What is the best water for making tea? Bottled Vs Tap Has Dramatic Effect, According to a Study

Like many people who are lucky enough to live somewhere with easy access to drinking water, when I make tea, I fill my kettle directly at the tap. But if you've ever wondered what would be the best water for making tea – tap? Or in bottle? – It turns out that the choice you make can have a pretty dramatic effect on the resulting drink, especially if your favorite drink is green tea. A recent study by researchers at the Sensory Evaluation Center at Cornell University found that people prefer green tea better prepared with tap water, but that the health benefits of consuming Green tea are much more pronounced made with bottled water.

According to the American Association of Tea Producers, more than 159 million people in the United States drink tea every day, the millennials being a particularly enthusiastic tea drinker: 87% of them drink this drink regularly. The reasons Why people drink tea are wide and varied, of course; for some, it is caffeine, while for others, it is the tea culture. For many, however, these are two things in particular: the health and taste benefits. Green tea, in particular, has a wide range of health benefits; it can strengthen your immune system, help relieve anxiety and contribute to heart health, among many others.

But green tea can also be an acquired taste – and according to the current study, published in the journal nutrients, This taste and health benefits may be more closely related than we think.

For the study, 103 participants, all of whom drank green or black tea three to five times or more per week, received three green tea samples or three black tea samples and were asked to rate them on a few Different qualities: On a scale of one to nine, they rated how much they liked the appearance of tea, how much they liked the flavor and how much they liked it. Participants also tested each tea to check for sweetness, bitterness, acidity and astringency; in addition, green teas have been tested for their vegetable state, while black teas have been tested for their terrestrial character. Finally, participants were asked to choose a color on a matching color sheet, although they best fit the shade of each tea. Before leaving, they also answered some questions about demographics, as well as their drinking patterns.

Regarding green tea, the type of water used to prepare it had a considerable effect on what participants thought about it. Overall, they preferred tea infused with tap water; Although there were no major differences in astringency, acidity or vegetable taste, participants reported that the tea had a much less bitter taste, as well as a sweeter taste, when infused with tap water.

But although the participants love tea infused with more tap water, if you drink tea – especially green tea – mainly for health benefits, you will get more for your money if you prepare it with bottled water. Tea contains a multitude of catechins – compounds that have a fairly dramatic antioxidant effect and are therefore an important source of tea health properties. Epigallocatechin-3-gallate, or EGCG, is one of the catechins to have particularly high concentrations. The catechin content of tea is not always the same from one type to another, but it seems that when green tea is brewed with bottled water, it ends up with an even higher concentration of tea. EGCG. And while the EGCG is good for you, the researchers found that it also added to the bitterness of taste.

The type of water used made also affect the taste and health properties of black tea, but not to the same extent. Participants noted no difference in astringency, bitterness, bitterness or sweetness between black tea brewed with different types of water, although they reported that black tea was brewed with water Tap was more earthy. However, even this small difference had almost no effect on love black tea. Notably, black tea tends to have less EGCG than green tea, which supports the idea that the increased concentration of EGCG in green tea could also explain its bitterness.

The results could not be clearer: Robin Dando, co-author of the study, an badociate professor of food science at Cornell, told Medical Xpress: "If you drink green tea for its properties beneficial to health, you should use bottled water. . If you drink tea for taste, the tap water is better. Conversely, if you drink mostly black tea, it probably will not make much difference.

he is It should be noted that not everyone has the choice of the type of water they use. Bottled water may be inaccessible from a financial point of view for some, while others may not have access to drinking water at the tap. In Flint, Mich., The current crisis is affected by the following factors: the city still does not have access to clean water and, according to Bridge, bottled water supplies are down. If you can, here you will find information on how to give bottled water of all kinds, as well as how to donate your time or money.

Enjoy your tea, but try to help if you can too. Every little bit counts.