Water for Tea
We’ve all had a bad cup of tea before. Often, the tea is lacking because leaves were a low grade. Sometimes, it’s because the leaves were not allowed to expand fully because of the infusion method. But the bad teas that leave me more disappointed than a kid with a popped balloon are the ones that are made up of good leaves. There are several reasons good leaves can produce bad tea. The main ones are incorrect brewing (proportions, temperature, and/ or time) and poor water quality. This article will focus on the latter.
It is sometimes easy to forget that regardless of the quality of your tea leaves, it is impossible to brew a good tea without good water. Tea is over 98% water, therefore it is greatly influenced by water quality. Chinese tea scholar Lu Yu wrote an entire book about water selection for tea. In it, he claimed that mountain water from stony lakes, the middle of slow-flowing streams, or milky-white springs is the best. To ensure that your wonderful, fresh tea leaves produce a delicious, flavorful tea, there are a few key things to know when selecting your water.
1. Spring water is usually best. That said, not all spring water is created equal. Do your research. You spring water should contain no chlorine, have no distinct taste or odor, be pH neutral (a 7 on the pH scale), and have a TDS (Total Dissolved Solids) content of 30 PPM (parts per million) or below. Find out what kinds of bottled spring water are available locally and do a taste testing with one type of tea (using same brewing conditions each time) to compare them. If there aren’t many types in your area, you may consider ordering some online as well, though I suggest reading up on each kind more before ordering as shipping costs and minimum orders can be cost prohibitive. An excellent resource is this Swiss nonprofit site. It has listings by country, alphabetical listings, user reviews, and information on each water’s pH level and mineral content. You can even sort the waters by pH level or mineral content. Sweet.
2. If you must use tap water. . . make sure it’s at its best! Don’t worry--you can still get good tea out of tap water. That is, if you live and work in the right places. Some areas have the advantage of good tap water (not to be confused with "good water"), which can be readily transformed into water suitable for tea. If you try filtering your water, then bring it to just shy of a low boil, and you can still smell an unpleasant odor, you have what tea master Wen Zhen Heng calls "tender water" and it is unsuitable for tea. I suggest sticking to spring water despite the expense and/ or inconvenience. If the tap water in your area is pretty good, you can make it good for tea by purifying it. The goal is to remove unwanted minerals so it is free of any unpleasant tastes and smells. You can use a water filter, like Pur or Brita, or, if you’d rather kick it old school, you can use bamboo charcoal. Bamboo charcoal is just charred (carbonized) bamboo wood. It works like commercial filters (which are also carbon-based), except that it has the added benefit of helpful, chlorine destroying microbes living inside its many pores. Pretty cool, huh? If that doesn’t have you convinced, it has been used in Japan to "sweeten" the water for tea brewing for centuries, it’s usually cheaper than commercial filters, it’s biodegradable, and it’s my filter of choice.
3. Avoid distilled water. It’s easy to assume that since distilled water is the purest water you can buy, then it must also be the best. Distilled water contains no mineral "impurities," but drinking water naturally contains a number of beneficial "impurities," which vary with their origin. In North America, water often includes electrolytes such as calcium, magnesium, and sodium, which enhance the natural flavor of tea. It is generally agreed upon that distilled water simply does not taste very good when used to brew tea because the tea has a flat taste, lacking in the complexity usually enjoyed in a good cuppa. Taste aside, these electrolytes are necessary for the human body to function. Think sports drinks minus the high fructose corn syrup, wasteful packaging, and advertising hype.
4. Use freshly drawn water. Reusing water that has been boiled or standing for a long period of time produces a less-than-stellar tea. Why? Water has dissolved gasses in it. Though that may not seem significant, it means two things for your tea.
ONE-- Bringing water to a boil removes oxygen from it. Some suggest that bringing your water to a full boil even once will flatten (or even destroy) the tea’s taste, and insist on brewing at a maximum temperature of 203deg F. Personally, when it comes to tea I’m a fanatic, but not fanatical, if you know what I mean. I agree with tea scholar Wen Zhen Heng’s more moderate stance-- that because water releases oxygen each time it is boiled, it becomes "tough," loses its essence, and can not bring out the essence of tea after it has been boiled multiple times. I suggest pouring out unused water and starting fresh each time.
TWO--Standing water can dissolve the gases around it, and, thus, absorb their odors. So that wonderful garlic confit puree you made last night. . . yeah, it’s in your standing water now. Of course, tea used to be made into a sort of soup with rice and onions, among other things, in China until the middle of the Tang Dynasty, around 700 AD. And in Tibet and Mongolia to people make tea with salt and yak butter to this day. While salty tea is very popular in Lhasa, but I doubt you want your new jasmine pearls to have an unexpectedly "hearty flavor, pungent aroma, and lingering, savory aftertaste." Even The Stinking Rose keeps their tea garlic free. If you want to do the same, I suggest using freshly drawn water.
Congrats! Now that you know what kind of water to use to ensure that your tea is at its best, you’re ready to learn how to brew your tea. Enjoy!