Is water quality really that important?

These previous water quality threads may be of interest:

https://steepster.com/discuss/10960-water-filtration?page=1

https://steepster.com/discuss/6791-water-filter-recommendations

I’ve personally found a large difference based on overall and composition of mineral content based on extensive research at home and adding different brewers salts to my water (which is very flat) and my blind test subject (AKA my boyfriend) has also noted a large difference between our very soft water and the same water with salts added, although difference in the composition of the addition to roughly the same amount of total dissolved solids makes a much more subtle difference. The type of tea also tends to make a difference, from what we’ve seen, with the increase in mineral content making the biggest difference in oolongs, puerhs, and darker teas, probably due to the absorption curve of the tea leaf contents being slower with the added minerals.

I found this article to be interesting and to affirm some of my general theories about my results when I was researching the same subject, :): http://www.seriouseats.com/2014/06/best-water-for-tea-tap-spring-bottled-filtered.html

Water is a game changer. I took my favorite teas with me on vacation to Florida (I live in Minnesota) and they had muted flavor and were oddly flat. I felt like a tool doing it, but we bought bottled water just so I could brew decent tea.

Absolutely. I always use bottled water, but when I had to use chlorinated water I just felt the difference.

For me, water, temperature and time are the Big 3 elements when breewing tea (appart from the quality of the tea).

To a certain extent， water quality can influence the tea quality.It’s important to control the water temperature and choose the kind of water.

For me, having a tea pot with temperature controls made all the difference. Maybe I just have decent tap water but I was surprised at what a difference temperature and steeping time made. Water quality (occasionally to use a bottle of water that’s already open) not as much.