Breville

I am back at home from my NYC trip, and… My brand new BREVILLE made it all the way back to Ecuador and through customs with my in one intact piece!!! Oooohhhh I am soooo happy! Yes, I did receive an odd look from my boyfriend and mom when they saw me arrive carrying the box, and yes they are shocked at how much it costs, but it is completely and totally worth it!

I bought it in William Sonoma, my heart was set on it. I walked in and zoned in on it. Sadly they told me they had run out of them. I almost cried! I had saved up for it and even psychologically prepared to carry it home on the long trip… But I hadn’t even considered the idea that they might be out of it! Thankfully, I decided to ask if I could buy the one on display, and I could in fact, and even got a discount!!!! So, I was happy once again!

I have used it every day since I got home. I set the timer and in the morning my kitchen smells like tea and it makes getting ready for work 100 times more enjoyable. Also, when I get home late at night, it heats the water and my tea in a jiffy!

I was a tiny bit worried that the altitude of Quito and the change in air pressure that it causes would make the temperature fiction not work right… Surprisingly, I have had no problems. My tea tastes better than ever with the right temperate water! Usually water boils at a lower temperature here, so when it attempts to get the water to boiling temp it goes a bit crazy and bubbles extremely, but it manages!

So far I have not had any terrible issues with leaves sneaking through the basket, though I will not even try to make rooibos because I am sure that will be a mess! Also, I have to make sure to wipe it between flavored steeps because the flavor does tend to hang around for a while afterword and you can’t submerge it in water to wash thoroughly… Really, those are the only cons…

As for pros… There are sooo many! Waking up to freshly brewed tea, having your tea stay warm, having tea make it self and not worry about over brewing… I can go on and on! I have gotten in the habit of making enough of my morning tea to have a cup with breakfast and take a thermos of it to work with me. Delicious tea habit! Yay!

I have given myself the best early Christmas present ever!!!

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 am revisiting this product because I have news about the product and the company.

And here is that news:

A few months ago, I broke the jug. I was devastated. Beyond devastated. I felt as though I was grieving. I didn’t even drink tea for like two days during this grieving process. Yeah … pretty pathetic, I know. I was severely depressed.

After owning the product for around four years, it had become one of the most important products I owned. As I mentioned on the SororiTea Sisters blog, if the house was on fire and all my loved ones were out of the house and safe and I was able to run back into the house for one more thing to rescue, I’d probably rescue my Breville. This and my grandmother’s quilt. Pathetic, right?

I love this thing.

So, I go to the Breville website – http://www.brevilleusa.com/ – and I search (in vain!) to find out how much a replacement jug would cost. I say in vain because they do not sell replacement jugs! As I was told by the Breville customer service the next day, it isn’t cost effective to manufacture the jugs for replacement. Sadness! That customer service representative offered me a 20% discount on my next purchase of a Breville tea maker, and I thanked her for the generosity and said I would call her back when I was ready to pay for a new tea maker.

But that’s not the end of the story because before I had called and spoken to this customer service representative, the day before (it was a Sunday when the jug broke and nobody was in the office), I also emailed the customer service department for help. So later that day (Monday), I got a call from the customer service department from Breville! This customer service representative offered to send me a new unit (well, a refurbished unit) – free of charge! – if I first sent them the base of my tea maker. So I wrapped up the base and sent it to them (so that they could refurbish that and resell it, I suppose!) and then two weeks later, I receive my refurbished tea maker! YAY!

JOY! HAPPINESS! Seriously … I was really happy.

So, basically, I wanted to share with you how amazing this tea maker is and also how amazing BREVILLE is! I am thrilled with this company and they are like the go-to company for me now. If I need an appliance and Breville makes that sort of appliance, I’m going to buy the Breville. Love Breville. Breville rocks.

Yay! Woo Hoo! Yippee!!!

It arrived! It actually arrived about 3 hours ago. I was a little scared that it wouldn’t arrive today even though the FedEx tracking said it was charted for delivery today, because they’re repaving our road out front next week and they were doing some preliminary/prep work and the mailman was too wimpy to forage through the fray to deliver the mail today… so I thought FedEx would follow suit. I am glad that FedEx didn’t let the construction stop them today … I really didn’t want to have to wait until next Wednesday to get my package!

I am so happy. I brewed my last bit of Dawn from The Simple Leaf to christen it. It is so easy. I love that I don’t have to do ANYTHING except add water & tea and set the controls. Awesome. I am not going to rate it yet, though, I want to use it for at least a week or so before I rate it so that I’ve had time to brew a bunch of tea in it. I probably won’t brew a lot of Oolongs in this (or Yellow) because I prefer using the gaiwan and short steeps. For that matter, I probably won’t brew pu-erh in this for the same reason. But, since the majority of tea that I drink is black, green and white, this will get plenty of use as a tea maker, and for the other teas, it will get use as a kettle. I am happy that I can finally retire my good ole electric kettle – it’s been a good kettle, and it deserves some time off.

I am so excited – hubby finally gave me the green light to order my Breville this Friday! Can’t wait! happy dance

I’ve had this kettle for a few months and feel like I know it well enough to give it a fair review now. First of all I probably would not have bought this for myself but of course I didn’t turn it down when someone offered to buy it for me and I’m glad because it is a wonderful machine.

