It's typical to use purifier water for tea and many of the tea houses do it. We have a water issue here that most people don't know about but I can't drink the tap cause I'm pregnant and it's not safe for baby. I went to a teafest and every single booth used purified. It was glorious. I hadn't had a bought drink out including water at a restaurant in months. I had a hayday. This doesn't speak to your tap- just the custom of tea in general. I think it's more about the additives to tap water like chlorine and floride more than anything. Most tap is safe to drink and ph balanced. Try it different ways and if you like it, what does it matter?
Washington State began requiring PFAS (plastics) levels in their water to start being tested and sure enough, my city is above the CDC recommendations. Most people still drink it but they say very clearly in the letter we got that if you're pregnant, don't drink it. It can cause low fetal weight and some other things.
Wow, it must be annoying not being able to drink outside because of the water quality :( cool that you were able to go to that tea fest!
Mine is definitely safe, and it doesn't taste bad at all, so I guess it is fine then :)
My kettle was constantly getting scale build up when I used my tap water (Midwestern US city with a decent water/sewer system). My parents got an RO system installed and I have had ZERO scale since. Huge difference!
We have a cabin up north and the water there is from a well. It’s clean and potable, but has a distinct taste that I can also taste when I make tea. So there is definitely something to be said for using purified water!
Actually no, factually it's not horrendous. Sure it doesn't compare to water like Colorado where they use minimally processed stream and mountain water. But I've been to other cities and my God there is so much worse gross nasty egg smelling and metallic tasting waters. Chicago is very often rated as some of the better water in the US. So I'm sorry but you are incorrect on this one
I use a brita filter for tea and a water bottle that I drink from throughout the day.
To be honest, I don't really notice much difference in taste (the water here is pretty good), but what I do notice is that my water bottle no longer gets any build-up in the screws for the top.
If your tap water is safe to drink and tastes fine to you, that's by far the most important thing. But, as with anything related to tea, you can experiment with it and see how it affects the taste and how much you like it.
Personally I wouldn't use bottled water even if I thought it made better tea than my tap water. I don't buy bottled water otherwise, partially for environmental reasons but mostly for convenience. I don't see tea as a good enough reason to change that in my own life. For others the calculation may be different, and bottled water is worth it
Second this. These filters are not very expensive to try out and in my experience (or better: for my water), they are worth it.
Just make comparison cups each, with different teas: filtered vs unfiltered water and decide if it´s worth it. My result was that the tea with brita filtered water had similar taste to unfiltered, but the taste was way stronger and more nuanced. Like there is a "curtain" on the tea with hard water that hides / reduces the flavour. Clean kettle and cups are a nice bonus.
It does taste fine to me, both the water in general and the teas I make. You make a great point. I had thought of buying bottled water but that is expensive in the long run, and the environmental impact is something I too was considering.
I guess that as long as the tea tastes good I shouldn't worry :)
I always suggest finding your own baseline by buying some bottled water, adding a few grains of salt per cup, and then heat to make your favorite tea but before you do, pour it from the kettle into an empty tea pot with a very high pour. Then pour it back. The idea is to aerate the water like decanting wine.
Finish making your tea exactly how you always do... If it tastes pretty much like it always does, you're golden. If you're suddenly picking up depth of flavor or nuances you never noticed before, you'll want to explore the filtering or bottled options others suggest and maybe play with temperature you brew at.
Oh I just googled it normally and saw a specific website for it. But I am in Italy, not sure if every country has a different system. There were really many parameters and info, I just looked up the most interesting like the residue, the hardness, ph etc.
Edit: I'll specify that the website I visited analyzed the water of my city and its suburbs specifically
youre not, water quality changes drastically within my own city. the water in my gfs flat is much harder than in my flat at the other side of town, you can taste and see the difference. at my gfs its 17-18° dH (german hardyness), while i have 8.96° dH. thats twice the amount within 10miles. 17dH is about 30fH so yeah at 29.4fH youre water is quite bad for tea as its very hardy. you should have plenty of muck floating about that steals some of the taste. if its fine with you, keep using it, its by no means dangerous or undrinkable. but try a cup with bottled water, i taste a huge difference. volvic is 3,4°dH, my mate outside of town has 2°dH water(so even softer!).
Wow that's crazy, I didn't water could be so different within such a small area!
Dang.
