Garrett said

Breville One-Touch Tea Maker BTM800XL

I looked to see if anything was posted about this yet and couldn’t find anything, so here goes!

Youtube Videos
Kevin Rose review – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FoZeeogblr0
Breville Unboxing – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnM1zDjahM4

Images via Food Thinkers flickr
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2530/4146977537_c3bb26bd32_o.png
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2794/4147762820_530fdb9a0a_o.png

This tea maker is pretty sick. It heats your water and infuses your tea automatically. It is pretty nuts. I haven’t been able to get too much information about it, has anyone heard about this or seen it?

“It is a programmable electric water kettle on steroids, the BTM800XL is for the true tea enthusiast. a 1500 watt quick boil element brings your water up to your chosen temperature- voila! properly heated water. the coolest part, however, is the automatic basket that lowers your tea for a specified amount of time- making your perfect cup time after time after time.”

other features include:
60 minute keep warm function
time since brew function to monitor freshness
stainless steel tea basket with glass jug
51 oz max when used to heat water
41 oz tea max when used to make tea

dimensions: 9″ × 7″ × 11.75″

Shipping starts this May. MSRP is $299.99 but I’ve seen some places online advertise it for $249.99.

Discuss or share info about it!

259 Replies
AJ said

That’s just scary. In a good way! Not something I would ever plan on getting one day (even if I had that kind of cash, or the counter space), but it’s still pretty neat.

Although in a way it turns making tea into a coffee maker (set a time/timer, etc. so you can wake up to perfectly made tea, touch-free). Which, as a friend said, ‘takes all the fun out of making tea’. Although a lot of tea makers already do that (they’re just polite enough to leave the actual STOPPING and STARTING of brewing up to you, while still having a timer/thermometer to tell you when).

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I have a TeaDrop automatic tea maker, a zarafina automatic tea maker and both do well…i also adore my breville electric kettle so i don’t see why this would be a bad purchase!

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Cofftea said

In what increments can you set it? I’m looking for a kettle (it doesn’t have to be a tea maker) that allows you to set the temperature in 1 degree increments F. I’ve found 2 so far, both of which are much cheaper.

Cofftea said

Finally could watch the videos. I wish Kevin Rose would explain the “custom” features more…

Gubbs said

The custom simply alows you to manually adjust the temp in 5’ increments and steeping time in 30sec increments.

Cofftea said

Yep. Got that explained.

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SoccerMom said

I love my Breville Electric Kettle too! But if I can have a cup made and ready to pour at 7:30am every morning I’ll spend the the $250.00 for that luxury alone.

P.S. I love my Breville toaster/oven it totally rocks too!

i wish i had the $! i got my breville as a hand me down (i love when mom upgrades) my current toaster is a 9$ home depot special

SoccerMom said

AmazonV, I suffered through a $9 home depot special toaster oven myself and then we decided to upgrade all our kitchen appliances (we lost some during hurricane Ike) and now I have my beloved Breville Toaster and Kettle! My husband laughs at me because we got an Electrolux Oven and I still love my little Breville more it’s just easier.

SoccerMom said

We wouldn’t let my son use the $9 home depot special as we were afraid he wouldn’t pay close attention and would burn the house down! It smoked alot and sometimes to turn it off you’d just have to unplug it!

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Garrett said

AJ: true, it can take some of the fun out of making tea, but there are a handful of times where I don’t have the time to sit down and try to brew a perfect cup of tea. So it is really convenient to just set the time, temp, throw the leaves in and water and forget about it and go about doing what i was doing. Or waking up to a nice cup of tea in the morning would be nice.

I’ve looked at the Breville Electric Kettles before and really wanted one… but after seeing this one-touch, I think I’m going to save my money for a bit longer and just go with this one because it will be more convenient in the long run…

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takgoti said

OMG WANT.

The convenience of this, and the fact that I am growing to despise my current water heater, are making my wallet start to itch. I’ve been looking at Zojirushis, but this may just win. Looks like it’s not shipping until May, though?

Gubbs said

May it is.

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Garrett said

Yeah, my current water heating method isn’t the greatest, but it definitely works. It is an old teapot and stove and thermometer… There have been a handful of times when I go to boil my water and walk away and a lot of it evaporates and I’m left with a portion of the water I was wanting to heat, it can be a pain in the butt sometimes..

takgoti: from the handful of websites that I was able to find that were already advertising this, it looks like shipping will not start until May.

i murdered 2 kettles that way, and have hence given up on stoves….did you know kettles can melt?

Garrett said

Mm…. no, I didn’t know that….

so yea, don’t get distracted by a good book, for say an hour, you’ll come back to a bottomless kettle and a pile of melted mettle…

what kind of thermometer do you use?

