The World's First Bottled Water for Coffee — Ready Brew Water
The World's First Bottled Water for Coffee — Ready Brew Water
empirical water is the brew water of choice for numerous World and US Coffee Champions.
Available in USA and Canada only.
See Our Endorsements
See Our Endorsements
Jibbi Little — 2022 World Aeropress Champion 🥇
"I love the spring water for brewing coffee. It brings out floral and sweet notes, resulting in a clean cup without any bitter or drying aftertaste."
Try Jibbi's preferred mineral profile: spring
Julien Grey Langevin — 2022 US Cup Tasters Champion 🥇
"I’m blown away by the Glacial and Spring profiles," says Julien. "Both profiles increase the clarity of the cup immensely, and the acidity is more effervescent and round. The Glacial profile increases sweetness and more delicately articulates the savoriness. The Spring profile also increases sweetness, but it is more soft and refined. Overall I think Empirical Water really showcases coffees in a very special way." (Photo credit Matthew Temple)
Brian Quan — Coffee Professional
"Oh, this is interesting," says Brian about the glacial profile. "Very defined. This is really sweet. There is a distinctive difference between the two profiles. Out of the box with no adjustments, both of these profiles gave me really good brews." On the spring profile, Brian says, "It's round, it's sweet — it's actually really sweet. This is an incredibly good all-rounder water. I feel like I could brew almost any coffee with this water and it would give me good results across the board, boosting a lot of the enjoyable properties. It's really round and sweet, whereas the glacial profile has more definition. I think both of these profiles are really good, the question is whether you want to go in the direction of definition or sweetness and body. Pretty impressive. I do prefer glacial for the definition."
Try Brian's preferred mineral profile: glacial
Andrew Coe — 2023 World Roasters Championship 🥉, 2023 US Roasters Champion 🥇, Owner of Elevator Coffee
"As a roaster, I'm looking for coffee that has great balance and high sweetness," says Andrew. "Additionally, I'm always thinking about how customers can get great results brewing my coffees at home. I've been evaluating empirical water, and I've really enjoyed their glacial profile, a very easy to use bottled water for coffee. In my testing, it yields nicely balanced cups, yet the flavors are still distinct and clear." (Photo credit Savor Brands)
Try Andrew's preferred mineral profile: glacial
Sompetch "Pack" Katisomsakul — 2024 US National Brewer's Cup 🥉
"I was pleasantly surprised when I first tried empirical water. When I brewed a natural anaerobic coffee with it, the water softened the funky flavors, allowing hidden elements to shine with a clean finish, even as it cooled down. This water is excellent for enhancing the quality of your coffee. I highly recommend using empirical water to bring out the best flavors in coffee, especially in competitions, as I would do for myself."
Try Pack's preferred mineral profile: glacial
Kayla Baird — Cup of Excellence International Juror & London Coffee Masters Finalist
"I have brewed with the glacial profile," says Kayla, "and I was honestly so surprised and impressed at how much of a difference it made in the clarity of the coffee I brewed — a well-rested natural process coffee from Mexico."
Patrick Penny — Lead Product Developer at a major coffee company
"I’ve tested hundreds of water sources, including other ‘water optimizers’, for both personal and professional endeavors with tea and coffee. I can say with confidence that Empirical Water’s Spring and Glacial waters will bring your brews to the next level. I did both sequential and blinded tasting against a few of my favorite other water sources and the difference in sweetness perception, flavor clarity, and degree of extraction was clearly in Empirical Water's favor. I plan to continue using Empirical Water’s products both for fun experiments and everyday brewing!"
Grind That Coffee
"We’ve been brewing, testing, and comparing these profiles for a few weeks now, and we are impressed by the results," say Hanna and Damian from Grind That Coffee. "The brews are noticeably different from other available 'water options.' In terms of profiles, we found that for some coffees, we preferred glacial, while for others, the spring profile stood out—so there’s no clear winner for us yet."
"What they certainly have in common is that they bring sweetness to the forefront, create an incredibly pleasant mouthfeel, and extend the aftertaste. We love how some funky naturals that we previously found hard to drink suddenly became enjoyable, with the 'funkiness' reduced to a minimum. For washed coffees with high acidity, the glacial profile and buffer worked wonders to create a balanced cup! While we continue testing, we’re enjoying the brews these concentrates deliver and having fun experimenting."
