Breville Tea Maker Review

Last week I commented that I had decided to purchase a tea maker made by Breville.  It had gotten good reviews from the individual who had previously bought the maker, so I splurged on it. :-)

First off, this thing is awesome!  It is a bit on the gadgety side, but it does make a wonderful cup of tea.  My first try was with green tea.  I'm not a huge fan of green tea, but now that I've made it with the tea maker, I may be doing more green tea.  It heats the water to just the right temperature and I think it was the best cup of green tea I've ever had.

So here's my setup (this time with Earl Grey).  The glass container has markings on it for the amount of water to put into it and there's a handy little guide to tell you how much to put in to get a certain number of cups of tea.

When you are ready to start your tea, you can select different types.  In the picture below, I selected black tea and because I like it strong, I selected the strong setting.  For black teas, you can see the brew temp is already set to 212F.  The brew time changes based upon how strong you want the team, and you can also set it custom and set whatever brew time you want.



To add tea leaves, you measure out the appropriate amount for the water you have and you put the leaves into the little metal basket and then the metal basket gets set onto a slider inside the carafe.



Here it is, ready to start going.



I pressed the button for tea.  As the water heats up, it tells you the current temperature of the water.



In the picture below, you can actually see the water starting to boil.  This tea maker really brings the water to a rolling boil, which is pretty impressive.



Once the water gets to the appropriate temperature (this case 212F), the basket lowers into the water all by itself.



Once the basket is fully lowered into the water, the timer starts for the brewing process.



Once its brewed for the set time, the basket automatically lifts up and out of the water.  The picture shows it as partially lifted.



Finally, it even tells you how long the tea has been sitting there since you brewed it.  No 4-hour old tea!  :-)



And my yummy Earl Grey all ready for drinking.  Yum!



All in all, its a good product so far.  I definitely plan on bringing it to work and using it there to make fresh tea throughout the day.

The only complaint I would have is the cord length.  They purposely made the cord short so you don't have it dangling off a counter, but its only about 12" long, which doesn't really give it enough length to get out from under my cabinets.  I don't like having water boiling right under the wood cabinets since it would eventually cause a problem with the wood.  You can use the tea maker with any 3-prong extension cord, which is what I plan to do at work.

Cleaning the tea maker is actually really easy.  Just wait for everything to cool off and then rinse out the carafe and tea basket.  You can use mild soap on all parts.  The basket is even dish-washer safe.  They said the easiest way to clean the carafe is to actually remove the basket, fill it up with water and run it on a hot water cycle.  It boils the water to 212F and that will kill any little germies that are hanging out.  You can also add a bit of vinegar or baking soda to the water before running the boil cycle.  If there's a lot of build-up, you can also let the mixture sit overnight after running the boil cycle and just wipe down the inside of the carafe.

As I use this more and get a few months of use out of it, I'll try to remember to do another review.


Happy Crafting!
~Sarah at upstateNYCreations

Make-a-List Monday

It's Monday again, which means its time to make that weekly list.  I actually did fairly well last week on things, but I don't have any good pictures to share.  I've really been working on the quilting on the Lone Star quilt, but its not a whole lot to actually show.

Here was the list from last week:
1. Quilt one additional square on Lone Star. DONE!  I actually have all four corner squares done, which means all the straight line quilting with the walking foot is done!  YAY!
2. Cut and piece 2 Bento Box blocks. I cut fabric for more pieces, but I didn't get anything sewn.
3. Post photo of needlepoint.  No pictures yet. :-(


So I did make a few purchases lately, but only one somewhat quilt-related.  Last night I submitted an order to Amazon (which I absolutely love).  One full pound of Earl Grey Supreme tea from Harney & Son's.  And yes, I will easily go through it in the next year, maybe even in 6 months.  Especially when you look at the 3rd item on the Amazon order.

That's right... I decided to purchase the Breville One-Touch Tea Maker.  Its a little pricey, but the reviews are great and I would love to be able to easily make tea while I'm at work.  I'll definitely do a review of it once I get it and start using it.

I also purchased some wool batting.  I've been wanting to try it as some folks really swear by it when they quilt.  Sadly, none of my local quilt shops carries wool batting.  I was just going to purchase one piece large enough for a double-sized quilt; however, the cost of the batting and shipping $9, made it somewhat senseless to buy just that one piece.  I was able to get a 90" wide by 8 yard long roll of batting with no shipping costs thanks to Amazon Prime.  Hopefully it is good to work with or else I will have a lot of batting that I won't want to use.

Finally, the latest purchase was a new pair of boots from Naturalizer.  I have a lot of their shoes and boots and while they can be a little pricier, they are always comfortable.  There's something to be said for walking around in heels all day and not having it bother you because the heels are actually made really well and cushion your feet.

Anyway, I needed a new pair of boots to wear to work through the wet and snow.  These ones were on sale for $30.  Not bad! :-)   They look like they'll be warm and comfy.  Reviewers said they weren't real clunky, so I'm hoping they'll be OK for driving.

 So finally... to the list for this coming week.

1. Rinse out blue marks from Lone Star quilt and photograph.
2. Start quilting outside cream border on Lone Star quilt.
3. Post photos of needlepoint and coffered ceiling progress.

Hope everyone has a great week!

Happy Crafting!

~Sarah at upstateNYCreations

Possible Purchase

I've been debating about making a particular purchase lately.

For those of you who don't know, I'm an avid tea drinker.  I take an insulated thermos of tea with me to work every day...sometimes two of them.  A few years ago, in an effort to save money, my company got rid of our water coolers that provided both cold and hot water.  When we had those coolers, I could easily make some tea at work using the hot water (no microwaved water for this tea weenie).  However, now that we don't have those, I'm back to bringing thermoses of tea.

Hello Amazon!  Since I have bought tea and tea accessories off Amazon, the company sent me an email a while ago regarding a programmable tea maker.  Here's a link to the item.  Its made by Breville and not only does it boil water at a touch of button, but it has an infuser that automatically lowers into the water, steeps for the desired amount of time and automatically retracts to stop the brewing process.

Can we say... Totally Awesome!!!

The only not-awesome part..... the price.  Its currently listed at $240, which seems like an awful lot of money to be able to make yummy tea at work.

I think the next time I get an award at work, I may splurge and get this.  I really enjoy my tea and would love to just be able to make it at work at any point during the day.

Happy Crafting!
~Sarah at upstateNYCreations