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Tea in hard water area (?)

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AleisterCrowley
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Tea in hard water area (?)

#168539

Postby AleisterCrowley » September 24th, 2018, 10:46 am

I've just moved to West Berks into a hard water area (apparently) and my first cuppa tasted vile - very watery and insipid
I was in Slough and, although the water tasted unpleasant to drink and was heavily chlorinated, it did make a decent brew
What to do?
I know Yorkshire do a hard water tea, but I like my Assam and Kenyan single estate...
I'm in a rented property so fitting stuff to supply isn't straightforward
Do those filter jugs (Brita etc) soften water?
What about bottled water as a temporary fix ?

cheers
AC

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Re: Tea in hard water area (?)

#168551

Postby Urbandreamer » September 24th, 2018, 11:14 am

How extreme do you want to go?

The trouble with bottled water, or mineral water as it use to be known, is that a lot of it is hard water!

I don't think that a simple filter softens water.

Water softeners don't produce soft water. They change the minerals in the hard water to others. What they do is replace calcium and magnesium with sodium. Great for washing. Drinking, not so great.

My mother had a distilation unit, I kid you not.

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Re: Tea in hard water area (?)

#168559

Postby nowretired » September 24th, 2018, 11:30 am

I'm from Scotland and my daughter lives in Newbury where the water is hard and the tea and coffee made from tap water tastes horrible.

She uses a Britvic water filter jug and it improves the taste.

Still not as good as at home but at least it is now drinkable.

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Re: Tea in hard water area (?)

#168567

Postby Dod101 » September 24th, 2018, 12:03 pm

I am sure Highland Spring bottled water is soft. I live a couple of miles from the bottling plant and my tap water which is very soft, tastes just like Highland Spring. So there is an answer even if it will prove to be a rather expensive option, depending on how much tea you drink.

Dod

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Re: Tea in hard water area (?)

#168570

Postby AleisterCrowley » September 24th, 2018, 12:08 pm

Thanks all

I was halfway through typing ' which bottled waters are soft?' - will try Highland Spring as a temporary measure ( I don't like using bottled water regularly, for green/environmental reasons...)

Do Brita filters 'soften' water ? The website says "Releases the full flavour and aroma of tea, coffee and espresso."

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Re: Tea in hard water area (?)

#168574

Postby Dod101 » September 24th, 2018, 12:19 pm

When I lived in London, the water tasted awful and we used a Brita filter. It made the water taste marginally better but whether it made it any softer I doubt.

Dod

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Re: Tea in hard water area (?)

#168575

Postby AleisterCrowley » September 24th, 2018, 12:24 pm

The Slough water tasted bad, but made good(ish) tea. The Theale water drinks a lot better, but the tea is insipid. I can't win...

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Re: Tea in hard water area (?)

#168588

Postby gryffron » September 24th, 2018, 1:13 pm

Problem is, water tastes "different". Whether any particular area is "better" is really a matter of taste. I suspect if you drank West Berks tea for a year and then went back to Slough, you'd have exactly the same problem.

So yes, all these gimmicky filters can make it "different". And you might find an option that is closer to what you are used to. But it is so much a matter of personal taste that I doubt anyone else's advice is much use. If you're not happy and you can't learn to live with it, then try different options until you find one that suits you. Maybe you can mix it with local tap water and gradually increase the proportion of the latter to wean yourself over to the new area?

Gryff

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Re: Tea in hard water area (?)

#168594

Postby vrdiver » September 24th, 2018, 1:44 pm

Water for tea is a bit of a Goldilocks dilemma: too hard, too soft or just right? Of course the answer also depends on which Goldilocks is being asked!

One site that you might find interesting, https://www.thespruceeats.com/water-for ... ing-766323 also suggests a Brita filter as one possible solution.

Mrs VRD dislikes high mineral content water, so we do look at the labels when buying bottled water. I'd suggest you take a wander through a couple of supermarkets and note the mineral content: we normally go for the lowest total combined carbonates, rather than try to note everything.

We're lucky to live in a soft water area, so tap water makes a decent cuppa, unlike when I visit my sister, where I have to scrape the chalky scum off the surface of the tea before drinking it (which is a whole other experience).

There is a company that specialises in blends for the local water conditions: https://gadsdentea.com/local-tea-blends might be worth sending them an email.

HTH
VRD

AleisterCrowley
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Re: Tea in hard water area (?)

#168596

Postby AleisterCrowley » September 24th, 2018, 1:46 pm

gryffron wrote:Problem is, water tastes "different". Whether any particular area is "better" is really a matter of taste. I suspect if you drank West Berks tea for a year and then went back to Slough, you'd have exactly the same problem.
...

Gryff


It is a truth universally acknowledged, that hard water makes poor tea.
I suppose I could try to get used to tea that is objectively bad, but I don't want to.

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Re: Tea in hard water area (?)

#168602

Postby JamesMuenchen » September 24th, 2018, 1:56 pm

AleisterCrowley wrote:Do Brita filters 'soften' water ? "


Yes.