Blooming Coffee
"The results we have with this water are simply incredible," say Alberto and Vanessa from Blooming Coffee. "From the first test, we noticed it enhances the essential qualities of each coffee, giving us more complex and balanced results. Depending on the coffee, it can intensify sweetness or balance acidity, creating a harmonious profile that stands out with every sip. What has surprised us the most is how it improves the mouthfeel and extends the aftertaste, making each cup much more enjoyable. Even coffees that were harder to appreciate before have revealed smoother notes and better-defined flavors. We’re still exploring its possibilities, but so far, empirical water has been key in discovering new dimensions in our coffees."
Nolan Dutton — Head Roaster and Green Coffee Buyer at Corvus Coffee
"We cupped a natural Costa Rica and a washed Kenya with our Denver unfiltered tap water, our own lab water (RO + remineralization), Third Wave Water, and empirical water," says Nolan. "I’d say the empirical water glacial profile was the best for the expression of flavor and vibrancy of the coffees, with Third Wave Water just behind the glacial in those qualities. I was slightly upset at how poorly our RO + remineralization performed."
Try Nolan's preferred mineral profile: glacial
The World's First Bottled Water for Coffee
The world's first bottled water specifically designed for brewing coffee (& tea), guaranteed to brew the best coffee (& tea) you've ever tasted.
Say goodbye to buying distilled water, dissolving minerals and measuring concentrates. Just pour the bottled water into your kettle, heat up, and brew coffee.
Crafted using a base of deionized water, aerated to achieve our signature smooth mouthfeel. Reference-grade brew water for outstanding performance, trusted by coffee professionals for home and competition brewing.
Our Signature Mineral Profiles
empirical water glacial — Inspired by natural mineral water from glaciers. Harmonious and lively, emphasizing clarity and complexity in coffee, espresso and tea.
empirical water spring — Inspired by natural mineral water from springs. Resonant and concentrated, emphasizing body and richness in coffee and tea.
What sets empirical water apart?
- Brew on Easy Mode — Dial into a huge sweet spot, for tasty brews without fail.
- Syrupy Sweetness — Usually the first thing coffee enthusiasts notice.
- Clean Depth — Spotlight clean deliciousness with no off-notes or excess roast.
- Silky Smooth — Luxurious texture, never drying in the mouth.
These unique characteristics equip empirical water to brew coffee like no other water out there.
How did we create empirical water?
We reverse-engineered glacial and spring mineral water by painstakingly emulating the natural limestone dissolution process, for record-low levels of chloride and sulfate impurities in our water. Then, we spent several years iterating on these profiles specifically to achieve the best-tasting brews of coffee (& tea).
Our unique process and approach have placed empirical water in a league of its own — Just compare to any other freshwater in existence, and you'll taste the difference immediately.
Comes in sturdy, reusable glass bottles. Crafted with a singular vision, one small batch at a time. Supply is limited.
Silica
Silica
empirical water is the only coffee water on the market to incorporate silica, a mineral that occurs naturally in many of the world's finest mineral waters.
Silica boosts sweetness, mouthfeel, and aftertaste.
Some describe the silica sensation as experiencing the sensory characteristics of your brew in slow motion. Aromatics stick around in your nose, mouth and throat for minutes on end.
If selected, silica will be added to your Ready Brew Water.
Mineral Profiles
Mineral Profiles
glacial v1.5 (Default)
Harmonious and lively, with an emphasis on clarity and complexity. Suitable for coffee, espresso and tea. Default TDS: 70 mg/L
spring v1.1 (Default)
Resonant and concentrated, with an emphasis on body and richness. Suitable for coffee and tea. Default TDS: 157 mg/L
Ingredients
Ingredients
All ingredients used are found in naturally occurring glacial and spring water.
Deionized water, sodium bicarbonate, calcium carbonate, magnesium sulfate, calcium chloride, magnesium chloride, potassium bicarbonate.
The review title could just as easily read best water PERIOD.
