This will be a challenging review – this water is so light! However, there’s plenty here to taste and notice. Hope you’ve been enjoying the reviews! Expect some more tea water recipes in the next couple months too. By the way, when tasting water, always use a clean glass, cleaned with hot soap and water and air-dried.
Today’s water is:
Lofoten
Origin: Lofoten, Norway
Bottle: 888 ml Glass
Mineral Content:
Calcium
1.7
Magnesium
1.0
Sodium
7.6
Potassium
0.4
Bicarbonate
7.3
Sulfate
Not reported
Chloride
13
Nitrate
0
Silica
Not reported
Ion concentrations in mg/L from Water Quality Report
Hardness
8.35 mg/L as CaCO3
Alkalinity
5.98 mg/L as CaCO3
Hardness to Alkalinity Ratio
1.4
TDS
30 ppm
Electrical Conductivity at 25ºC
Not reported
pH
6.8
Cations charge
.5079
Anions charge
.4864
Water quality report error
4.4%
Other statistics
Electrical Conductivity at 25ºC
66 μS/cm
pH
~6
Drinking Temperature
55ºF (12.5ºC)
Measurements (mine)
I paid $10 for this bottle of water at Salacious Drinks, so I expected a premium experience. Spoiler: it’s premium for sure. The bottle is incredible, with its enormous sloped cap and airline-like graphic design/font choice. The water itself seems to be from a freshwater reservoir. The inhabitants of Lofoten get this water out of their tap, it seems… lucky them! Thanks to the Lofoten water crew, we can get it too, well-bottled and presented.
At 30 TDS, this water is all about purity and subtlety. No smell. Taste is initially neutral-sweet. It is light and seems to hold together well in the mouth. I can taste some dissolved gases, like oxygen. There’s a slight salinity in the mid-aftertaste that’s really pleasant. It comes off as ultra-crisp, smooth and light with a very slight bitterness. Dominance of chloride with little/no sulfate causes it to taste smooth and clear. The taste is really flawless – the glass bottle imparts no off taste, and nothing went wrong during bottling. Quite often, water in a glass bottle can have a plastic or metallic taste because of a variety of factors: a plastic cap liner that underwent heating, plastic pipes on the bottling line, etc. Lofoten has really excellent quality control and tastes completely clear. I always feel good whenever I drink it – it’s somehow energizing. If you want a flawless, light water, this is a perfect choice.
For tea, this water would make extremely pure and refreshing sencha.
For such a big market, I’m astounded at the lack of water reviews available online. Why is hardly anybody talking about mineral water compared to wine, beer, whisky and other spirits? I’d like to really dive into the water. So, let’s continue with this series of water tasting!
Today’s water is:
Saint-Geron
Origin: Saint-Géron gallo romain source in Auvergne, France
Bottle: 750 ml Glass
Mineral Content:
Calcium
79.1
Magnesium
53.7
Sodium
225.5
Potassium
18.4
Bicarbonate
1,128.9
Sulfate
20.4
Chloride
44.2
Nitrate
0.1
Silica
28
Ion concentrations in mg/L from Water Quality Report
Hardness
418 mg/L as CaCO3
Alkalinity
925.3 mg/L as CaCO3
Hardness to Alkalinity Ratio
0.45
TDS
1158 ppm
Electrical Conductivity at 25ºC
Not reported
pH
6.2
Cations charge
18.64
Anions charge
20.17
Water quality report error
8.2%
Other statistics
Electrical Conductivity at 25ºC
1423 μS/cm
pH
(forgot to measure)
Drinking Temperature
60ºF (16ºC)
Measurements (mine)
I love the tall, squarish, elegant glass bottle. With its non-twist bottle cap (you need a bottle opener for this water), you’d better be quite thirsty or have company, because you’re not going to be able to re-cap it. I’ve never had this water before, and am excited to try it. I ordered it from Salacious Drinks, the colorfully-titled US water importer and distributor.
Upon opening, a few bubbles rush up to the surface, but not many. I actually notice a few tiny crystals of calcium and/or magnesium carbonate in the glass! The smell is quite fresh and mineral, the faint smell of petrichor. The smell is also slightly sweet. Initial taste: I was worried the bubbles would be too light from what I read, but there’s just enough natural carbonation here to give a tickling effervescence. It’s actually wonderful to have a carbonation level like this, as it doesn’t overpower the water itself and doesn’t hurt/fatigue the tongue. The body is very expansive, and the taste is rather sweet with a sodium bicarbonate salty softness in the back. The high TDS of 1158 doesn’t present itself as heavy here – it’s rich yet clean. It’s crisp even at 60º – very impressive. Low sulfate and chloride (and near-zero nitrate) give it a clean and clear taste, and high magnesium brings quite appreciated sweetness and presence. The 28 mg/L silica seems to help hold the water together nicely, as the texture is cohesive.
As the water is held in the mouth, the bubbles fade, leaving a very silky texture with a sweet-saltiness. There’s little to no milkiness in this water. There’s also a pleasant dry/crispness, possibly from potassium. It’s good that this water is carbonated, as without the bright, light carbonation it would likely come across as too dull and salty. I’m amazed at the sweetness and brightness under that huge bed of bicarbonate.
What other complexities can I find here… well, it’s not really that complex! The bubbles/magnesium can come across as a bit fruity in the front, as the bubbles are acidic. There is a “rock” taste here, very generally. Not limestone, but more a gray-colored rock… shale? Need to learn geology and taste some rocks I guess (semi-kidding)! Overall, drinking this water was very pleasant and satisfying. Did it blow me away? No. Was it well-composed and “executed”? Yes. It’s well-bottled, well-presented and there’s no wonder people have been drinking it since 1884.
