Water for Tea

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


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Aug 4th, '12, 03:14
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Re: Water for Tea

by bagua7 » Aug 4th, '12, 03:14

Another way for city dwellers to improve the quality of your water is to "shower" it under the gorgeous rays of the full moon. Just place as much water as you can under in glass containers/jars in an area that you know is going to be lit by the full moon and it will be more yin, and definitively sweeter. This will certainly improve the quality of your tea.

Yesterday, I had breakfast followed by a good session of ripe puerh and the infusions were all fantastic, a lot more sweeter and the water brought up some hidden notes that were totally missed in an earlier brew using "non-exposed" filtered water.
Last edited by bagua7 on Aug 4th, '12, 05:36, edited 1 time in total.

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Aug 4th, '12, 03:35
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Re: Water for Tea

by Tead Off » Aug 4th, '12, 03:35

theredbaron wrote:
sriracha wrote:
theredbaron wrote:
sriracha wrote:

I agree water is important, I just made a conscious choice. =)

Also, still bottled water doesn't have a huge market share here so there are few choices. Two of which I don't even like straight.

What's an average price for bottled water in Bangkok?
Most people who can afford it here get water delivered on a weekly basis in large 20 liter drums, for about 1.80 US$ (the drums are re-used). We use about 3 to 4 drums a week, for drinking and cooking (depending on the season - in the hot season more than in the cool season). Others buy filters, for about 40 US$ for the cheapest ones. Then you get in many neighborhoods machines for filtered water, for about 25 cent per 5 liters.
Of course the bottled water market is huge here, an almost endless amount of brands, from very cheap to vastly expensive Italian and French brands.
Volvic costs about 2 US$ per 1.5 liters, and Fiji 2 US$ per liter.
I like Volvic, too. But the cost is far too prohibitive here for me to drink as much tea as I usually do using this water. I found Aura to be a very good water although the scale that it leaves can be daunting. Montfleur is also not bad. I also have a great filtration system on my tap water that gives me very good results both for daily use and drinking tea. No more scale! Of course, all this is a very subjective experience colored by the drinker.

Aug 4th, '12, 03:59
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Re: Water for Tea

by theredbaron » Aug 4th, '12, 03:59

Tead Off wrote: I like Volvic, too. But the cost is far too prohibitive here for me to drink as much tea as I usually do using this water. I found Aura to be a very good water although the scale that it leaves can be daunting. Montfleur is also not bad. I also have a great filtration system on my tap water that gives me very good results both for daily use and drinking tea. No more scale! Of course, all this is a very subjective experience colored by the drinker.
I safe on a lot of things - no taxis, i ride my motorcycle everywhere, no aircon (which i don't like anyhow), i mostly gave up buying old furniture and old Buddhas (got too much cluttered around anyhow, and prices are getting beyond reasonable). Etc...

But i will not compromise on tea, and good water for it (of all the things the wife nags about - she doesn't over my tea drinking :wink: ).

What helps is that i use very small Yixing pots, with 15 to 20 something brews of my Pu Erh (and up to 15 brews with my best Wu Yi teas) any larger pot i would be too much anyhow.

Aug 16th, '12, 15:54
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Re: Water for Tea

by Randee1515 » Aug 16th, '12, 15:54

I use my tap water. I live in the bay area of CA And our water source is the hech hechi reservoir from Yosemite. It tastes fine, and I usually just drink water from the tap when I'm thirsty, so I figure it's fine to use for tea.

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Aug 16th, '12, 19:08
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Re: Water for Tea

by needaTEAcher » Aug 16th, '12, 19:08

Randee1515 wrote:I use my tap water. I live in the bay area of CA And our water source is the hech hechi reservoir from Yosemite. It tastes fine, and I usually just drink water from the tap when I'm thirsty, so I figure it's fine to use for tea.
I've had many steeps from that same source. I love it. The only water I love more is the Atlanta water, but that is just because I was born there. :mrgreen:

Bay water is something special. Drink some for me!!!!

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Aug 24th, '12, 19:58
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Re: Water for Tea

by Bad Jedi » Aug 24th, '12, 19:58

For daily sessions I'm using lower PH spring water but for backup i have 3- stage Watts Premier water filtration system (not RO) which does great job removing Chloramine and Fluoride because you can't get rid off those with boiling your water. Chlorine is much easier to get rid off even without filter just by sitting your water before boiling for 24 hours and the chlorine will dissipate into the environment. These chemicals enthusiastically contribute to dull/flat taste of the brew even more than hard water by its own. In case of well water, elevated levels of iron,manganese and hydrogen sulfide will greatly contribute to ruining your brew too. Water is tricky business....

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Aug 25th, '12, 00:13
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Re: Water for Tea

by needaTEAcher » Aug 25th, '12, 00:13

Met a guy running one of the Dayi official stores in Seoul, and had some tea with him. Not super impressed with the tea or the maker.

