PSL’s, ( Pumpkin Spiced Latte) and all things pumpkin spice ushered in an early fall coffee season. Every year America’s insatiable desire for all things pumpkin spice has the fall coffee season starting earlier and this year it started right at the beginning of August. On August 1, World Market released its annual pre-ground pumpkin spice coffee. The 12-ounce bags promise “the flavors of fresh baked pumpkin pie” and Starbucks started shipping ready-to-drink pumpkin spice lattes and pumpkin spice-flavored ground coffee to grocery chains on August 10th. Starbucks has been debuting the Pumpkin Spice Latte around Labor Day since 2003, selling over 200 million cups of the game-changing drink since. But the coffee chain has been known to rile up the PSL cult by offering opportunities for fans to get the drink early, usually the last week of August. In the last few years, however, pumpkin spice demand has reached a fever pitch. Data from Nielsen shows that total sales of pumpkin-flavored foods in the U.S. grew almost 80 percent between 2011 and 2015, to over $360 million in 2015. Along with the new maple pecan coffee flavor offering Dunkin’ Donuts is also offering one of the largest varieties of pumpkin choices of any national restaurant chain. These hot seasonal espresso beverages have proven to increase sales and have succeeded for all of these chains and a lot of independent operators too by drawing in customers early and often during the holiday season. People don’t want to miss out on limited time seasonal offers and for a lot of us these drinks are now part of our memories of enjoying and celebrating the holiday season and they all have one major ingredient in common, water! Espresso is 85-96% water and that water is extremely important to delivering not only a great shot of espresso but not damaging a very expensive espresso machine. Chlorine can alter the aroma and increases acidity. It also bonds with organics creating an earthy or moldy overtone to the flavor. TDS, (total dissolved solids), can cause poor extraction of the grounds, under extraction leads to weak and sour drinks and over extraction leads to bitterness so taking care to treat coffee and espresso beverage water is extremely important. Regardless of which one is your favorite, operators know and work diligently to make sure that all of these beverages begin with a great shot of espresso. Everpure continues to lead the Industry in taking care of coffee and espresso water quality by working directly with Specialty Coffee Operators and Espresso Equipment Manufactures.
From the ESO and Claris cartridge systems delivering filtered softened water through salt less ion exchange to the blended reverse osmosis line of MRS, Mineral Reduction Systems, we have a solution to turn the water operators are dealing with into the engineered water they need to deliver the espresso beverage that meets their specifications. For espresso, that means a softer water that also protects the equipment from both hard water scale and corrosion from chloride. For a superior quality extraction of coffee solids the Statistics & Standards Committee of the Specialty Coffee Association of America has determined the following standards for the water used to brew specialty coffee.
Characteristic Target Acceptable Range
Odor 1 Clean / Fresh, Odor free
Color 2 Clear color
Total Chlorine O mg/L
TDS 3 150 mg/L 75 – 250 mg/L
Calcium Hardness 4 grains or 68 mg/L 1 – 5 grains or 17 mg/L – 85 mg/L
Total Alkalinity 40 mg/L At or near 40 mg/L
pH 7.0 6.5 to 7.5
Sodium 10 mg/L At or near 10 mg/L
1 Odor is based on sensory olfactory determination
2 Color is based on sensory visual determination
3 TDS measured based on a 4-4-2 conversion
The Target is the most desirable point in the Acceptable Range, although falling within the range is considered meeting the standard. These variances are in place to take into consideration real world circumstances, and the target gives the optimum measurement of each characteristic to strive for. For an operator then, the place to begin is with a POE, point of entry standard Everpure water test, DEV7013-73. This test includes the water bottle and lab analysis of 30 contaminants and characteristics. The test usually takes from 7 to 10 days to analyze at the laboratory located in Chicago and the following is a sample of the delivered analysis;
In order to provide both a superior quality shot of espresso and protect the equipment from scaling and/or corrosion this water would be way out of specification. La Marzocco publishes the following water quality specification for the warranty of there espresso machines;
This water has hardness of 257 ppm and chlorides of over 308.8 ppm so the recommendation would be an Everpure MRS Blended reverse osmosis system to actually take the mineral and chloride out of the water and deliver water with the correct specification of both TDS, total disolved solids between 90ppm and 150ppm and chlorides of less than 3o ppm in order to protect the machine from corrosion. The size of the MRS unit is determined according to the amount of beverage water that will be needed at peak operating time within the facility. For example the MRS600HEII will make 600 gallons of water every 24 hours or 25 gph, (gallons per hour). The MRS350Bl will make 350 gallons every 24 hours or 14.58 gph, (gallons per hour). Not to worry though just call us and we will take care of sizing the equipment you need for your equipment.
Everpure Espresso Solutions;
The ESO7, EV9607-25 (ESO stands for Espresso, the 7 just means the size of the filter cartridge) is a three-in-one system providing filtration, scale prevention and buffering/softening of the water. The water retains enough mineral to bring out the espresso flavors. The ESO7 will take care of up to 5,300 grains of hardness or at 8 grains of hardness will generate 511 gallons of espresso before it will need to be changed.
The Claris XXL, EV4339-14, unit will give you the same great 3 in 1 filter but also give you the ability to generate 2,910 gallons of espresso, ( at 10 grains of hardness) but also has an adjustable DUOBLEND™ bypass valve that allows for a more precise adjustment of carbonate hardness. Either system is quick to install, easy to handle and fast to service.
The Claris Prime EV4339-86 Features a 6-stage filtration process, protects equipment from scale and mineral-induced corrosion in areas with high TDS, chloride (Cl-) and sulphate (SO4) content in the feed water.
Everpure has developed an entire series of Blended MRS, Mineral Reduction System Reverse Osmosis units. From the MRS20, (20 stands for 20 gallons made per day), EV9797-, up to the MRS600HEII, (600 gallons made per day), EV9970-54. One of the most popular for the coffee and espresso application is the EV99-17. Note that all of these solutions require a storage tank.
These systems can be sized to fit one piece of equipment or all of the coffee, espresso, beverage, etc..equipment that you are using to insure that the water you are using will protect your equipment from whatever changes occur within your water supply and provide the perfect water and ice for your beverages. Not sure of what you need to do to take care of your water? Give us a call at 800-942-7873 or email us at info@filterpure.com