Water Stuff

I’ve been having some more tea with others lately – there’s something interesting about drinking tea at someone else’s house- it really breaks you out of some of your habits and perspectives, and you get to try someone else’s water! Everyone does something different, from filtration to mineralization to choice of bottled water. I have a friend who filters nyc tap with a berkey type filter, then adds salt and baking soda – something I never thought would work! Another friend uses Saratoga in glass for everything. I was using everpure filtered NYC tap, but have lately been using many brands of spring water and even blending them together. This brings me to a new idea:

There isn’t one “right” water for tea!

Is there a “right” wine? A “correct” beer? An “optimal” meal? Of course not! The variety of all of these is something we embrace and celebrate. I think for years when I was working on constructing my own water from scratch (which you can read about in many older posts on this blog) I was aiming for a certain perfect composition, one that would work for all tea perfectly. Now, I think this is a flawed way of thinking.

Each water has a certain character, or way of conveying flavor and texture, with different timings and dynamics.

Flavor: certain waters make sweeter tea, like icelandic, Poland spring origin/Saratoga. Some make less sweet, more austere tea, like trader Joe’s small bottles from the PA source. But beyond that macro level, there seem to be different balances of flavor and aroma and different flavors are brought out or revealed entirely sometimes. When tds is too low, you miss out on a tertiary taste caused by interactions between calcium and magnesium bicarbonates with the tea. In semi-aged puerh it’s a warm rich bready flavor (to me). This is probably the wrong word for it. Yeasty? Sounds gross but it’s not. Sweet earth-ish, a flavor you can really chew on. Using low tds like Saratoga or sant-anna, you get a beautiful clear taste but you do miss out on that extra richness. Some waters have 1/10 the amount of flavor as others. It’s striking.

Texture– speaking of, higher calcium-magnesium bicarbonate waters can have a more rich, oily texture. High sulfate low bicarbonate waters are drying and “grippy” like trader Joe’s small bottles. Trader Joe’s big bottles from Tennessee are much softer and thicker in texture, for example. Every water has a different texture – you can group them but they’re all a bit different. This is with tea, I mean. This whole post is about water for tea – water itself is a different story. It’s also true but in a different way. Higher sodium and chloride also adds body and expansiveness and makes the tea more “slippery”. Point is, different waters make tea with different textures in different ways.

Timings – some waters are very quick, the tea comes in, you get the taste, and then it’s done. Other waters form a ball in the mouth that slowly releases flavor/sensation/aroma. This creates a very different drinking/emotional experience.

Dynamics – the qi of tea definitely is affected by water. Both the amount and balance of minerals will affect the amount and character of the qi. Some waters allow you to have a consistent session with a tea from first to last steep – others will cause the tea to change flavor a lot more mid-session. Seriously!

It all sounds overwhelming!

Yeah, but it’s not meant to be reduced down. Tea reveals waters’ diversity and beauty. Water and tea help each other to speak. So, it’s just a natural variety!

There is no one right water for tea. BUT! Some waters are better than others.

“Some waters are better than others” is a phrase that suggests an easy, definitive “spec” that you would go for. But really, it’s just like tea, wine, music etc. – there are ranges of waters that are better or worse for different reasons, and will result in a subjective-to-arguably-objective holistic order of preference for different situations. It’s part of the art of tea I guess, how we choose different pots, cups, pitchers, chabus and build a map of all our tea experiences and memories.

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I think the reason why water is usually overlooked is it’s seen as a problem to be solved. There’s a certain ennui to being like, goddammit I have to go buy some water filter, or minerals, or RO, or go spend even more money on bottled water which I don’t even know will be good or bad… but when seen as part of the exploration and joy of tea, it opens up a world of variety, trains your palate, and honestly makes you appreciate nature, as water is the fundamental natural substance that helps bring life to tea in the first place.

