Water heating devices

[Oni]

This is a topic less talked about, how you heat your water? Could the heating method or the vessel in which you heat your water affect the taste of your tea. I have learned to use soft water preferably volcanic mountain springs, but what regards heating I have a glass inox base induction boiler, well it is electric it uses electromagnetic force to heat a metal plate, not very traditional. Traditionaly at the tea ceremony a metal vessel is used on charcoal, and another method is using a ceramic kettle, this I have seen beeing used with loose leaf tea preparation. If some of you have tetsubins, and I mean not those emameled fakes but real ones that can be used on stove to heat water, please tell me what diffrence does it make compared to other heating methods. If some of you have ceramic stove safe kette, tell me how was the water. An finally if some of you have silver kettle, though I doubt it, tell me what was the water like when heated in that device.Hard water is out of the question, because when it fully boils nitrates transform to nitrites that is unhealthy and it makes the water taste flat, these corldless kettles if they are made from hard plastic they are not suitable for green tea, tea give plastic taste to tea, and they stop after 30 seconds of full boil because they only sense the pressure.
There are 3 ideal and traditional boiling devices, one is ceramics, preferably yixing, the other is glass, and cast iron tetsubin, but both the ceramic (yixing) and the cast iron (tetsubin) kettles give taste to the water, for no tea should the water boil for a long period of time, nor should it be allowed to fully boil (old man water, or dragon water), for example for puerh boil the water in a Chao Zhao Stove, and transfer to a qing dynasty style warmer device and that keeps the water hot but they say that after 3 infusions you should change the water to freshly heated and only heated to fish eyes, maybe a bit more, I read that in wisteria teahouse they heat the water in ceramic deveces and then transfer to a glass kettle on a alcool burner. I would like to know about the teaware in wich you heat water show pictures, and where you have it from.

[olivierco]

Most of the time I heat my water in a stainless steel little saucepan (on a induction plate) which doesn't affect its taste.

[Maitre_Tea]

wow, that's a lot of information for asking a question. I think you managed to cover most of the bases when it comes to heating water. In terms of heating water, I use a kettle made out of clay, heating it on top of an electric stove type thing. You also have to realize that certain teas might do better with harder or softer waters. For instance, darker oolongs would do nicely with harder water, whereas greens and whites would appreciate softer water

[tenuki]

There is a school of thought that believes the best water for a tea is the water available locally where the tea is grown.

I use a small ceramic stovetop kettle most of the time and transfer it over to an alcohol burner that keeps it just under a boil. During the day when I don't have time I use an electric stainless steel kettle to boil just the amount of water I need for one infusion. I've switched to using the seattle tap water from mostly Fuji bottled water (the best IMO for greener oolongs, which is mostly what I drink). I've had to find ways to condition and harden the water, because out of the tap it is too soft.

[ABx]

I've had to find ways to condition and harden the water, because out of the tap it is too soft.

What do you use? I've thought about maifan stones, but haven't been able to find any but the little granules.

I just use local tap water filtered through a Brita pitcher, and heated with the Zojirushi. I've found that filtered tap water is better than bottled spring water, though I'm sure that there's some spring water that's probably better that I just haven't found. I might try to find some someday, but I'm not too keen on the price that would be involved in using a gallon of spring water per day. Maybe just for my more expensive teas.

There may be something to be said about heating the water to just the right temp, but I think that the temp is more of a factor than whether it has reached a full boil or not. I've tried both and haven't noticed a distinct difference. Granted, the "crab eye, fish eye, old man eye" provides a fairly reliable guage of the water's temp if you are watching it boil. These days, however, I drink mostly oolongs and puerh which benefit from the higher heat of fully boiled water. For the times that I drink greens I either pour the water in first so that the brewing vessel cools it down to the right temp or use the Zoji's temperature settings.

[ABx]

I've had to find ways to condition and harden the water, because out of the tap it is too soft.

What do you use? I've thought about maifan stones, but haven't been able to find any but the little granules.

I just use local tap water filtered through a Brita pitcher, and heated with the Zojirushi. I've found that filtered tap water is better than bottled spring water, though I'm sure that there's some spring water that's probably better that I just haven't found. I might try to find some someday, but I'm not too keen on the price that would be involved in using a gallon of spring water per day. Maybe just for my more expensive teas.

