What is specified is a beverage preparation apparatus, inparticular coffee machine, comprising a process stage (70)designed to convey and to heat supplied water and todispense a prepared fluid. With the objective of dispensingphysiologically compatible products and reducing the tendencyfor limescale build-up on the basis of the waterhardness, the solution according to the invention makesprovision for the process stage (70) to have a heater (30) forheating the supplied water to a first target temperature ora second target temperature, which is different from thefirst target temperature, and also a path selection device(20) for selectively choosing a direct path (55) for theconveyed water or a softening path (56) comprising a processstage softening device (90) for the conveyed water, whereinthe path selection device (20) is designed to choose thesoftening path (56) when the heater (30) heats the suppliedwater to the first target temperature, and wherein the pathselection device (20) is designed to choose the direct path(55) when the heater (30) heats the supplied water to thesecond target temperature.