Articles I liked from Wooju:

https://vieillesvignes.substack.com/p/the-impact-of-water

https://www.listeningtoleaves.com/calibration

Callback to an old post:

2004 Biyun Hao Manzhuan with Fake Toronto Water

Tea Goals – Re-enlivening the practice

Since I began writing this blog, I feel like my tea drinking has entered a new phase. I’ve tried all the types of tea, I’ve tried so much water, I have all sorts of teaware, and I’ve enjoyed thousands of gongfu tea sessions. While in some ways I am not very experienced – I have never been to China, Japan, Taiwan etc., I feel like I am a pretty experienced tea drinker nowadays.

After drinking tea for a while, it can be easy to settle into routines, to literally “go through the motions” of gongfu tea practice. Grab a teapot, grab a tea, weigh it, load the teapot, do the session, dump it out, clean up, repeat. After a few hundred iterations of this, it can become a little routine – less and less exciting over time. I love tea so the practice never loses its charm, but sometimes it feels like I could have gotten / used to get much more out of my hour long sit. Luckily, there are all sorts of things we can do to prevent this deterioration and keep things fresh.

1) Getting new things

Change one thing about your tea practice, and you change everything. A new unglazed clay teapot makes every tea taste different and feel different to pour. A new chabu (tea mat) stimulates your mind and its associations to what you’re doing and feeling in a different way. Even a new waste bowl / jianshui sets the tone uniquely. A new teatable gives you and your guests a memorable setting for everything! So, you can always mindfully choose a cup or pitcher or anything that might make your sessions feel new and exciting.

2) Presence

Zen aphorism: if you drink tea, just drink your tea. Where I work, the tea room doesn’t allow technology at the tea table. When I’m home, anything is allowed, but sometimes I have to set the intention before the session to make this about presence, not about consumption or entertainment. For my sessions at home, the music playlist, cassette tape or vinyl record goes on, and the phone goes face down on the table, the modern gesture of defiance of being controlled by tech.

Then, it’s a matter of being present to my actions and sensations. The experience magnifies – what was once just abstractly/conceptually “drinking tea” becomes a living reality. There is so much going on at the tea table, it makes any possible distraction seem boring by comparison. There’s truly a universe inside each teapot, I mean, not to wax poetic, but you can’t get to the bottom of it. There’s really a lot going on and it’s constantly shifting and revealing new aspects. You miss all of that when you don’t pay attention, and the longer you pay attention, the deeper you go. The deeper you go, the better you feel, and the more likely you are to discover something you’ve never noticed before. Right?

3) Technique

I have to admit, even though I’ve made tea for a long time, because of the person I am, I can be a bit messy and inconsistent. When people do gongfu with a very defined sequence of movements, it looks flawless. I don’t really have that – I go by intuition, so things move around, aren’t set in stone, improvised, done in different orders. Perhaps that’s indicative of a sort of neuroticism. So, I’d like to arrive at a smooth and professional style of serving gongfu that still contains my personal essence. This is a very fruitful development in tea practice: discovering your way of serving and then codifying it into something you can follow consistently. Doing this, you can stop thinking about what you’re doing entirely, and then just move with the tea effortlessly. This probably looks really good and feels very satisfying. So try even writing down a sequence of events, like if/when you pour water over the teapot etc., and try it out/tweak over time until it solidifies.

4) Water (gypsum)

Water is crazy – want to revitalize your tea practice? Move to a new city/country. Everything changes. Water is the communicator of tea. Water expresses tea. The different mineral content and other aspects of the water will change how it tastes and how the mouthfeel is, for every tea you have. It also changes the energy and feeling of the tea. If you don’t want to move, try this little tip. 5-10mg of gypsum in your kettle will intensify and brighten your session, maybe revealing new flavors. Try it! Also, getting a good filter like an everpure will reveal more subtle flavors that were being masked before. Fresh!

