Water Water Everywhere... What’s Your Water?

[doomslayer]

Hey, thanks! You live in a beautiful place! If I lived that far out, I'd probably not bother and would just use tap water too We live within city limits (Magnolia) and the building is fairly old so there is that additional layer of concern. I'll definitely try tap water too though - I've been using it for my herbal teas and it's pretty good, no complaints really. Will see how it works out for teas!

Sad that you have to go, hope you'll return some day - Seattle and the surrounding area is unique and unlike any other place I've been to. Depending on where you are heading, you might end up having very sad times when it comes to water but worst case you can just get bottled I guess. My usual fallback option is Volvic which is available everywhere and I'd keep using it if I didn't feel bad for generating so much plastic trash.

[swordofmytriumph]

Hey, thanks! You live in a beautiful place! If I lived that far out, I'd probably not bother and would just use tap water too We live within city limits (Magnolia) and the building is fairly old so there is that additional layer of concern. I'll definitely try tap water too though - I've been using it for my herbal teas and it's pretty good, no complaints really. Will see how it works out for teas!

Sad that you have to go, hope you'll return some day - Seattle and the surrounding area is unique and unlike any other place I've been to. Depending on where you are heading, you might end up having very sad times when it comes to water but worst case you can just get bottled I guess. My usual fallback option is Volvic which is available everywhere and I'd keep using it if I didn't feel bad for generating so much plastic trash.

Well I'm staying in the area, just gonna have to move out of the house I'm in (long story short I rent a room in my family's house and they are selling it). What with the Eastside being so expensive, especially the Snoqualmie Valley, the chances I'll score another rental in the same town is sub-zero. I'm thinking I'll end up in Bothell or north Seattle. My dream neighborhood would be Ballard though.

Also, if your tap water doesn't work out, you might try Iceland spring water, several others have had good luck with Iceland spring water http://www.icelandspring.com/store-locator/. I haven't gotten around to trying it though.

[doomslayer]

Oh it's not that bad at all then! I for some reason thought you were completely moving out of the area. Ballard is a great place, we almost ended up renting there too. I'll give everything, including tap water, a try and will report back. Will take some time probably because I want to get some good quality green tea first, which in my previous experience gives more obvious results, compared to red teas.

[swordofmytriumph]

I want to get some good quality green tea first, which in my previous experience gives more obvious results, compared to red teas.

You know, I hadn’t thought about it before, but you’re totally right. I always subconsciously steered clear of black tea for water comparisons (though I always used gaoshan rather than green tea).

[doomslayer]

At least in my past experience, the greener the tea the more obvious the water result is. I am not entirely sure why it is, my personal theory is that other teas have a "primary" strong taste (relatively speaking of course) which helps them. E.g. earthy for pu'er, etc.. Usually with bad water, I can feel something off but that strong primary flavor rescues it some and it just feels "definitely not as good as I remember it but I can't put my finger on what's wrong". And then with some subtle grassy green tea it becomes obvious - it just tastes like nothing, those subtle flavors somehow get lost and don't come through.

[hopeofdawn]

I live about 30 min south of Seattle, so can't speak to city water proper, but I use a Brita filter with my tap water and it seems just fine for me--I've brewed everything from white to green to puerh in it. Being the treehugger that I am, I have a real aversion to any kind of bottled water, esp. if your regular water isn't horribly hard/smelling of eggs/whatever. Even then I'd probably try to do RO instead and then add minerals back in rather than buy a bottled brand.

If you really want to experiment, though, I'm told there's an artesian water well north of Seattle, near Lynnwood--fresh clean water straight out of the aquifer that's never been touched by chlorine or any other city water. A lot of people go there to fill up jugs to use ... I've never been myself, but if you're in Magnolia, it might be a fun experiment. https://www.seattlenorthcountry.com/dir ... sian-well/

[swordofmytriumph]

I've heard about that place. I've actually thought about it as a solution for when I move. Just get like a five gallon carboy and fill it or something. I'll have to check it out sometime.

