Water for Tea

One of the intentionally aged teas, Pu-Erh has a loyal following.


Aug 31st, '12, 16:43
Posts: 24
Joined: Aug 14th, '12, 21:02

Re: Water for Tea

by teasme » Aug 31st, '12, 16:43

tst wrote:
teasme wrote:I usually just use water from tap or brita filtered water. I never put much thought into how it would affect the flavor of the tea. Very interesting thread.
My wife and I used to drink English breakfast style teas often (nothing remotely close high quality) and we quickly zeroed in on the taste we enjoyed the most. When we tried brewing some tea at my dad's house, it tasted horrible.

Come to find out, he adds salts/chemicals to the water supply to soften the water (supposedly helps smooth hair while showering or something along those lines). If his soft water altered the taste of hardy teas like English breakfasts, lapsang souchongs, assams, etc., can you imagine what it would do to a fresh green oolong? Or a longjing? Forget about it.

Needless to say, we've been bringing our own water ever since ...
Haha thanks for the tip. Next time I travel I'll definitely keep that in mind and make sure I bring some water from home. I wonder if different kinds of water can bring out a unique or desirable flavor from the tea.

Sep 3rd, '12, 20:32
Posts: 24
Joined: Aug 14th, '12, 21:02

Re: Water for Tea

by teasme » Sep 3rd, '12, 20:32

teasme wrote:
tst wrote:
teasme wrote:I usually just use water from tap or brita filtered water. I never put much thought into how it would affect the flavor of the tea. Very interesting thread.
My wife and I used to drink English breakfast style teas often (nothing remotely close high quality) and we quickly zeroed in on the taste we enjoyed the most. When we tried brewing some tea at my dad's house, it tasted horrible.

Come to find out, he adds salts/chemicals to the water supply to soften the water (supposedly helps smooth hair while showering or something along those lines). If his soft water altered the taste of hardy teas like English breakfasts, lapsang souchongs, assams, etc., can you imagine what it would do to a fresh green oolong? Or a longjing? Forget about it.

Needless to say, we've been bringing our own water ever since ...
Haha thanks for the tip. Next time I travel I'll definitely keep that in mind and make sure I bring some water from home. I wonder if different kinds of water can bring out a unique or desirable flavor from the tea.

I just came back from a Labor Day trip and I have to say, I did notice a difference in taste using the tap water from another state. Good thing I took your advice and brought my own water supply as well :) you're a life saver!

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Sep 3rd, '12, 23:51
Posts: 251
Joined: Sep 19th, '11, 23:42
Location: Northern California

Re: Water for Tea

by tst » Sep 3rd, '12, 23:51

teasme wrote:
teasme wrote:
tst wrote:
teasme wrote:I usually just use water from tap or brita filtered water. I never put much thought into how it would affect the flavor of the tea. Very interesting thread.
My wife and I used to drink English breakfast style teas often (nothing remotely close high quality) and we quickly zeroed in on the taste we enjoyed the most. When we tried brewing some tea at my dad's house, it tasted horrible.

Come to find out, he adds salts/chemicals to the water supply to soften the water (supposedly helps smooth hair while showering or something along those lines). If his soft water altered the taste of hardy teas like English breakfasts, lapsang souchongs, assams, etc., can you imagine what it would do to a fresh green oolong? Or a longjing? Forget about it.

Needless to say, we've been bringing our own water ever since ...
Haha thanks for the tip. Next time I travel I'll definitely keep that in mind and make sure I bring some water from home. I wonder if different kinds of water can bring out a unique or desirable flavor from the tea.

I just came back from a Labor Day trip and I have to say, I did notice a difference in taste using the tap water from another state. Good thing I took your advice and brought my own water supply as well :) you're a life saver!
Haha. Glad it worked out for you, but I'm by no means a "life saver". Just trying to share my (very limited) tea experiences as others have done for me. Hope you had a good trip (tea aside).

Sep 4th, '12, 21:37
Posts: 24
Joined: Aug 14th, '12, 21:02

Re: Water for Tea

by teasme » Sep 4th, '12, 21:37

tst wrote:
teasme wrote:
teasme wrote:
tst wrote:
teasme wrote:I usually just use water from tap or brita filtered water. I never put much thought into how it would affect the flavor of the tea. Very interesting thread.
My wife and I used to drink English breakfast style teas often (nothing remotely close high quality) and we quickly zeroed in on the taste we enjoyed the most. When we tried brewing some tea at my dad's house, it tasted horrible.

Come to find out, he adds salts/chemicals to the water supply to soften the water (supposedly helps smooth hair while showering or something along those lines). If his soft water altered the taste of hardy teas like English breakfasts, lapsang souchongs, assams, etc., can you imagine what it would do to a fresh green oolong? Or a longjing? Forget about it.