For tea, this is not something to make tea with in any capacity. But maybe before or after it would cleanse the palate well and prepare it for something slightly earthy or mineral.
I’ve come across a lot of analogies when talking about water for tea. A memorable one is: tea is the music, water is the speakers. Thats pretty close to how it is, but maybe tea is the music and water is the orchestra playing it. Both of these analogies involve the reproduction of music, but with the orchestra analogy there’s more responsibility given to the water. Furthermore, the orchestra would have a conductor, which would be the human brewer. But then, is the teapot the first chair, the best player in the orchestra? Or would that be the dominant flavor? No, the dominant flavor is part of the musical composition. Then, the cup must be the acoustics. But isn’t the acoustics the actual space that the tea drinking is happening in? The teapot might be the instruments that the orchestra is playing. So the water is playing the teapot, which is playing the tea into the cup; all led by the brewer.
I’ve gotten feedback on discord from people who tried a different water and were struck by how big of a difference it made, more than teaware, brewing temperature, ratio, or any other parameter. Water can be heavy, light, vibrant, muddled, astringent, subdued, dense, spacious, fluffy, metallic, smooth, and more. Water can, by the way it extracts, cause tea to be any of these things. You can even have a smooth water that makes astringent tea, so there can be a mismatch. That’s like how a shy violin player can play quite loudly and with great presence on stage.
The point is, there are many different kinds of water, and different levels. You wouldn’t yell at a 6th grade orchestra for not sounding like the Vienna symphony. So, either you have to accept your water as it is, with its flaws, or you have to figure out something better. I’ve found that there’s not much you can add or change with a bad water to make it better, just like there’s not much you can do with a not-so-talented orchestra to make it world-class. For the orchestra, you basically have to kick out all but the best players, and then replace them with better ones. With water, it’s similar. By diluting the water, you make room to introduce a better group and balance of minerals. Since every water is different and mineral content reports are so spotty and often incomplete, it’s hard to know what to add to the diluted water. So, it’s often easier to simply throw out the old water and get a new one.
With the modern recycling crisis and the expense of water transport, coupled with the non-availability of good water in glass bottles for any reasonable price, and the difficulty of making 0ppm TDS water to make recipes with (home Reverse Osmosis filters make 10ppm usually, depending on starting TDS, and distillers don’t make good tasting water, at least that I’ve tried) we as tea drinkers have to get lucky with our tap, or make do with a difficult and imperfect solution for the time being.
I know this is a tea blog, but I am so interested in water that I’ve begun to focus on it more. It turns out, every water is different – it only takes one side-by-side to notice the differences. I haven’t seen any water reviews online, so I thought I might give them a shot, as someone who’s been working with water for a few years.
Today’s water is:
Saratoga Still
Origin: Sweet Water Spring, Saratoga Springs, NY OR Pristine Mountain Springs, Stockbridge, VT
Bottle: 750 ml Glass
Mineral Content:
Calcium
11
Magnesium
2.3
Sodium
8.6
Potassium
0.6
Bicarbonate
41
Sulfate
5.5
Chloride
14
Nitrate
0.54
Silica
Not reported
Ion concentrations in mg/L from Water Quality Report
Hardness
37 mg/L as CaCO3
Alkalinity
34 mg/L as CaCO3
Hardness to Alkalinity Ratio
1.08
TDS
75 ppm
Electrical Conductivity at 25ºC
140 μS/cm
pH
7.14
Cations charge
1.128
Anions charge
1.190
Water quality report error
5.5%
Other statistics
Electrical Conductivity at 25ºC
142 μS/cm
pH
7.1
Measurements (mine)
First off – the presentation of Saratoga is gorgeous. The elegant, transparent blue glass bottle hides the contents: you know there’s water in there, but you want to get it out of the bottle to really get a look at it. This presentation is reminiscent of wine bottles, where the product is hidden from view, but not invisible.
The smell of the water is odorless. You might think all water is like that, but it’s not the case. For light mineral waters, odorless is often the expected goal, especially in glass.
The mouthfeel of Saratoga is rather fluffy. This suggests that there is a lot of dissolved gas/air in it. At first, it’s rather sweet and cloud-like, but quickly multiple things become apparent. The water has a bit much CO2, giving it a stale taste, similar to when you leave a glass of water out too long. This can be considered a feature of this water, however I don’t totally love that quality. Amidst this slightly flat taste, the mineral profile asserts itself. For a medium-light water, there’s plenty of taste here. A generally sweet calcium presence balances out a fairly dense bicarbonate-sulfate earthiness aftertaste. The high chloride brings a bit of brightness and smoothness – the water is very smooth. I wouldn’t say it tastes clean, though – the excess co2 is really obvious in both the front and back of the mouth, and combined with the minerality it comes across rather bold. There is a slight milk/cream feel to the water, but much less than harder water. It’s not very dry, there’s rather a general sweetness and density to the water, despite its fluffiness.
For tea, this is a good water – it makes smooth tea with enough complexity, and the TDS is in a good range for all sorts of tea.
I would appreciate if it said which of the two sources were in the bottle. When I drink Saratoga, I’d rather it be from Saratoga rather than some “backup spring” in Vermont. I wonder if they blend them together, or if some bottles are Vermont water and some are New York. If anyone knows, send me a DM!
