I know this is a rather odd topic, but brewing a good cup of tea in Paris has proven elusive for us, and I'm curious if anyone has any ideas about what might be causing our problem.

We have tried tap water and various bottled waters. We have heated the water on the stovetop (in metal and glass), used electric water kettles, and microwaved individual mugs. We have used Twinings, Lipton, Tetley, and some unbranded tea brought back from India.

In every case, we end up with an undrinkable mess covered in oily scum.

Yet you can go to a café and order a cup of tea, and it (usually) is perfectly acceptable.

So, what is the secret?

Did you boil the water or merely heat it?

On the stovetop and in the water kettles, generally boiled. In the microwave, just to the point of starting to bubble.

I don't know but it could be the lime content in the water - it is a problem elsewhere in Europe. Try filtered water (such as with a Brita jug).

Lavandula

It is probably hard water. Let the water boil longer to get rid of it, or filter it.
In Limburg we had the same problem. The tea tastes OK but doesn't look good. We boiled the water for longer and started using a teapot again and that seemed to help.

Bottled water is also usually quite hard - check the label for proportions of CaCo3, CaSo4 and CaMg(CO3)2.

You can ask your water company how hard the water is that they supply - important to know for washing machines, dishwashers and the like too.

Microwaving does not necessary boil the water. It make it hot but boiling in a kettle is the only way to do this.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microwave_oven

Neither tap water nor bottled water contains oily scum, so it appears to be a psychiatric problem.

In fact in many places with hard water tea tastes awful. I used to travel to Cincy a lot - which has very hard water (smells like earth) and you simply cannot drink tea made with that water. It just tastes awful. So hard tap water and bottled water (unless distilled non-mineral water) may be a taste issue.

As for oily scum- what are you making the tea in? (I must admit I've never seen that happen.)

Hi Jazz,

I found in Switzerland that after making tea the teacup had a really rough looking oily brown residue so I know what you mean. The water there has a lot of minerals so I just attributed it to that. In fact the water cooker in our office kitchen had huge calc deposits shortly after each replacement.

Sorry I don't know the answer to this.

gruezi

I agree with hetismij. Boil the heck out of the water to get the minerals to drop out and stay in the kettle. Then pour the boiled water into a tea pot. I use a Brita filter in Michigan. Even though we have soft water from Lake Huron the city puts so much chlorine in it that it smells like bleach.

Bottled water in Germany is *natural* water but it is loaded with minerals. The quantities of calcium and magnesium are listed on the side of the bottle. I would say that some of that stuff is brackish. I never buy bottled water except for Evian. That water comes from Lac Leman which is fed by melt from Mont Blanc.

But the OP said they even tried using bottled waters and it still happened.

Buy a new kettle, make sure you use bottled water that doesn't have a high mineral content (some brands do) and use Mariage Freres tea. If that doesn't work, accept that you are jinxed, give it up and have your tea in a cafe, preferably one that serves Mariage Freres.

You can buy anti-calc stuff to get the gunk out of the kettle, but be careful - some of the "de-gunkers" are not meant for tea kettles. And follow the instructions carefully! Ours says to put about 300 ml into the kettle along with 300 ml water and let it sit for an hour. Then rinse thoroughly and repeatedly with clean water. Then fill with clean water and get it to boil. Empty, refill with clean water and bring it to boil again.

Wanna come by for a cup of tea, Kerouac? We're here for a couple more days, in the Marais.

The mineral content is likely the best explanation; I imagine the water from the Seine is rather limey considering this whole area sits on huge limestone beds. Even using Evian, we have the problem -- but it could be residual minerals on the surface of the container used in brewing. I'll have to purchase a box of the Mariage Freres to try it out.

Frustrating for us. I suppose I'll just have to stick to the ED cola (now Dia), which is about the best cola I've found here (and, at €0.42 a liter, a bargain). DW is hooked on Taillefine Fiz Coco Citron Vert and Nature des Pommes Granny Smith varietal apple juice. Guess what's packed carefully in the checked bag for the return trip?

Not the cola...

Hard water is always a problem for making tea.
Mineral (bottled) waters are usually no solution as they are rich in (who would have guessed that) minerals.
Cleaning the kettle with anti-calc/lime agents and then use filtered tap water (with Brita filters or cheaper "generic" systems) is the only way to get rid of that "oily stuff".

P.S. It is advisable not to boil water "to death" for tea, but use it fresh and boiling from the kettle for black tea. Or let it cool down a minute for green tea.

First try the Mariage Freres tea in one of their Paris tearooms so you have a comparison base:
http://www.mariagefreres.com/boutique/UK/addresses.html

Pick up a bottle of distilled water. You'll find it
in grocery stores.

Our well water is hard and contains tannins that give it a yellow tinge. We have a softener and another machine for the color so we always use distilled for coffee and tea. Both taste great.

Rob

The bottled spring water (the ultra cheap brands) have far fewer minerals than mineral water. (I don't drink tea. )

IJ, the Ed/Dia cola is 0.42€ for the two liter bottle, not a liter.

Kerouac: I have a bottle in front of me, and we're *both* wrong.

It's 1.5 liters!

Yes, I realized that the moment I typed it -- but there's no going back here!

Imaginaryjazz, you don't say what the water is like where you come from. Paris water is a bit on the hard side, to judge by the anti-limescale products on sale in the supermarkets; but I've usually been OK with the results from my travel kettle (being from London, I'm used to hard water). It helps (a) not to let the tea stand for too long before you drink it (b) to use tea that's on sale locally, since it will have been blended to suit harder water.

http://www.atlantacoffeeandtea.com/U.../clouding.html