His water had too much of a mineral taste for me, and I could really taste it through the very, very weak brew. I am guessing that it was just straight up too high of a mineral count? Still trying to figure these things out. I mentioned it casually, in a neutral way, and he started bragging about how good the water was. I mentioned reading a few articles (posted earlier on teachat) about matching water type to tea, and his response was, "That is just a bunch of empty words. Water doesn't really matter."

Drank my tea and flew away! :roll:

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Aug 26th, '12, 06:49
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Re: Water for Tea

by Bad Jedi » Aug 26th, '12, 06:49

needaTEAcher wrote:Met a guy running one of the Dayi official stores in Seoul, and had some tea with him. Not super impressed with the tea or the maker.

His water had too much of a mineral taste for me, and I could really taste it through the very, very weak brew. I am guessing that it was just straight up too high of a mineral count? Still trying to figure these things out. I mentioned it casually, in a neutral way, and he started bragging about how good the water was. I mentioned reading a few articles (posted earlier on teachat) about matching water type to tea, and his response was, "That is just a bunch of empty words. Water doesn't really matter."

Drank my tea and flew away! :roll:
Kinda arrogant statement. More than arrogant, ignorant as well.

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Aug 26th, '12, 07:04
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Re: Water for Tea

by TwoDog2 » Aug 26th, '12, 07:04

needaTEAcher wrote:Met a guy running one of the Dayi official stores in Seoul

... Water doesn't really matter."
Well, to be fair, he is running a Dayi store. I don't expect culinary advice from the Olive Garden manger.

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Aug 26th, '12, 09:37
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Re: Water for Tea

by needaTEAcher » Aug 26th, '12, 09:37

TwoDog2 wrote:
needaTEAcher wrote:Met a guy running one of the Dayi official stores in Seoul

... Water doesn't really matter."
Well, to be fair, he is running a Dayi store. I don't expect culinary advice from the Olive Garden manger.

:lol: :lol: LMAO :lol: :lol:

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Aug 26th, '12, 12:47
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Re: Water for Tea

by Drax » Aug 26th, '12, 12:47

TwoDog2 wrote:
needaTEAcher wrote:Met a guy running one of the Dayi official stores in Seoul

... Water doesn't really matter."
Well, to be fair, he is running a Dayi store. I don't expect culinary advice from the Olive Garden manger.
But.... they train at some place in Italy, according to the commercials! :D Seriously, though, that's a good analogy.

Interesting story, Needa, thanks for sharing!

In a similar vein (on the topic of water for tea), you may have noticed that Scott started selling bamboo charcoal over at YS. I had been looking for a good 'volume' source for this stuff for awhile. I picked up some with a recent order and have been using it for a couple of days. It's probably a little redundant since I am already using a filter, but I like keeping one or two in my mizusashi. Thumbs up to this stuff so far...!

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Aug 26th, '12, 16:04
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Re: Water for Tea

by tst » Aug 26th, '12, 16:04

Randee1515 wrote:I use my tap water. I live in the bay area of CA And our water source is the hech hechi reservoir from Yosemite. It tastes fine, and I usually just drink water from the tap when I'm thirsty, so I figure it's fine to use for tea.
Yep. My wife used to live in the Montclair hills and the water was very nice. I heard it was hech hechi water (not confirmed), but the water was excellent. I miss that water.

Now that we live near Sacramento, I use filtered, reverse-osmolyzed, UV-treated water that I buy for $0.25/gallon. The dispensers are located outside grocery stores and supermarkets (we get ours from WinCo).

It may not be ideal, but it tastes great, is economically feasible (especially for a couple of students), and is a more environmentally friendly option (we reuse our 5 gallon jugs). Depending where we settle down in the coming months, I may reassess water options.

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Aug 26th, '12, 21:21
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Re: Water for Tea

by needaTEAcher » Aug 26th, '12, 21:21

Drax wrote:
TwoDog2 wrote:
needaTEAcher wrote:Met a guy running one of the Dayi official stores in Seoul

... Water doesn't really matter."
Well, to be fair, he is running a Dayi store. I don't expect culinary advice from the Olive Garden manger.
But.... they train at some place in Italy, according to the commercials! :D Seriously, though, that's a good analogy.

Interesting story, Needa, thanks for sharing!

In a similar vein (on the topic of water for tea), you may have noticed that Scott started selling bamboo charcoal over at YS. I had been looking for a good 'volume' source for this stuff for awhile. I picked up some with a recent order and have been using it for a couple of days. It's probably a little redundant since I am already using a filter, but I like keeping one or two in my mizusashi. Thumbs up to this stuff so far...!
I used to buy from the grocery store in Japantown. Toooo expensive! Thanks for the tip.

Aug 30th, '12, 11:53
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Re: Water for Tea

by teasme » Aug 30th, '12, 11:53

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.

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Aug 30th, '12, 16:51
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Re: Water for Tea

by tst » Aug 30th, '12, 16:51

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 ...

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