3 Self-cleaning Water Bottles For Tastier Tap Water

This Grayl bottle also offers relatively easy clean-up, an important factor if you're using natural water. I really liked that the opening of the Geopress is wide enough to fit my entire hand into, meaning I could actually get to the bottom of the bottle with a sponge. Just make sure to thoroughly dry the bottle before storing it: If you store the bottle while it's wet, the inner portion and outer portions suction together and it's then difficult to pull the two pieces apart. 

Unlike drip coffee, espresso should be concentrated. While excellent drip typically has a TDS percentage of 1.3 or 1.4%, great espresso has a much higher percentage. The Breville Barista Express, for example, produced shots with TDS percentages as high as 12.4%.

Unlike the CrazyCap and the Larq, the Mahaton bottle doesn't have an additional purification setting for bodies of water that might contain more contaminants, such as streams and other sources of groundwater. For that reason, I'd recommend only using the Mahaton bottle with indoor sources of water unless the company releases a new bottle with an additional setting.   

The bottle and cap are made from BPA-free plastic and feel just as sturdy as a plastic bottle should. The filter, however, is attached to the straw by a flimsy rubber tube, which could be the culprit behind the poor filtering. The water tasted sour, but I couldn't quite place the taste -- sulfur, maybe. Even though I didn't really want to, I took a couple more sips (and also spat those out) to make sure it truly tasted the way I thought it did. 

Chris Monroe/CNET Filtron Cold Water Coffee Brewer
Looking for an affordable way to make cold brew in big batches? The $40 Filtron Cold Water Coffee Brewer creates a full 36-ounce carafe of potent coffee concentrate that you can store in your fridge. Rich and tasty, the coffee concentrate you pour from the Filtron is of excellent quality. Just be warned: Its relatively complicated setup and large size demand lots of counter space. 

One downfall? The Mahaton bottle holds just 12 ounces of water, which I can drink in seconds. Most people would need to refill this bottle up to eight to 10 times each day -- that's a lot of interruptions to your day.

Whenever possible, I brew double shots of espresso for all my test runs. I make sure to record the weight of the grounds I use, plus the weight of espresso for each shot I pull. When you liked this article in addition to you desire to get more details relating to water filter Reverse osmosis generously stop by our web site. This data, along with readings from a portable refractometer, allows me to calculate two important percentages: TDS (total dissolved solids) and extraction percentage.

$56 at Amazon Runner-up for tap water
Brita Premium Filtering Water Bottle
Paige Thies/CNET Brita is known for its faucet and pitcher filters, but the company also makes plastic and stainless steel filtered water bottles. According to Brita's website, these bottles aren't intended for outside use -- they're intended for just tap water, like the Astrea bottle -- but this bottle also filtered natural fresh water just fine. The Brita bottle uses an activated carbon filter, which is extremely porous and pulls contaminants, such as chlorine and particulates. 

$69 at CrazyCap Best luxury self-cleaning water bottle
Larq
Larq The Larq bottle also has two purification modes: normal and adventure. Normal mode purifies up to 99.99% of pathogens in 60 seconds, and adventure mode purifies up to 99.9999% of water in three minutes. It doesn't seem like much of a difference, but that 0.0099% can make or break water that comes from a stream or other natural source. 

Larq was the only one of the three bottles that didn't taste significantly better than my tap water, however. It tasted slightly cleaner, but I probably couldn't tell the difference if someone blind taste-tested me. 

All of these brands have received multiple customer reviews on Amazon -- the bottles on this list are all in the four-star range with mostly favorable reviews on Amazon (no one can please everyone). From basic bottles to portable pouches to all-day canteens, try replacing your plastic water bottles with one of these reusable models. 

Chris Monroe/CNET Oxo Cold Brew Coffee Maker
A breeze to operate, the $49 Oxo Good Grips Cold Brew Coffee Maker offers an easy way to steep and strain grounds at room temperature. The cold brew the Oxo Good Grips makes is consistently strong, sweet and with deliciously low acidity. To add an additional layer of filtration, Oxo Good Grips bundles paper filters that can aid the brewer's stainless-steel mesh reusable filter. If you want to make hot tea, the Good Grips can also be used as a tea infuser.

After my experience, these are the three I'd qualify as the best home espresso machines. While they all get the job done and offer the essential features you need -- like a steam milk frother, drip tray, substantial water reservoir, and easy-to-clean stainless steel base -- the key differentiating factor between them is the price point. And how much you spend on an espresso machine does have a major impact on what type of coffee you'll ultimately get.