BeanScene Magazine

It’s been just 15 months since Steve Cosh landed on Australian soil with one goal – to make Brita a well-known name in the coffee industry.

Having already built up Brita’s business in the UK and the US in his 11 years with the company, Steve was well equipped to educate the industry on the advantages of Brita.

“When I first came here, very few people had heard of Brita professional,” he recounts. “My task was to turn that around.”

Less than two years later, Steve has helped nudge most of the country’s major companies towards Brita’s ion exchange technology. The key, he says, has not been about educating cafés about the importance of water – most good baristas are well aware of this. Rather, it’s about pointing out the clear advantages of the Brita system.

“I’m tired of hearing that coffee  is 98 per cent water – it’s a fact that everyone is writing about and everyone knows,” Steve says, as his typically cheerful personality gives way to a slight frustration. “Who cares anymore? What we should be saying is let’s do something about this… We’re just trying to get across to people that they need to look at the water first. Unless you tackle the issues related to your water the coffee is never going to be the best it can be no matter the roast or the grind.”

Steve says he’s heard endless rants about the importance of careful picking, drying and transportation to ensure roasters can work with the green coffee. He’s heard about the importance of roasting, packing and grinding coffee so that baristas can properly do their part. When a coffee doesn’t work out, baristas and roasters spend hours analysing the coffee and the machine. “What about the water?,” he asks.

This is where the frustration lies for Steve – after all this talk about the perfect extraction, few of these baristas are worried about the chemicals, Chlorine and so on that are regularly being pumped through coffee ­Australia-wide. 

Most water filtration systems to date, Steve explains, have relied on adding polyphosphates to bind onto the calcium and magnesium in the water to stop the scale build up in the machine.

The problem with this is two-fold, Steve says. One, you’re now introducing polyphosphates to the coffee beverage and two, polyphosphates can dissipate at the high temperatures of today’s professional coffee machines, meaning you still get scale in your machine.

“I’m not going to argue here whether these polyphosphates are good or bad,” Steve says. “But the fact is, you’re introducing something into the water and thus your coffee.”

Steve has been working hard to educate cafés about Brita’s ion exchange technology that doesn’t use polyphosphates. The ion exchange resin used in the Brita system attracts the calcium and magnesium and heavy metals in the water and binds it to the resin. In its place it releases hydrogen, a natural element that already exists in water. Before passing 100 per cent of the water over activated carbon and then onto the machine.

“Our task this year, has been to educate the industry as to exactly what is happening with their water and the coffee,” says Steve. “Once you try the Brita system you’ll see for yourself what the differences are. It’s not often you come across a product that does exactly what it says on the box. Brita does.”

Another of Brita’s advantages Steve is keen to explain is Brita’s Blending Key. In preparing coffee, he says, you need a degree of calcium and magnesium. You can’t take all of the minerals out of the water, as without them you can’t make a good cup of coffee. To combat this, other systems allow around 30 per cent of the water to pass over the filter. The problem, he says, is that these filters are designed to operate at a constant water pressure. If this should drop your by-pass can increase, meaning you get more than the 30 per cent you’re expecting and the mix of water is not consistent.

The Brita system differs in sending 100 per cent of the water into the filter. On the Brita system what’s commonly known as the by-pass, which Steve calls blending, can be adjusted from 0 per cent to 70 per cent. Cafés can decide, depending on the water quality you have, how much water will go over the ion exchange resin. All of the water will still go over the activated carbon to take out taste, smell and colour, however 100 per cent of the chlorine is removed. This also means cafés and roasters have additional parameters from which to design the perfect coffee. 

The Blending Key has proven especially vital for Australia’s range of water quality. Steve explains that Adelaide, Perth and the central coast have hard water, with high amounts of calcium and magnesium. In comparison, Sydney’s water is pretty good. However, Melbourne, which still has a degree of calcium, magnesium, heavy metals and chlorine seems to be by far some of the best quality water in Australia Because of these water quality variation, coffee that tastes fine in Melbourne and Sydney will have a vastly different taste in other regions due to the water.

“You actually hear of roasters adjusting the blend of their coffee to deal with the water differences,” says Steve. “A roaster will design a coffee blend for what they taste in their own city and rarely do they think of the water. Then, when they ship their coffee to, say, South Australia, it tastes different. Nine times out of ten that café will put the blame on the roaster.”

While Steve can evidently cite the advantages of the Brita system in terms of coffee quality, when it comes to convincing most companies – from small cafés to multinational chains – he says the economic argument usually rings loudest. Scale build-up is among the most common causes of espresso machine breakdowns and inefficiencies. When scale builds on heating elements, those elements have to work harder to heat the water. He says just 0.5 millimetres of scale build-up can decrease energy efficiency by up to 25 per cent.

“If you have scale build-up in four coffee machines, it’s the equivalent of running five machines,” Steve says. “Imagine you’re a big chain company and you’re running 1000 machines around Victoria. Can you think of what the extra energy costs would add up to?”

Although the Australian economy is performing relatively well compared to others, Steve points to the thin profit margin most cafés operate at. In reducing costs, after staff and equipment, running the building is probably one of the most significant outputs. As electricity prices are rising, he can’t imagine why companies would pay up to an extra 25 per cent on their energy bills, when fitting a Brita filter could help save on those costs.

These arguments on the Brita filter are recognised the world over, where outside of Australia and the United States, Brita is by far the leading water filtration system for coffee machines and food service equipment..

In addition to offering endless conversations about water, Brita has stepped up as strong supporters of Australian coffee events, as major sponsors of the Australasian Specialty Coffee Association, the Golden Bean Awards and the Melbourne International Coffee Expo. The company also took a lead role in supporting the Brita Professional HotClub Barista Cup, which gave baristas from hotels, clubs and pubs the opportunity to showcase their talent.

“It’s all about getting our name out there and getting people to try out the system,” he says. In the system trials, Steve says he doesn’t believe in putting parametres onto the baristas, i.e. telling them directly that their coffee will improve, their machines will work better in six months, etc.

After explaining the benefits, he allows the Brita system to speak for itself.

Sometimes, the success is when a barista opens a boiler after six months and can’t find any scale. For service companies, they can often see that their technicians are spending less time fixing  broken down machines and exchanging parts. Whatever the effect, Brita has been quickly spreading its Australian presence and it would seem, Steve’s goal is quickly becoming a reality.