水｜家用咖啡机用水Water for Home Espresso

木头1018 2016-10-02

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意式浓缩咖啡是复杂的。为了做好一杯浓缩咖啡，需要付出很多努力，并且每一杯完美的浓缩咖啡都需要相同的努力。首先，你需要从优秀的种植者和烘焙商手中买到好的咖啡豆；然后，你需要好的设备；最终，你需要懂得如何把精华萃取出来。不过，浓缩咖啡最基本的还是它的两样原料：咖啡豆和水。

Espresso is complex. A lot goes into making it, and the pursuit of pulling a good shot starts anew with each and every coffee. It starts with great coffee sourced from excellent producers and roasters, continues with practice on good equipment, and culminates in an understanding of how to get the best out of a coffee. At its most basic, though, espresso consists of just two ingredients: coffee & water.

大部分的时候我们把注意力都放在了咖啡豆上。毕竟，它富含各种固体、油脂以及芬芳物－我们最爱的风味和芬香都来自于它们。但是，水呢？水值得我们关心吗？它显然是很重要的一部分，但是我们需要付出多少注意力呢？

Much of the focus is often on coffee. After all, it's full of solids, oils, and aromatics - everything necessary to produce the flavors and aromas we love so much. But what about water? Is it worth focusing on? It's obviously a necessary part of the equation, but just how much attention needs paid to it?

在开始之前，我们想强调一点：你加入到意式咖啡机里的水极为重要，不仅仅是为了萃取一杯好的咖啡。使用好的、干净的水不但会延长你的咖啡机的寿命，同时还能帮助它保持良好的运转状态。

Before we start, we want to be clear: the water you put into your espresso machine is incredibly important, and goes far beyond brewing good coffee. Putting good, clean water into your espresso machine will extend the life of your investment, and can help your machine continue to run well.

这篇文章只涉及到了水问题的冰山一角，可以把它当作深入研究水世界的一个入门。水是如何影响你的咖啡，它为什么会影响咖啡机工作，以及你应该对应做些什么。

This post is the tip of the iceberg, as it were, and its meant to be a simple introduction to the world of water. How it affects your coffee, why it matters for your machine, and what you should do about it.

水是什么？｜WHAT IS WATER?

通常我们会认为水就如一纸空白。干净无味、由氢和氧构成的水（H20）则为风味多样的咖啡提供了创作的画布。为了更全面地了解水，我们首先需要聊聊萃取。Barista Hustle 博主 Matt Perger 总结如下：

We typically think of water as a blank canvas. A clear, somewhat tasteless liquid composed of hydrogen and oxygen molecules - H20 - that the delicious, colorful flavors of coffee are painted on. But to fully understand water, first we need to talk extraction. Matt Perger of Barista Hustle sums it up nicely:

“以下是我的超简洁、非百分百准确的定义：
萃取就是水从咖啡中带走的所有的东西。
当你把水和咖啡混在一起时，会发生很多事情。这其中最相关且最容易理解的就是水会溶解咖啡中的很多风味。这些溶解在水中的风味构成了咖啡中你能尝到的（绝大部分）味道。剩余的那些则是些不能溶解的物质。主要就是一些影响口感、非常细微的咖啡粉，但是不能算是萃取，毕竟他们只是浮在水中而已。”
'Here's my super simple and not 100% accurate definition:
Extraction is everything that the water takes from the coffee.
When you mix coffee and water, a lot of things happen. The most relevant and easy to understand of all these things is that water dissolves a lot of coffee's flavours. These dissolved flavours make up (almost) everything you taste when you drink a cup of coffee. The rest is undissolved stuff. This is mostly very very small coffee grinds that affect mouthfeel, but can't be included in extraction because they're just floating around in the water.'

所以，当我们说到咖啡萃取的时候，水可不仅仅是一种干净无味的液体。它实质上是风味的媒介。在冲煮时，水从咖啡粉中提取－或萃取－出固体和油脂，给予曾经清澈的水更多实质的物质。最终结果就是一杯咖啡。

So, when we talk about extraction in coffee, water is so much more than a clear, somewhat tasteless liquid. It actually serves as the medium for flavor. While brewing, water takes in - or extracts - solids & oils that coffee holds, giving that once clear water some real substance. The final result is coffee.

水提取物质的能力也是建立在它是空白画布、有空间接纳这些物质的假设之上的。其实并不然。水中含有各种微量元素，使得水本身也有风味，并且提供了萃取的能力。

The ability for water to take things in is also predicated on the idea that it actually is a blank canvas, and that it has room to take those things in - only it isn't. Not exactly. Water has all sorts of trace amounts of other minerals in it, giving both flavor and extracting ability.

