Water Quality Report & Analysis for Tea

Hello fellow tea lovers,

In my research around tea I have come across a plethora of opinions about water quality. The conclusion that I have reached so far is that R.O. water will create a flat taste and a "soft water" is ideal for tea. That means, "some" minerals, but not a lot. For this reason it seems most city's tap water in conjunction with a good carbon filter may be the best bet apart from spring water (feedback welcome).

I am trying to decide on the best water system for a commercial tea venue as I draft business plans for a loose leaf tea lounge and artisan pottery shop. In hopes that I may find somebody who can decipher this information and be able to advise on appropriate filtration I have received the "Water Quality Report" from my city and found out the following figures from last year:

(all figures ppm unless specified otherwise)

Chlorine 0.47 - 3.4 Fluoride 1.2 Sodium 260 (violation last year which has been corrected and is now back in compliance with federal law) Nitrate 0.6 Lead 3 PPB Copper 0.0448 PPM Calcium 86 Magnesium 8 Iron 0.001

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, thank you!

Reply to
Earth&Water
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I am alternatively looking for any feedback from business owners on whatever water filtration systems they found to work best. I have heard good things about Everpure undersink filters.

Thanks. :)

Reply to
Earth&Water

The reason that you find so many different opinions is that different people like different tastes in tea, and they are used to different things.

A lot of the issue isn't just the total mineral content, but the overall balance of minerals.

These look pretty reasonable... iron is okay, and it's a bit softer than I might pick but it's not horrible.

Make a cup of tea with it and see what you think. If you like it, don't change anything.

If anything you might want to reduce those sodium and calcium numbers a bit, but that's a fairly expensive thing to do and it might not improve the taste anyway.

Get a sample, make some teas with it. Compare with some teas made with the same volume and the same steeping times using a reference water, say Volvic mineral water or flat Perrier. Do they taste good? If they taste good, the water is good.

--scott

Reply to
Scott Dorsey

I always tell people if you want to spend more money on tea dont waste it on water. It is my experience if your water is lacking something the taste of tea will make up for it.

Jim

Reply to
Space Cowboy

So infusing tea leaves will improve the taste of virtually any water? Agreed. But if you?re dissatisfied with the tea liquor you?re brewing, improving the water you use might make sense. And if the water you?re currently using is low in minerals, then, as Scott Dorsey has suggested, it might be possible to improve the water by adding minerals at an

*extremely* low cost.

/Lew

Reply to
Lewis Perin

I think, though, that it's more common to find water with too much of the wrong mineral content rather than too little of the right. That's a more difficult problem but not an insurmountable one.

--scott

Reply to
Scott Dorsey

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