Meghann M said

That sounds like a bad incident, AmazonV. I’m glad the whistle is quite loud on my kettle and my apartment quite small so I can hear it loudly even if I say, start a shower before taking my tea off the stove. Did it ruin your stove?

the first and second time it did ruin small bits of the stove top, but i was able to buff most of it away after re-melting it – the whistles were non-functional for some reason, they had them they just never worked

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Cofftea said

I’d like to see a side by side comparison between this one and the Fine T:
http://www.finet.us.com/Tea%20Machine%20-%20Fine%20T.htm

SoccerMom said

My money would be on the Breville.

ask consumer reports or something to do a comparison when it’s released….tea is big now they might

Cofftea said

SoccerMom, what do you mean your money would be “on” the Breville? Do you mean you think the Breville is better? I didn’t say “I wonder which is better?” because “better” is relative. If that’s what you mean, what do you think does/would make the Breville one better? Just curious on your reasoning:)

Meghann M said

From the pictures of the two, I like that the Breville allows the leaves to steep and the liquor to be viewed while steeping (all glass outside) where it seems like the FineT is more like a coffee maker.

Gubbs said

In principal it seems both are attempting to attacking perfet tea in a similar (but visually diferent) way.
All stands well for a better cup with either machine.

Hey guys,
I work with Breville and we’ll see if we can find someone who would like to do a side-by-side comparison. Actually, would any of you like to do a side by side comparison? You’d need somewhere to post it, but let me know if you’re interested.
Thanks for the great discussion! And the great idea!
- Drew

denisend said

Andrew, have you gotten someone to take you up on this? I’m curious, and I have a lot of experience with the automatic tea makers – I already have a comparison of some other models up here:
http://steepster.com/discuss/95-electric-tea-makers?page=2

Anyway, I’m following you now, so send me a PM?

Denisend,
No one’s taken me up on this! Thanks so much for your interest.
I really like your post! I’ll PM you and we’ll go from there.
Thanks!
- Drew

i would like to see the comparison, but i only have a zarafina, and my breville electric kettle, i can’t wait for this to come out, it will be on my holiday list for sure!

Nicole,
Thanks for the comment! We’re actually thinking of trying to get a couple of Tea Makers to the Steepster community so that you could try it out and compare it to your Zarafina.
Would you be interested in doing a comparison?

Yes i certainly would!

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SoccerMom said

First of all I’m biased I love Breville. Secondly I don’t make many purchases without checking out consumer reviews while I have not been able to see many of the Breville reviews as it’s not technically out yet I have researched the Fine T and the reviews are not so great. Check out the amazon reviews there are other sites with not so great reviews too but it’s been awhile since I researched the Fine T and I don’t remember all the sites I visited while researching the FineT.

http://www.amazon.com/IQ-Innovations-51552-Gourmet-Machine/dp/B001EN4EHW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1269141038&sr=8-1

Cofftea said

I’ve had lots of experience w/ products I get being the exact opposite of the reviews (both ways) for some reason. As I don’t have any experience w/ either brand name I’m looking for a little more unbiased opinion which is why I was hoping to find a comparison somewhere- I thought I might since these are the only 2 products I’ve found that have the preprogrammed time feature. Hopefully one will be written once the Breville comes out:)

SoccerMom said

Strange I always find other consumers reviews of appliances/electronics to be spot on. I know I can’t wait to read the Breville reviews but I keep dropping hints to my hubby so I may end up being one of the people to write the review. :)

Cofftea said

Yeah I’ve had a lot of issues so I don’t really take reviews into consideration too much (or at least take them w/ a grain of salt). That’s why I said I was looking for a side by side comparision of features vs a review. Kinda like you can compare cell phones (again something I’ve gotten screwed over on lol).

denisend said

Yeah, the Amazon reviews really turned me off of the FineT. Why would I pay $300 for something that only had 2 temperature settings?

SoccerMom said

denisend, not only that it looks like a coffeemaker (like MeghannM pointed out).

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Lori said

Hey I was thinking of purchasing the Breville electric kettle as my Pino Variable T died on me. So Soccer Mom- it sounds like you would recommend the Breville?

SoccerMom said

I would definently recommend the Breville electric kettle (BKE820XL). I’ve had mine now for about 6 months and I couldn’t live without it. I’ve had no issues with it. The only maintenance it requires is that it does accumulate some like calcium deposit (it’s not gross looking just cloudy looking) on the bottom and I simply boil one cup of vinegar and the pitcher full of water once and leave it over night and rinse it out in the morning VOILA it’s like new again.
http://www.amazon.com/Breville-BKE820XL-Variable-Temperature-Kettle/dp/B001DYERBK/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1269185126&sr=1-2

If you end up getting it let me know how you like it! :)

oh yes! i loooove mine and my mom loves hers i second SoccerMom’s suggestion

Cofftea said

Not that the kettle SoccerMom recommends isn’t good (or even great), but it is a step down from the PINO as there are a lot less temperature options. Not sure that matters to you Lori, but if it does, just be aware of that. If you like the functionality but don’t want to get another PINO (don’t know what happened w/ it), ChefChoice has a model that you can set in 1 degree increments.

Gubbs said

Cofftea. Have you tested the accuracy of the Pino?

Cofftea said

Don’t have a C thermometer so no. Someone said that the PINO Pro is spot on though.

Gubbs said

I’ll have to hunt one down in Aus and have a play.

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