How important is your cup of tea? Because your current at-home tea making system is about to get really jealous. Enter the Breville One Touch Tea Maker, the “revolutionary tea experience”, an intelligent, one-touch process that gets the most out of every leaf, every time.
So, what is it?
A futuristic upgrade to your average kettle/diffuser, the Breville Tea Maker is all about tea. It has been programmed to control brew times for different varietals of tea (think black, green, white, oolong, and even English Breakfast teas), all of which require different water temperatures and brew times. It has an automated basket which gently agitates leaves to precisely infuse each pot, every time. And, you can even program your pot to make tea at a specific time every day. Now, how's that for convenient?
But, is it worth it?
Don't ask yourself if you need it. Ask yourself how how much you love tea. If your answer is a resounding, “More than anything!” then you should seriously consider buying this machine. Not only will it help you broaden your tea drinking horizons, as from delicate to hearty the Breville really takes the guess work out of making the perfect cup of tea, regardless of the leaves, but also, it makes a damn good cup of tea.
So, let's talk practicality for a second. The Breville One Touch Tea Maker costs over $200 – so you need to ask yourself whether you really need a $200 kettle taking up all that valuable counter space? And while the reviews are generally pretty favourable, there are definitely some negatives that might give pause. Let's examine those:
First off, while the tea basket and scoop are both dishwasher safe, you can't wash the carafe under running water. In fact, any water that gets inside the machine can cause damage that isn't covered by the company warranty. Which leads us to the second downfall, you can't have the machine repaired or get replacement parts. Huh? What good is a tea maker without a carafe?
A final (minor) issue, loose leaf tea has a tendency to “escape” the top of the basket, meaning a few leaves are going to end up in your cup. Admittedly, that's more of an annoyance than a reason not to buy but worth mentioning nonetheless.
So, now that you know the basic facts, should you buy it? Unless you're a tea fanatic we'd say no, especially since Cuisinart has an electric model with 6 preset heat settings specifically for the more popular varietals of leaves and for a much lower cost.
Now that deserves a good cuppa.