When I first heard of the concept of washing water, I was dumbfounded. The idea appears as controversially undoable, yet brilliantly genius!
Most of us "serious" tea drinkers are aware of water is the mother of tea. Without good water, even the 50's pu-erh would taste less than average. While there are many bottled water companies claim to be the purest or best spring water on earth, do we trust them enough to put our precious tea leaves on line? Especially when we are away from home without any idea what brand to trust, washing your water before brewing tea is the next to best solution although it takes some time and effort.
Obtain several spring waters by different makers and from different regions, mix them all in one large container, preferably clay or ceramic ware, let it rest for 6 hours, use only the top 3/4 without disturbing the bottom portion. Here you have "washed" clean water for your tea.
Minerals from each bottled water react to each other, also neutralize PH balance. In some cases, condensation of the residues is visible, noticeably cloudy and thick at the bottom 1/4.
Love your tea? You can love your tea even away from home!
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9 comments:
Very interesting. I have heard the phrase, but never researched it much. I am going to try it to see what results I get.
If it is OK, I would like to post a paragraph on what you wrote on my blog and link back to your site for the entire piece.
~Amadeus
http://teapotdiversions.com
Hi Amadeus,
Very nice site you have there! Great details and organization, informative yet easy to browse. Are you a webmaster/tea-lover? I need a webmaster for my tea shop. Email me teahabitat at yahoo if you can lend a hand or someone you can refer me to. I'd appreciate it. :)
I'd be honored to be linked to your site. :)
Imen
That a very interesting idea...
I've always liked just drinking different kinds of water and try to hone my tastebuds in figuring out how each water tastes on their own, without the addition of tea or anything else. I then use the water to brew teas that I know... and see what it does to the tea.
Mixing them all together.... never thought about that before. Maybe I should give it a try, when I'm no longer nomadic...
Marshaln,
I think it might be useful in China, no?
Well.... if you boil tap water in China (at least Beijing) you will get massive amounts of sediment - it's very high in (unknown) mineral content.
Some bottled water can be too high in sodium, making them taste salty.
But the problem is an urn like this will gather a lot of dust very fast -- it's very dusty there. You will be drinking a lot of dust unless you have it well covered at all times....
There's no good way to do things in China...
Back in the old country, that's what we do. Water there contains lots of sediment, so we fill several 50-gallon drums with tap water and let each rest for 2 days. We use the top 2/3 to boil our drinking water. This was the time when bottled water did not exist yet.
Great post!
Hi Imen,
I am a webmaster/tea-lover. Maybe more of a tea-lover/webmaster. I do a little teastore stuff myself, really through eBay although I have a stand alone. It is more of a way to me to liquidate my huge teapot collection than anything.
Please email me the ideas you have for yourself at info@teapotdiversions.com and I can provide you some info.
Best Wishes to you!
~Amadeus
Marshaln,
Yeah, I know what you mean. I was caught in a dust storm in Beijing years ago. Lord, talk about dust, or rather "sand" storm.
Phyll,
Welcome back!
Amadeus,
Will do. Thanks in advance!
Beijing is really not a pleasant place to live.
Not that Shanghai's tap water is much better. It has a distinct "Huangpu River" taste, which.... is odd, suffice to say. It's very distinctive and very very present.
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