The Brita Battles - Filter? Or Foe? - Water Update 4

I drank 4 sessions of 2008 801 Dayi 8582 yesterday...here are the events of that day recounted through the lens of a Snoot, desperately trying to learn hydrology (probably the wrong term), apply an increasingly nebulous and woefully inefficient grasp of it to tea, and pray one day he will again taste a good cup in the city of Pittsburgh.

Pittsburgh: It's not Flint, but the water is certainly as stubborn as its steel.

So I bought a Brita...

It's a chrome, Brita Elite on-tap, faucet filter. I'm a big fan of the on-tap filters. I've gotten a few folks unsure about/critiquing the use of a faucet filter. After looking into them, almost every major review site says the same thing.

Here's what the New York Times says about faucet filters vs. pitcher filters:

"Faucet-mounted water filters eliminate many more contaminants than pitcher filters do, last longer between replacements, and give you filtered water from the sink on demand."

I'm certainly not going to argue, I love it and find it a no brainer to go for a mounted filter whenever possible for the sheer ease and speed. I hypothesize it may have something to do with the pressure through which the water goes through the carbon resulting in a 'better' end water?

Idk...regardless, super happy to use them instead of a slow-mo pitcher, filling it manually every time I want water and then letting it sit for an hour to get any.

Oh, I should mention why I bought it:

A few unfortunate months ago, I had a chain of nasty experiences with my water (article below). At the time, I thought it might have been due to the use of new, unseasoned kettle stones.

While I am still skeptical of them and should not have thrown them in fresh-never-used (we don't do that with clay teapots, shouldn't do that with any clay tea items); I do think the major change in my parameters that skewed my use of them was actually my RO water.

As I investigated and ran tests, there was a noticeable change in the quality of the Primo RO dispenser at the store. There was even a rather off taste from the plain water in a glass. Sadly, it is the last bastion of publicly available RO water I can find in Pittsburgh in a 5-gal fill station...at all actually, to my searching.

For the time being it remains necessary, but read on, I may have found a palatable solution.

RO stands for reverse osmosis, in case you're new to this world. Super effective, reverse osmosis systems filter out all minerals, even the good ones. Your typical RO system will strip most any water down to sub 15 TDS (95-99%), including Pittsburgh; sometimes as low as 3 TDS, probably not in Pittsburgh 😆

My RO station is a Primo station utilizing their 6-step system leveraging activated carbon, reverse osmosis, and ultraviolet sterilization.

It gets our city water (in that area at least) down to 13 TDS, albeit with a very slight metallic note that's just...off.

The Whole Foods used to have a DI (deionizer) station (you'll often see me refer to deionized water as DiO) that gets you the full-full way, but alas: like my Dunkin' white hot chocolate and Dairy Queen butterscotch topping before it - it was smitten by the gods of corporate.

While not very comprehensive, the water filter world goes something like this:

That RO/DI station was replaced by a local coop's regular Primo RO station and, again, despite its 6 strong steps; can only achieve a TDS of 13. For the record, my current apartment's tap reads 201 TDS, to which the Brita results in 197 TDS.

My current understanding of the Brita systems are that they are much more about stripping chemicals and such rather than lowering overall TDS. However, the resulting mineral profile will be different.

I am unsure the exact depth and specificity of particulates and chemicals that are filtered out by all these systems, I am only paying attention to the reasonable mitigation of practical health concerns from unfiltered city water and anything negatively impacting the taste for use in brewing tea. Here is a chart of my current Brita on-tap elite for the curious:

Let's get to the part about tea though, shall we?

I was mixing the Empirical Water Glacial concentrates with the Primo RO happily for the last year til it got thrown off, and my did it throw it off severely...

In an effort to find an alternative to my now untenable Empirical Water-RO protocol, without outright buying an entire in-home RO or RO/DI setup, I ran the following tests.

All of these tests were with my present (pre-issues) standard parameters for 2008 801 Dayi 8582, coming in at 5g of leaf with my 67ml, 60s, Jingxi seal, Hongni, Yixing teapot. Brewing conducted with my Stagg Korvo, non-gooseneck kettle, post-cleaning, post-re-passivation (article below) - i.e: neutral or known mediums.

I did not drink every bit of each of these sessions, bad was just poured out 😛

Session 1

Full Brita water from the Elite, on-tap filter

The result was sad and disappointing. Flavorless to the utmost, awful, unenjoyable, genuinely disgusting what minor tastes made it through.

Session 2

50/50 : Brita/Primo RO

It is...ok when 50/50 blended. Very much not great, would not have nice tea with it. Rough, sharp, worse than Empirical Water when the base water is off by a good margin (reminder I was very happy with E.W. for the last good while pre-RO change)

Session 3

70/30 : Brita/Primo RO

Even worse! Probably to be expected, just the same as 50/50 with even less of any desirable characteristics.

Session 4

Full Primo RO

Now, last time I had any desirable teas with straight RO water, it was about 5 TDS and uninspiring at best. Not offensive, but flat.

I thought this was bad at first, but I'm so used to bad right now that I may have been pretty biased on the first few steeps. It could have also been that it just needed a few steeps since it was so low TDS.

I've said over and over again, but will say again, TDS is not the metric to be focused on. You need some, but like heat means way more to Pu'er storage than humidity does; ratios mean way more to tea water than TDS does.

