Water Pot
Last week saw a new arrival in the tea room. Aaron emailed to say my water pots were finally ready, so I went down to pick them up and drink some tea. They turned out better than I expected, and I’ve spent the last week getting used to it and experimenting with my water.
Having a clay pot for water storage goes beyond adding a more aesthetic look to my tea room. The pot is glazed inside and out, so no odors or impurities are transmitted to the water, maintaining it’s purity. According to Lu Yu in The Classic of Tea, “I would suggest that tea made from mountain streams is best, river water is all right, but well-water tea is quite inferior.” He goes on to say that “Water from the slow-flowing streams, the stone-lined pools or milk-pure springs is the best of mountain water.”
When storing high-quality water for later usage, clay containers are generally preferred. Plastic imparts a flat taste to the water, and should only be used (if necessary) for short periods of time (such as transferring water from its source to home). Metal containers are better (copper lined would be best), but need to be stored carefully so that room temperature variations don’t affect the water. Glazed pottery works best because the thick walls insulate the water, keeping it cool and protected from sunlight. This is also why alcohol & wine produced in Asia are often aged in glazed pots.
At home I generally use filtered tap water for tea (our water is actually pretty good), boil it in a large kettle in the kitchen, then take it into the tea room and pour it into my smaller electric kettle for making tea. Now, I just keep my water pot about half full of cold water, and boil it in my small electric kettle as needed.
I’ve also added pieces of charcoal to further ‘clean’ the water, and Aliang has promised we’ll do a few experiments along those lines (hopefully next week) to see what differences there are in the water/tea quality. I’m also looking into where (if??) I can get good quality spring water in Taipei county, and may start using that instead, at least for my better quality teas.
You probably think that these types of pots are common, but I looked for years and couldn’t find any. When I asked at pottery shops about putting a tap into one of their pots, the standard repy was “Mei yo ban fa” (nothing can be done). So, of course I was 
surprised on my first visit to Aaron’s (see Taiwan Tea Friend) to see that he has one in his tea room. He told me he went to a local factory, and put in a special order to have a pot made with a hole at the bottom, then after it was fired he fitted his own tap in. So much for “Mei yo ban fa“! I ordered two, because Aliang has been looking for a better delivery system at his shop, and he was quite happy when I surprised him with his pot last week.
A much-used cliche is “tea is 99% water“. While this sounds a bit corny and seems obvious, it’s surprising how many people (including myself for many years) pay so much attention to the tea leaf and so little attention to the water. If you ever wonder why tea at a particular shop tastes so much better there than at home, check out the H2O first.