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Can Water Make a Light Roast Sweet?
Description
In this episode, I sit down with two pitchers of homemade water in front of me, one dialed for sweetness and one dialed for acidity, and ask a question that's been nagging me for a while. Can you actually coax sweetness out of a lightly roasted coffee, or is the coffee just going to do what the coffee is going to do? I walk through why third wave water stopped cutting it for me on light roast, why I landed on 100 ppm instead of the 155, 250, or 300 you see floating around out there, and why I started making my own water from three ingredients that cost less than a bag of coffee. I also get honest about my complicated relationship with light roast, how it used to be my jam, how it feels one-noty to me now, and why I keep coming back to it anyway.
More than a water breakdown, this is a reflection on the bigger question lurking underneath every gear purchase and every brewing experiment. Are we manipulating coffee too much? Am I really growing as a palate, or am I just bending every cup to fit what I already want? By listening, you'll learn why water is the biggest determining factor in what ends up in your cup, how a lower total dissolved solids target can let coffee speak for itself, and why the real work of this whole coffee journey may have less to do with the beans and more to do with understanding yourself. If you care about light roast, water chemistry, or the philosophy of brewing, this one is for you.
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