Why is filtered water important for the perfect cup of tea?

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If you live in an area that has hard water, high in minerals like Perth or Adelaide where some areas have high levels of calcium. Or your drinking water is highly chlorinated, then this will affect the taste of your tea.

Now in a perfect world, according to the Chinese tea scholar, Lu Lu, it’s ideal to use the same water that’s used to water the tea plants of the region. Very difficult for the majority of us, unless we happen to live near a tea plantation!

However, we can make sure that the water quality is the best it can be, by using a water filter.

Dihan also believes the quality of the water is very important and suggests, “Filtered water, boiled once, ideally because when you boil more times it becomes a little depleted of oxygen. Stir a couple of times, you need to stir unless the tea doesn’t come into contact with the water.”

Then when it comes to quantities – use one teabag per 200ml of water or 2.5 grams of loose tea per 250ml of water.

Brewing time is important too – three minutes for Black tea and two minutes for Green tea.

Also, there’s often debate about whether to add milk before tea or the other way around. To set the record straight, Mr Fernando says, milk should be added after the tea has brewed, rather than before. And forget adding sugar – if you have a sweet tooth, try adding honey to your cuppa. Or add a bit of ginger, lemon or mint leaves. (Source – Dilmah) 

Stress Relief

How many times do you head for the kettle when you hit a problem? Or a friend offers you a cuppa in times of woe? It’s social. It’s a great excuse to sit down with friends and chat. A problem shared is a problem halved. Right?

Rich in Antioxidants

Tea is rich in antioxidants. These are the disease fighting compounds that neutralise the free radicals in our bodies and help protect our cells from disease. Green and Black teas have 10 times the amount of antioxidants than fruit and veggies.

John Weisburger, PhD, senior researcher at the Institute for Cancer Prevention in Valhalla, N.Y. says  “Studies of humans and animals show that the antioxidants in black and green teas are highly beneficial to our health.”

Tea May Help Reduce the Risk of Heart Attacks

Drinking tea may help the risk of heart attack and stroke.  If you take a look at populations in Japan and China where they drink a lot of tea. “They have much less heart disease and don’t have certain cancers that we in the Western world suffer,” says Weisburger.

Tea May help prevent the risk of Alzheimer’s Disease and Dementia

Research conducted at the University of Newcastle shows that drinking tea could help improve memory and also slow the development of Alzheimer’s disease.

Tea is calorie-free

Drink it black and it’s simple. No sugar. No additives. The perfect healthy hot drink.