How to get good water for brewing tea

How to get good water for brewing tea

Water is of primacy to tea, and the quality can directly affect the quality of tea.

The ancients believed that natural water is the best water for cooking tea. According to sources, natural water can be divided into spring, stream, river, lake well water, snow, rain, etc., and spring is one of the best. The standard good tea water is no more than four conditions, live source, sweet, light, and clear.

 

Live source

Live water means the source of wat is to live, that is, water should always flow.

Sweet

Sweet water makes nice tea. The ancients believed that the rain is nutritious and sweet, and the rain is the sweetest when plums get ripe in the south. Snow water is also good to brew tea; first, it is sweet, second, it is cold and clear.  Some Chinese people also think the snow was good for cooking tea.

Light

Emperor Qianlong is also a senior researcher on tea. In every parade, he would ask to take a silver funnel to detect the spring water. After researches, he then came to a conclusion that “light water is better to cook tea”. There are soft water and hard water; hard water contains calcium, magnesium, iron and other minerals which can increase the weight of water, affecting the flavor of tea, while soft water is suitable for making tea. Generally, water with pH value of 6.7 to 7.3 alkaline, acidic or neutral can better reflect the color, smell, taster, rhyme of tea, so it is the perfect water for cooking tea.

Clear

Selected water must be clear. Many people who love the water, invented many good ways to keep water clear, such as by “putting stones in the bottle of water”.