There may be something to be said about heating the water to just the right temp, but I think that the temp is more of a factor than whether it has reached a full boil or not. I've tried both and haven't noticed a distinct difference. Granted, the "crab eye, fish eye, old man eye" provides a fairly reliable guage of the water's temp if you are watching it boil. These days, however, I drink mostly oolongs and puerh which benefit from the higher heat of fully boiled water. For the times that I drink greens I either pour the water in first so that the brewing vessel cools it down to the right temp or use the Zoji's temperature gauge.

[tenuki]

I've had to find ways to condition and harden the water, because out of the tap it is too soft.

What do you use? I've thought about maifan stones, but haven't been able to find any but the little granules.

I use tap -> britta -> bamboo charcoal in kettle during boil + addition of certain bottled mineral water and things like gypsum that brewers use to harden the water. You have to get good food quality bamboo charcoal, and replace it every month or so, but it makes a very noticable difference. I'm currently playing with my antique unlined tetsubin as well, but am still in the experimental phases of that. I bet you could make a teabag of those granular maifan stones that would work ok.

[Chip]

I have a deep well with sweet tasting water, although it is a little too "hard" I think. I boil in a utiliTea which is all stainless steel.

My dream is to have a true authentic unlined tetsubin with some type of interesting heat source to be determined.

[orguz]

I had the maifan stones but in my case they added an awful taste to the water, so I stopped using them. Started using gypsum too which I place inside my Tetsubin along with bamboo charcoal. The water taster sweeter I find.

[Oni]

Regardin the tetsubin, Horaido sells a great collection of it, but they are at astronomical prices, and very heavy so the EMS will tax you rough.
Those of you that mentioned ceramic kettles, I would like to own one with an alcohol burner, I think for most gong fu sessions those would be ideal, I read especially puerh is good with water heated in ceramic kettle, some pics wouldn`t hurt.

[Jayaratna]

boil the water in a Chao Zhao Stove

Could anyone give more details about this one?

[wyardley]

boil the water in a Chao Zhao Stove

Could anyone give more details about this one?

http://tea-obsession.blogspot.com/2007/ ... e-pit.html
http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_56541863010094lf.html （in Chinese)

Difficult to find outside of that area, though you can find other earthenware charcoal stoves intended for tea kettles.

[silverneedles]

sorta ridiculous price ... 200$ for a small clay "stove" ...!?

[Jayaratna]

sorta ridiculous price ... 200$ for a small clay "stove" ...!?

If you take a look around it's even cheap. They're difficult to find and most of the makers are masters selling for high prices.

But I'd like to know more about how to use these things, I can't brew a perfect long-jin cup (yet), but charcoal stoves are really one of my dreams.

[wyardley]

If you take a look around it's even cheap. They're difficult to find and most of the makers are masters selling for high prices.

But I'd like to know more about how to use these things, I can't brew a perfect long-jin cup (yet), but charcoal stoves are really one of my dreams.

I wouldn't go so far as to say that it's cheap. But, Imen doesn't get them in that often, doesn't order them in huge quantities, and they are expensive to ship and somewhat fragile. And as she posted in a later post on her web log, even after the Olympics are over, the government is making it hard to ship the olive pit charcoal to the US. On top of all this, as far as I know, she's the only vendor selling these things here, and maybe in the west in general. So there's a reason they're quite expensive.

Having used the particular set in question, I can attest to the fact that the combination of the porous clay and the olive pit charcoal does seem to (IMO) make the water taste better, and does make good tea. In addition to the usual properties of earthenware in terms of improving water, the idea is that the very light, almost smokeless aroma from the olive pit charcoal (which is really quite pleasant) works its way through the pores of the clay and slightly scents the water. You can also use hookah charcoal or other types of low-smoke charcoal, though it might not work quite as well.

However, it's not the kind of thing you'd want to use every day, unless you have a lot of leisure time. You have to get the charcoal to light, you have to keep tending the fire, and (by design) the kettle is small and boils water in small quantities. The kettle pours pretty nicely (which is not true of all small, side-handled kettles -- I have a cheap one of my own which doesn't have a very smooth or controlled pour). Whether it's worth $200 to you (or me, or someone else), is of course another matter.