Apologies in advance for no actual tea pictures in this one. Attachment 272693
I'm just back from a trip to northwest China, where I visited a village near (though not at) the origin of the Yellow River (pictured above, looking not at all yellow). While at the house of a friend of a friend, they brought out some green tea from Zhejiang (east China) which I proceeded to, well, guzzle. I live quite near the area where the tea was grown, actually, and so was impressed with how much better it tasted than any tea I'd had before. When I mentioned this, I was told that while the tea was very good quality, it was the quality of the water I was noticing.
I've heard many times that good water is important for tea; in China it's not uncommon to have tea houses built on top of natural springs (some of which I've drunk at), and I've seen some well-lauded tea-water springs at former samurai villas in Japan (none of which I have drunk from), but this is the first time I've really, really noticed the difference.
Just wondering if anyone else has had any experience with this, or what you all are doing about the water that you use to make your tea?