Tea from tap (chlorinated) water

A right bee in the bonnet for me. Now you've got me started. Was on the road for years and tea made with chlorinated water is an abomination. You can even go for a swanky meal out with family and they they give you this sh1te at the end of a lovely meal.

Wondering do coffee drinkers notice any difference?

I don't know how anybody can tell the difference

Advice from the internet:

"You should find that by keeping a jug of tap water covered in the fridge, any taste of chlorine will disappear. Make sure you replace it at least every 24 hours, because there will not be sufficient chlorine to prevent bacteria growing if you keep it longer than this."

Tap water kept in the fridge, to me also tastes better than water at room temperature. But for making tea, there is no difference.

It varies from place to place.

Some public supplies are fine and some not so good.

It's definitely not imaginary, if the cuppa is ok it's ok.

If you can taste the chlorine it's there.

Why would anyone be making it up ?

I was raised in the country and we had our own spring water which was extremely high quality. When I moved to an urban water scheme, I did notice the difference, it wasn't as good as what I grew up with, but it was grand, it was safe, and I got used to it.

I got Britta filters but don't bother using them most of the time. That said, I don't know, maybe your municipal water supply is especially bad, or my one is above average.

No it isn't enough our water tastes a bit off most of the time and when the IW screw up it tastes bloody awful. The way they make the water safe is by over dosing it with chlorine.

Example....

Tap water on the left, bottle of Lidl's finest spring water on the right. A couple of hours later the one on the left cleared up leaving a yucky sediment on the bottom. I didn't bother complaining when that happened but a neighbour did and they sent out a guy from the treatment works who proved it was safe to drink by downing a pint of it. It might be safe to drink but there are times when you really don't want to be making your tea with it unless its been filtered.

Edit> After it had settled out...

Natural spring water from untreated sources can look and taste good. But clean water is not the same as safe water. People can't taste or smell the impurities which it may contain. For most people it will not do any harm, but there are some who will be vulnerable. Just like raw cow's milk is fine for most, but it can be dangerous to others.

I have my doubts that it's gone.

Chlorine dosing levels can be very high here. I have seen Chlorine dosed to outgoing resevoirs at levels that are twice the level that would shut a UK plant down.

Boiling water will shift the chlorine. I am not sure about the flouride though it isn't extensively used in the UK, but it is used here.

Frankly if I had kids I think I would test the levels. I do check the pH as it does tend to be a trifle acidic, my enamel bath was white but is now blue and I have got through a couple of copper hot tanks.

The chlorine is definitely not gone in my system, in fact sometimes the water can be brown after bad weather which is not good news when combined with chlorine. I tend to wonder if they don't rely on manual dosing as on odd occasions the levels are noticeably high. Even the highest has never had an effect that I can detect when the stuff is boiled for tea or coffee.

To try to generalise with chlorine is impossible, it is not simply the amount of organic matter that dictates the presence in your tap. Contact time, distance from the treatment plant or residual dosing point along with the ambient and ground temperature all have a bearing.

I can smell the difference in a glass of water. It was particularly noticeable when our water supply was changed from one treatment plant to another. Never noticed it before, but the new one had a much stronger "swimming pool" smell from it, which I take to be chlorine.

However I could never taste any difference in tea. Tea flavour is so strong that it overcomes any other flavours/smell for me.

Your problem here was the water was not, in fact, boiling when you made your tea. A fresh boiled kettle will always make a better tea.

Just pour whatever you need off a day or two early and leave it in a bowl. Any chlorine will disappear. If you have organics in your water it may not be wise, but if it's for tea and you are boiling it, why bother?