Hard Water or Soft Water for Tea

I was talking to a good friend and the subject of tea and the effects of hard and soft water came up. Does tea taste better brewed in hard water or soft water? Does it make any difference which water you start with? We remembered that we had noticed some brands of tea on supermarket shelves being described as suitable for hard-water or soft-water areas - amazingly they were both on the same shelf - so presumably the supermarket itself didn't know (or didn't care) what was best for its catchment area. Anyway, I decided to find out more.

Hard Water or Soft Water Tea Questions

So, a number of questions need answering.... Does tea taste better brewed in hard or soft water? Do different kinds of tea taste better when brewed in different kinds of water? How do you find out or test what is the hardness or softness of your own tap-water? Where can you get that information?

Hard Water or Soft Water Tea Answers

Well, first I did a search on the World Wide Web and after consulting various resources found via Google and reading about hard and soft water at Wikipedia I am able to say that hard water has more minerals in it than soft water. Rain water has no minerals so is a good example of soft water, and any water that comes from an underground spring is likely to have more dissolved elements and dissolved minerals so is an example of a hard water. Most of the tap-water in the UK is classified as hard-water.

The general consensus from tea sites and tea blogs was that using hard or soft water makes little difference when brewing tea other than hard water may make coffee taste bitter (So what's that got to do with tea? eh!). Also green tea may be insipid or tasteless when softer water is used.

Further Hard Water or Soft Water for Tea Research

Well, how to take this further. I'm going to brew a cup of tea using water directly from the tap and also brew a cup of tea using bottled water that states it has a high-mineral content and a further cup of tea using distilled water which should be VERY soft. Then I'm going to drink each cup of tea - or at least taste each cup of tea - watch this space, as they say, for the results.

Hard Water or Soft Water for Tea Results

Watch this space or find out for yourself! :-)