I suggest trying tea made with bottled water rather than tap or even
'cleansed' tap water. It's more expensive certainly but even the cheapest
bottled will do, and be superior to any type of tap water (as long as it's
not like Pepsico's 'Dasani' water which is made from local cleansed tap
water -- use mountain spring water).

For a real treat try 'Fiji' water which is about the softest water you can
find.. feels like velvet in your mouth.

When I was in Ireland this summer the tap water was so horrible that I
always had to use bottled water to drink and for teamaking. Just get a big
2.5 gallon spouted jug.

F

> wrote in message
oups.com...
> My familly has recently installed a reverse osmosis system to purify
> the water. Immediately after installation, of course I was curious
> about how tea would taste with this water -- which tasted totally
> different from the tap water I usually use. I live in Toronto, Canada,
> which has moderately hard water. It's not as extreme as other parts of
> Ontario, but I often see scum on top of my tea. When I'm just drinking
> the water by itself, I notice a distinct chlorinated taste, but when
> I'm making tea the chlorine is unnoticable.
>
> I made tea with the new water from the system, and to my surprise the
> color of the black tea I was brewing became much brighter than before.
> The aroma of the tea seemed sweeter and slightly more intense. But the
> color was a good indication of how the tea would be like -- much, much
> milder than usual. With my Torontonian hard water the tea was usually
> quite robust and astringent -- even robust after adding milk. With RO
> purified water, it was so mild that I thought I was using a different
> tea.
>
> My question is if using RO purified water for tea desirable over hard,
> tap water. I'm accustomed to the tap water, so I can't really say if
> its better or not. What is the general consensus on purified water? The
> main reason my family got the system was to stop paying as much for
> bottled water and have better tasting water. Since bottled water is no
> longer an option for me what should I do? City water? RO purified
> water? Half n' half?
>
> Thanks for your feedback =)
>

Thanks for all the responses =). I tried a couple of more times, and I
think I like tea better with purified water than just plain tap water
-- even if it lacks almost any minerals. As I said, I don't want to
continue to buy bottled water after my familly has installed this
system -- it's a waste of money. I'll try different things out, like
seeing if the tea tastes better with virtually mineral-less water or if
a splash of regular tap water will improve the taste. Thanks!

I second you suggestion. When I was on hiatus in the US for 6 months,
I brewed my tea using "spring" water in the jugs you can get at the
grocery store. Keep in mind that some brands are better than others,
but I got much better tasting tea than when I tried to use tap water.