VegTea

The first time I made this tea, I found the pu-erh flavor was too strong and I couldn’t taste the coconut. There was an overwhelming bitterness. This time, I tried steeping for a shorter time (2 and a half minutes), and result is much more enjoyable. The earthy pu-erh is balanced by the subtle sweetness of the coconut. The flavors come through best after the tea has cooled a bit, and I suspect this would make a great iced tea.

I had forgotten about this tea, as it had migrated to the back of my cupboard. I really must reorganize. Anyhow, I am now enjoying a cherry garcia latte with almond milk and sugar.

This makes an excellent iced tea – the subtle flavors come through very nicely.

Another matcha limeade – a perfect pick-me-up for a summer afternoon.

Generously spiced, subtly sweet. It didn’t turn my eyes blue or allow me to navigate folded space, but it did afford a delicious and caffeine free afternoon iced tea. I had my doubts about having a spiced tea without sugar, but the spices came through nicely without any sweetener.

This makes a fabulous iced tea. It is very sweet with no sugar added. The dry leaf smells like a box of runts, but the flavor of the steeped tea is actually quite natural, juicy, and refreshing.

This is a bit of a guilty pleasure of mine. It is expensive, but tasty. It doesn’t taste as fake as some diet bottled teas. I would prefer not to have artificial sweetener, but this is a good alternative to sugary sweetened teas. The tropical flavoring is great. The tea flavor is kind of typical of bottled teas and not super strong, but still tasty.

1/2 tsp rooibos, 1/2 tsp spearmint, 3/4 tsp cacao nibs, with 8 oz water, then iced to make 16 oz.. Refreshing with a hint of chocolate and subtle sweetness.

Matcha limeade is delicious – 2 Tbsp each sugar and lime juice, 1 tsp matcha and 16 oz water and ice. The sweet and sour limeade is a perfect complement to the slight bitterness of the matcha.

Earthy and nutty, with a subtle coconut flavor this is not too sweet.

Unfortunately this seems to leave coconut flavor residue in my Breville, so I’ll have to steep this in the cup unless I want to clean it afterwards, but it’s worth the extra trouble.

My first try at matcha. This was from the bulk section of a local natural foods store, so I don’t really know anything about it except that it was about 1/3 the price by weight of the Rishi matcha. I prepared 1 tsp with about 1 cup of 175 degree F water. At first I mostly tasted the bitterness, but after a while, vegetal and subtly sweet flavors began to emerge. Any suggestions or references for preparing matcha would be greatly appreciated.

This tea is quite tasty. Sweet, very coconutty and nice rum flavor. The green tea base is somewhat muted, not too astringent, which I like. I feel like this would be better iced than hot — I will have to try it out on a warm day.

Delicious. This tea goes beyond just chocolate and rooibos flavors – there are vanilla notes that add to the richness. With some soymilk, this is a perfect tea to have for dessert.

No notes yet.

This tea is light and refreshing. I’ve had it both hot and iced, but I think I prefer it iced. If hot, I prefer it a little on the weaker side. The cucumber flavor is subtle and blends nicely with the white tea and other herbal flavors.

Better this time around. I used 1 tsp leaves for 750 ml water for 2 minutes. I used a T-sac, as last time the fine leaves fell through the holes in the basket of my tea maker. The flavor is very chocolately, with a nice cherry flavor and a subtle sweetness. I wouldn’t say the cherry flavor is exactly identical to Cherry Garcia ice cream, but it’s still pretty tasty. I want to try this with soymilk and sugar.

I’m really confused about this tea. My packet seems to be mostly tea dust with a few tea leaves. Is this what it is supposed to be like, or did I get the last dregs of the batch? I steeped some this morning, and it was too strong and thick, probably from all the tea dust. I’ll reserve judgment until this is figured out.

I’m always passing this one up for various loose leaf teas, but this tea really has great flavor when steeped strong with soymilk and sugar added.

Comforting on a dreary day – this is definitely still a favorite. :)

A nice tea for breakfast as it has some body, but is not overwhelming. Especially tasting some sweetness and roasted notes this morning.

1 tsp jasmine green tea, 1/2 tsp spearmint, 750 ml water, to make about 3 16-oz glasses of iced tea.

This tea is nice and refreshing. I’m looking forward to having more in warmer weather!

I’ve had my Breville tea maker for about a month, and I absolutely adore it. I have made black, green, and herbal teas, as well as chai, and it does a great job with everything. For iced tea, just make it a little more concentrated, and pour over ice when it’s done.

This certainly isn’t an appliance I would have bought for myself, but since I got it as a gift, it has been indispensable. Before I got this tea maker, I would struggle to drink any tea on work days because I wouldn’t have time to make tea and drink it before I left the house, and once I got in to work I would hardly have time to drink from my travel mug. Now I set the auto timer the night before, and my tea is ready when I get up, plus it keeps warm so I can put some in a travel mug just before I leave.

One thing that surprised me about this tea maker it its small size. It is really quite slim. The maximum amount of tea you can make in it is 1250ml, which is about 5 8-oz cups, and the minimum is 500ml, which is about 2 8-oz cups or approximately one large mug. This is a good range for me, but if you were making tea for a crowd or used to drinking tea in daintier amounts, you might take these limitations into account.

As far as maintaining the tea maker, it’s pretty easy. After I’m finished with my tea, I just rinse out the pot and shake and rinse the tea out of the basket. For easier cleanup, or to keep fine particles like rooibos contained, you can put the tea in a tea sac and tie off the end. You can also easily place tea bags in the basket — I just tear off the tag so it doesn’t get soggy and weird.

The tea maker does retain the flavor of the previous tea you steeped — the same as if you used a teapot. I’m use to drinking tea by the cup, so I do clean the pot by just soaking for a minute or two with a splash of vinegar and warm water after making flavored teas. There are instructions for cleaning in the manual, but the pot doesn’t need a thorough cleaning every day — just a rinse and wiping dry with a cloth is fine.

All in all, this is a great appliance. It only does one thing, but it does it very well. It is easy to use and maintain, and doesn’t take up much counter space. I would highly recommend this for busy tea lovers.

I’m not a huge green tea fan, but this is interesting. It’s the first time I’ve had genmaicha – it tastes kind of like rice krispies! It has a subtle sweetness, roastiness, and not too much astringency. I got this in bags from World Market, but it looks like it might be available as bags or loose leaf under the name “Tea of Inquiry” from RoT.

Loose leaf, steeped in my new Breville tea maker. Just as delicious as ever, and I love how the blue cornflowers and citrus peels look in the loose leaf tea.