denisend

Nathaniel's Southern Sweet Tea from Custom

denisend drank Nathaniel's Southern Sweet Tea by Custom

So… we bought Adagio’s triniTEA (automatic tea brewer) to supplement the Zarafina. It was getting crazy with waiting for the other person’s tea to finish brewing and for resteeps, what do you do with the leaves, and so on. We thought that the increased capacity of the triniTEA would be nice for making large pitchers of iced tea, as well.

The first batch didn’t go so well. We’ll ignore the machine’s faults and just talk about the tea… Nathaniel followed the instructions that came with the machine and not the instructions that came with the tea, so he put the timing knob on 5 minutes (Teavana says to brew the English Breakfast for 2-3 minutes and the Lemon Youkou for 5-6 minutes, but we usually just brew it as a black tea). The result was BITTER and had no lemon taste. UGH. It was totally overbrewed.

Not the tea’s fault, or the machine, really. We have to do another run with a shorter time.
(I’m leaving the rating where it is because when brewed right this tea is really good)

2010-01-11 17:02:08 -0500

I Like This

6 likes

4 comments

People who liked this

Comments

LENA 2010-01-12 10:41:47 -0500

i received a zarafina for christmas and i love it (mostly). just wish it held more than 2 cups. do you like the triniTEA better?

denisend 2010-01-12 11:51:19 -0500

We’ve only used it the once so far (and that was a bust because of the wrong brew time). There are advantages and disadvantages to both machines, so I think having both is okay.

There are only 2 temperature settings on the triniTEA, but I believe there are more on the Zarafina. The Zarafina is kinda black box, though (I don’t know what the various setting correspond to in time and temperature). The greater capacity of the triniTEA is nice if the hubby and I want to drink the same thing (not often), or we’re making a pitcher to stick in the fridge (often).

They both limit the volume that the leaves can expand into (unlike the gravity pots), and that’s annoying.

Also, somehow my husband put too much water into the triniTEA and it overfilled the brew basket, making a big mess. I’m not sure how that happened, but it’s not foolproof.

He also complained that the carafe doesn’t pour easily and spills.

I think it’ll be worth it once we get used to its quirks (especially since having only one teamaker was getting ANNOYING!).

LENA 2010-01-12 12:36:38 -0500

There are 5 different setting with the Zarafina…which is pretty cool. I wish I knew the minutes that mild, medium, and strong correlated to. Also, no warmer with the Z. We also have an electric kettle, so I make my husband use that a lot of the time for his basic Earl Gray and such. :)

denisend 2010-01-12 12:45:06 -0500

Well, there are 5 different tea type settings, but I’m not sure if they correspond to temperatures… there may only be 2 or 3 temperatures and then a few brew times. That’s what I mean about it being black box… there’s no real explaination about what the settings correspond to!

Also, I’ve always thought that you should vary the strength by changing the amount of leaves, not the brew time, so the “mild, medium, and strong” settings totally baffle me. I leave it on medium all of the time, but Nathaniel switches it to strong for his sweet tea. IDK.

Welcome to Steepster, an online tea community.

denisend

People who liked this

Comments

Profile

Bio

Location

Following These People