As I drank it out, the first couple steeps were more subdued and less enjoyable than usual, but then, something happened. I found myself subconsciously reaching for more tea like I do when I love tea and the water is good, cause I like the taste. This was very encouraging. So I brewed it out.

Again, the current Primo RO is 13 TDS with a very slight metallic taste, but sometimes I can find it subdued or covered up enough due to the taste of the tea. It actually wasn't bad. This was the closest I felt to having a "new baseline" and getting accustomed to lower extraction like Seo has told me in the past and recently.

That's where I thought this article would end and I'd wrap it up.
Fate would have it a different way. These all occurred the next day, which is today.

Session 5

80/20 : Primo RO/Brita

Yes that is correct: 80% Primo RO, 20% Brita.

The best combination yet. The best part about enjoying this is since the filter and RO are both dirt cheap, that's pretty inspiring for someone who's been in water hell since he started drinking tea, and given the past few months.

This combination actually made 8582 pretty enjoyable. Maybe not what I'm used to, maybe not 'over-extracted' (I think I'm starting to at least appreciate where those saying that are coming from), maybe not as sweet. Let's not forget, we're not arrived at a final solution yet; just a suitable interim. We're stilling dealing with trash water going through a standard filter and a slightly tainted public RO system.

Sessions 6, 7, and 8

The same, 80/20 : Primo RO/Brita

CYH Cang Long, YQH YSSL, and now as I write, some 1970s TGY, are all more than merely tolerable. Truth be told, the more I sit and drink tea today and let my palate adjust, the faint off-taste fades into forgetfulness and I'm having a good time drinking tea again.

Honestly, this 70s TGY is about how remember it if not a bit better. Smoother, not in the way every non-whisky drinker on earth calls a whisky 'smooth' either; in a genuinely more grounded, rounded, not 'over-extracted' manner. I feel I'm starting to get it, and hopefully it's evident to you all, I'm here to learn.

I can't tell, but assume, that this still is far from 'optimal'; though it is now at a level I am comfortable to begin dialing it in. I suspect somewhere between a 70/30 - 90/10 : Primo RO/Brita will be the ticket, at least for now.

I think I can actually start drinking my teas, which is heartening 🙂

The part that still eludes me is whether this is now closer than I realize to 'tea as it should be' and it's about good to go, or,

If it's still far enough off that I should look into my own RO / RO/DI setup, extra filter/double filter rig, and/or in-house remineralization strategies.

For now though, I'll tell ya what: A sipping Snoot is a happy Snoot, and his tea is presently, quite satisfactory.

I would be remiss, however, if I did not share a brief word

I'm at a place now after a couple months of troubleshooting, learning, re-learning, and probably driving some folks on the server - and for sure the puerh channel - crazy.

I am happy enough with my water today to have drank 4 teas enjoyably, and Rachel is sanity checking me across the table while we work that the water is good enough for better teas and more consistent drinking with actual enjoyment as part of the session.

I'll be writing more articles on my experiences with water for anyone that cares to continue or catch up on the Snoot Water Saga, but I'd like to take a moment and just share a quick PSA:

I am primarily doing this for 2 reasons:

1. For my own understanding, curiosity, and desire to have a hobby and pursue it to the utmost. Tea is my primary passion in life that isn't in the category of a fundamental worldview or system of belief. It is here to stay, and that is something I don't take lightly. Ask anyone that knows me, and they'll tell you I don't really know how to do things half-way.
2. I'm doing this for the rest of the folks that will come into tea after me or later in life that may find benefit from these experiences. I subscribed at one point quite heavily to Gary Vaynerchuk and, while I may not entirely now, one thing he always said will always be part of my style. Document, don't create.

I'm not aiming to be a perfectionist here and am very unafraid of being viewed as an idiot or as ignorant. We all pay down more of our own ignorance debt every time we ask a question instead of pretending or feverishly researching before speaking to seem like we knew it all along.

I know not everyone, probably most actually, won't struggle with water like I have. I'm sure I've made a spectacle and a meme of myself in more ways than one by talking about it so much. Perhaps I've seemed obsessive and ridiculous and you'd just tell me to take another break or just concede to buying bottled waters or some other option.

To that, I guess I'd just say: I can't think of anybody who became extremely good at something and world-renowned at their craft or subject matter that wasn't a bit...obtuse to people at times. Almost certainly, they were viewed as pretty obsessed and pretty ridiculous by others.

I am very grateful for the opportunity to be the dumb one and document my missteps, trials, distractions, and shortcomings for you so that I can help power-level a few future hot leaf soup enjoyers that stumble onto my small, humble corner of the internet.

Friends like Seo, Phyll, Arby, Max, Rex, Volrath, and everyone else who has tried to continually follow along and provide guidance for me on the water issues, storage issues, and general tea journey are of deep value to me. Regardless of who you are or when you came into my journey, or rather for some, when I came into yours, I am grateful.

Pittsburgh is a diamond in the rough in some ways, water is just one of those ways. I think had I lived in Flint, Michigan, maybe I would've had more credibility to my ravings from the start, but either way: I'm glad we got here.

Water Woes - Update 3; A Corner Turned?

OK! This one is gonna be pretty comprehensive, not massive, about 2,000 words. So, status update: * Been, what; a month and a half? * Bad tea the whole time, just sorta stopped drinking it. * Not just ‘subpar’, but genuinely not good in some cases. * Most recent tasting (03 CYH Manzhuan,

Tea and ClayBrandon Kendall

What a Waterful World - article coming soon