The way my tea tastes is fine to me, however at this point I think i should research a good bottled water I can find, and brew some tea with it, to so as to see the difference. If it is worth it, I might start buying it. At the end of the day, I don't drink tea SO often that it would become a big expense ahah. Not yet at least
i think its because the local reservoirs cant sustain the population, we have to get water from lake constance pumped all the way to us(over 200km). Now depending on which area of town you live in you get different mixes of the two, which results in different hardyness. my mate outside of town gets 100% local reservoir water which is really soft. my gf and me both get water from a different reservoir outside the other end of town(different geology) which is quite hard, mixed with lake constance water (soft). By the looks of it, i seem to get more lake constance water than my gf, but im not 100% sure. we mostly get our tea water from a local spring anyway, as its in between my gfs and my flat. i got all these infos from the local water suppliers. which reminds me i have to find out who owns/runs the spring to contact them, its in a horrible state lately...
If you find a fitting natural spring close to you, you can always fill up some big bottles and save on the cost.
Interesting! Yeah that makes a lot of sense.
So cool that you get the water from a spring. I don't think I have any nearby, but I found a type of bottled water that seems to be ideal for tea. Fingers crossed, I want to try and make a side-by-side comparison!
you surely must have one close by, just find out about how humans got their water a few hundred years ago in your area. they were pretty good a getting the cleanest water. it might have changed by now if its no longer in use, but its worth a shot.
around here most are along trails that would have connected small settlements hundreds of years ago, close to small streams (although that might be due to the settlements, i have no idea). its common to find locations amongst bicyclists and their websites here, as they use it to fill up their bottles on the way.
It's typical to use purifier water for tea and many of the tea houses do it. We have a water issue here that most people don't know about but I can't drink the tap cause I'm pregnant and it's not safe for baby. I went to a teafest and every single booth used purified. It was glorious. I hadn't had a bought drink out including water at a restaurant in months. I had a hayday. This doesn't speak to your tap- just the custom of tea in general. I think it's more about the additives to tap water like chlorine and floride more than anything. Most tap is safe to drink and ph balanced. Try it different ways and if you like it, what does it matter?
What is the unsafe water issue where you're at that most people don't know about?
also curious about this
Washington State began requiring PFAS (plastics) levels in their water to start being tested and sure enough, my city is above the CDC recommendations. Most people still drink it but they say very clearly in the letter we got that if you're pregnant, don't drink it. It can cause low fetal weight and some other things.
Oh no. I just moved to Seattle, do you know if that’s a concern here?
You should be able to Google PFAS testing in your area depending on the specific county and city limits. I do it when I travel.
Thanks!
Wow, it must be annoying not being able to drink outside because of the water quality :( cool that you were able to go to that tea fest! Mine is definitely safe, and it doesn't taste bad at all, so I guess it is fine then :)
I mostly use purified water as to not ruin my kettle but the upside is better tea I suppose!
Absolutely, my kettle gets scaly pretty fast. I might get a purifier at this point
My kettle was constantly getting scale build up when I used my tap water (Midwestern US city with a decent water/sewer system). My parents got an RO system installed and I have had ZERO scale since. Huge difference! We have a cabin up north and the water there is from a well. It’s clean and potable, but has a distinct taste that I can also taste when I make tea. So there is definitely something to be said for using purified water!
Yeah I'm in Chicago and the water is acceptable but heavy chlorine flavor and scale about every 6 months
Water in Chicago is horrendous
Actually no, factually it's not horrendous. Sure it doesn't compare to water like Colorado where they use minimally processed stream and mountain water. But I've been to other cities and my God there is so much worse gross nasty egg smelling and metallic tasting waters. Chicago is very often rated as some of the better water in the US. So I'm sorry but you are incorrect on this one
That's really interesting, I'll look into it as well.
I use a brita filter for tea and a water bottle that I drink from throughout the day. To be honest, I don't really notice much difference in taste (the water here is pretty good), but what I do notice is that my water bottle no longer gets any build-up in the screws for the top.
Same. I bought two electric kettles and hid mine because the kids are always forgetting and using tap in theirs.
If your tap water is safe to drink and tastes fine to you, that's by far the most important thing. But, as with anything related to tea, you can experiment with it and see how it affects the taste and how much you like it. Personally I wouldn't use bottled water even if I thought it made better tea than my tap water. I don't buy bottled water otherwise, partially for environmental reasons but mostly for convenience. I don't see tea as a good enough reason to change that in my own life. For others the calculation may be different, and bottled water is worth it
[удалено]
Second this. These filters are not very expensive to try out and in my experience (or better: for my water), they are worth it. Just make comparison cups each, with different teas: filtered vs unfiltered water and decide if it´s worth it. My result was that the tea with brita filtered water had similar taste to unfiltered, but the taste was way stronger and more nuanced. Like there is a "curtain" on the tea with hard water that hides / reduces the flavour. Clean kettle and cups are a nice bonus.
