• Registered: 2009-02-15
  • Posts: 32

Topic: Ways to improve Water for Yancha

This is my first post in a while, and its something that has been bugging me for awhile, where I used to absolutely love Wuyi yancha, but since I moved to Michigan it has never tasted right.  Since the same teas taste decent when brewed at my Parents house, I am starting to think there is something funky going on with the water.

So here is what I am doing:

I have a Brita filter fridge tank, which gets refilled every 2-4 days, and is kept in the fridge.  I then proceed to boil the water in my Lin's kettle, and brew has I always would.


I am thinking of acquiring Bamboo Charcoal and putting a piece or two in the Brita tank. Besides that I am a bit at a loss of what I could do to possible fix the situation.

  • From: Los Angeles, CA
  • Registered: 2008-10-29
  • Posts: 284

Re: Ways to improve Water for Yancha

Try using spring water, at least a few times, even if you're not willing to use it all the time. See if the results are better, just to rule out other possible problems, i.e., if the tea still tastes bad with spring water, maybe the problem is elsewhere in your brewing setup or technique (or with your tea). That may seem wasteful, but I do find that I get somewhat better results making tea with spring water, even compared to my 3 stage, non-RO filtration system at home. If there are local outfits that do spring water delivery, that might help cut down your guilt about all the packaging involved in buying spring water by the gallon bottle, though there are still cost and "carbon footprint" issues that I totally respect.

You can also try leaving your filtered water in a container for a few days, and see if that helps.

Personally, I'd avoid the fridge, even if it means getting a separate water filter (I have had Ok results with Pur, though the on-faucet ones tend to get clogged). For one thing, no matter how clean your fridge is, there are probably some food smells in there. Maybe common sense, but also make sure the Brita filter has been changed sometime recently.

Do let us know how it turns out.

  • Cael
  • New member
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2010-12-15
  • Posts: 7

Re: Ways to improve Water for Yancha

I'm not sure if you were one of the people who was in the thread on Lins Tea Kettles, but because I just read that one, it had me thinking about build up in the kettle. In addiction to making sure that you aren't getting fridge taste in your water, make sure that you are cleaning out your kettle regularly or else you may be getting other flavors from there too.