What is the absolute best water to use for tea?

[DJ3riple]

I have just purchased a few 2009 Shincha's and I want to avoid inhibiting the tea as much as humanly possible!

Currently I use a $30 Pur water filter on my faucet for all of my tea...I feel like I could do better than this?

What is best and what do all of you guys do for your water?

[xuancheng]

I have just purchased a few 2009 Shincha's and I want to avoid inhibiting the tea as much as humanly possible!

Currently I use a $30 Pur water filter on my faucet for all of my tea...I feel like I could do better than this?

What is best and what do all of you guys do for your water?

If I were you, I would buy a few bottles of spring water and compare it with your tap water. Sometimes tap water run through a filter can be quite nice, but tap water is different everywhere. If you get a couple of brands of spring water, then compare to tap water, you can see what sort of potential the water factor has, and whether it matters to your personally.

[Odinsfury]

I personally think that most spring waters are a joke. Filtering my water using a Brita pitcher has yielded much better results than using spring water, especially taking limescale into consideration. Distilled water or reverse osmosis water with added minerals also seems to make a nice cup of tea in my opinion.

[xuancheng]

I personally think that most spring waters are a joke. Filtering my water using a Brita pitcher has yielded much better results than using spring water, especially taking limescale into consideration. Distilled water or reverse osmosis water with added minerals also seems to make a nice cup of tea in my opinion.

And lots of people would disagree with you. Which also doesn't mean it doesn't make a better tea for your tastes. That is why everyone should experiment with lots of different kinds of water.

Another example is tetsubins. I have read a lot of people say they are not good for pu'er or oolong tea(including vendors), but then some people also prefer them for these same teas.

I don't use spring water myself, but I have experimented with some brands. I was just suggesting spring water or bottled water as the easiest way to bring a lot of different tasting waters together easily for comparison. It's too expensive for me to use spring water all the time, but I did find one brand I liked specifically for Dancong teas -- it made a big difference. But I thought it made little difference with other teas and even made one SX oolong worse than usual.

[gingkoseto]

I personally think that most spring waters are a joke. Filtering my water using a Brita pitcher has yielded much better results than using spring water,

I agree with you, only because I am lucky enough to live in a region with excellent water source. I believe fresh off source good water is much better than bottled water from a foreign source that has stayed in bottle for month.

But again it's only because I have great tap water source. For people living in areas without good water source (like some Arizona and New Mexico areas that I've been to), Brita will not be enough to make good water. But if I live in such an area, I will advocate for community water processing facility. I never believe bottled water is a good source for water.

[DJ3riple]

so I gather that everyone but gingko is using filtered tap?


Gingko, are you just using normal tap water without filtration?



also, xuancheng, I will definitely go and get some different bottle spring water.

[gingkoseto]

so I gather that everyone but gingko is using filtered tap?


Gingko, are you just using normal tap water without filtration?



also, xuancheng, I will definitely go and get some different bottle spring water.

I use Brita too but I don't really think there is great difference between tap water and filtered water. I have Brita at home mainly because I know some of my friends never feel comfortable to have tap water and it makes me a better host serving them filtered water

[wyardley]

I use Brita too but I don't really think there is great difference between tap water and filtered water. I have Brita at home mainly because I know some of my friends never feel comfortable to have tap water and it makes me a better host serving them filtered water

Sure, but that all depends on how your tap water is. Where I grew up, the tap water was fine, and I almost never drank bottled or filtered water. But here in LA, I generally don't like the taste or idea of drinking unfiltered tap water.

Also, at a minimum, the tap water in most areas is chlorinated, and I don't think a really short boil will remove most or all of the chlorine (unless you're using an air pot with a dechlorinate function). Brita / Pur filters remove almost all of that (though not the flouride).

[DJ3riple]

yeah the tap water here where i live in texas is chlorinated among other things, and completely ruins tea without filtration

[DJ3riple]

I wonder if maybe i could have this post moved to the green tea section? I'd like to get input from the people who get shincha every year, and what kinda water they're using...

[scruffmcgruff]

I can give you some shincha-specific advice from my own experience-- get water as "soft" (I don't necessarily mean in the mineral content sense, but rather how it tastes) as possible. Some spring waters, take Evian for example, are too intense IMO for teas like shincha. It's kind of odd if you think about it, as shincha is hardly weak in flavor. Still, I find that higher mineral content waters do not complement the flavor of shincha as much as, say, Yancha or aged teas. On the other hand, don't take my advice to the extreme and use distilled water. I think that stuff is too flat for any tea.

Of course, YMMV. I'm sure others will tell you exactly the opposite of what I just wrote, and they are just as correct as I am.

[Shibs]

I'm not sure what constitutes best, but this is what I use..
http://www.millipore.com/catalogue/module.do?id=C7658
We have one of these where I work in the biochemistry laboratory at UC Santa Barbara. Filters down to 0.22 micrometers or 2.2x10^-7 meters using ionic, organic, and membrane filters along with UV light. For comparison, most bacteria are usually 1-10 micrometers in diameter.

It makes water interestingly... I don't know, smooth?

[fmoreira272]

I have just purchased a few 2009 Shincha's and I want to avoid inhibiting the tea as much as humanly possible!

Currently I use a $30 Pur water filter on my faucet for all of my tea...I feel like I could do better than this?

What is best and what do all of you guys do for your water?

I have a PUR filter as well that i use for cooking and strong flavored teas. But any other tea, specially shincha my choice is Poland Spring that i use for drinking water. I bought few spring water bottles(Fuji, Whole foods, Evian, glacian, etc) to compare. they turned out well but i dont know what they have in Maine that make their water just better.
I tried the shincha i ordered with filtered water and it was okay. Then i took some tea to work since they have reverse osmosis water and it wasnt that great. Since R/O removes everything from water it produces a quite "flat" brew.
I think if the water taste good plain it will make a great cup of tea.

[Chip]

... I am using the Adagio GraviTea and quite like it. Very hard "well water." and I have not had to descale since 1/1/09. Before the GraviTea I was descaling every week or 2 and still almost ruined several clay pots due to scale overload.

No chlorine here though.