It’s interesting that you are inspired to analyse and experiment with your local Brooklyn tap water. I wonder if your buildings pipes are an issue. New York City, and it’s boroughs like Brooklyn, has some of the best city water in the US. Most of its water coming from the the Catskills mountains and Hudson valley. Also, interesting it is not filtered, but is disenfected with UV light and Chlorine, added is; Sodium Hydroxide is to raise pH, Fluoride for teethteasecret wrote: ↑Thu Jan 24, 2019 1:12 pmAfter some more experience I'm noticing some things.
1) Having more bicarbonate than magnesium and calcium seems to be good.
2) Putting your water in an unglazed clay jar improves roundness, at the expense of imparting some flavor to your water. This could dissipate with repeated use.
3) I've stopped mineralizing my water because it already has a lot of taste and I don't want to add more taste to the water.
4) Castle Rock bottled water is extremely good. Also much too expensive for daily use.
5) Tap water contains metal and plastic taste from the long journey it has had through pipes.
6) Perhaps some good charcoal in the earthenware jar will remove any off taste. Or just charcoal in a glass bottle.
7) If the charcoal removes the off taste in the water, rendering it very pure-tasting, then I would consider adding minerals to adjust the water.
8) People have contacted me saying they will try the 75 75 75 water recipe with RO water. I await the results!
9) Distilled water comes in plastic milk jugs, so I have not considered using it, as it has tons of plastic flavor.
It's clear I have a lot of work to do. If anyone has experience in these areas, please let me know. Water is proving to be a very deep, very fun rabbit hole.
, Phosphoric acid to protect pipes. http://www.nyc.gov/html/dep/pdf/wsstate17.pdfNYC tap water:
TDS: 68
pH: 7.4
Alkalinity 19.2
Calcium: 7.3
Magnesium: 1.7
Sodium: 12
Castle Rock, bottled water you like;
TDS: 100
pH: 6.6
Alkalinity 54
Calcium: 11
Magnesium: 4.7
Sodium: 7
Iceland Spring, bottled water a few of us like.
TDS 53
pH 8.89
Alkalinity 25
Calcium 4.8
Magnesium .91
Sodium 12
Your tap water looks very good. A good water filter, and added bamboo charcoal stick, should be enough to eliminate off smells, contaminates and residue from pipes.
So my question is atm; which aspects of water are the most important to tea? pH, TDS, Alkalinity, Calcium, Magnesium, Sodium ?
Another quandary is; Which water paired with Which tea. This is another important component to identify. Some teas perform better with lower TDS, others higher alkalinity, calcium, sodium... some even shine with distilled water
.Eventually, I’d like to make a comparison chart to locate at the beginning of this topic.
, I can’t find it. Wondering how long you’ve been drinking tea, and which teas you enjoy most? Also, for your water experiments which teas are you using as a baseline to measure against? Depending on the tea more or less TDS, alkalinity, minerals, pH will be optimal. 
Don't know if you have time for sightseeing or not, but you should check out Phoenix Tea in Burien. It's a bit south of Seattle only 10 minutes from Seatac airport, and they carry pretty much everything from Crimson Lotus, around 80% of their lineup, including a few of their teas that are out of stock on the official website. They do tastings, you walk in and just tell them what you are interested in trying. Their stock of other teas is really low right now, but if you like Crimson Lotus and want to try some of their stuff you won't be disappointed. Also they host the people from Crimson Lotus almost every week (Fridays last I checked) and you can actually meet the Crimson Lotus people!