🫖 Taste & brewing
Water hardness
How much mineral the water carries — it changes colour and taste markedly.
Hardness comes down to how much calcium and magnesium the water contains. Most Japanese tap water is soft, which extracts readily, lifts the aroma and gives a bright liquor.
Hard water holds extraction back: the liquor is darker and duller, the astringency softer. The same leaf in different water can be a different drink.
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