I was recently featured on Crimson Lotus Tea’s livestream show, Between Two Teapots! I got to talk about water with Glen, founder of Crimson Lotus Tea and with Arby, my friend and water collaborator. We drank the same tea with the same water recipe that we created, Truth Serum. Two hours long, I feel like we only scratched the surface. Here it is for you to watch!
I found it amazing that Glen noticed an obvious difference in the tea brewed with Truth Serum compared to his normal water. This is due to the Hardness to Alkalinity ratio (see the WIP Water Guide) being twice as high as his usual. The sensory overload of extraction that you can get with TS is really quite fun to explore! I can’t wait to make more waters that are a bit more subtle and subdued, while still delivering plenty of power. Feel free to message me on IG @teasecretsblog with any water questions – I’m here to help you dial in your tea.
This is a project for a book club I am in. We read the essential tea book, Puer Tea: Ancient Caravans and Urban Chic. For this project I took photos of every tea session I had for a couple weeks. I tried not to do anything special and just take a quick photo – these sessions were not set up to be special for these pictures. I will then see if there’s any patterns or observations about them that link to ideas in the book.
The first session presents itself as a global chaxi – jianshui teapot from yunnan, jianshui bowl from the czech republic, teacup from slovakia, mat from siberia, rock from walden pond, pyrex from USA. Surrounding the chaxi are hints of the personal context of me, the experiencer.The duck cup, made in Jingdezhen, says on the bottom, “made in the ming dynasty, LOL!” joking about the idea of authenticity. In the book, authenticity plays a central role. This duck cup reminds me of White2Tea’s Treachery Pt. 1, which reads “This tea is fake” on the wrapper.“‘being loyal to one’s senses’ is actually mixed up with conscious and unconscious acceptance or rejection of external influences” (Zhang 202). Would I ever use a pyrex if not for White2Tea? No! The name of this mat from Tea-Masters is “dark connections” and I like to think about all the connections present underneath the circumstances and setup of the tea session.hua – transformation, gradual change (145). Light illuminates the chaxi, different every time. Also notice what changes and what stays the same. “it is upon bad fortune that good fortune leans, it is on good fortune that bad fortune rests” (Lao Tzu, Zhang 145)Occasionally you’ll see accumulation of teaware in the background. Sometimes sessions are messy like this.The book discusses how it was said that if you don’t buy lots of puer tea early on, you’ll regret it later. This was a big idea in the Puer bubble of 2007, which is discussed in chapter 5. I think about the sheer volume of tea produced in that time, and the sheer number of tea sessions I’ve consumed – maybe there’s sometimes a similar problem? This picture is a bit blurred in places, but the tea in the pitcher is crystal clear.Look at the contrast from the last picture. I think I had just been on a hike, opened the windows, switched cloths. Light shining from the left, lonely teapot in the back right. Jiri lang cup and pot. “a return to the original vague ‘raw’ situation” (Zhang 119)Puer tea is valuable, but what is the true value of Puer tea?“The yunnanese themselves said that yunnanese things were “earthy” (tu), rustic, or backward” (Zhang 94). Here the earthy things are from europe. The tea itself here has been “made elegant” somehow. Or has it?Flavorless flavor was mentioned in the book somewhere. An idea that’s hard to pin down. Some body, some body, some body, somebody (TwoDog 2020). Do you think puer tea is somebody, like it has a personality? Or is it just Some Body, just plant matter?“One such tourist, a nostalgic woman from Guangzhou, had imagined before her journey that she would be able to sit on the flagstones of the Tea-Horse Road in Yiwu, fantasizing about caravans ringing their bells” (72).I really like this quote (on the kindle)A switch to a more “traditional” porcelain pitcher. The jianghu of puer tea, a central concept in the book, is basically – puer tea is contextualized and defined by multiple actors. Even me and you. To me, even a teapot is an actor in this jianghu, this space where wandering knights battle it out and debate, a highly individualized space. More jianghus and jianghu actors – tea shops, blogs, instagram, discord, vendors. Not forest tea, but tastes like a forest.Regular dinner plate, now a tea plate. Two favorite tea books on the left.puer tea close up, when you look in this way, you don’t understand at all.Reading The Time of Tea, a similarly academic tea book. By comparing different contextualizations, you can begin to understand. I don’t think you can understand puer tea from one point of view, just like there isn’t one chaxi here that is the most correct. I do like the sunny ones, though.Another session lost to time…“Imagined originality” (53) I feel like I stopped looking for Puer tea’s authenticity in a historical context long ago, or was never interested in the first place. Traditional handcrafted tea processing is a technique passed down, and as long as the basics are right, it’s more interesting to have your tea here and now.“these connoisseurs’ standards suggest that both the raw and the aged are authentic” (54).End?
Thanks for reading! Remember, tea never ends… I’m having more right now!
With the help of Ward Labs, now I know what minerals are in my tap water. For $48, they analyze any water you send them for the main important ions, plus iron and nitrate. I was really excited when I got the results, because they confirmed a lot of my hunches about its composition from simply tasting tea made with it and comparing with my various experiments. Without further ado, here is the composition of my local Massachusetts groundwater.
