Gyokuro Tamahomare opinions and steeping

[Teaism]

Filtered water is the softest we can get, isn't it? or distilled water..very soft. Mineral water..especially Fiji (which comes from volcanic rocks), should belong to hard water category.

But filtered water drops a pH degree, you should boil it to increase it.

Talking about water is always fun and difficult..from my experience, any volcanic water (Fiji, Samdasoo, Baekdu (Changbaishan)) gave green tea quite a darker brewing. And I think this type is certainly not soft, please get me corrected.

Hi Charlie,

You are absolutely right. You did your homework to explore the water available in your area and have found out what works for you. No one can argue with you on that.

Water is sometimes more important than tea. A slight drop in water quality would reduce the tea quality drastically and exponentially. With good water, we can make mediocre tea good but with lousy water we will make great tea mediocre.

For hobbyist, it is prudent to explore all means and options of water available to us on all tea and find out what works for us in our area. No one can argue with us after that because every region has their own water quality and the type of water available locally. The key word is to do our homework to explore and explore. Those long winded debate would not lead to anywhere or any conclusion. But they are fun just for debate sake.

Well, it is just a personal opinion.

Have a great tea day!

Cheers!

[theredbaron]

Filtered water is the softest we can get, isn't it? or distilled water..very soft. Mineral water..especially Fiji (which comes from volcanic rocks), should belong to hard water category.

But filtered water drops a pH degree, you should boil it to increase it.

Talking about water is always fun and difficult..from my experience, any volcanic water (Fiji, Samdasoo, Baekdu (Changbaishan)) gave green tea quite a darker brewing. And I think this type is certainly not soft, please get me corrected.

I will oblige
Fiji water is actually an artesian water, and with Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) of 160 Mg/l is still soft. Volvic, a spring water, with TDS of 109 Mg/l is definitely soft. Hard waters begin at TDS of around 200 to 250 Mg/l.
No minerals whatsoever are not good for tea water. Good water for tea needs minerals, just not too much. Very bad for tea are waters from lime mountains, but these waters can be excellent and extremely healthy drinking waters.

[Kaytea]

There! I tried with the Fiji water and it was way sweeter than all my other attempts! And 70C does work, you just don't steep it as long as I said. Oh happy days!
We installed the re-mineralizator filter and I will also give it a try.

[Kaytea]

I wonder what kind of water they have in Germany. Some places in parks will offer a spout of water to fill up a bottle. It's water that comes from some underground source and is said to be very healthy. Having tried it, it's awfully disgusting! (laugh) It felt like there was an incredibly high amount of sulfur in it. Anyone knows about these waters and how suitable they are for tea once boiled? I suspect not, but since some of you were on the subject... I'd be curious about trying it. You know, I'm going back to visit family next year. If I stumble upon some, I'll be sure to try and see for myself just out of curiousity. Maybe I'll bring my TDS meter as well.

[theredbaron]

There! I tried with the Fiji water and it was way sweeter than all my other attempts! And 70C does work, you just don't steep it as long as I said. Oh happy days!
We installed the re-mineralizator filter and I will also give it a try.

And now try it with 50C to 60C, and steep for a longer time, and compare.

As to water in Germany - it depends. Good and healthy drinking water is not necessary good water for brewing tea. Water in Bavaria, for example, is some of the best drinking water there is, but kills every tea. It is too hard, has too many minerals, especially too much lime.

After tea leaves - water is by far the the single most important factor in a good brew. The better the quality of the leaves, the more important water quality is.

[Tead Off]

Filtered water is the softest we can get, isn't it? or distilled water..very soft. Mineral water..especially Fiji (which comes from volcanic rocks), should belong to hard water category.

But filtered water drops a pH degree, you should boil it to increase it.

Talking about water is always fun and difficult..from my experience, any volcanic water (Fiji, Samdasoo, Baekdu (Changbaishan)) gave green tea quite a darker brewing. And I think this type is certainly not soft, please get me corrected.