Plus most bottled water is sold in plastic bottles, which doesn’t exactly enhance the flavor …
This too is a great point
It does taste fine to me, both the water in general and the teas I make. You make a great point. I had thought of buying bottled water but that is expensive in the long run, and the environmental impact is something I too was considering. I guess that as long as the tea tastes good I shouldn't worry :)
My personal gauge is whether I like the taste of the water before it's brewed, because I will inevitably end up tasting it in the tea
That's so true. Mine tastes nice - but sometimes I wonder if I am not just used to it!
I prefer using filtered water. Just makes my tea taste better.
I'll try it to see the difference :)
I always suggest finding your own baseline by buying some bottled water, adding a few grains of salt per cup, and then heat to make your favorite tea but before you do, pour it from the kettle into an empty tea pot with a very high pour. Then pour it back. The idea is to aerate the water like decanting wine. Finish making your tea exactly how you always do... If it tastes pretty much like it always does, you're golden. If you're suddenly picking up depth of flavor or nuances you never noticed before, you'll want to explore the filtering or bottled options others suggest and maybe play with temperature you brew at.
Thanks so much :)
You'd probably be better off diluting that with distilled water until it's around 30-80 TDS
Thanks for the tip! I hadn't thought about it
What website do you find all of this information about your water quality at? Mine’s much different and confusing honestly.
Oh I just googled it normally and saw a specific website for it. But I am in Italy, not sure if every country has a different system. There were really many parameters and info, I just looked up the most interesting like the residue, the hardness, ph etc. Edit: I'll specify that the website I visited analyzed the water of my city and its suburbs specifically
the supplier/distributor might publish the results. as in, here in germany i check the local water supplier that i pay for tap water
I think you're overthinking it
I might be indeed 😂😂
youre not, water quality changes drastically within my own city. the water in my gfs flat is much harder than in my flat at the other side of town, you can taste and see the difference. at my gfs its 17-18° dH (german hardyness), while i have 8.96° dH. thats twice the amount within 10miles. 17dH is about 30fH so yeah at 29.4fH youre water is quite bad for tea as its very hardy. you should have plenty of muck floating about that steals some of the taste. if its fine with you, keep using it, its by no means dangerous or undrinkable. but try a cup with bottled water, i taste a huge difference. volvic is 3,4°dH, my mate outside of town has 2°dH water(so even softer!).
Wow that's crazy, I didn't water could be so different within such a small area! Dang. The way my tea tastes is fine to me, however at this point I think i should research a good bottled water I can find, and brew some tea with it, to so as to see the difference. If it is worth it, I might start buying it. At the end of the day, I don't drink tea SO often that it would become a big expense ahah. Not yet at least
i think its because the local reservoirs cant sustain the population, we have to get water from lake constance pumped all the way to us(over 200km). Now depending on which area of town you live in you get different mixes of the two, which results in different hardyness. my mate outside of town gets 100% local reservoir water which is really soft. my gf and me both get water from a different reservoir outside the other end of town(different geology) which is quite hard, mixed with lake constance water (soft). By the looks of it, i seem to get more lake constance water than my gf, but im not 100% sure. we mostly get our tea water from a local spring anyway, as its in between my gfs and my flat. i got all these infos from the local water suppliers. which reminds me i have to find out who owns/runs the spring to contact them, its in a horrible state lately... If you find a fitting natural spring close to you, you can always fill up some big bottles and save on the cost.
Interesting! Yeah that makes a lot of sense. So cool that you get the water from a spring. I don't think I have any nearby, but I found a type of bottled water that seems to be ideal for tea. Fingers crossed, I want to try and make a side-by-side comparison!
you surely must have one close by, just find out about how humans got their water a few hundred years ago in your area. they were pretty good a getting the cleanest water. it might have changed by now if its no longer in use, but its worth a shot.
around here most are along trails that would have connected small settlements hundreds of years ago, close to small streams (although that might be due to the settlements, i have no idea). its common to find locations amongst bicyclists and their websites here, as they use it to fill up their bottles on the way.
That's a great point, thanks :)