Calcium
18.2
Magnesium
6
Sodium
68
Potassium
6
Bicarbonate
29
Sulfate
21
Chloride
128
Silica
8.6
Nitrate
2.4
Iron
0.02
Ions
Hardness
70 mg/L as CaCO3
Alkalinity
13 mg/L as CaCO3
Hardness to Alkalinity Ratio
5.36
TDS (calculated, will not measurenearly this high due to ion conductivities)
268 ppm
Electrical Conductivity at 25ºC (calculated, expected to measure)
552 μS/cm
pH
6.9
Stats
It’s immediately apparent that there’s a lot of sodium and chloride in this water. I had a feeling this would be the case, as our roads are heavily salted in the winter and that all goes into the ground. I also had a sense that with such a high TDS, but no scaling, a lot of the mineral content would be salt. This salt doesn’t make it taste salty at this concentration, but does increase the mineral taste of the water and adds a bit of viscosity.
The other strange thing about this water is the high Hardness to Alkalinity ratio of 5.36. This is caused by medium calcium and magnesium but very low bicarbonate. I’ve never seen a hardness to alkalinity ratio this high in a natural water – they are almost always between 0.5 and 1.4. But, this is proof that water comes in all different shapes and sizes. When I make tea with my tap water, I notice that it does lack some of the deep texture that it would have with more bicarbonate, doesn’t scale as it would with more bicarb, and has very present flavor and brightness, as those bright acidic tastes are not buffered by any bicarbonate alkalinity. It’s not particularly harsh water despite this high H:A, it’s actually really smooth and enjoyable. The silica in there is a nice bonus, too.
Cupping the replica tap vs the real thing
I decided to replicate the tap water with distilled water and various salts, down to the milligram. I even added some eidon silica concentrate. Then, I used a cupping set to see if there was a difference – I want to see how fake water stacks up to the real thing!
Tap on left, fake tap on right
I used a dancong from Yunnan Sourcing to do this comparison, with 3.1 grams in each 150ml mug, steeping for 5 minutes. The fake tap came out a bit darker than the real tap, but it was pretty close.
Real Tap
Smooth and oily with fragrance
Texture better, airy, thicker
Fake Tap
More rear focused
More astringent
More robust
Despite my criticisms of the remade tap, they were fairly similar, with the same general idea – high fragrance, high minerality, low alkalinity. The flavors were similar as well. I have a theory why they were so different – I used sea salt instead of pure salt. Sea salt is 30 percent magnesium chloride. Whoops! So, to anyone making a mineral recipe with salt, including Truth Serum, it makes a big difference if you use pure NaCl (which is hard to find without anti-caking agents, but there’s a link in the Water Guide). This experiment will be worth repeating in the future with pure NaCl.
What did I learn?
The general takeaway, besides the impurity of sea salt, is that fake water is an approximation, and there are many factors that make natural water superior to it. (Edit: this is to say, given the same mineral profile. An artificially made good mineral profile is better than a naturally bad one.) Now that I know the mineral content of my tap water, I can make small (or large) adjustments to it to modify how it behaves with tea. I really appreciate that my tap has good amounts of sulfate and chloride, as I can always fall back on it for a decent cup of tea.
Sorry for being so slow on the water guide, there’s a lot to type. It will get done though! Let me know if you get your tap tested, and what the results are!
This is a review of the updated Truth Serum water recipe. I reviewed the old version here, but Arby at empiricaltea.com has changed the recipe quite a bit, and he prefers it over the original. Let’s see how it performs now! He recommends making a concentrate of the recipe, which is a great idea. To test it out though, I’m just making a single gallon batch. What’s apparent from looking at the recipe is that it’s very similar to the last recipe, 2/3 Heavy. The difference is that he added NaCl to be able to increase the sulfate and bicarbonate. This isn’t really how it happened, as he tweaked the first version of his recipe over many iterations, but it’s interesting that the recipe arrived in a similar place to 2/3 Heavy.
It’s also important to note that I used a special method to make this recipe. I frankly don’t know if it changes anything, I would have to make it the normal way and then cup it against this batch – hopefully I’ll get around to it! Basically, instead of adding the minerals directly to the water batch, I added them to a pyrex beaker of distilled water and stirred them with a glass rod. When they dissolved completely, I poured that into the main batch. This way, every mineral dissolved on its own, so there’s less of a chance of impurities reacting in solid form. The idea is that if minerals are dissolved in water that already contains ions, weird reactions could take place, so this method avoids that. Let me know if you’re a chemist and if that’s a real concern or not!
The Recipe:
(To purchase the materials you need, please visit the Water Guide.)
Short instructions: in one gallon of distilled or other 0 ppm TDS water, add each mineral one at a time. Carefully weigh each mineral on a milligram scale (not a regular gram scale) and make sure all of it has made it into the water and none is left stuck to the tray. Clean the tray between weighing each substance. Wait at least a minute between adding each mineral. When done, wait 20 minutes for the minerals to dissolve, shaking occasionally. If you have a different size container, use 1 gallon = 3.785 L to convert the amounts. For example, if you’re only making 1 liter, divide every amount by 3.785.
TDS (calculated, will not measurenearly this high due to ion conductivities)
99 ppm
Electrical Conductivity at 25ºC (calculated, expected to measure)
170 μS/cm
Alkalinity % from Sodium and/or Potassium
100%
Other statistics
Electrical Conductivity at 25ºC
161 μS/cm
pH
8.0
TDS (calculated from Electrical Conductivity error and calculated TDS)
94 ppm
Measurements
The batch
Tasting Procedure:
All teas were tasted on the same day, with the same batch of water. The kettle was refreshed for every new session. Crackers were eaten between sessions. Water was boiled in a glass kettle using gas for the initial boil and an infrared hot plate during the session.