Needless to say, we've been bringing our own water ever since ...
Haha thanks for the tip. Next time I travel I'll definitely keep that in mind and make sure I bring some water from home. I wonder if different kinds of water can bring out a unique or desirable flavor from the tea.

I just came back from a Labor Day trip and I have to say, I did notice a difference in taste using the tap water from another state. Good thing I took your advice and brought my own water supply as well :) you're a life saver!
Haha. Glad it worked out for you, but I'm by no means a "life saver". Just trying to share my (very limited) tea experiences as others have done for me. Hope you had a good trip (tea aside).
Haha I hope I can pass on this knowledge and help someone else out as well. The trip was great! How as your labor day weekend?

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Sep 4th, '12, 23:52
Posts: 251
Joined: Sep 19th, '11, 23:42
Location: Northern California

Re: Water for Tea

by tst » Sep 4th, '12, 23:52

teasme wrote:
tst wrote:
teasme wrote:
teasme wrote:
tst wrote:
teasme wrote:I usually just use water from tap or brita filtered water. I never put much thought into how it would affect the flavor of the tea. Very interesting thread.
My wife and I used to drink English breakfast style teas often (nothing remotely close high quality) and we quickly zeroed in on the taste we enjoyed the most. When we tried brewing some tea at my dad's house, it tasted horrible.

Come to find out, he adds salts/chemicals to the water supply to soften the water (supposedly helps smooth hair while showering or something along those lines). If his soft water altered the taste of hardy teas like English breakfasts, lapsang souchongs, assams, etc., can you imagine what it would do to a fresh green oolong? Or a longjing? Forget about it.

Needless to say, we've been bringing our own water ever since ...
Haha thanks for the tip. Next time I travel I'll definitely keep that in mind and make sure I bring some water from home. I wonder if different kinds of water can bring out a unique or desirable flavor from the tea.

I just came back from a Labor Day trip and I have to say, I did notice a difference in taste using the tap water from another state. Good thing I took your advice and brought my own water supply as well :) you're a life saver!
Haha. Glad it worked out for you, but I'm by no means a "life saver". Just trying to share my (very limited) tea experiences as others have done for me. Hope you had a good trip (tea aside).
Haha I hope I can pass on this knowledge and help someone else out as well. The trip was great! How as your labor day weekend?
Excellent actually. Got a nice break from the Sacramento-area heat and was able to spend the past four and a half days in the cool Bay Area weather with my wife (and more of that hech-hechy water). Managed to take my grandmother out to breakfast yesterday too.

It's been great for tea as well. I was able to continue working my way through the OTTI 15 samples from Mountain Tea (the LiShan). Followed that up with some 2011 Yutaka Midori from O-Cha. And today, was able to delve into some young/semi-aged sheng from YS. Overall, I couldn't have asked for anything more :D

Sep 5th, '12, 11:53
Posts: 24
Joined: Aug 14th, '12, 21:02

Re: Water for Tea

by teasme » Sep 5th, '12, 11:53

tst wrote:
teasme wrote:
tst wrote:
teasme wrote:
teasme wrote:
tst wrote:
teasme wrote:I usually just use water from tap or brita filtered water. I never put much thought into how it would affect the flavor of the tea. Very interesting thread.
My wife and I used to drink English breakfast style teas often (nothing remotely close high quality) and we quickly zeroed in on the taste we enjoyed the most. When we tried brewing some tea at my dad's house, it tasted horrible.

Come to find out, he adds salts/chemicals to the water supply to soften the water (supposedly helps smooth hair while showering or something along those lines). If his soft water altered the taste of hardy teas like English breakfasts, lapsang souchongs, assams, etc., can you imagine what it would do to a fresh green oolong? Or a longjing? Forget about it.

Needless to say, we've been bringing our own water ever since ...
Haha thanks for the tip. Next time I travel I'll definitely keep that in mind and make sure I bring some water from home. I wonder if different kinds of water can bring out a unique or desirable flavor from the tea.

I just came back from a Labor Day trip and I have to say, I did notice a difference in taste using the tap water from another state. Good thing I took your advice and brought my own water supply as well :) you're a life saver!
Haha. Glad it worked out for you, but I'm by no means a "life saver". Just trying to share my (very limited) tea experiences as others have done for me. Hope you had a good trip (tea aside).
Haha I hope I can pass on this knowledge and help someone else out as well. The trip was great! How as your labor day weekend?
Excellent actually. Got a nice break from the Sacramento-area heat and was able to spend the past four and a half days in the cool Bay Area weather with my wife (and more of that hech-hechy water). Managed to take my grandmother out to breakfast yesterday too.

