by Peter Walsh
Tea Taste and Water Type
If a hundred people were asked, ” Do you know the difference between hard and soft water?”, generally speaking the answers given would be as wide and varied as the question is. This is because it is fair to say, the water we we all see when we turn on our taps to fill our glass, cup and kettle is essentially crystal clear and ready to use or drink.
If so, why do we often hear comments about hard and soft water and how this affects the taste of what we drink or leaves a coating of limescale inside our kettles? this is because the water we drink and use contains minerals and these affect or cause the “hardness in our water” Its not possible to see or know that the water you are using or drinking is “hard” The effect hard water has on washing machines, kettles and maybe dishwashers is a much clearer visual indication.
So what is the difference between hard and soft water?
Essentially the naturally occurring levels of minerals such as calcium and magnesium within the water gives it the “Hardness” rating, therefore it is easy to expect that the more of these and other naturally occurring minerals the harder the water is. For water to be considered “Soft” then it must be that there are none of these minerals in it? Well actually, thats not the case, these minerals do exist within soft water, although in lower concentrations and with a higher level of sodium which softens the water.
We all get used to the water we drink where we live and probably never really think about if it is hard or soft and actually don’t usually think about it. That is until we go away on a journey from home to somewhere else in the country, where the water is the opposite to that which we are used to…….Then we make a drink of tea and immediately think ‘this tastes funny” we do don’t we? I suppose like me though, you put this down to the complimentary tea not being your usual brand or the kettle doesn’t work properly or some other none specific lay science reason when in actual fact its the water thats different and it affects how we taste our hot or cold drinks! This is not to say that either soft or hard water is not fit to drink, it simply means that across the UK there are differing areas or a “water map” where the naturally occurring minerals in our water is different and so is the taste!
When making your favourite loose leaf tea (we hope it’s a Stiggins Tea) you need to consider the type of water and whether it might affect the true taste of this high quality tea.
It must be said that neither water types are harmful in any way and should not be thought to be. All the water delivered to our homes and through our taps has gone through strict filtration and monitoring before we get and use it. The quality of our drinking water is very high, however, our comment and having said that is that is down to a matter of taste. I suppose the bottom line is that we all have different tastes and expectations when we buy a cup of tea, its important though to consider the effect the type of water we have affects that. There is of course always the option to buy filtered bottle water to use when making our favourite brew, or using a water filter.