Session 1: 2018 White2Tea Smoove Cocoa Minis
Arby recommended I try a ripe, so here goes. For info on performance with fragrant teas, there should be enough results from Session 3 with the Green Hype cake.
4g/50ml gaiwan, 100ºC
Early impressions: Wow! Thick and expansive. Bitter. Woody. Second steep was around 20 seconds. Black as ink. Holy cow. There’s something really really nice about this. The coffee-cola is very pronounced, but there’s also activity in the front. A short steep to see what’s really going on… still has a great complexity and full color. Getting qi as well. There’s a sharpness that’s evident in a lot of higher Hardness to Alkalinity waters here, but you’re rewarded with body, viscosity, and really striking depth of flavor. Wood, acidic earth, and of course, nice cocoa.
so dark
Mid-session: Consistent dark color and root beer chocolate in the back of the mouth. Deep aftertaste, but unlike the previous version of the recipe, plenty of vibrance and sweetness. I think it’s the chloride! Anyway, even with very short steeps, still delivers enough strength and color.
Late Steeps: As expected, gradually diminishing sweet molasses, mushroom, earth and vanilla cream. Mouthfeel remains pleasant, no drying.
Session Rating: 7.9
Water Rating for this tea: 9.0
Session 2: 2001 Zhongcha Huangyin from Teas We Like
3.4g/50ml gaiwan, 100ºC
Lots of saponins in the rinse
Early impressions: Aroma coming from the wet leaf is intense. Barbecue sauce. First steep is sweet, sour, smoke. Stable bubbles in the center of cup on second steep. Aged sprite aroma on wet leaf up close. Taste is vibrant, dynamic, evolving, hard to pin down. Juicy! Lime juice in front, but not as sour. The citrus is dominating, which is extremely unusual for this tea. Let’s see what happens.
Mid-session: Density coming in now, some astringency, but appropriate. I seriously don’t know what I’m tasting right now. Wood bitterness, not hitting the sides of the tongue very much. The session so far reminds me of natural waters, mouthfeel especially. Ok, hitting the sides of the tongue with sour wood, light earth taste in back, great great throatfeeling, refreshing. Honey aftertaste. I’m finding this tremendously different and enjoyable. Heat in upper back, general relaxation. It’s really tasting younger this session than usual. I’m really taking my time with this one. Tobacco leafiness, light mulchiness. Tons of resin and even bubblegum, or gum base. A little bread dough too, sourdough. Sweet and bitter, sour and savory. (not salty).
not very dark
Late steeps: Beginning to dry the tongue. Good texture. Really a lot happening up front, lingering bitterness in the back. Definitely arrives in the front this time, where last week it arrived in the back. I can’t think of any explanation – I would usually associate sulfate with more rear mouth flavor, but something’s going on here I can’t explain. I guess the sulfate and chloride are in balance for this water profile. Citrus sandalwood aftertaste. I think there’s plenty going on in the back, but it’s simultaneous with the front. There might be some variation in this cake that could account for this difference in taste and lighter color. But it could also be the water! This was a very avant-garde session. Highest qi so far.
Session Rating: 7.5/10
Water Rating for this tea: 7.5/10
Eating lunch! Then an hour break.
Session 3: 2019 White2Tea Green Hype
3.3g/50ml gaiwan, 100ºC
Early impressions: Delicious. Full of candy sweetness, smoke, savoriness, brininess, sweet huigan, honey, citrus, black tea bud sweetness, body. Wet leaf smell deep and pleasant. Rather salty this time. Salted lemons, is this springbank 10? It’s got notes that I would usually get in much more expensive teas. Texture is great. Taste is nice and present, front-focused again.
😀
Mid-session: savory, back of mouth presence suddenly. Rather expansive texture. Definitely evokes the idea of a “serum.” Smoked fruit. Olive oil. Minerals. Floral mouthcoat. Definitely delivering on the top notes. Sweetness and depth both are here. I feel like with the original Truth Serum, there was depth, but not enough sweetness, so this is a welcome change. Strong lime and even avocado oil here. Astringency is medium-high, rather appropriate for this young, strong raw puer.
Late steeps: Gasoline. Still sweet, still textured. Leafy, astringent honey. Some pineapple taste. Grapefruit rind. Huigan isn’t tremendously strong, but it’s there. Energy is very high, caffeine. Buttery. Lemon jelly pastries. Sweetness and gasoline taste continues through the last drop.
Session Rating: 7.5
Water Rating for this tea: 8.0
Overall impressions:
A definite improvement over the previous version of the recipe, definitely more of an all-round water. It really has a great balance and works well with at least the three types of tea I tried. It’s also not overly heavy. This water will be hard to beat – I’ll be using it as a benchmark from now on. Perhaps it can be improved with potassium for more back of mouth complexity, but who knows? If your tap water is no good for tea or you are at all curious about water, please give this recipe a try!
Average session rating: 7.6/10
Water rating: 8.2/10
More water and tea pics can be found on the tea secrets Instagram! Check out the Water Recipes page for a list of all recipes you can try. The Water Guide is just getting started, but check back for updates there.
This recipe was formulated in November 2020. I made a heavier version of this recipe first, which I called “heavy” and then cut it down to 2/3 concentration, hence the name, 2/3 Heavy. I could have done a more creative name, but it’s what we’ve been calling it on the tea discord where a few other people have been making it and enjoying it, as well as the previous recipe, Truth Serum, which was developed after. Big thanks to Arby and everyone in #water on the CommuniTEA discord for helping out with evaluating this recipe! This water is more chloride focused than sulfate, and includes potassium. It was designed to have a little bit of everything: fragrance, presence and depth.
