The Importance of Water with Tea
Who doesn’t love the taste of a great cup of tea? The fresh, clean, and flavorful taste of great tea cannot be beat! But even the best tea can be ruined if you use low quality water. Remember that a good cup of tea is still more than 90% water!
Some of the best water that you can use for brewing tea is fresh water from a mountain spring. Many ancient and current tea scholars in China will tell you that the very best water for brewing tea comes from the local springs near the tea farms. These springs will contain a similar mineral composition to the tea and produce an amazing taste! You can try to purchase spring water here in the US for your tea, but be careful to ensure that the water is actually from a spring. Oftentimes the definition for spring water that is used by water bottlers does not always match up with our vision or idea of spring water.
The better option for water in the US tends to be some type of filtered water. At the very least, everyone should be running their water through a Brita or Pur filter to take out some of the heavy minerals, metals, and sediment in tap water. In addition, there are a number of more professional filtration systems that you can find online or in stores that use a number of other techniques such as multi-phase activated carbon, reverse osmosis, ultraviolet, and others. Here at Shang Tea we use a reverse osmosis filtration system, which removes almost all heavy metals, sediment, and pesticides that have gotten into the water supply. This allows the water to be ready to take on the full flavor of your tea and also be enriched by the natural vitamins and antioxidants found in tea.
Lastly, some people will use distilled water to brew tea, which can be found at the grocery store or produced with a commercial filter. However, many people claim that distilled water makes the tea taste flat since the water has absolutely no minerals whatsoever. Of course this is a matter of personal preferences and there are still some people who enjoy using distilled water for tea, so it might be a good idea to compare it with other types of water. The biggest concern about using distilled water is that it no longer contains any of the minerals/nutrients that you might want in your water, but tea will help replenish many of those good nutrients.
Regardless of what type of water you use, please keep in mind the role that water plays in the taste of your tea!