It's been great for tea as well. I was able to continue working my way through the OTTI 15 samples from Mountain Tea (the LiShan). Followed that up with some 2011 Yutaka Midori from O-Cha. And today, was able to delve into some young/semi-aged sheng from YS. Overall, I couldn't have asked for anything more :D
Sounds like a great weekend. I can't wait for the weather to get a bit colder so I can drink some more hot tea. I've been drinking mostly cold brewed iced teas recently due to the hot weather.

Sep 5th, '12, 14:45
Posts: 504
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Location: South Carolina

Re: Water for Tea

by bryan_drinks_tea » Sep 5th, '12, 14:45

teasme wrote:
tst wrote:
teasme wrote:
tst wrote:
teasme wrote:
teasme wrote:
tst wrote:
teasme wrote:I usually just use water from tap or brita filtered water. I never put much thought into how it would affect the flavor of the tea. Very interesting thread.
My wife and I used to drink English breakfast style teas often (nothing remotely close high quality) and we quickly zeroed in on the taste we enjoyed the most. When we tried brewing some tea at my dad's house, it tasted horrible.

Come to find out, he adds salts/chemicals to the water supply to soften the water (supposedly helps smooth hair while showering or something along those lines). If his soft water altered the taste of hardy teas like English breakfasts, lapsang souchongs, assams, etc., can you imagine what it would do to a fresh green oolong? Or a longjing? Forget about it.

Needless to say, we've been bringing our own water ever since ...
Haha thanks for the tip. Next time I travel I'll definitely keep that in mind and make sure I bring some water from home. I wonder if different kinds of water can bring out a unique or desirable flavor from the tea.

I just came back from a Labor Day trip and I have to say, I did notice a difference in taste using the tap water from another state. Good thing I took your advice and brought my own water supply as well :) you're a life saver!
Haha. Glad it worked out for you, but I'm by no means a "life saver". Just trying to share my (very limited) tea experiences as others have done for me. Hope you had a good trip (tea aside).
Haha I hope I can pass on this knowledge and help someone else out as well. The trip was great! How as your labor day weekend?
Excellent actually. Got a nice break from the Sacramento-area heat and was able to spend the past four and a half days in the cool Bay Area weather with my wife (and more of that hech-hechy water). Managed to take my grandmother out to breakfast yesterday too.

It's been great for tea as well. I was able to continue working my way through the OTTI 15 samples from Mountain Tea (the LiShan). Followed that up with some 2011 Yutaka Midori from O-Cha. And today, was able to delve into some young/semi-aged sheng from YS. Overall, I couldn't have asked for anything more :D
Sounds like a great weekend. I can't wait for the weather to get a bit colder so I can drink some more hot tea. I've been drinking mostly cold brewed iced teas recently due to the hot weather.
I just wanted to quote this because it was getting so big. The water in Columbia, SC, has a very pond-scum like taste and is rough due to whatever mineral is leaked from the large shale beds we have here. Filtering it is great, but I use fiji water for darker/heavier tea and Icelandic water for lighter teas, including sencha through greenish alishans and whatnot.

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Sep 5th, '12, 18:59
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Re: Water for Tea

by MIKE_B » Sep 5th, '12, 18:59

I have the same issue as Bryan. My tap water has gotten a lot worse this summer. Pond water! I put a filter on my main water line and then use a Brita. Tasted fine plain, but I still seem to get a funny aftertaste with some teas.
I sometimes go to a local spring and fill bottles there. It's free and pretty good, but maybe a little too acidic.
Lately I've also been using more bottled water with my nicer teas. Environmental issues aside, bottled water is my best option.
I usually use Volvic or Fiji for yancha and other roasted oolongs. I use Poland Spring or Iceland Spring for everything else.

Edit:
I just realized this is in the puerh section. Maybe it should be elsewhere so everyone can find it. This thread should be of interest to any kind of tea enthusiast.

Sep 5th, '12, 22:07
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Joined: May 9th, '09, 15:59

Re: Water for Tea

by shah82 » Sep 5th, '12, 22:07

/me in the catbird seat.

Cobb County water is very good.

Sep 6th, '12, 12:42
Posts: 24
Joined: Aug 14th, '12, 21:02

Re: Water for Tea

by teasme » Sep 6th, '12, 12:42

Agreed. This post would be great for people interested in all types of teas. Bryan, I don't know if I could use fiji water to make tea everyday. My wallet would suffer too much haha.

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Sep 6th, '12, 16:57
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Re: Water for Tea

by Lerxst2112 » Sep 6th, '12, 16:57

The water coming into the house is already filtered. From there, I'll put it into a Brita pitcher. The few times I've used straight tap water, I found the tea tastes better! Namely oolongs. Maybe I'm onto something :?:

Just farking around a few days ago (and the filter in the pitcher needed changed, but was too lazy to go to Walmart and get one) I left some Pellagrino out until it was a little more flat than fizzy. It was used to brew a 2012 Gu Zhu Zi Sun. Interesting is putting it mildly...... :shock:

Belated welcome to the forum, by the way.