The Recipe:
(To purchase the materials you need, please visit the Water Guide.)
Short instructions: in one gallon of distilled or other 0 ppm TDS water, add each mineral one at a time. Carefully weigh each mineral on a milligram scale (not a regular gram scale) and make sure all of it has made it into the water and none is left stuck to the tray. Clean the tray between weighing each substance. Wait at least a minute between adding each mineral. When done, wait 20 minutes for the minerals to dissolve, shaking occasionally. If you have a different size container, use 1 gallon = 3.785 L to convert the amounts. For example, if you’re only making 1 liter, divide every amount by 3.785.
TDS (calculated, will not measurenearly this high due to ion conductivities)
84 ppm
Electrical Conductivity at 25ºC (calculated, expected to measure)
144.3 μS/cm
Alkalinity % from Sodium and/or Potassium
100%
Other statistics
Electrical Conductivity at 25ºC
139.4 μS/cm
pH
7.9
TDS (calculated from Electrical Conductivity error and calculated TDS)
81 ppm
Measurements
The batch
Tasting Procedure:
All teas were tasted on the same day, with the same batch of water. The kettle was refreshed for every new session. Crackers were eaten between sessions. Water was boiled in a glass kettle using gas for the initial boil and an infrared hot plate during the session.
Session 1: 2019 White2Tea Fireflake Dancong
3.3g/50ml gaiwan, 100ºC
This is a strong, punchy, intensely fragrant oolong with a high roast.
Early impressions: brews up dark, more orange than your typical dancong. First steep is sweet, floral, and buttery. Bitterness throughout the mouth, but not unusual for this tea. Taste in the front of the mouth is immediate, and on the swallow there is a present bitter roast aftertaste. Second steep is intensely dark. Dense taste of sweet chocolate and coffee with butter and tannins. Obviously too strong, but has redeeming qualities. I guess my ten second steep was overkill! Switching to flash brews. Viscosity is medium. Activity in front and back of mouth is equal.
Very dark for dancong
Mid-session: Tea is still strong. Quite sharp arrival, sides of tongue has roasty sourness, but it all blooms into a thick fragrance that evaporates in the mouth. General flavor is sour roast with floral butter in the aftertaste. Astringency is medium-high. Thank goodness for the sweetness here to balance that all out. I have had worse sessions in the past with this tea. It’s full of character, but it’s a beast. More of a rushed flash steep brings a more balanced profile, intense fragrance and roast but with viscosity and refreshing fruit notes.
Late Steeps: I definitely feel like I’m getting a complete picture of this tea. The taste and aftertaste are fully present. This tea is not letting up on the strength front, drying up my cheeks. Aroma on the gaiwan lid is extremely enjoyable as well as the wet leaf, pungent floral, and cooked celery. (?!) Around steep 8 this tea is settling into a much more pleasant stage, with a nice warm profile of nutty floral aroma with a buttery taste in the front of the mouth, like brown butter. Caffeine is strong, amazing get-it-done energy. Warming to the core also, while most dancong usually cools you down. Loving the sugary greenness as the roast fades later in the session. This is a tea to flash flash flash until it lets up, then enjoy rewarding late steeps.
Session Rating: 6.5/10 – Overwhelmingly strong and punchy, but with plenty of redeeming qualities to be a success.
Need a break already! Then we will press on to two teas I tried last time.
Session 2: 2001 Zhongcha Huangyin from Teas We Like
3.4g/50ml gaiwan, 100ºC
Early impressions: Wash smells very clean, earthy sprite aroma. Two rinses as this is one chunk. Elaborate wet leaf aroma, full of citrus and darker fruits, earth and wood. Liquor on the first steep has the yeasty smell that you usually get with aged sheng when you use much harder/heavier water, like toronto water for example. This is encouraging, as I like that note but I don’t like tons of scale in the kettle. This recipe doesn’t scale at all. Nice present early taste, generally sweet wood. Still opening up. Glorious raisin-craisin smell in the gaiwan. Water does affect the wet leaf smell more than you might expect! Now at a peach color, the tea produces great viscosity, medium thick. Flavor first hits in the back, surprising! In the front of the mouth there is sweetness, sparkling feeling, but a lot of the activity is happening in the back of the mouth with gentle wood bitterness. I am blown away by the texture though, extremely pleasant.
Middle: Vivid. Clear dirt-earth-dust in the back, fruit expressing itself in the front. This tea seems to move back-to-front, which is quite unusual. It first hits the sides of the tongue, then the back, then the front. Flavors are sweet, some floral qualities, but the sensation is deep gentle bitterness. Low astringency. There’s a cinnamon stick quality to the sweetness, and the bitterness is primarily wood. The front of the mouth has some powerful astringency now, but not excessive. Brown sugar, pine resin, root beer (birch beer tree). The clarity of experience here is striking, nothing seems to be hidden at all. It is rather sharp and quite immediate, but the experience of drinking lasts a good, dynamic 30 seconds. Energy coming through now, heating in arms and clarity.
Late: Maintains complexity while evolving. Leaf decay, bittersweet, honey, grains. Still present, hits in the front more immediately now with the lightest of brown sugar and hardwood. Two minute late steep – clear front presence, sweet grapey winey quality, like wine aged in a whisky barrel… in the forest. Extremely aggreable.
Session Rating: 8.0/10 – in a completely different way from Truth Serum 1.0, this session hit the mark: for thickness, complexity, and presence. Somehow bright and deep all at once.
