I recently started using Plose water which has pretty similar measurements but more nitrates. Def brews better than my tap water, and its the closest thing I have found that meets my requirement of being inexpensive and in a glass bottle. I'd still like to find something even more local, but its not like northern Italy is terribly far. Every Austrian water I have found either doesn't come in glass or has incredibly high mineral content, but I guess that is what people expect they are paying for. One I tried had so much in it that after being brought back to boil only a couple of times my tea looked like I was dropping magnesium tablets in it and there was so much precipitant in the kettle it looked like I had been building up lime for weeks. I can find all sorts of ridiculous stuff like water only filled during the full moon, but still can't find something here with good mineral content numbers for tea.There is no self wrote: ↑Tue Feb 26, 2019 8:59 amTake this with a grain of salt, but I've been having good results brewing shu with Acqua San Bernardo. If anyone's curious, here's the analysis courtesy of the University of Pavia:
TDS: 34 mg/l
Ph: 7
Sodium: 0,8 mg/l
Calcium: 8,9 mg/l
Silica: 4 mg/l
Sulphates: 2,3 mg/l
Nitrites: < 0,002 mg/l
Magnesium: 0,6 mg/l
Potassium: 0,4 mg/l
Bicarbonates: 27,9 mg/l
Nitrates: 1,4 mg/l
Chlorides: 0,6 mg/l
Water Water Everywhere... What’s Your Water?
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Ethan Kurland
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Recently bringing tea to events and a need to replace the filters in my water purifier, forced me to use water much different than what had been filtered by sterasyl ceramic ...
Very hard tap water buried sweetness for all teas and brought out vegetal flavors in foushoushan, and reduced the amount of good infusions that I could get for all teas. Besides what it brings out in teas, sometimes what was distasteful in the water was in the brew side by side with tea flavors.
Acadia spring water (a brand of Stop & Shop) has hardly any minerals. For FSS it produces a lovely, sweet, light-bodied drink (& extra infusions) but not the fresh, dynamic array of flavors that one has FSS in stock to enjoy. Other teas were likewise less complex, although oriental beauty & black tea were not as "simplified" by this soft water.
Whole Foods 365 brand which is spring water filtered twice (whatever that means) has a bit more minerals. The FSS does have lovely vegetal flavors with this water & other teas present more of their flavors. Body is not quite as light as tea made with Acadia. Yet, one often gains a flavor or two at the loss of another.
Overall using tap water at several places and water that is barely filtered through Brita, and some bottled waters, led me to obvious conclusions: Water that tastes awful on its own, should not be used to infuse tea; without enough minerals in water, brews will not give one all of the flavors that tea leaves can provide; and, one should adjust preparation for the water being used. E.g., I am steeping longer with the Whole Foods' water (89 cents per gallon) until my replacement filters arrive so I can return to using my Big Berkey.
Cheers
Very hard tap water buried sweetness for all teas and brought out vegetal flavors in foushoushan, and reduced the amount of good infusions that I could get for all teas. Besides what it brings out in teas, sometimes what was distasteful in the water was in the brew side by side with tea flavors.
Acadia spring water (a brand of Stop & Shop) has hardly any minerals. For FSS it produces a lovely, sweet, light-bodied drink (& extra infusions) but not the fresh, dynamic array of flavors that one has FSS in stock to enjoy. Other teas were likewise less complex, although oriental beauty & black tea were not as "simplified" by this soft water.
Whole Foods 365 brand which is spring water filtered twice (whatever that means) has a bit more minerals. The FSS does have lovely vegetal flavors with this water & other teas present more of their flavors. Body is not quite as light as tea made with Acadia. Yet, one often gains a flavor or two at the loss of another.
Overall using tap water at several places and water that is barely filtered through Brita, and some bottled waters, led me to obvious conclusions: Water that tastes awful on its own, should not be used to infuse tea; without enough minerals in water, brews will not give one all of the flavors that tea leaves can provide; and, one should adjust preparation for the water being used. E.g., I am steeping longer with the Whole Foods' water (89 cents per gallon) until my replacement filters arrive so I can return to using my Big Berkey.
Cheers
I feel a bit uneasy using bottled spring water (even if by gallon) to brew tea. I can't quite carry those big refillable 5-gal bottle, so that's not an option either. Where I live, tap water is drinkable. I purify it using charcoal and let it sit overnight. Works quite well.
Where I live in Chicago the Lake Michigan sourced tap water is pretty good. I just filter it to remove the chlorine. At work though the municipal tap water tastes off so I have to keep one of those jugs of spring water at my desk.
Well considering EPA regulations require drinking water to be treated, it's pretty much unavoidable if you live in the US.
Did not know that. Still remember my first time to the US a long time ago and the nasty surprise of discovering that Coke tasted like chlorine, never added ice cubes afterwards...
Guess I was lucky for most of my life being able to drink from a tap of pure water without any treatment at all.
Funny regulation, supposing any water is not drinkable otherwise. Flint still happened anyways.