We live in a hard-water area and the kettle is lime-scale free as long as the filter lasts.

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Re: Tea in hard water area (?)

#168641

Postby UncleIan » September 24th, 2018, 3:54 pm

AleisterCrowley wrote:I was halfway through typing ' which bottled waters are soft?' - will try Highland Spring as a temporary measure ( I don't like using bottled water regularly, for green/environmental reasons...)


Our water makes terrible tea apparently, so my missus uses the cheapest water in the supermarket for her tea. Sainsbury's basic at about 18p or something over Highland Spring at ??p. Got chucked out of Greenpeace mind you but...

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Re: Tea in hard water area (?)

#168643

Postby AleisterCrowley » September 24th, 2018, 4:18 pm

Just got 1.5l of Highland Spring for 79p, as an experiment

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Re: Tea in hard water area (?)

#168645

Postby richlist » September 24th, 2018, 4:24 pm

My advice is .....keep drinking the tea made from tap water at your new address and by this time next year you'll have got used to it.
Simples.

Personally I don't like tea made in mugs or any cup that isn't bone china.

Others I know don't like Typhoo or PGTips tea bags but then the world is full of strange people don't you think ?

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Re: Tea in hard water area (?)

#168657

Postby CryptoPlankton » September 24th, 2018, 5:35 pm

AleisterCrowley wrote:I've just moved to West Berks into a hard water area (apparently) and my first cuppa tasted vile - very watery and insipid
I was in Slough and, although the water tasted unpleasant to drink and was heavily chlorinated, it did make a decent brew
What to do?
I know Yorkshire do a hard water tea, but I like my Assam and Kenyan single estate...
I'm in a rented property so fitting stuff to supply isn't straightforward
Do those filter jugs (Brita etc) soften water?
What about bottled water as a temporary fix ?

cheers
AC

While it is true you have moved to a "hard water" area, you have actually moved away from a "very hard water" area - check the list of towns in this link:

http://www.purewaterpeople.co.uk/blog/2 ... n-england/

So I think it is something else about the water that you are finding unpalatable. There are many factors that affect the taste of water. I would suggest letting the tap run for a minute or two before filling the kettle to clear anything that may be leaching from the pipes, but really, as others have said, it may just be a case of getting used to a different source. Having said that, I could never get used to tea made with tap water when I lived in Putney for a while and had to resort to bottled water myself. As I understand it, tea is best made with water of neutral pH so, if you go down that route, I'd suggest buying the water nearest to a pH of 7.

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Re: Tea in hard water area (?)

#168694

Postby Maroochydore » September 24th, 2018, 8:53 pm

richlist wrote:Others I know don't like Typhoo or PGTips tea bags but then the world is full of strange people don't you think ?

No, the world is full of different people, not strange people.
Some can't stand Typhoo and others can't stand Lapsang Souchong.
I like what I like and don't care what anyone else likes as long as they're happy with their choice.
I don't think anyone can recomend something as 'the best', it's all down to personal taste.
The OP has to experiment until he finds something he likes.

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Re: Tea in hard water area (?)

#168741

Postby Nocton » September 25th, 2018, 8:48 am

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that hard water makes poor tea.

I've never heard this before, perhaps because we live in a very hard water area and most people we know think it is good water for tea, especially combined with Yorkshire tea made for the area (Lincolnshire). To our taste tea/water in soft water areas tastes a bit slimy, but as another poster said, you get used to the water where you live. The bonus is that hard water is definitely better for your health, due to all the calcium.

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Re: Tea in hard water area (?)

#168745

Postby Alaric » September 25th, 2018, 9:02 am

vrdiver wrote: where I have to scrape the chalky scum off the surface of the tea before drinking it


That is caused by boiling, making calcium carbonate deposits or similar. Running water through a Brita filter before boiling removes the scum in tea and makes kettles last longer and not need descaling. If you drink water cold, hard water has minerals in it !

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Re: Tea in hard water area (?)

#168746

Postby Mike88 » September 25th, 2018, 9:03 am

This is what you get when you drink tap water in many areas:

Water from rivers tends to have been through bodies more than say rainwater, because it is concentrated by being in a channel. In a highly populated catchment like say the Thames valley water will have been through bodies several times by the time it reaches the sea. This has led to female hormones from birth control pills being detectable in London water. This is not unique to London.

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Re: Tea in hard water area (?)

#168759

Postby vrdiver » September 25th, 2018, 9:29 am

Mike88 wrote:This is what you get when you drink tap water in many areas:

Water from rivers tends to have been through bodies more than say rainwater, because it is concentrated by being in a channel. In a highly populated catchment like say the Thames valley water will have been through bodies several times by the time it reaches the sea. This has led to female hormones from birth control pills being detectable in London water. This is not unique to London.

I read this and wondered, are you taking the "P"? Then I realised, if you drink tea from river water, then yes, probably several times a day :o

VRD


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