The Right Water Makes a Different Tea

Tea is ninety-nine percent water. Think about that for a second. The other one percent — the leaves you obsess over, the price you paid, the brewing time you fuss with — is sitting in a much larger volume of an ingredient most people don't consider at all.

**The four water problems.**

• **Chlorine.** Most municipal tap water is chlorinated. The chemical taste survives boiling and dominates delicate teas. Easy fix: a cheap activated-carbon filter pitcher (Brita, ZeroWater) or a 24-hour open-air rest before brewing.

• **Hardness.** High calcium and magnesium content (over 200 ppm) makes greens and oolongs taste dull. The tell-tale sign: a dull mineral film on the surface of your cup.

• **Distilled / RO water.** Too clean. Tea brewed in fully demineralised water tastes hollow and lifeless — minerals are part of how flavour develops in solution.

• **Trace contaminants.** Lead pipes, sulphur, iron — most home tap water is fine, but in older buildings, run the cold tap for 30 seconds before filling the kettle.

**The sweet spot.** Soft, mineral-light water with a TDS reading of 80–120 ppm and a low calcium-to-magnesium ratio. Most grocery store bottled 'spring' waters fit this range; almost no hard tap water does.

**The 10-pound test.** Buy a TDS meter on Amazon for about £10. Measure your tap water. If it's between 80 and 150 ppm, you're fine to filter and brew. If it's above 200 ppm, switch to a soft bottled water for any tea you actually care about.

**Brand recommendations** (UK/EU): Volvic (60 ppm), Ashbeck (170 ppm), Buxton (around 280 ppm — too hard, avoid). (US): Crystal Geyser (around 100 ppm), Mountain Valley Spring (around 220 ppm).

Test it. Brew the same tea side-by-side with two different waters. You'll taste the difference in the first cup, and you won't go back.