Water, Water Everywhere

Until I get into a rhythm, these entries may be a trifle scattergun in subject matter although all will relate to tea and baking.

Water is a big subject with tea; the quality, the alkalinity and the temperature when it hits the leaves all influence the flavour and taste of your tea.

English tradition holds that the best way to make your tea is as follows:
1. Fill the kettle with water freshly drawn from the tap.
2. Warm the tea pot whilst the water is coming to the boil.
3. Pour away the warm water in the pot and put in your leaves or teabags.
4. Take the warmed pot to the kettle and wait for it to boil.
4. As the water hits boiling point pour it into the pot and brew for the requisite time before serving.

Is this really all necessary? Well yes and no. Firstly these instructions apply to black tea rather than green tea, especially regarding the temperature. For black tea, the temperature does need to reach boiling point, 100 degrees centrigrade, to get the most out of the leaf.

Tea tastes better with oxygenated  water and you will get most oxygen in water freshly poured from the tap - If you keep boiling the water in the kettle again and again then your 'stale' water is likely to produce a rather 'flat' brew.

Against this you may have to balance the quality and chemical make-up of the actual water. When I was in Tokyo a few years ago, I managed to make some pretty disgusting tea following the the traditional instructions because the water is very soft and really not great for brewing black tea. In the end I had to use bottled water,  looking for that which was as hard as possible.

Warming the pot and taking the pot to the kettle rather than the kettle to the pot - it does all sound rather petty! However there is a logic to this. We warm plates before putting food on it so that the food stays warm longer and tastes better, certainly I would suggest this applies to roast meat. In the same way, by putting the just-boiled water into a warmed pot, the temperature will be hotter whilst the tea is brewing than if the water had been poured into a cold pot. Likewise, less time is taken to pour the water from the kettle if the pot is sitting ready beside it than if the kettle has to boil and then you take it to a pot. You want your water as hot as possible whilst it is brewing.

This all sounds rather basic but all questions that have been raised!