There was a time that I was tracking barometric pressure for non-tea-related issuse, and found that tea was coming out consistently better on days over 30 in (which I'd determine before checking the pressure for that day). Putting the leaf out to breathe for 24-48 hrs before use (depending on the tea) helps to mitigate this.bonescwa wrote:...sometimes it has great intensity of aroma, taste, and other times it's a shadow of what it was for no apparent reason.
If you are filtering your tap water then you might also want to get to know something about your local water, too (they send out a report in the mail every year). In Portland (Portland proper, at least) we actually get water from two sources: snow melt from a nearby mountain (the Bullrun reservoir -- among the cleanest in the world, and great for tea), and when that runs out they switch to well water that is not-so-great for tea.