If you still have doubts they will vanish once you try Empirical Water.
Simply taste the water before brewing it and see the difference for yourself.
Shipping is always fast and the care taken in packaging is outstanding.
You’ve tried the rest, Now treat yourself to the Best.
Before Empirical water, I used cheap bottled water and holy moly, Empirical Water makes my coffee go from a 5 to a 10. It’s a night and day difference. I will definitely be subscribing and getting shipments weekly.
I used the Spring in my Aiden and my cup was immediately brighter which on first taste wasn’t great, but after a few sips really brought out the flavor notes of my already favorite coffee and made it so much better.
The Glacial was incredible though. I made an espresso with my normal water, emptied my reservoir and changed it to the Glacial and literally everything else was the same parameters (dose, WDT, water temp, yield) and the cup was so much better it was like a smack in the face. Went from great tasting espresso that I already had, to great tasting but also that thick syrupy texture that I’ve only had from cafes on my trip to Italy a few years ago. 100% recommend and will order again in the future!
I was shocked when I tried Empirical Water. I used to only use RO water with little thought to mineral content. Empirical Water changed the whole palette of the coffee, resulting in a sweeter, more rounded brew. Water makes up the vast majority of your coffee, makes sense that you'd want to control it as a variable!
Also, I'm not sure if this is all in my head, but I swear the water extracted more caffeine too. I was buzzing off my normal amount of coffee. Caffeine is very soluble in water so it's probably all in my head but I'd be interested if anyone else has experienced this.
What's nice about Empirical is that it's solid without tweaks. If you know the importance of water in coffee, this is a must try. Arby is right about widening your extraction sweet spot with this water - it's truly forgiving.
I’m a coffee noob and am still trying to develop my palette. My current water jug ran out so I grabbed the empirical water to try it today. It instantly made a fruitier cup where I could taste more of the notes on the box than anything I’ve done before! I am actually really impressed and will continue to purchase.
I use Spring for brewing coffee and loose leaf teas. I prefer this water over Glacial for Spring’s bombastic extraction power and thick, flavorful brews with a minimum of harshness. Glacial tastes good but Spring expresses more flavor, color and texture in the final cup.
Pour over dark roast coffee: very forgiving yet rich brews. The cup is always full of roasty dark flavors without being oppressive. I think this is the best water for coffee (though it’s not for espresso).
Loose leaf Chinese black tea in a gaiwan: comes out velvety and chocolatey, deliciously sweet and cocoa-y. The brew is noticeably syrupy and has a deep, dark red hue.
Loose leaf Chinese Green tea in a gaiwan: fresh, sweet, nutty, and intense umami flavors are elevated, while bitterness is pretty much a non-issue. The tea presents as soup-like and enriching.
Sencha in a kyusu: warm, comforting savory notes are emphasized, yielding a fragrant, brothy result and brilliant yellow-green hues.
note: I use Spring concentrate, which I mix with DI water to use as my brew water. I always mix it with the buffer amount intended for tea, as denoted in the Empirical Water User Guide. Despite my initial misgivings about high mineral content water, it seems Spring is the best water for tea that I have tried.
This week I tried Spring for my tea. Everything tastes better with this water. Glacial is still my go to for coffee but Spring elevates green tea especially. Very excited.
My use case has been ultra light to light roast espresso shots 1:2.5 ratio at 93C on high extraction burrs. I really like how it has given a smooth finish bright acidity and I have had less astringency when I push extractions. I like the creative profiles I can get with lotus but right now I really like empirical water and plan to stick with it for a while.
Glacial 1.5 yields an impressively balanced presentation across a wide spectrum of coffees and teas; ultralights, comfort roasts, shaded greens, yancha, puer, and more.
If you've dabbled in making your own brewing water, you'll notice a level of liveliness, clarity, and flavor separation that you might not have expected was possible at this level of texture, sweetness, and depth.
Extra silica is a nice add-on but not strictly necessary imo. It adds a fullish and slippery texture, with an almost-undetectable increase in sweetness.
Most coffees can be pushed a bit harder without becoming muddy or harsh, though careful dialing-in is still necessary for best results.