For those who use filtered/bottled water for brewing tea
Do you also only drink filtered/bottled regular water?
I didn’t notice it for a while, but for me something has changed about NYC tap water recently. It was often touted as the best type of water you can drink in a residential place in the US, but I am starting to notice a very iron-y taste to it after it’s boiled that I think is making me not enjoy tea as much. It leaves a very iron-y smell in the brewing vessel once the tea session is over. It isn’t really apparent when cold straight from the tap… but I am not sure if this is a sign I should be drinking filtered/bottled water regularly as well.
I live 2 blocks from a good spring so I’m spoiled but being a homebrewer I know that you can filter the water then add minerals to emulate the water of almost any city in the world using gypsum (calcium sulfate) chalk (calcium carbonate) table salt and tiny amount of epsom salt (magnesium sulfate) the water in my town is high in chalk and adds a sweetness to the tea. If your heated water is iron tasting I recommend filtering it and if it tastes lackluster perhaps add a small amount of these minerals available at a home winemaking shop.
I use a Zero Water filter. Comes with a meter for determining when you need to replace the filter, no guess work. I have a hard time telling the difference between this water and bottled but I can taste a difference in the tap water for tea even if it does not bother me to drink the tap water in all honesty. I live on Long Island not far from NYC and we have good local tap water as far as any place away from the mountains can be good.
If you’ve noticed an obvious change in your water quality:
Consumer Reports
Water filter buying guide
Last updated: August 2016
http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/water-filters/buying-guide.htm?pn=0
“What’s In Your Water?
Your Consumer Confidence Report (CCR), also known as a water quality report, states the levels of contaminants detected in the water and how that compares to the EPA’s drinking water standards. The EPA requires community water suppliers to provide a CCR to customers every July. If you rent an apartment, contact your building manager or local water company for a copy. Community water systems providing water to 100,000 or more people must post the reports online. The EPA doesn’t regulate private wells so a CCR isn’t required. The CDC offers information on testing and treatment.
The water-quality report tells you about the water in your municipality, not necessarily about what’s coming out of your particular tap. And if your home was built before lead-free pipes were mandated in 1986, a test is the best way to access your home’s water quality. There’s no safe level of lead exposure, according in to the EPA. One way to reduce lead is to run the water until it’s as cold as it will get—up to two minutes or so—when the faucet has not been used for at least six hours.
Your state or local health department might offer free test kits, and test kits are sold at home improvement stores. The EPA suggests sending samples to a certified lab for analysis. Your local water authority can offer a list of labs, check the EPA’s list, or call the EPA’s Safe Drinking Water Hotline at 800-426-4791.”
Knowing what water quality issues you have is the first step in selecting the most appropriate water filter for your needs.
A water test is the most important first step in solving your water quality issue. It would be like asking a physician to write a prescription without first establishing an accurate diagnosis.
Buying a filter without first determining the specific water-quality issue(s) may or may not solve the problem. Thus, time and money maybe wasted in the process.
If one is in a hurry to do something, a CR top-rated pitcher or faucet-mounted filter may be worth trying with the understanding these devices aren’t a solution for all possible water quality issues.
A reverse osmosis filter is an appropriate solution for some water quality issues. If needed, be sure to buy one that includes a remineralization filter. RO water without this additional filter will produce flat tasting tea.
https://steepster.com/teaware/zaria/68637-everest-alkaline-water-filter
There isn’t an ideal single type of filter that will solve all water quality issues. Sometimes, more than one type is needed. Water filters are kind of like tools. A circular saw is useless when you need a drill.
The CR link above has a great deal of helpful information.
From what you describe, you may indeed have elevated levels of iron in your water. However, it’s also possible that your water may have other water quality issues or even harmful contaminants such as lead (e.g. Flint, MI). This is why testing is so important.
https://www.cdc.gov/healthywater/drinking/public/water_diseases.html
https://www.wqa.org/Learn-About-Water/Common-Contaminants
http://www.labtechtests.com/page/Common_Drinking_Water_Contaminants.aspx
This previous thread may be of interest:
https://steepster.com/discuss/10960-water-filtration?page=1
For tea, I use a Brita filter to get the stuff that affects taste out with out depleting all the minerals which are often necessary to bring out the flavor.
For drinking water, I usually use bottled water. It’s not that I don’t trust the water near me, which I use to make coffee and to cook and bathe with, but because of the convenience and the taste.
That’s interesting about New York water. I wonder whether it’s actually the water, or something in your pipes? Do you notice it everywhere or only at home? When I lived there, I don’t remember the water having any particular taste, but I do remember how soft it was — and how until I got used to it I often felt like the conditioner wasn’t washed out of my hair.
It’s been a year since I’ve visited, but I remember NYC tap water was delicious. There’s even an old urban legend about how the secret to NYC pizza is the tap water (it’s not, but it sure doesn’t hurt). Perhaps the change in taste has to do with your household plumbing? Something might be leeching from it that’s making your water taste funny.
Here in Chicago our Lake Michigan tap water tastes good but I still filter it to remove the chlorine taste. I prefer it to most bottled water which in my experience lacks minerals and makes tea taste flat.
Yes, I had been noticing it slightly for a while but I thought it was from leaving tea leaves inside my yixings too long after I was done brewing. But I recently got a new pot and after 2 uses the bottom smells of iron. I really don’t know what to do, I wish it would just stop. It’s the same with my gaiwan.
The cold water still tastes fine.
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