5) Friends

Don’t be shy – have friends over for tea or bring your tea to a house party and set up a little tea corner. There’s something about opening up your personal tea practice to others that is very gratifying and helps you look at your own ways of enjoying tea with fresh eyes. When you have sessions with friends, let them make you a pot or two also. Comparing your tea practice to others allows you to learn so much about different perspectives and relationships to tea. Everyone makes tea so uniquely! You might say, wow this tea would never have come out this way had you not come over and brewed it for me. I appreciate this tea even more now. Thank you! Let’s grab some lunch, I’m starving!

Goals:

This is sort of a sixth idea, but also is an overall concept: it’s good to have goals for your tea practice to give it some forward momentum. They can be related to the five ideas above, but also to anything you can think of. For me, my personal examples are:

I want to be more present during my tea sessions
I want to improve my technique to make it more consistent and fluid
I want to test out my presence and technique in front of people and get joy from that

Some other hypothetical #teagoals would be:

make your water more satisfying / find a good brand of bottled water for special occasion tea sessions
find a new piece of teaware that resonates with you
learn how to experience cha qi more intimately
understand the general differences between puer tea regions and how they age
learn which teas will taste good to make for different people

So think about your tea goals! What do you want to accomplish to enjoy tea even more – how can you challenge yourself and strengthen your tea practice? How could your experience be even better, and how do you want to feel when you make tea? With these things in mind, you will have a better time with your tea.

Water Review #10 – Sant’Anna

A HUGE HUGE HUGE thank you to sjt from https://therhymingleaf.info/ and Sara from https://italianteasociety.com/ for smuggling this water to me. Sara stopped by Puerh Brooklyn last Sunday to give me two 1.5L bottles of this water – a common water found in Italy. Water is heavy, so this is no small favor! Sjt has been working on replicating this water from scratch on his blog, which you should definitely check out. Amazing detailed explorations and experiments.

What’s interesting about this water is that it’s incredibly low TDS, at 22, but has been reported by sjt to have amazing aroma, body and texture. How could this be? I was very excited to try it, and it really delivered.

Untitled 03

7.2g 110 ml glazed pot

Electric kettle

Water: Sant’anna

TDS: 22

Ca: 3.3

Na: 1.5

HCO3: 11

Conductivity: 37 uS/cm

Silica: 6 (measured)

Arrives surprisingly deep and savory. Already really detailed in the middle and back of the mouth with big aftertastes and a sort of effervescence of flavors on the tongue. Whoa!

The taste is not too strong at all but is very present. It doesn’t attack the front of the mouth but instead hits the whole palate at a moderate pace, about 2-3 seconds after the sip arrives. I can already tell there is a balance here. It seems so textured and rich for a water this light. Compared to Poland spring origin which is more forward and front of mouth (still with body).

Steep 2: vivid, oily, citrus oils, wood oils pungency is there like bright hops (think New England IPA) what’s funny is I’ve had and made many waters that have this sort of arrival, but end up tasting muddy and flat – this holds up that structure without weighing itself down. But it’s not being too nice! The strength of a water like Truth Serum from way back in the early experimental days, so high in sulfate – there must be a good amount of sulfate in here doing its job to deliver plenty of strength and potency. Empty cup aroma is so nice, honey and flowers.

Leaves inside the teapot look happy. Always a good sign.

Steep 3- Really enjoyable and refreshing, full. You can taste the medium -endness of this tea, strengths and limitations. There’s a slight leafiness that brings it down to its level of $68/200g.

Steep 4- You can start tasting how lean this water is, as I’ve reboiled it a few times the texture starts to decrease a little bit. It still rings with very present flavor, very easy to drink, and the texture still holds together. I feel like I can taste layers of fine details. The huigan is ringing and buttery. Astringency is not a problem at all, less astringency than average.

Steep 5- Oily – it really highlights flavors you would usually find in a scotch, and I don’t mean smoky – I mean the alcohol-soluble fruits, peel oils, savory herbs, wood… But somehow here conveyed by water. Fresh and deep.

