Tea and water

It is funny, last year, I thought that having high quality tea leaves, good teapot, pretty cup meant I would have good taste, good smell cup of tea. But after trying to brew hundreds of times, I find out that high quality water is as important as high quality tea leaves. It is easy to understand the case, it is a fact that 99% of a cup of tea is water, so brewing tea with better water will makes the final come out tea better.

Experienced tea drinkers all over the world agree that the best water for tea infusion must contain enough oxygen, low in mineral content and of course free of contamination and additives. I agree with them, how about you? If you thing there is some factor affect the tea, just leave a comment so that we can discuss.

The best water for tea infusion must contain enough oxygen.

Tea - water contain enough oxygen
The best water for tea infusion must contain enough oxygen
Human, animals, plants all need oxygen to breath, to maintain their life, and so does water for tea infusion. It's just a funny comparison. But it shows you that oxygen plays an important role in brewing because it helps to release the best flavors of tea. As a result, one must use water that is aerated (full of oxygen).It is an established fact that the presence of oxygen in water is required to maximize tea flavor. Aeration is particularly important when brewing fine teas. When water is boiled, oxygen evaporates, and the crisp taste in the brewed tea is lost. Most experts recommend that we should not boil water for a prolonged period or re-boil a previously used supply. The more the water is boiled, the more oxygen that evaporates of the water. After some tries, my cup of tea tastes better. When I brewed the tea with so hot water, there was a little bitter that ruin my cup of tea, I couldn't drink it.

The best water for tea infusion must be low in mineral content.

tea - water mineral
The best water for tea infusion must be low in mineral content

Water is high in dissolved minerals, especially calcium and magnesium. These minerals accumulate in the water, sometimes make the tea sour, sometimes make the tea bitter and none of us want our cup of tea come out like that after spending too much enthusiasms for brewing. And water in high minerals can also affect the clarity of tea by making it dark. And it is worst, I prefer dark cup of coffee to dark cup of tea, so the appearance is very important, you drink by your eyes first, then your mouth. High mineral content bottled water has the same negative impact on tea. Teas brewed with pure water containing no minerals produce a crisp flavor and a clear brew that is aesthetically agreeable.

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2 comments:

  1. I actually have doubts about the oxygen theory. For starters you will often see no preference given, and no noticeable difference, between water heated to a certain temp and water boiled and then cooled to the same temp. It's true that hot water cannot retain the same level of trapped oxygen, however you can't get water hotter than boiling without pressurizing it and it only takes disturbances of the water surface to facilitate gas exchange - which suggests to me that water that's boiling is going to retain as much trapped gas (oxygen and others) as possible.

    I even wrote the International Society of Tea Science and they had admitted that the idea of oxygen in water is simply commonly accepted as true without any studies to back it up. I actually got an oxygen test kit for water and hope to test this soon :)

    Anyway, great post overall. You brought up some things about minerals that I didn't know before. I hope to see more posts soon :)

    on July 29, 2008 at 10:05 PM


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