General
Using Magic Potion Powders
Quick start
Need the short version? Mix a full packed of our powder with 5 litres of RO water. Make sure it is fully dissolved with no visible powder before you use it.
Make sure you use the right water!
You need pure water as a base to make accurate mixes. Reverse osmosis (RO) water is the most practical option. Water used for mixes should have a TDS of <15.
Magic Potion powders are a careful blend of various minerals designed to give a water profile that helps bring out flavour in coffee. Each mix is different.
Creating a 5 L mix
As long as you have a 5 litre container and supply of reverse osmosis (RO) water, using Magic Potion powders is easy.
Simply dissolve the entire packet in 5 litres and you're good to go.
If you don't have an RO water system, we'd recommend buying a bottle of RO water from 7-11 or Tops. These are 6 litres, so you can remove 1 litre and use the remainder for mixing.
Make sure you get all the powder out of the packet (you can use a little bit of water to rinse it out), and give it time to dissolve.
Powder that is quite old will clump a little over time and will take longer to dissolve. Be patient and wait until there are no visible clumps/flakes in the liquid. If it fails to dissolve well, your powder mix may be too old.
A note on TDS...
TDS measurements can be useful as a consistency check. Make your potion accurately a few times and measure the TDS of the brewing potion. Later, you can use this as a guide for that potion, if using the same water at similar temperature.
What blend is best?
We would highly advise testing them all to get a feel for it yourself.
Everyone has different tastes and brews differently, drinks it black or white, likes fruity flavours or doesn't, and so on.
But as a general guide...
For black coffee
We would recommend our Bloom and Silk mixes.
These are much lighter on the mineral side, so will be less intense, and have less acid buffer.
Too much acid buffer will crush acidity that often is preferred in black coffee and lighter roasts.
Our Amber mix can also be used for black coffee and will give a much more mellow result, without being too intense.
Intensity and Dark Elixir are likely to make a brew that's too intense for black coffee, but you're welcome to try.
For milk coffee
Intensity is our go-to mix for milk coffee and is what we use for our Aerowhite mix shown here. This packs a punch and is best suited for Med to Med-High roasts where you want to bring out nutty, chocolatey and caramel flavours.
Amber is made for milk coffee and aims to give a more mellow, soft result. Think salted caramel.
Dark Elixir is also for milk coffee and works particularly well with darker roasts, or with coffee that frankly tastes bad/burnt where you want to recover it. For darker roasts, it excels and giving a smooth chocolatey finish.
Health and Safety
What's in the powders?
For water used for coffee brewing, in general the concentration of magnesium ions, calcium ions and the overall alkalinity (we prefer to talk about acid buffer) have the biggest impact on taste.
Our powders are custom-designed blends of various minerals like magnesium sulfate, magnesium chloride, magnesium citrate, calcium chloride, sodium bicarbonate, etc. as well as some food colouring for added magic.
Together these create complex mineral water with a unique composition that affects extraction and taste.
These mixes have very low concentrations of minerals overall - much like mineral water you are used to drinking, so are very safe.
Wait - are these substances used safe?
Yes. All substances used are sourced carefully by someone with a PhD in chemistry. We review the certificates of analysis from suppliers, use food grade substances where possible, and prepare/package in clean conditions. All the dissolved ions present are in your everyday diet already.
What should I NOT do?
Firstly, basic common sense applies. Don't eat/taste the powder or get it in your eyes. It won't taste good, and even if something is harmless when dissolved, that doesn't mean it will be good for you to eat straight.
Table salt is safe but eating a tablespoon of it can have adverse effects.
Once it's all dissolved, you've effectively made a unique batch of mineral water. It's completely safe to drink, but might not taste the best - it's optimised for resulting coffee taste, not as a drinking water.
Are the colours safe?
Yes, we only use food colourings that are considered non-toxic and safe for human consumption, and approved by various bodies like the FDA.
We use a combination of:
- Carmoisine
- Sunset Yellow FCF
- Tartrazine
- Brilliant Blue FCF
Beware of allergies!
While all substances and food colourings used are safe, it's always possible to have allergies to such things, for example tartrazine. These are all very common however, so you would have encountered them before in other foods.