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

[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.