“You can’t talk about tea without water.” To make a good pot of tea, the choice of water is very important.
As early as the Tang Dynasty, the tea saint Lu Yu wrote in the “Tea Classics”: The water used for making tea, the mountain water is the top grade, the river water is the middle grade, and the well water is the lower grade. And Zhang Dafu from Qing Dynasty even put the quality of water above the quality of tea. He believed: “The quality of tea must be distributed in water. When ordinary tea is steeped in superior water, tea will become superior.” It can be seen that, Finding the best water for making tea is the tireless pursuit of every tea glutton throughout the ages.
In modern times, we can already judge the properties of water by indicators such as pH and hardness. It contains certain mineral elements, the conductivity is between 10-100μS/cm, and the natural mountain spring water with a pH value of <7.5 makes tea with better quality. In the process of brewing tea, if the content of calcium and magnesium ions in the tea brewing water is too high, it will easily produce a comprehensive reaction with the main flavor substance “tea polyphenols” in the tea, thereby affecting the quality and flavor of the tea.
Generally, tap water, after chloride disinfection, retains the chlorine component of the water for a long time, and contains a lot of iron, directly used to make tea will destroy the color and taste of the tea. Therefore, the tea made in tap water feels astringent when drinking it. It’s like you have eaten an unripe banana, and it’s not smooth.
Therefore, it is really not recommended to use tap water to make tea. Distilled water is a compromise. The tea made is relatively sweet and soft. The mountain spring water and mineral water are smooth and sweet when brewed. Because both have relatively low pH values, this fresh feeling is like the pleasure after you eat very greasy food and then drink a cup of tea or a glass of water.
Finally, there is one more thing to note, the boiling water cannot be boiled repeatedly. Water that is boiled repeatedly will increase the hardness of the water.