Tea & Water

The water used to brew tea should be carefully considered. Water imparts many of its qualities to the finished cup of tea. Bad water will make a bad cup, no matter how good the tea. Tap, bottled, and filtered waters are all different. Bottled water doesn’t have to come from a mountain spring. It can be nothing more than city tap water in a fancy package. There are many types of filters - some are excellent and others useless. People often find tea tastes different elsewhere than it does at home. Water is usually the culprit. In the past, tea merchants blended their tea to accommodate the water of a particular city. We provide only true teas, no blends. The brew is in your hands. We encourage you to experiment with filtered water and bottled water to find those you like best. And remember for great tea, don’t re-boil water as much of the oxygen will disappear, resulting in a flat brew. Do not use boiling water when brewing white or green tea. Over-heated water will cook the leaves and destroy their flavor.
At the In Pursuit of Tea offices, we make our teas from Brooklyn tap water filtered through a Brita water filter. We often do taste tests with bottled waters and will be bringing you our thoughts on which we like best. NRDC (National Resource Defense Council) published an interesting article on bottled waters in the most recent edition of Amicus (Summer 1999). Many bottled waters are less pure than you might think!

Suggested Temperatures:
White or Green tea: 170-185 F
Black tea: Near boiling
Oolong: 180-212 F
Pu-erh: full, rolling boil