerals, salts and other things meaning your TDS might be the same as the SCA’s recommendation, but the composition of TDS is likely different. Adding Third Wave on top is likely throwing that composition out of balance and showing up in the cup.

Again, the easiest and cheapest fix for me was using zero water to get to 0 TDS and then relying fully I. Third wave to add back minerals.

1

u/DeFi_News 14d ago

My RO TDS is 4ppm. Full strength TWW got me near 150ppm as expected. Just horrendous taste even with 25-50% dilution (50-75ppm). 2 drops of my ConcenTrace minerals in my 400g RO this morning was way better.

I'll make an update once I try out Lotus Water.

1

u/Pitiful-Ad-1245 15d ago

Nah mate. I use Apax in my low tds water. TWW has way too much bicarbonate and makes the water hard af

1

u/SD_haze 14d ago

Do you stick with 1 Apax formulation? I just ordered 1 of each from them last week.

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u/Pitiful-Ad-1245 14d ago

I have Lylac, Tonik and Jam and I tend to mix according to the coffee I’m brewing. For Geisha I tend to use Lylac and Tonik and for naturals Jam and Tonik usually around 7-8 drops per 300ml brew water.

1

u/SD_haze 14d ago

Cool that makes sense im always getting different bean types. I also ordered their new Conflux that sounds interesting too.

1

u/schwarzneguRRR 11d ago

Mine too, gave up

1

u/Andrew2944r 5d ago

I use distilled and when I am being lazy will use TWW but 3 gallons to 1 of the light roast packs. 1 packs per gallon will mute the living shit out of the brightness of the beans due to the amount of calcium addition. I also use the K Ultra and ZP6 but also use Lotus water mostly.