All the teas coming from the plant Camellia sinensis has got priceless health benefits. That should be one of the reasons behind tea being the most popular beverage after water. But have you ever thought of water source’s influence on health benefits of tea ? I am going to bring some facts and evidences based on an article published on https://medicalxpress.com/ with some additions (Author:
Blaine Friedlander from Cornell University).

According to this research, green tea steeped with bottled water had a more bitter taste, but it contained more antioxidants than tea brewed using normal tap water, according to new Cornell University food science research published in Nutrients.

Consumers liked green tea brewed using tap water more than using bottled water, because it contained a sweeter taste. “But, when steeped in bottled water, the green tea contained about double the amount of the antioxidant epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) – which makes it more bitter than tea brewed with tap water,” said Robin Dando, Cornell associate professor of food science.

A group of more than 100 consumers could not identify the difference between black tea steeped with either tap or bottled water. “The average consumer for black tea isn’t able to tell the difference. Whether it was tap water or bottled water, the taste differences are too subtle,” said graduate student Melanie Franks, the study’s lead author. Black tea is a rich source of Theaflavins, an antioxidant which donates many health benefits. So there may be a possibility to dilute black tea benefits, if tap water is used as the water source.

Dando believes the normal, everyday minerals in tap water—such as calcium, iron, magnesium, sodium and copper—are the products that result in lower levels of EGCG in green tea.

It’s always not practical to use bottled tea for tea making. But tea lovers can use filtered water to deserve more health benefits of tea. Alkaloids in tea are responsible for stimulation while L-theanine provides a relaxation effect. So not only health benefits, but also functional benefits of tea may depend on water source.

View more tea news + my own articles: http://www.teawithnipun.com/

References

1.Original Post: https://medicalxpress.com/news/2019-01-bottled-composition-impacts-health-benefits.html

2.More Info: https://phys.org/news/2009-06-people-bottled-healthy.html