Session 3: 2019 White2Tea Green Hype
3.3g/50ml gaiwan, 100ºC
Early impressions: Wet leaf immediately a smoky, floral, sweet, buttery affair. First taste – sweet ripe stonefruit. Smoky, but more like smoked fruit than fruity smoke. Great sweetness. Definitely front focused at the outset. Immediate taste. Complex sheng gasoline. Oily and energetic. More please!
Beautiful leaf
Mid-session: So bright and upfront, sparkling on the tongue. Artichoke, snap peas, fresh apricot, red bell pepper, and a rice crispies sort of sweetness. Astringency is medium here, oiliness is also medium. In the throat, there’s a huigan, and mostly pine bitterness, like hops. There’s a toasted rice graininess that brings it into the scotch whisky realm, as if it were a young single malt. Energy is generally uplifting, with heat in back. Longer steep has more bitterness, which is quite satisfying if a little straightforward.
Good tea here
Late steeps: Wet leaf has the most pure leafy-smokiness. Taste beginning to settle into a sort of smoked lemon-lime soda, with a backbone of bulang gasoline strength. Very cool fermenty sourness coming in, like a sour beer. Rather glorious dynamism for a sheng in this price bracket. Green leafy aftertaste throughout the mouth with a tannin-coat. Pectin. One minute late steep, still fresh, but with obvious peppery notes coming in.
Session Rating: 7.4/10 – I’m rather blown away and I don’t think you can do much better than this with this particular tea. Incredible experience of changing flavors.
Overall impressions:
This medium-strength recipe provides a well-rounded experience, with high clarity, fragrance, and sweetness with appropriate rear-mouth activity and viscosity. 2/3 Heavy strikes me as a good benchmark for custom standardized water, as I felt I was getting front and back of mouth activity for all three teas. It doesn’t strike me as particularly dishonest, but it may make flawed teas taste passable rather than highlighting their flaws. I don’t always get such good results with this recipe, but I was very patient in measuring and dissolving each mineral this time, and my patience was rewarded. Additionally, I got less conductivity error than last time, which is quite encouraging. Overall I’m very pleased and am testing many variations of this recipe side by side to better understand water.
Average session rating: 7.3/10
Water rating: 8/10
More water and tea pics can be found on the tea secrets Instagram! Check out the Water Recipes page for a list of all recipes you can try.
Today marks the beginning of a new series of weekly water review posts! Arby from http://empiricaltea.com/ and I have been working on some water recipes for tea. His epsom salt and baking soda water recipe was one of the first I tried years ago, so it has been really cool to connect with him. This week’s recipe has been a long time in the making, and was a collaboration between me and Arby, although I consider this to be his recipe as he made most of the decisions and did almost all the testing, while I offered advice. He designed this water to accurately reflect both the positive and negative qualities of all types of tea, hence the name “Truth Serum.” I’m really excited to share it with the world, and also to try it with a few teas and give my impressions of it. He also has an updated version of this water recipe on his blog, so definitely check that out!License:No commercial use of this recipe is permitted without permission from the creators.
The Recipe:
(To purchase the materials you need, please visit the Water Guide.)
Short instructions: in one gallon of distilled or other 0 ppm TDS water, add each mineral one at a time. Carefully weigh each mineral on a milligram scale (not a regular gram scale) and make sure all of it has made it into the water and none is left stuck to the tray. Clean the tray between weighing each substance. Wait at least a minute between adding each mineral. When done, wait 20 minutes for the minerals to dissolve, shaking occasionally. If you have a different size container, use 1 gallon = 3.785 L to convert the amounts. For example, if you’re only making 1 liter, divide every amount by 3.785.
TDS (calculated, will not measurenearly this high due to ion conductivities)
113 ppm
Electrical Conductivity at 25ºC (calculated, expected to measure)
186.5 μS/cm
Alkalinity % from Sodium and/or Potassium
100%
Other statistics
Electrical Conductivity at 25ºC
175 μS/cm
pH
8.0
TDS (calculated from Electrical Conductivity error and calculated TDS)
106 ppm
Measurements
The batch
Tasting Procedure:
All teas were tasted on the same day, with the same batch of water. The kettle was refreshed for every new session. Table water crackers were eaten between sessions and sometimes between steeps to clear the palate. Water was boiled in a glass kettle using gas for the initial boil and an infrared hot plate during the session.
Session 1: 2020 White2Tea Turtle Dove
3.3g/50ml gaiwan, 100ºC
First of all, it seems like the water is measuring slightly under on the conductivity meter, and I’m not sure why yet. There’s about a 6% error, which I don’t think is too bad. I’ll test again tomorrow after the water has settled a bit.
Early impressions: This is normally a fragrance forward tea, and I’m getting fragrance, but also a lot more. Aroma from the wet leaf is nice and potent, floral. In the mouth, it’s very coating, with creaminess and sweetness. Very floral aftertaste. Depth, likely from the sulfate. Root vegetables. I have to say, there could be more high-note fireworks in the front of the mouth, but they come in the aftertaste after swallowing. The more vegetal notes are apparent while the tea is in the mouth. Thick texture.
Yummy
Middle of session: Soothing. Good herbal and peppery taste. Hay and cream base is present. Consistent bubbles on the surface of the tea. Sticky texture, no astringency. Honey-sweetness. Great ECA (empty cup aroma). I have to say, I would like a bit more brightness here. Feeling some qi, more than with lighter water for sure. Lots of activity in the back of the mouth/throat now. Sweet yunnan black tea huigan. Actually tons of changing tastes in the throat. Vanilla? Some sort of vegetable taste like fresh peas in the pod. Snap peas!