Edit: Hey! it's only ten minutes from my Grandma's house!

Edit 2: found the official website http://www.alderwoodwater.com/OurWater/ ... shx?p=1173

Edit 3: You know what? It's totally my weekend when I get home, and I haven't visited Grandma in a while, I think I'll do that sometime during my weekend. Go up and visit Grandma and get some well water while I'm there. I'll update y'all in a few days.

[hopeofdawn]

I've heard about that place. I've actually thought about it as a solution for when I move. Just get like a five gallon carboy and fill it or something. I'll have to check it out sometime.

Edit: Hey! it's only ten minutes from my Grandma's house!

Edit 2: found the official website http://www.alderwoodwater.com/OurWater/ ... shx?p=1173

Edit 3: You know what? It's totally my weekend when I get home, and I haven't visited Grandma in a while, I think I'll do that sometime during my weekend. Go up and visit Grandma and get some well water while I'm there. I'll update y'all in a few days.

I'm definitely looking forward to what you find out.

[doomslayer]

Yup I've seen that artesian well and it's totally on my to-try list. It's not super close, a 30 min drive, but it's also on the way to all the good places north such as hikes, etc so I can always refill on the way. I probably won't get around to trying in the super near future because I need to get some greener tea first. I'll probably go with winter green oolong because regular green tea is likely a while away still. When I try everything, I'll absolutely post results and I'll also keep following your results - super curious how it works out.

And yeah I absolutely understand your tree hugging concerns. The regular store bought (smaller) bottles are worst case scenario. I am somewhat hoping I can get away with either tap water or get those big office-style water bottles delivered. I used to use that when I lived around Vermont and, while of course not ideal too, at least those bottles end up being reused by the company.

[debunix]

Planning a water-tasting session this weekend, I realized I need to gather as many teapots as waters to try....so that I can ensure my infusion parameters for the green tea I select are as similar as possible, same temps means multiple variable temp kettles. I've already got a set of matching gaiwans, cups, scales etc, but to do head-to-head testing I have to gather the kettles from the offices. It's a non-trivial operation!

[swordofmytriumph]

I'll probably go with winter green oolong because regular green tea is likely a while away still.

Get thyself over to Floating Leaves! They are awesome, and close to you also.

[doomslayer]

Get thyself over to Floating Leaves! They are awesome, and close to you also.

Yup yup that's already on my very short-term todo list! I plan to chat with them about water too.
Not 100% sure if I can do it this weekend, I am trying to catch the remainder of the skiing season, especially now that storms have passed and avalanche conditions have stabilized. But I'l try to get there ASAP!

[swordofmytriumph]

Hot tip, the building next door to them has free parking in their parking garage. The building under the Five Guys. It is never full. You’re welcome.

[doomslayer]

Hot tip, the building next door to them has free parking in their parking garage. The building under the Five Guys. It is never full. You’re welcome.

Haha thanks but no worries about that - I love walking/running/etc so I usually just utilize my body to transport me there. Ballard has a really good farmer's market on Sundays and I did this Magnolia->Locks->Ballard walk many times. It's usually a bit over 1h one way.

[Victoria]

Planning a water-tasting session this weekend, I realized I need to gather as many teapots as waters to try....so that I can ensure my infusion parameters for the green tea I select are as similar as possible, same temps means multiple variable temp kettles. I've already got a set of matching gaiwans, cups, scales etc, but to do head-to-head testing I have to gather the kettles from the offices. It's a non-trivial operation!

Oh, I look forward to hearing more about your water experiments @debunix. Please share process and results. Will you be comparing local tap vs bottled sources or? One thing I found really curious (when doing water tests and really focusing), is how many particles one can taste in different types of water. I did an experiment a while ago using same water with different types of porous clay; Water Test Shigaraki Tachi Masaki & Tani Seiuemon vs Kobiwako Maekawa Junzo vs glass.