Waiting for Jumpjuice

[omorka]

I have complained a bit recently about the lack of a readily available automatic teamaker. Those whose jumpjuice of choice is coffee have a vast assortment of gadgets that they can use to conveniently brew and dispense their steaming beverage early in the morning, without worrying about dropping a kettle of boiling water on their foot or otherwise interrupting their morning routine. Those of us who prefer tea (or hot chocolate, for that matter) can't just pick up a box with automatic timer and extra carafe at Target.

Now, some of the fancified cup-at-a-time pod brewers will do tea as well as coffee - after all, they're essentially just putting coffeebags in it, albeit proprietary ones so you can't roast and grind your choice of beans as you like them. (A few of them have reusable pod-filters so you can, but this seems to be the exception for the ones I've seen; part of the point appears to be to lock the user into buying not just the brewer but the coffee itself from a particular manufacturer.) But they're freaking expensive, and you can't do a whole pot of tea in them. So, what might be available out there, if I expand my search to the web?

The Zarafina Tea Maker Suite - $100 and no timer, so I can't load it in the evening and magically find a hot pot waiting for me at 7:30 am. You'd think for that much they'd at least put at timer on it.

The TriniTEA Electric Tea Maker - again, a full Benjamin and no timer. Several parts are made of plastic, and I've seen more than one review complaining that they break easily.

The Sunbeam HTM3 Tea Maker - Can't tell if this has a timer or not, but it doesn't look like it has an actual steeping area - just runs hot water through the tea leaves like a drip coffeemaker. That won't work well for non-iced tea unless there's a lot of tea in there. Possibly cheap enough to try anyway. Has a larger sibling called the HTM5.

The Kalorik Tea Maker - More Expensive than the Sunbeam. Can't tell how it works, or even where the water reservoir is. Rather pricy for that much guesswork.

There was a Chef's Choice model that got good reviews, but it appears to no longer be made. Grr.

Anyone have any suggestions?

Comments

teavana

[lady-valkyrie.livejournal.com]

I know teavana has a hot water heater for the tea, so that you can dispense a cup whenever you want, then you just have to wait a moment for the tea to steep. Not as good as having it wait for you, but also no problems with bitterness.

Kris

Re: teavana

[omorka.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I've seen several electric kettle models, but what I really want is something I can load at 11 pm and then have it just be ready at 7:30 am through the magic of modern technology. Every coffee drinker can get this without thinking; why can't I?

Hey, are y'all on spring break this week? Any chance of your having free time on Friday or Saturday, or are you both busy?

[tenthz.livejournal.com]

The only thing I can think of would be to hook one of these up to a light timer-type thing.

The lack of tea-makers is definitely due to lack of demand, but also could have something to do with safety. To make coffee, the water only has to be hot. To make tea, the water really must boil in order to make a decent cup (but I'm sure you knew this. :)

I'm really hoping this was not provoked by someone getting scalded when half asleep.

[omorka.livejournal.com]

No, but I've dropped enough other things on my foot when half asleep that I know better than to even try handling a kettleful of boiling water before 9 am.

I suppose one could get around the boiling requirement by only drinking green and/or white tea, but they won't kick you out of bed the way a good Irish Breakfast will. And the Spouse suggested a timing rig, too, although I suspect he was thinking about actually hacking it into the teamaker rather than just plugging it into one.

[tenthz.livejournal.com]

You *could* brew it ahead of time and make iced tea to drink the morning. That'd probably be nice on a hot summer morning or something. But I've never attempted Irish Breakfast as an iced tea. Could be interesting.

[omorka.livejournal.com]

I have an iced tea maker already, and there's always a pitcher in the fridge. But iced tea before work strikes me as almost as nasty as Coke for breakfast.

If you make iced tea with an English/Irish/Scottish Breakfast, it's bloody near undrinkable. (Ditto IMHO Earl Grey, although I know there are people who disagree with me on that.) The tannin overwhelms everything else when it's cold. Iced Darjeeling is interesting, but I still wouldn't want it first thing in the morning. Regular iced tea is essentially sweepings - the broken bits of Indian tea leaves left over after the whole leaves have been sorted out for Assam and such. Since they were in such small pieces, they've lost a lot of the essential oils, and they steep quickly - bad for a cuppa, because you don't get much aroma, but you wouldn't get that kind of scent off an iced drink anyway so it's not a liability. But it's that lack of complexity in the tea flavor that makes it not only okay but near-on to a requirement that you add lemon and, if you're in the Deep South, spearmint to the glass with the tea.

Iced tea is lovely, lovely stuff. But it and a proper cup of tea are two very different things.

[tenthz.livejournal.com]

Just a thought! :-)

My mom is a hard-core Earl Grey drinker. She'll drink the end of her pot from the night before in the morning to get her awake enough to make her next pot... kinda like chain smoking, but not. :-P I think she probably drinks 3-4 carafes a day average. Thank goodness for Costco.

[b3zsgirl.livejournal.com]

Mr. Coffee pod coffee maker has a metal filter that I can put scoops of coffee in or a tea bag. I bet you could put loose coffee.

http://www.amazon.com/Mr-Coffee-SL13-Single-Serve/dp/B000FOBBN6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1205896054&sr=1-1

[pinesandmaples]

When I'm at home in Mississippi, I take over the coffeemaker...only, I don't put the coffee in the filter. If you set it to run, you'll wake up to a nice pot of hot water. Drop two bags or your tea ball in the night before, and you'll wake up to a nice hot pot of tea.

[omorka.livejournal.com]

Hmm. How do you keep it from oversteeping? I can just imagine hitting the snooze button and finding a stewed mess instead of a pot of tea . . .

[pinesandmaples]

In my case? Mom. She either forces me out of bed with the threat of dumping my tea or she pulls the bags for me.

In your case, I suspect you could shuffle out of bed, drop your tea ball/bags, then go use the restroom/find your glasses/those other very early movements while it steeps, if you are prone to using the snooze button. If you aren't, then it will be just fine. (I have my morning tea this way, although I make it by the cup instead of by the pot. Nuke water, go find glasses, drop tea stick in, go find pants, etc.)

Added: Having a waiting pot of hot water would also solve your problem, re: dropping things. I imagine if you dropped a tea bag on your foot, it wouldn't be nearly as painful.