After a couple hours of work, I was able to make a slightly shuffled-around version of the Toronto water recipe from my last post, Replicating Toronto Tap Water. The mineral content is the same. So, I figured it would be fun to make tea with it and take some good old fashioned tasting notes, a-la-mgualt. I’m not too experienced with this kind of steep-by-steep report, but it seems like a useful way to document the experience.
6.5g/100ml zini, glass kettle, 232 TDS (calculated) water, pH 8
1.
Nose: Wonderful yeasty-woody smell coming off the liquor, something I don’t get from my normal water or other lighter recipes. Wet leaf extremely surprisingly pungent, sharp wood incense, damp wood shavings, cooked mushrooms, chocolate.
Mouth: Sweet deep fruity taste, like plums and wood. Bready aftertaste, like sourdough. Relieved that I’m not getting plastic taste, as source water is distilled water from the supermarket. Still would like to find a better source.
Body: Calming, warmth in upper back, settling in.
2.
Nose: Pronounced earthy depth on liquor. Wet leaf has pungent chocolate-coffee aroma. Cherries on wet leaf.
Mouth: Nice bubbles on liquor. Oily texture, mouthcoat, mouth cooling. Some precipitation of calcium carbonate on the surface of the tea. Rich, sweet dark chocolate cake taste. Definitely sweet mushrooms as well in the front. Not much bitterness yet. Huigan starting to set in, sweetness mixing with sourdough bread aftertaste.
Body: Warmth, some sweating. Calm and focused. Awake.
3.
Nose: Can almost smell ripe tropical fruits on wet leaf. Some florals and balms on empty pitcher.
Mouth: Mushroom soup, almost fatty. Bitterness coming through now, but balanced.
Body: Relaxed and open. Warmth spreading to ribs now. Warm fingertips. Smiling.
4.
Nose: Wet leaf still smelling like warm tart cherries and decaying wood. Liquor has a waxy melted candle-like smell.
Mouth: Texture is quite sticky, settles in nicely after a few seconds. Not overly thick, could be more expansive. Sweet-and-sour taste. Slight mouth drying, could be from the scale.
Body: Alert and grounded.
5.
Nose: Wet leaf has deep wood and tobacco.
Mouth: Grappa-like raisin and grape notes, hints of some sort of flower or herb essence. Vivid earth taste. Still great oils. Great complexity in back of mouth, younger-sheng-like fruitiness (citrus huigan)- front is more on fruit sweetness and earthiness.
Body: Dizzy, vivid colors, zoned in. Heat mostly in lower and mid back now, not really present in neck and ears. Interesting.
6.
Really scaling as the water continues to boil.
Nose: Hot chocolate with marshmallows on liquor, wet leaf mostly natural woods.
Mouth: Bourbon-like wood sweetness. Taste getting more subtle now. A hint of yellow squash, but bitter wood incense is quite noticeable. Texture quite thick, definitely some tannins coming through. Vivid jasmine tea aftertaste!
Body: Some swirling energy in fingers and core. Enjoying breathing.
7.
Long steep here, about a minute.
Nose: Some black (red) tea smell. Sweet grasses. Meringue on wet leaf.
Mouth: Amazing bittersweet bready oily taste/sensation. Sunkist Lemon gummies. Fruit pectin. Feels like this water is extracting the tea to the core. Jelly beans (not jelly belly, the cheap kind) and bark mulch. Less structure than I would expect, perhaps the scaling has made the water go a bit flatter. Although I don’t like using the word, there is dirt in the aftertaste.
Body: Floating feeling. Aware of breath, deep and slow. Warmth in forearms.
8.
Nose: Wet leaf has key lime pie. Some granite-like smell. Decaying wood, but not musty. Just warm like old books.
Mouth: Some sort of spice, like a cinnamon stick. Definitely tasting lighter now. More general woodiness and tannins, less fruit.
Body: Very relaxed, could take a nice nap.
9.
Poured out the remaining water from the kettle and refilled. Let’s see if this changes the tea…
Nose: Fading a bit.
Mouth: Definitely more lively and expansive in the mouth. Refreshing sweet yeastiness. Texture is great. A little bit of green beans.
Body: Totally chilled out. Very comfortable.
Late.
Loooooooong steep, 3 mins.
Nose: Smelling more spent, faded woodiness.
Mouth: Tannins and wood, with a pleasant sweetness. Nice sugariness.
Body: General warmth.
Experience Rating: 8.2/10
A seriously deep and rich taste with this water. I had this tea with my normal tap water and although it was good, it didn’t have these yeasty rich bready chocolate notes. I would have to say this was a better session than with tap. The scale is annoying, so maybe a slightly lighter version of this water would be even better.
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This was very interesting, thank you!
I use carbon+sediment filter on Toronto tap water, and I notice that the TDS does vary with the seasons. At its highest, the kettle does scale a bit. I use a piece of bamboo charcoal as a nucleation site and it also dramatically reduces the scaling.
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