How Water And Temperature Can Lessen The Properties Of Herbs

How Water And Temperature Can Lessen The Properties Of Herbs

 In some areas water can be relatively safe to consume straight from the tap so how would this make an impact on your daily cup of tea? Not only the water but the temperature itself can lessen the properties of herbs. 

How Water And Temperature Can Lessen The Properties Of Herbs

What’s In Water?

Things like minerals and metals can make your tea taste bad or become flat. Water can contain things like Lead, arsenic, copper, chlorine, perchlorate, nitrate, sulfur and chlorine so it’s important to flush these out before brewing. An easy way to help combat this is a water filter. Filters like Aquasana and Britta use charcoal to remove these impurities and give your water a neutral taste that is great for brewing loose leaf tea and probably better in general. You can find water filters here,

Bottled water has been a topic amongst many tea connoisseurs but the results have yet to come to an agreement. Some bottled water comes directly from springs which also have many minerals so be mindful. Unfortunately bottled water isn't the most sustainable or efficient so again filtered water just might do the trick. 

Water Temperature

Though not often thought of when brewing tea - we assume boiled water is treated equally amongst all loose leaf teas. The truth is, It is not. Tea leaves can be fickle and a burnt tea is less than appealing. Let’s see how temperature can lessen the properties of herbs and how to measure it properly. 

There are a few ways to measure the temperature of your water to make sure you get the best brew. 

-Thermometer: Use a standard kitchen thermometer to check the temperature of your water

-Electric kettle with thermometer: You can find these here, they tell you exactly what the temperature of your water is

-Look: Traditional Chinese Medicine wisdom tells us that at a specific point in time your water will be approximately this degree. Bubbles produced at low temperatures for green and white teas look like “crab eyes” 175F, oolong requires medium sized or “fish eyes” 180F, and large bubbles for black teas also called “raging torrent” 212F.

-Listen: Like looking alternatively you can listen, for lightest tea styles, it’s best to use water that is just beginning to whine, while oolongs should be brewed at the moment that the water goes quiet, and black teas can be brewed at a full rolling boil or the point that kettles whistle. 

See the reference image below on what temperature water should be at for specific teas. 

 

 

Conclusion

As you have read there are a few ways water and temperature can lessen the properties of herbs, but there are also ways to combat this from happening. Proper water sources and a good thermometer will do the trick and you’ll have genuinely great tasting tea.

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