Steep 6- Qi is definitely there. I have a feeling that when the tea tastes good, it activates and allows the circulation of qi, as well as the focus and attention conducive to experiencing it. But anyway… The tea maintains great structure, tasting deeper into the leaf, as the high notes fade away to a fruit pectin and wood oil kind of experience. It’s sweet, not too sweet, bitter, not too bitter, has tannins, but not too much. I do have to say the arrival of flavor is much more immediate now; pretty much instantly when you take a sip there’s the citrus oils being presented. There’s a little peach juice too that comes later.

Later steeps- simply fades out elegantly. Some heavier waters make the tea go a bit off tasting in late steeps, but this water simply has nice, sweet, quiet late steeps.

From this session, I can tell – this water is definitely the type I look for, but on the lightest possible end of that. It’s amazing what it does with so few minerals and I believe everything here is in balance, with enough silica and good dissolved gases to be just as water should be. It makes me think my previous experiments are not too far off track. It’s just so pure and precise, and I love how it delivers every aspect of the tea. I’m very excited to try it with some mid-aged puers, like 2016 Treachery pt. 2, and also some dancong against nyc tap in a side by side. Thanks again to Sara and sjt!

Tips for having a good tea session

Concerning the body, just let it go with the flow. Concerning feelings, let them follow their course. If you go with the flow, you avoid separation. If you follow the course of feelings, you avoid exhaustion.
Chuang Tzu

So you like tea. If you like tea, you probably want to get the most out of each tea session. You may have some special expensive tea that you’ve been saving for the right moment… but how do you make sure you get your money’s worth?

Focus on what you can control, let go of what you can’t

It’s okay to have high expectations, but don’t let them get in the way and throw everything off. The fear of making a wrong choice at the tea table is a self-fulfilling prophecy. It’s easy to overcompensate for the fear of failure by trying to make the perfect tea session guaranteed. Here’s an alternative strategy. If you’ve had a good tea session recently with a less expensive, but similar tea, use the same water and teaware as that session, but substitute in the precious tea. This gives you a very good chance of having a good session, with the added bonus of familiarity.

Another thing you can control is your mental state. Don’t be afraid to take a walk in nature before your session, or meditate if that’s something you do. Tea is meditative, but it’s easy to get caught up and to lose focus if you’re not reasonably grounded and receptive to start.

Stay focused, even if you feel like the session has totally gone south. Tea can surprise you. Imagine you’ve used distilled water for an aged puer in a very porous pot, and there’s almost no taste. You could switch water, but you could instead just notice what’s missing, and appreciate what’s not missing. This will make your future tea sessions more rewarding and will make you smarter. You will at least enjoy using your teaware and being calm and quiet for a half hour.

One recommendation is to put your phone away. Take pictures on airplane mode and play music, but tea is a good opportunity to get some space from the internet. Make posts and discussions later, or save them for more casual daily sessions. I really enjoy reading a book or e-reader while drinking tea.

I don’t recommend trying a new water with a special tea session. Have a couple sessions with daily drinkers that you know and love to calibrate how the water behaves, and decide if you like it. Fancier water does not equal better tea.

Don’t burn your mouth. You may be really excited, but take your time. As the little cards that come with white2tea orders say, steep slow and be patient! If you rush the session, you’ll burn your taste buds and won’t be able to taste very well.

For me, the best tea sessions feel effortless. If you go with the flow, suddenly it can feel like you’re watching the tea session – rather than “making tea” you are experiencing yourself making tea. Then feelings come, and you really start to “vibe.”

Engage your five senses! Even if nothing seems to be happening, or you’re waiting for the water to heat up, there’s plenty to see, hear, smell, feel. You can touch the teaware, but also tune in to your body and feel what’s going on there. And remember to taste even when there’s no tea in your mouth! Aftertaste is one of the nicest parts of a tea session and can keep you very engaged.

If you’re bored, or the tea seems boring, there’s not much you can do. Try it again sometime with whatever different teaware or water you feel like, and see if it was just a bad session or not your favorite tea. If you don’t like it so much, you can use it for a quick mug in the mornings to wake up.

Err on the side of underthinking. Tea is not a problem to solve.

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