LOS ANGELES — A California-based company that provides specially formulated water to coffee companies recently found itself mentioned on the restaurant/food review Web site Food GPS — which revealed what the water formulator describes as water for “the best cup of coffee.”

David Beeman, founder of Cirqua® Customized Water™, based in Camarillo, CA, told Food GPS reviewer Joshua Lurie that he thinks the best coffee water has the following characteristics: no turbidity, 80 parts per million (ppm) total hardness, no chlorine, 150 ppm total dissolved solids (TDS), 40 ppm alkalinity (bicarbonate), a pH of 6 to 8, and no iron. Lurie wrote about Cirqua in a recent article on Food GPS, “The Impact of Customized Water on Coffee and Tea.”

As one comparison, Cirqua’s Rod Carmer told Lurie that tap water supplies in nearby cities can be quite different, based on Carmer’s measurements with a TDS meter: Camarillo’s tap water has a TDS of 638 ppm; Ventura, CA, has 1,225 ppm; and Seattle, WA, has 45 ppm.

Since its founding 31 years ago, Cirqua (originally called The Water System Group), has become involved in the water-for-coffee business in a big way. According to Food GPS’s report, Cirqua has a nationwide relationship with Starbucks coffee shops, providing that giant coffee vendor with a custom water formula, equipment and services to give Starbucks’ shops consistent-quality water. Cirqua also formulates water for other large national coffee purveyors such as The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf and It’s a Grind, plus some local and regional companies.

In a separate interview, Carmer told WaterTech Online® that Cirqua employs 40 of its own service technicians in various locations and also employs some 280 local subcontractors, all to provide water services to coffee vendors. The company also formulates water for international coffee- and tea-tasting competitions, and is about to enter the consumer market.

Marc Gallucci, owner of retailer Fix Coffee Co. in Echo Park, CA, told Food GPS that having high-quality water for coffee, espresso and tea is “all about water hardness and total dissolved solids,” referring to Cirqua’s approach of purifying a coffee vendor’s source water and then remineralizing it to give it the right taste. Gallucci also thinks the best brewing temperature for coffee water is 198 to 200 degrees F (92 to 93 C).

On Food GPS, Lurie describes the results of some coffee and tea sampling sessions he conducted while interviewing Beeman.

For more information about Cirqua, click here.

To read the full Food GPS article, click here.

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