Peace, Love, and Tea
Jess K.

Sep 7th, '12, 11:08
Posts: 24
Joined: Aug 14th, '12, 21:02

Re: Water for Tea

by teasme » Sep 7th, '12, 11:08

Lerxst2112 wrote:The water coming into the house is already filtered. From there, I'll put it into a Brita pitcher. The few times I've used straight tap water, I found the tea tastes better! Namely oolongs. Maybe I'm onto something :?:

Just farking around a few days ago (and the filter in the pitcher needed changed, but was too lazy to go to Walmart and get one) I left some Pellagrino out until it was a little more flat than fizzy. It was used to brew a 2012 Gu Zhu Zi Sun. Interesting is putting it mildly...... :shock:

Belated welcome to the forum, by the way.

Peace, Love, and Tea
Jess K.
Pellagrino? That does sound interesting. Thank you by the way, assuming that greeting was intended for me. :)

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Nov 6th, '12, 06:00
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Re: Water for Tea

by ImmortaliTEA » Nov 6th, '12, 06:00

MIKE_B wrote:I have the same issue as Bryan. My tap water has gotten a lot worse this summer. Pond water! I put a filter on my main water line and then use a Brita. Tasted fine plain, but I still seem to get a funny aftertaste with some teas.
I sometimes go to a local spring and fill bottles there. It's free and pretty good, but maybe a little too acidic.
Lately I've also been using more bottled water with my nicer teas. Environmental issues aside, bottled water is my best option.
I usually use Volvic or Fiji for yancha and other roasted oolongs. I use Poland Spring or Iceland Spring for everything else.

Edit:
I just realized this is in the puerh section. Maybe it should be elsewhere so everyone can find it. This thread should be of interest to any kind of tea enthusiast.
I think you've figured it out when it comes to finding good bottled water for high quality teas. I absolutely love Icelandic Glacial Water and put it in my top 3 favorite bottled tea waters: Icelandic Galcial, Poland Spring, & Zephyrhills. I live in South Florida and there is a water here called Zephyrhills that makes outstanding tea. If water makes up 99% of the tea you are drinking why would you want to use tap water, especially if you spend good money on high quality teas. I absolutely cringe when I have to use anything other than bottled spring water, however, if I don't have anything else at all I guess the worst quality water I would use would be Brita with Bamboo Charcoal. I find it to be a complete waste of high quality tea to use tap water!

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Nov 6th, '12, 09:22
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Re: Water for Tea

by gasninja » Nov 6th, '12, 09:22

I live on top of a mountain and have really tastey well water. Yet even filtered it makes really dull tea. The only way I even use it for anything but my worst puerhshop tuition tea or shu is when stored in bamboo charcoal and boiled in my Lin's kettle (which recently met an unfriendly end with the kitchen floor). Two miles down the road there is Chemung spring water a local spring water company. There water is only slightly better than my tap water for tea. I normally use Poland spring for all but the very best teas I drink. It is a little on the lighter side with the tending sometimes over do the high notes and can hurt the mouthfeel. But is generally better on all teas then any of my other options, plus it is cheap and I can get it in 2.5 gallon jugs to reduce waste. For special younger sheng and light roasted oolong I try to use Voss. For special aged sheng and heavier roasted oolong I use Fiji. I have been meaning to order a case of volvic from amazon just to try it out as I have not found it locally.

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Nov 6th, '12, 14:42
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Re: Water for Tea

by ImmortaliTEA » Nov 6th, '12, 14:42

gasninja wrote:I live on top of a mountain and have really tastey well water. Yet even filtered it makes really dull tea. The only way I even use it for anything but my worst puerhshop tuition tea or shu is when stored in bamboo charcoal and boiled in my Lin's kettle (which recently met an unfriendly end with the kitchen floor). Two miles down the road there is Chemung spring water a local spring water company. There water is only slightly better than my tap water for tea. I normally use Poland spring for all but the very best teas I drink. It is a little on the lighter side with the tending sometimes over do the high notes and can hurt the mouthfeel. But is generally better on all teas then any of my other options, plus it is cheap and I can get it in 2.5 gallon jugs to reduce waste. For special younger sheng and light roasted oolong I try to use Voss. For special aged sheng and heavier roasted oolong I use Fiji. I have been meaning to order a case of volvic from amazon just to try it out as I have not found it locally.
I can't recommend Volvic enough as well. It's right up there for me and definitely think its a touch heavier for mouthfeel than Poland Spring!

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