Coffee Appreciation

Peak Water - A Review.
After what seems like and age, but In reality is about right for new product development, the Peak Water has arrived. You probably know the person leading the team behind it is @mcolonnadashwood, if not go check them out, you’ll learn something about lifting if nothing else.

Whats it like though? Its well packaged with clear instructions things that matter in the retail product space, and I’l all grey with light blue accents is a striking thing to look at, for a jug that is. The fit and finish needs some work, edges are a little sharp, the lid doesn’t quite fit snugly, there are no fill level markers and the spout has a tendency to encourage pouring from the edges when the jug is full. But these are small issues that will be resoled in future models I’m sure, and tbh it’s not an issue for me as it’s the filter I’m really interested in.

The instructions are pretty clear, and worth following with a couple of key ammendments.
Firstly the included alkalinity test strip. A lot of feedback I’ve heard is that the 10 second time is not long enough for the optimal setting. Give it a minute and the strip will dry fully, in a lot of cases to a darker colour (indicating higher alkalinity) than at the 10 sec mark, (Image 2 shows this well). This is crucial as this is dictates the starting bypass setting, more on that in a moment.
Secondly the recommend flush cycle to prime the filter would appear to be too short. I found a significant difference after another 1-2 full jugs so would recommend adding at least 2-3 extra full jug flushes before first use.

The numbers on the 3rd image show the readings after a week of use. Our tap water is moderately hard, with a Kh/GH balance of 6/12 deg German hardness on average (270-310ppm TDS). You can see and immediate difference on setting one, and then a small drop to setting 2. The gaps between 3-4-5 are much larger and this is due to the nature of the bypass itself. The proprietary filter has a central bypass hole that is covered by a dial, as you can see in images 4-8, the hole is entirely one for setting one, and is closed of gradually until setting 5, no bypass. It’s pretty obvious from the images that the nature of the bypass with this system is not linear, something that will be hard to achieve in any system. But the large difference in coverage between 3/4 is why the starting setting from the test strip is crucial. It’s worth noting here that the setting is a starting point, for optimum results you should tune it using the dial to your tastes.

The output water is a little flat and hollow to drink, slightly lacking in the weight and roundness I associate with the local tap water, but the taste is crisp. Mind you who cares about that, its for coffee.
In this regard the output reminds me a lot of the output from the BWT Bestmax Premium cartridge system that we use @fcpcoffee, both in taste and in the Kh/Gh balance. It made the difference I expected to the coffees I cupped against the tap water, increased clarity and brightness, better balance and sweetness, none of the heavy chalky feel I associate with the very hard water I used to brew with. So in essence its the closest I think you’ll get to the cafe water experience at home, which in terms of the Peak Water mission statement, is job done quite frankly.

TLDR: its a bloody good filter that produces cafe level water quality and it will make your coffee taste better, if you brew it well……

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