Martin said

Boiling Mineral Water In A Pan

Ordered my first lot of tea yesterday. I will be drinking western style. I have an tea cafetière to brew the tea. I also have a kettle which has some limescale in it. So I was thinking to boil some mineral water in a pan on the stove. I see two benefits, the water will be untainted by limescale and it will be easier to measure the temp with a probe.

Does anyone have any disagreements or recommendations on this process?

I don’t really want to spend too much money on this at the moment, as always money is tight and if I don’t really appreciate the tea much it could all go in a cupboard and never seen again. If I do enjoy the tea and all its nuances then I will get a gaiwan set etc and stick it on my 40th birthday list in April.

15 Replies
Psyck said

Boiling mineral water on the stove is perfectly fine. The kettle could also work just as well (even with a little limescale). If the limescale bothers you, you could just clean it with citric acid.
http://www.onegoodthingbyjillee.com/2015/04/how-to-clean-your-electric-kettle.html

Login or sign up to post a message.

AllanK said

Mandala Tea makes a kettle cleaner that is really good at cleaning limescale. The website is not yet up again but you can send him an email.
https://steepster.com/discuss/15314-mandala-tea-can-send-you-tea

Login or sign up to post a message.

Ken said

Vinegar will take out most limescale. just let a little of it sit in the kettle for a bit. Lemon juice is another choice.

Login or sign up to post a message.

Brian said

how will you pour water from a sauce pan into a mug? :-P

Login or sign up to post a message.

+1 for vinegar. I use white vinegar. I fill the kttle, swish it around, let it sit for a second, then you wash it a ton with running water. Works like a charm.

My friend out west is a big tea head like me, but he is a minimalist, so he uses a saucepan on the stove for hot water. I cringe whenever I come over, but it does work well; however, the pour is a bit tricky.

Login or sign up to post a message.

Martin said

Thanks for the replies. White vinegar it is then. Would you all say mineral water is better than tap water?

I know in brewing the mantra “if it’s good enough to drink, it’s good enough to brew with”. Does this hold true with tea.

Psyck said

Citric acid is far preferable to vinegar. However if you have extensive scaling which does not go away with citric acid, you can use vinegar – that would require several times of boiling and throwing away water after the cleansing, which would not be required with citric acid.

The best possible water available is ideal for good tea. Mineral mountain spring water, or a little spring water mixed with RO water, or even plain RO water could often be preferable to tap water – but that depends on the quality of your tap.

Login or sign up to post a message.

I have hard water where I live (Kentucky), so I find it helpful to use a Brita pitcher for the water I use in my tea kettle. I haven’t had any limescale since I started using it. Makes a world of difference!

Login or sign up to post a message.

Only thing I would caution is that minerals escape water when it gets reboiled etc, and I’ve heard the same about boiling in open air. Do you cover it when boiling?
(if your tea ever tastes flat, and you reboiled the water a few times, that is why. I learned the hard way lol)

> minerals escape water when it gets reboiled

eh?

Depends on who you ask. It was a point of contention in my tea class. Old school thinking vs new I guess?
Could be loss of air content (tiny air bubbles) in the water as well. Either way, it changes the taste. Pouring the water back and forth from one cup to another will help but not to the point of where it should be. However that also decreases the water temp so would only be useful for green or white teas. Maybe oolong.

AJ said

Loss of volatiles (CO2, O2), yes. Minerals, no. Minerals can’t evaporate.

Psyck said

Water reboiled too much is said to taste flat possibly due to loss of the O 2 so it is probably preferable to not reboil too much and stop short of bringing it to a roiling boil when reboiling. Excess dissolved solids get deposited at the bottom of the vessel but that doesn’t hurt the taste. Pouring water/tea from some height, slurping the tea, are all means employed to re-aerate the water.

I said escape. Not by which means :P
(aka escape doesn’t equate into the air aka limescale)

Login or sign up to post a message.

Martin said

I have bought some limescale remover in a pack, very cheap to buy. So kettle and cheap bottled mineral water is the way I am going. Expecting the delivery of tea in the next couple of days. Looking forward to it.

Login or sign up to post a message.

Login or sign up to leave a comment.