I will oblige
Fiji water is actually an artesian water, and with Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) of 160 Mg/l is still soft. Volvic, a spring water, with TDS of 109 Mg/l is definitely soft. Hard waters begin at TDS of around 200 to 250 Mg/l.
No minerals whatsoever are not good for tea water. Good water for tea needs minerals, just not too much. Very bad for tea are waters from lime mountains, but these waters can be excellent and extremely healthy drinking waters.

There used to be a very good site that listed all the mineral properties and TDS of most of the bottled waters in the world. I believe they took it down.

One of the things I'm confused about is TDS and hardness. If hard water is not supposed to be good for tea, and 250 parts per million TDS is the line that separates mineral waters from spring waters, why is my use of Aura water, which has a higher than 250 TDS content, excellent for Japanese green teas?

I just did an experiment as I haven't drank any Japanese green teas in more than a year. I went from my normal filtered tap water to the Aura brand here in Thailand while brewing some greens. The difference was astounding. Aura brought a softness and mellowness to the tea, taking away so much astringency and bitterness that I encountered with my normal filtered tap. For oolongs, my normal filtered tap is much better than the Aura. Any thoughts?

[chingwa]

...as I haven't drank any Japanese green teas in more than a year...

Inconceivable...

[chingwa]

I'm not really qualified to answer your question... but TDS is just a measure of the measurable conductive ions in the water, it's not actually a good measure of what those particles are. It stands to reason that water from different sources may contain better or worse chemical makeup when it comes to this tea or that tea.

A higher iron content in the water would likely improve the flavor for Japanese greens considerably. While other components (sulfur,calcium,magnesium etc.) that may be more typical of "mineral water" would certainly have detrimental effects. So, the devil is in the details as usual.

[theredbaron]

Filtered water is the softest we can get, isn't it? or distilled water..very soft. Mineral water..especially Fiji (which comes from volcanic rocks), should belong to hard water category.

But filtered water drops a pH degree, you should boil it to increase it.

Talking about water is always fun and difficult..from my experience, any volcanic water (Fiji, Samdasoo, Baekdu (Changbaishan)) gave green tea quite a darker brewing. And I think this type is certainly not soft, please get me corrected.

I will oblige
Fiji water is actually an artesian water, and with Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) of 160 Mg/l is still soft. Volvic, a spring water, with TDS of 109 Mg/l is definitely soft. Hard waters begin at TDS of around 200 to 250 Mg/l.
No minerals whatsoever are not good for tea water. Good water for tea needs minerals, just not too much. Very bad for tea are waters from lime mountains, but these waters can be excellent and extremely healthy drinking waters.

There used to be a very good site that listed all the mineral properties and TDS of most of the bottled waters in the world. I believe they took it down.

One of the things I'm confused about is TDS and hardness. If hard water is not supposed to be good for tea, and 250 parts per million TDS is the line that separates mineral waters from spring waters, why is my use of Aura water, which has a higher than 250 TDS content, excellent for Japanese green teas?

I just did an experiment as I haven't drank any Japanese green teas in more than a year. I went from my normal filtered tap water to the Aura brand here in Thailand while brewing some greens. The difference was astounding. Aura brought a softness and mellowness to the tea, taking away so much astringency and bitterness that I encountered with my normal filtered tap. For oolongs, my normal filtered tap is much better than the Aura. Any thoughts?

I guess that TDS is just a benchmark, and it really depends then on the particular chemical make-up of the particles. I have not tried Aura, mostly i use Volvic as my standard water as it is available at a Tesco just around the corner, and once a while Fiji, for which i have to go to a dept store a few kilometers away.
I use filtered water for drinking, and have used it once a while for tea when i ran out of Volvic. It is OK, but compared to Volvic mutes the taste a bit.

[chrl42]

I'm not really qualified to answer your question... but TDS is just a measure of the measurable conductive ions in the water, it's not actually a good measure of what those particles are. It stands to reason that water from different sources may contain better or worse chemical makeup when it comes to this tea or that tea.

A higher iron content in the water would likely improve the flavor for Japanese greens considerably. While other components (sulfur,calcium,magnesium etc.) that may be more typical of "mineral water" would certainly have detrimental effects. So, the devil is in the details as usual.

Quite my thoughts as well, it's a really complicated topic.