results of the coffee water conditioning experiment

Back in August I decided to try an experiment with filtering my coffee water.

To recap, all I use is a plain drip coffee maker, plain coffee filter and tap water. I run the water through the coffee maker with just the filter, leave the filter there, add coffee, then run the water through it again.

There is definitely a taste difference, and it's significant enough to where it's now my preferred way of brewing. I thought at first it was just the aftertaste that was different in the positive direction. I was wrong. It's the whole brew that improves.

However, there are two things I don't know.

First is whether a faucet-mount water filter would achieve the same result with a single pass through the coffee filter.

Second is if the act of double-heating the water is just as important as the filtering itself.

What I might try next is running the water through the coffee maker first without filter, then a second time with filter and coffee. Doing that will tell me how much double-heating actually affects the taste. It might be more important than I realize.