I’m going to assume most municipalities worldwide have water treatment plants. Unless you live next to, or very near, a stream or aquifer, your municipal water will travel via pipes that get funky and require treatment. I just read that Taipei only has 20% local water available and the rest will soon be piped in from a 17 kilometer undersea water pipeline from Jinjiang City in Fujian to Tianpu in Kinmen. It is amazing how long city water supply pipes are, would make an interesting chart. @Bok are you sure your city tap water is not treated? I looked through the water department web site, but looking quickly only see city water is treated at a plant, but not how it is treated.
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Ethan Kurland
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Water regulations and Flint show us that no matter what laws are in place, they must be enforced. A politician who wants to take on agencies that don't do their job or do it badly makes a lot of enemies, but if he gets behind a new law to solve the problem, he might seem to be a great leader. Who can we trust?
Obama pretended to drink Flint tap water after authorities in Michigan pretended that they had fixed the problems. Unfortunately, with the deceit and aging pipes mentioned by Victoria, cities that were built where they are (usually by an excellent source of water) may not deliver water to us that is good enough to drink without additional filtering at home. And it may be safe but taste awful.
$8.95 for a five-gallon glass bottle of spring water seems to be the best one can do in Boston to avoid carrying plastic home. If one has a car, there are some drive-through places where one gets quick refills, for less $. I find myself walking a few blocks carrying plastic gallon bottles of water that cost 89 cents telling myself that the exercise is good for me. (That water is only for tea.)
By the way in this thread I mentioned that I would be getting the Big Berkey black purification elements to filter my water. They really do remove so much more junk than sterasyl ceramic filters, and as I was advised make water useless for preparing tea.
I've used Black Berkey gravity elements in the past, and haven't noticed that they would remove too much or make the water useless for tea (I've been quite content). I also used Doulton Supersterasyl, and haven't noticed any perceived difference between the two, except that the latter was substantially better made. But i hadn't done a side by side comparison, or any "scientific" testing. They both help to remove chlorine, and some gunk that normally shouldn't make its way to tap water but sometimes it does. I think after that, the suitability for tea depends mainly on the mineral composition of the water, which i don't think they change at all. Anyways, cheers to home filtration systems!Ethan Kurland wrote: ↑Sat May 11, 2019 4:59 pmBy the way in this thread I mentioned that I would be getting the Big Berkey black purification elements to filter my water. They really do remove so much more junk than sterasyl ceramic filters, and as I was advised make water useless for preparing tea.
@Victoria was not referring to Taipei water, which is of course treated.
Back home in Europe our water was indeed not treated, more or less coming straight down the mountains. It is even safe to use for baby food (or used to be).
First time I experienced chlorine smelling water was in the Americas... or China for that matter. Water in Taiwan is treated but has no smell to it. Add another water purifier and it is pretty good for tea.
Back home in Europe our water was indeed not treated, more or less coming straight down the mountains. It is even safe to use for baby food (or used to be).
First time I experienced chlorine smelling water was in the Americas... or China for that matter. Water in Taiwan is treated but has no smell to it. Add another water purifier and it is pretty good for tea.
To be sure I just googled my hometowns water: it runs through layers of clay which act as a natural filtration. They just check it for pollution and if there is, which can happen rarely when there is flooding or too much rain, they do add chlorine, but that seems to be the rare exception.
On the downside, it is heavy in minerals, good for your health, bad for making tea...
On the downside, it is heavy in minerals, good for your health, bad for making tea...
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Ethan Kurland
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The black elements do seem to be somewhat fragile. Fortunately, once in the metal container, they should only be hit by water. For me, they definitely provide much better drinking water than the Supersterasyl. Besides removing 100% of bad taste, the water has a nice mouthfeel. Also, as I stated, that same water is not good for tea. (Until the tap water here got much worse, the sterasyl water was fine for tea.).m. wrote: ↑Sun May 12, 2019 4:36 amI've used Black Berkey gravity elements in the past, and haven't noticed that they would remove too much or make the water useless for tea (I've been quite content). I also used Doulton Supersterasyl, and haven't noticed any perceived difference between the two, except that the latter was substantially better made. But i hadn't done a side by side comparison, or any "scientific" testing. They both help to remove chlorine, and some gunk that normally shouldn't make its way to tap water but sometimes it does. I think after that, the suitability for tea depends mainly on the mineral composition of the water, which i don't think they change at all. Anyways, cheers to home filtration systems!
Doulton products and Big Berkey products are the same (made by the same company). Doulton's prices are cheaper for some items, but cannot be bought online in Massachusetts and a few other states. (Why, I don't know.)
Last edited by Victoria on Sun May 12, 2019 1:44 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Mod edit: corrected quotes
Reason: Mod edit: corrected quotes
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swordofmytriumph
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My town's water comes from an aquifer, apparently it is at a very deep level, so they don't treat it either.
Wow, how great is that. So your water as-is is good for tea? Are you on the outskirts of Seattle?swordofmytriumph wrote: ↑Tue May 14, 2019 7:00 amMy town's water comes from an aquifer, apparently it is at a very deep level, so they don't treat it either.