Yorkshire tea ... one for Bill maybe

[Graham.]

Well I hope people here in Manchester aren't wasting their money on "dishwasher salt", but judging by the shelf-space dedicated to it in the shops, I suspect some are.

[Scott]

Can you brew Yorkshire tea in Scotland or is it only compatible with hard water?

As far as I can see, Yorkshire has hard or soft water depending on source. Is the tea optimised for hard water? Does this mean there are parts of Yorkshire where Yorkshire tea is incompatible?

[Bev]

Yorkshire tea comes in two varieties - one for hard water and one for soft water. We have softwater here and use the same (softwater) tea when we visit Scotland to get an excellent cuppa.

The original YT was for softwater.

[Scott]

How do you identify these? Is there some sort of production code?

[Andy Burns]

red label = soft, green label = hard

[Bev]

Unless you are colour blind - in which case its the other way round <grins>

[Graham.]

I can't help thinking it is largely mar kiting bollocks.

Now where a differential mar kiting strategy would be useful is in the detergent business, but yet the shelves of my local supermarkets in Manchester carry the same range of water softening products as those in London, and there is no water hardness specific dosing instructions on the dishwasher and laundry products we use.

The result is far too much is pored down the drain. I use half a Lidl "W5" dishwasher tablet and between a quarter and a third of the recommended washing machine powder dose and get good results

[Scott]

At one time did they produce regional variations of washing powder?

[Bill Wright]

All I know is that when I used to work in London I had to take my own water to make tea.

Bill

[alan_m]

There appears to be two versions. Around my way it's the red box version on sale and seldom seen is the green box hard water version.

[alan_m]

By the time it gets to London the water is many times recycled sewage.

[Tim Lamb]

The Lea starts beyond Luton and the 18,000,000L of spring water are augmented by 48,000,000L (these are old figures) of treated sewage at East Hyde. I used to chuckle watching my father's cows c*ck their tails while standing in the river knowing that some of this would be pumped out at Chingford to supply part of North London.

[Brian Gaff (Sofa)]

It tasted OK In Guernsey, which has soft water. Brian

[Vir Campestris]

That's odd. Dishwashers have built in softeners, so should not be affected by hard water.

Andy

[Chris Holford]

In article [e-mail], Scott [e-mail]> writes

According to their web page, they bring in a tankers of water to their works so the tasters can make a trial brew with hard water or with soft water. I sometimes get a packet of 'hard water' blend from Amazon.It really makes a good strong brew.

[Tim+]

You?re not meant to drink the water in London. Just about fit for flushing the loo with but not much else.

Tim

[Bill Wright]

No I take it in a sealed container.

Bill

[Bill Wright]

Yes I suppose so. It's a Third World city.

Bill

[alan_m]

Full of 3rd world refugees (millions from the EU).

[Steve Walker]

We certainly are not. 20-year old kettles and failed washing machine or dishwasher heater elements are totally clean.

When I was at school we did titrations and the tap water was virtually as soft as the demineralised water.

I have in fact worked on control panel design for dosing rigs. UU adds measured doses of phosphates to the water supply to prevent the soft water absorbing lead from any remaining lead pipes - as they never develop an internal coating to stop the lead leaching into the water. In hard water areas the lead is totally sealed off from the water by the deposits.

SteveW