Wonder what is so controversial about Volvic water? I drink mostly WuYi rock tea. A tea expert recommended it so this video puts a shade of doubt in me. Also, what do you think of Fiji Natural Water and Icelandic Glacial Water? Are they good choices for my oolongs? Thanks alot~ *I should also mention that I come from a country where the water tends to be too distilled (ie. soft and lacking minerals). So unlike Europe with harder tap water that requires softening, I'm looking to increase the hardness of my water.
Hi Daniel, Volvic is controversial because some people have experienced an acidic touch, in particular with Wuyi Rock tea. As for Fuji and Icelandic, I actually haven't tried them with tea as they are quite expensive and there are other waters, much cheaper, that lead to good results. Based on their chemical characteristics, I would say that Fiji should lead to good results. Icelandic might as well, although the extremely high pH and very limited amount of minerals could also result in a too soft / insipid taste.
Not sure if I understand your question correctly, but let me try to answer: to compare different waters you definitely want to keep the steeping time as well as water temperature and quantity of tea identical. However, even if you step one a bit longer than the other, some characteristics of the waters will still be clear as longer steeping affect mainly 5 he level of bitterness and intensity, but not the taste... Did I answer your question? Otherwise please let me know.
Hi John, water is so importance for tea, the better the tea, he greater the role of water in rendering all nuances or king them. So I understand your concerns. Tds 50 is per se not a concern, but chlore is always detrimental for tea; it's easy though to filter it out. You can find information on this blog: www.nannuoshan.org/blogs/blog/bestes-wasser-fur-tee-wasservergleich We look at waters available in German, but you can derive conclusions also for the waters available where you leave. In your case I would first try to filter tab water, for example with Brita filter. Not ideal, but in many cases transforms bad tap water in acceptable. If filtering is not enough (try parallel tasting) I would search a mineral water with parameters similar to those mentioned in the blog. Go for a few and, again, compare them with each other.
We did experiment a lot with water at Nannuoshan. Find our which waters we think are best for your tea on this blog post: nannuoshan.org/blogs/blog/bestes-wasser-fur-tee-wasservergleich