Bubbles
Late steeps: satisfying potency, doesn’t seem to be running out after 9 steeps. This water definitely extracts thoroughly without feeling like your mouth is being extracted, which is nice, naturally! Pushing the steeps longer now, around a minute. Very relaxing. Good presence in the center of the tongue, giving a solid base taste. Not overly sweet, but some sweetness is present. Aftertaste is very nice. Nothing harsh, but a little bitterness to tell you when you’ve steeped too long. Good evolving bitterness when pushed.
Session Rating: 5.7/10 – pretty good, but leaves some front-of-mouth vibrancy to be desired.
Eating crackers…. now onto session 2!
Session 2: 2001 Zhongcha Huangyin from Teas We Like
3.3g/50ml gaiwan, 100ºC
Wet leaf smell is dense and intense, and minty. I’ve had this tea many times, so I’m quite familiar with it.
Early impressions: thick. Detailed and full savory leathery notes, even on the first steep. Pungent sweet incense on the sides of the tongue, wow! Bubbles on surface of liquor on second steep. Wet leaf has a creamy smell to it on top of the other complex incense, earth and wood smells. Takes a while in the mouth to arrive, but worth the wait. Concentrated oily texture delivering mouth-coating complexity. Bitterness with raisin taste in the back. Sweetness just barely present. Some mouth cooling. I love the length of the experience, it really takes 15 seconds for the flavors/sensations to be delivered in sequence.
Amazing
Mid-session: Bitter wood, really natural taste. Astringency appropriate for natural taiwan storage. Deep orange peel, varnish, strength and potency even in a 50ml gaiwan. Solid energy too. Warming in back and grounding. Pushed steep brings some flavors to the front, some tannins, wood aromatics. Very crisp, brisk, if you know what I mean. Alerting taste, astringency. Leaves have opened nicely with a wonderful wet leaf aroma of buttery fruit and wood furniture. Something about the taste/texture suggests wax, in a good way.
Aged raw puer tea
Late steeps: Hints of dried apricot coming in, still a lot of power. The liquid seems a bit heavy, tends to pool rather than splash, but it swallows naturally. Really impressed by the texture, delivery, extraction and rear-throat sensation. Some cool citrus bitterness is happening, extremely present/vivid flavor and sensation. Pleasant acidity. Aftertaste is complex. Lots of warming, nice! Could be slightly thicker. All sorts of incense powders in the taste. Definitely bitter, no doubt about it, but detailed and evolving bitterness, with a subdued, very dry (not drying) sweetness. Also, great longevity, did not get tired after 12 steeps, could probably go quite a few more.
Session Rating: 8.0/10
Having some light food, crackers, water and a break.
Session 3: 2019 White2Tea Green Hype
Ok! Another tea I know well.
Early impressions: wet leaf full sugary intense young sheng smell. First taste is great, coating. Fruit flavors, lime, bit of smoke. Sweetness, but again not overly sweet. On the less-sweet side. Definitely slightly heavy and dense. Again, lengthy arrival, flavors sensations and delivered in sequence over about 15 seconds. Thick! Nice ECA. Savory vegetables and herbs with gasoline potency.
Water Hype!
Mid-session: wet leaf aroma is amazing. Bubbles on surface of tea again. Amazing how there is consistency in totally different sessions from the water’s characteristics. More energy than usual for sure. Briny, I think from the tea, not the water. Good presence in front of mouth with sweet lemon, ashes in the back. Splashing a bit on the top of the mouth which is nice. Rather astringent, which is not unusual for this tea. Potent! Medium mouth-cooling. Salted-watermelon taste (a southern tradition!)
Late steeps: In astringent territory now, but still delivering the base citrus and gasoline-strength. Qi. The fresh citrus is nice, very IPA-like. Cooling cucumber notes hiding underneath the bitterness. Enjoying the texture, grippy and cohesive. Some woodiness/stemminess coming in. Some lemon lip balm notes on the gaiwan lid.
Session Rating: 6.8/10
Overall impressions:
This is a medium-heavy water recipe, with high sulfate and low chloride. As a result it seems to be more rear-of-mouth focused, and less sweetness/fragrance as the tea is in the mouth. Fragrance comes, but mostly in the aftertaste and can be experienced in smelling the wet leaf and empty cup. Strengths include bringing out complex bitterness, full extraction, aftertaste and thickness. Weaknesses include lack of front-of-mouth taste detail, a bit heavy, and lack of immediacy of taste. However, with patience, this water delivers a great, satisfying experience. This water is likely best with aged sheng and darker teas, rather than fragrance-forward lighter teas. Yancha would likely work well also, especially higher roasted wuyi oolongs. Overall, since I do get fragrance in the session, I think it succeeds in capturing the different aspects of tea in a nicely balanced, characterful way.
Average session rating: 6.8/10
Water rating: 7.3/10
A couple drops of silica concentrate improved texture and cohesion in earlier tests, but for evaluation purposes it was not used here. The conductivity error is definitely something to look into. I also have a version with potassium which I have not tested yet. As is, I recommend you give this water a try, as it will possibly show you a different side of your tea than you are used to. Big thanks to Arby for making this recipe and I’m very curious to see his review! Feel free to tag us on Instagram, @teasecretsblog and @arbyavanesian and let me know your results there or in the comments here.
Next week, new water, new teas! Look forward to it!
Tea Secrets 