RO Water?

Absolutely the worst choice for tea in my opinion. The mineral content of water greatly affects the flavor of the brew. IMHO you want at least some mineral content to give the water body and flavor. RO has zero mineral content, and is generally not good for any beverage, it will render a very "flat" brew.

Mike

RO stands for Reverse Osmosis. It is a way of removing mineral content from water.

Jim

It also makes the water a neutral ph too. It's used alot in the Salwater Aquarium hobby/trade.

That is very interesting , will forward on thank you guys

RO is Reverse Osmosis. It's a process that takes all of the minerals out of water.

And yes, it makes tea taste much flatter. I don't know why, but when I had distilled and RO water available for film processing, I tried it for tea and it was definitely detrimental.

If all you have available is RO water (for example, on board a ship), adding Burton's Water Salts to the water may help. I'd sooner just take some Vichy water along, though, and dilute the process water with that.

--scott

I wonder if we could get a little clarification. The original questioner seems to be saying that s/he likes "softened" water, and has bad results with RO. While RO (like two-step ion exchange) does soften water, for many people the term "softening" is used in reference to a process of displacement (rather than removal). In this much cheaper approach, sodium (from salt) replaces calcium and magnesium ions. Much cheaper, and eliminates soap scum and hard-water scale pretty well. Also adds a lot of salt, which would naturally enhance certain flavors. Perhaps the questioner would like to try adding a pinch of salt to RO water?

As to "unwanted taste": it's not clear whether this "side-taste" is an actual new flavor note, or a change in balance/intensity of the existing profile. Hard to see whence a new flavor might arise, unless the purification system is contaminated.

-DM

Many people don't like Reverse Osmosis or distilled water for tea.

I prefer distilled because it results in a pure, clean- and fresh-tasting brew while regular tap or bottled waters makes my teas taste murky.

There's no right or wrong, best or worst, just pros and cons, advantages and disadvantages resulting in generalizations that are entirely subjective in the end. Whatever suits an individual's taste buds is the best water to use.

That is why I suggested the use of Burton Water Salts (which is a mixture of different mineral salts) or a little bit of Vichy water (which is super, super soft mineral water) added to the RO water in places where people were forced to use RO water (such as onboard ship).

However, the original poster had said that he had heard that RO water was the best thing possible for making tea, and that is what he was asking about.

I think it's pretty clear that it's a change in the existing profile, but even small changes salt levels can seriously change flavours in general. That's why potato chips are so good.

--scott

I don't know about the best but I do think that RO water is better than overly particulated/ mineralized water. I have Arrowhead at work which is very mineralized and I think the RO water filter I have at home makes better water. I added some mineral salts to the water and couldn't really tell the difference. I did like Crystal Geyser but I'd have to do a side-by-side taste test to see if it was discernible yet to my palate.

What is everyone's favorite water for brewing tea?

There is this water vending machine by Glacier Spring (or is it just Glacier) that supposedly does RO and then add back essential minerals back. True? One tea enthusiast in L.A. went to the Las Vegas Tea Convention sometime ago and witnessed the presentation done by the Glacier vending machine salespeople. They said their machine adds back minerals after the RO is completed. I've often brewed tea with this water and I have not tasted any detriment to the quality of the tea. In fact, it tastes quite good.

Having said that, Crystal Geyser bottled water is still my go-to tea water. Fiji's not bad, too...but it's damn expensive for me.

I usually brew with Crystal Geyeser (and I don't really notice any big difference w/ Arrowhead Mills - nor have I seen it create any major deposits in my kettles).

I do wish there were a solution that didn't involve so many bottles, though.

I have used it before - I thought it had too many minerals in it, though? Isn't it available pretty cheaply, especially at Trader Joes? I always thought it was kind of a budget water, despite their marketing hype.

A lot of people seem to use Volvic - a little expensive for me, at least for daily consumption.

We'll have to have a water taste-off at one of our next tasting sessions and see if any of us can tell the difference in a blind taste test under (relatively) controlled circumstances.

Oddly enough, I usually use Arrowhead Spring Water. Just goes to show ya. I've had some other spring waters when visiting the in-laws in Michigan that didn't work at all for me.

Blues

Had a tasting on Saturday with Danica and some others (not sure if the others are RFDT regulars or not) with 3 types of water: Fiji, New Zealand Artesian water (Trader Joe's brand) and RO water with some ionic minerals added (5-6 drops per 1.5 liter?).

Overall impression was that the RO water + ionic mineral droplets brewed the sheng Banzhang pu'er that we had beautifully. One of us even thought that Fiji and NZ Artesian are inferior to the RO. I personally think the RO water performed well and not worse than the expensive artesian water.

Phyll

I'm not surprised to hear that remineralized RO water performed just as well. I think as long as a mineral water has a good balance of minerals and no off-flavours, the tea or coffee that's brewed from it turns out just as well as the $11 dollar a litre stuff.