The water for tea drinking

Venus her myrtle, Phoebus has her bays;
Tea both excels, which she vouchsafes to praise.
The best of Queens, and best of herbs, we owe
To that bold nation, which the way did show
To the fair region where the sun doth rise,
Whose rich productions we so justly prize.
The Muse’s friend, tea does our fancy aid,
Repress those vapors which the head invade,
And keep the palace of the soul serene,
Fit on her birthday to salute the Queen.

——-On Tea @ Edmund Waller

running tiger spring

“Water, fire and teaware”, they are three keys for tea brewing, and “water is the mother of tea”, good tea will present you the unique flavor, taste through the water. In the long history of tea there are lots of man did research on what tea is better for tea and resulted a lot of famous books, the most three famous books are Jian Cha Shui Ji by Zhang Youxin in Tang dynasty, Zhu Quan Xiao Pin by Tian Yiheng in Ming dynasty and Quan Pu by Tang Duxian in Qing dynasty. They reserve us many good secrets that are still useful nowadays.

Mainly there are 2 kinds of theories about how to choosing the water for tea drinking. One is according to the source, see it’s come from rain, snow, dew, river, well or Spring, and Spring is the best choice. Another theory is according to its weight, light water will be better, Emperor QianLong even wrote a book on it.

running tigers dream spring

Historically there are some discussions about who is the best water in the world. The saint Lu Yu and many many litterateurs all talked about this subject, most of them had ever been to lots of famous mountains and tasted it, but time changed, different time will have different saying, Hupao Spring(running-tiger Spring) in HangZhou which is the most famous water today in China just sit the fifth place as LuYu’s Choice, he said Spring on the mountain is the best, then river water and last is the Well water. Specially the spring comes from the rock and flows slowly is more better, it’s a live water and full of CO2. And the rain, snow or dew is also a good choice, before people called it ‘Heaven Water’, though because of the air pollution it’s not a good choice any more. People think the Autumn rain is good because there is less dust in the air and oppositely there is more dust in the Summer because there is so much thunder and gale.

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The Emperor QianLong even make a special silver measure set for water to weigh it light or weight, he had been to every famous water and measured it, at last he reported that the lightest so as the best water is Jade Spring located in the captain of the empire. So the Jade Spring is protected wholly to supply to the palace only.

But as everybody know there is no possible to obtain the special water for every day’s brewing, if you live distantly. For the rich they can get the famous water sometimes but normal man will have no way. Really? In ancient days people though out some interesting ways to make good water at home. The main work is to filtrate impurity and absorb the wish from heaven.

bamboo spring

Now time changed, we’ve tap water, purified water and mineral water, are they better than the above we talked? Not exactly. The best water for tea is still the Spring comes from the rock. We know water can be classified to soft water and hard water, and should take care of the PH, dont’ let it higher than 7.

as the tap water, take care of the ferrous ion, specially for the rusty tap. It can have a chemical reaction with tea poly-phenols, it can get the tea water darker even been to brown. So for tap water, you can silent it for a day and night to get the Chlorine out and let the dust sink to the bottom or install a filter. Now most of people will choose mineral water for good tea, and just take care of the PH. For purified water, I don’t want to suggest you this water, it’s plain,nothing good, nothing bad inside too.

But one man told me “hometown water is the best”, I agree with him, no matter where you ‘re, your hometown is the best specially you’re distant away from your home. Take care.