理想的水质｜THE IDEAL WATER

在冲煮咖啡时，你需要认识到很重要的一点，通常情况下，水中的矿物含量越高，水能从咖啡中萃取的物质就更少。一定量的矿物质成分是有益的，过多则不好。水中的矿物质含量用溶解性固体总量（TDS）来表示，测量单位是百万分率（ppm）。通常，（美国）城市自来水的 TDS 值会在十几到一百多，取决于地理位置和水处理方式。

When it comes to brewing coffee, it's important to understand that the more mineral content water has, the less it can take in from coffee, typically. Some minerality is good, too much is bad. The mineral content of water is expressed as the Total Dissolved Solids (TDS), and measured in Parts Per Million (ppm). The TDS range of a particular city's tap water can range anywhere from the 10's to 100's, depending on the location and water treatment process.

那么怎样才是理想的？理想的咖啡用水的 TDS 值应该在 90－150 ppm 之间，没有异味，但是有足够的矿物质以确保萃取的完成。如果想要了解更多详细参数，La Marzocco 为你准备了一份咖啡机用水指南。

So what's ideal? Ideal water for coffee has a TDS of 90 - 150 ppm, with no extraneous odors or flavors that would interfere with taste, but still has enough TDS that the minerals in the coffee are able to help do the work of extraction. If you want to get a lot more specific, La Marzocco has put together these water guidelines here.

水中矿物质的种类和含量在不同地区、不同季节都是不一样的。测量并处理水质以达到平衡点并不容易，有些咖啡馆因此投入了不少的成本在反渗透或者其它类型的水处理系统上。

The type and amount minerals found in water varies across the country and throughout the year. Measuring and properly conditioning water to get the ideal balance can be quite a challenge, and good cafes in some parts of the country end up spending small fortunes on Reverse Osmosis and other water conditioning systems.

弄清楚水的状况是拥有一台咖啡机相当重要的一个问题，但是它常常被忽略。处理好这个问题需要花些时间研究一番，同时你需要重视并理解好的水质对于冲煮好的咖啡以及维护咖啡机是必不可少的。

Figuring out your own water situation is one of the most important aspects of owning a home espresso machine, but is often the most ignored. Getting a good handle on it requires a bit of research, as well as a re-prioritization and understanding that good water is essential for both brewing good coffee as well as taking care of your machine.

下一步｜WHAT TO DO NEXT

以下有几个帮助你提升水质的方案供你参考：

Here are a couple solutions to improve the water you put into your machine:

1. 过滤水｜Filter Your Water

记住一直使用过滤器。即使你家的水质不错，至少还是需要过滤掉一些异味。像 Soma 这样使用活性碳的过滤器是个不错的开始。避免使用像 ZeroWater 这样的软水器－它们会带走过多的矿物质，然后导致萃取问题甚至咖啡机损伤－所有的意式咖啡机都需要水中含有一定量的矿物质才能正常运作，才能做出好的咖啡。

Always use a filtration pitcher. Even if your water is good, having something that filters odors is a minimum. Something like the Soma Filter, which uses activated carbon to filter out tastes and odors is a great start. Avoid using water softening pitchers like the ZeroWater - there filters can actually take too many minerals out of the water, leading to extraction problems and even potential machine damage - all espresso machines require some amount of dissolved minerals to function, and to make coffee taste great.

2. 瓶装水｜Buy Bottled Water

还有一个捷径就是买高品质的瓶装水。特别是，如果你家的水很硬－例如你家的淋浴头和水壶里有很多水垢－买瓶装水会是个不错的主意。咖啡机内累积的水垢最终会有损机器。

Another shortcut to better brewing water is to buy good bottled water. In particular, if your water is quite hard - often expressed in homes by scale build-up on showerheads and in kettles - it's a good idea to buy bottled water for your machine. Scale buildup in an espresso machine can quickly lead to a damaged machine.

Crystal Geyser 和 Poland Springs 都是不错的瓶装水，我们的解决方案部门经常会推荐它们。另一个更完美、更均衡的选项则是普纳水（Acqua Panna），它的罐装地正好离 La Marzocco 在意大利佛罗伦萨 Scarperia 的工厂不远。

Both Crystal Geyser and Poland Springs are great bottled water options, and we often recommend them in our Solutions Department. For a fancier alternative, and for a near-perfect balance of minerals for brewing, Acqua Panna is a delicious water that is bottled not far from the La Marzocco manufacturing plant in Scarperia, Italy.

3. 继续教育｜Further Your Education

如果这篇文章已经勾起了你的好奇心，还有不少有关咖啡与水的内容可以参考学习。例如我们的 Scott Guglielmino 在 Nordic Barista Cup 上做的演讲，以及最新发布的一本新书《Water For Coffee》。

If all this water talk has you curious, there are loads of resources out there on water in coffee, including our own Scott Guglielmino's Nordic Barista Cup presentation on the subject, as well as the recently released book Water For Coffee.

附：Scott 的演讲视频链接：http:///2013/09/water-the-main-ingredient-in-coffee-by-scott-guglielmino-la-marzocco-usa/

La Marzocco Home | 图／文

Samuel Gui | 译

本文有删减，原文参见 La Marzocco Home 2016年2月3日博客“Water for Home Espresso”