If you drink a wide variety of teas then this won’t replace your teapot. Because it is a bit hard to clean I prefer to brew ‘pure’ teas in it and keep a separate teapot for flavoured teas. I made the mistake of brewing a chai mix in it when I first got it and it took a week before the taste of cinnamon stopped finding its way into every cup of tea I made.

When I’m not using it as a teapot it makes a great variable temperature kettle, and secretly I’m glad it hasn’t made my teapot collection completely redundant. I haven’t seen variable kettles on the market (at least in Australia) that allow you to heat water in 5 degree increments and I really like that control.

I’ve lowered the score just a little bit because although I do love it, I’m not completely comfortable with replacing the ritual of tea with a magnetic basket. For that reason for me it is primarily a very expensive (and very good) kettle and just another teapot in my collection.

I love my teamaker. I had a tendency of leaving my teas to steep far too long. It pulls the tea out of the water and beeps to let me know it’s ready. I never drink coffee, so I eagerly replaced my coffee maker with my breville on the counter.

OH MY GOD!! So I fear that I will no longer be satisfied with a mere push botton kettle!! You can set the temprature, and when using the basket function can choose how long you wish the tea to steep for. There is a keep warm function (perfect for winter days :D). and you can set it so that it will start brewing automitcally (for when you need a bit of a push to get out of bed in the mornings).
SO, SO glad that I have this in my possession and recommend it to all those tea fiends out there ;)

Works just fine for large pots of tea, but doesn’t work particularly well for smaller steepings. In my view, this is a pretty major disadvantage. On the other hand, if large pots of tea are your primary application, you may well be very satisfied with this tea maker.

Because I don’t have a few hundred to drop on a kettle, I had to settle for Breville’s variable temperature model, instead of the magic brewing basket model I wanted (and even then, this had to come to me as a gift). However, it is worth the price: this is a durable, quality kettle that is straightforward to use and simplifies tea making tremendously. It allows you to brew a pot at the perfect temperature for white, green, oolong, french press (loose) tea, and also includes a straightforward boil setting. It also has a “hold temperature” function. No more holding a candy thermometer into the spout of a boiling kettle, trying not to get a steam burn, when you want a cup of oolong! If you drink anything more complicated than bagged tea, I recommend this model.

The best machine ever! I’ve used it daily for 3 months. If it broke tomorrow, I would run out and get another one!!

WORTH EVERY PENNY. My only quarrel is the teeny-weeny tea scoop that hardly looks like it holds even half a tsp. Minor stuff.

I made two pots of tea in this baby yesterday, both black — Nepal Black (Jun Chiyabari Estate) and Assam (Kopili Estate) — and almost fainted in bliss. The basket cycle is glorious. I used to wonder if the tea steeped properly, seeing as the leaves spend a fair bit of time ascending back up the pole, and if you’re only making a small amount of tea, the basket will leave the water. It’s not an issue. If I want the tea strong, I scoop in a little extra. The basket cycle gets the tea stirred as it steeps and makes for complexities of flavour and aroma that you can’t get making tea one cup at a time. A weekend pleasure.

Yes, it’s expensive. But it makes good tea even better. What else might you spend that money on that will give you such lasting, and repeated, pleasure?

The “basket” cycle rocks! If you’re making 4-5 cups of tea, you can set the basket to rise and fall during the steep to agitate the leaves a bit and draw out even richer flavour. I nearly swooned in ecstasy (luckily was already sick in bed) when I sipped some Kopili Assam made with the basket cycle on.

This teamaker kicks arse. Some of the best tea I’ve drunk in my life has been in the Breville over the last week.

First use to make Long Life Oolong (oolong with peaches, apricots and almonds) from DavidsTea at medium strength.

I received the Breville for a birthday gift, and I am freakin delighted with it. One extremely important note: when you’re taking everything out of the box, DO NOT PUT THE CARAFE UNDER RUNNING WATER for a rinse and clean. The base has electronics in it.
The Breville demands a light wipe to clean it.

But I’ll happily put up with some diva behaviour. I have never tasted such exquisute oolong before. The constant temperature during steeping is an enormously good touch. And, of course, the water was at the best temp for oolong; with my kettle, I have to guess by how much steam is rising … not terribly accurate.

My one suggestion is to try oolong on the “weak” setting first. I did find the medium setting brought out a slight soapiness in the first few sips of the Long Life; I blame the dried fruit for that, though, not the Breville. I can’t wait to try a milk oolong in this today.

Everything worked beautifully — and silently.

And it’s shiny.

Enter the temperature,enter the time,and you’re done!

It’s that simple. And the machine lifts the basket for you when the brew time is complete. This helps me as a mom. All you have to do is pour!

However, you have to be really careful NOT to wash the outer part of the jug, as there are electrical components at the bottom….so washing the inside is a delicate task.

Overall, this is awesome. I say get it.

I love this thing. I use it for brewing all my black teas. Being a mom of two young kids, I was always forgetting my tea and ending up with really bitter cold tea. Not a problem anymore. I do my green teas in my cast iron pot so that i can do multiple steeps.

LOVE this machine. It really is such a fun way to brew tea. Your able to see the leaves infuse into the water, don’t have to worry about temperature, and clean up is fairly easy (simple rinse for me after use). It’s also a stylish piece of kitchen equipment. The bottom plate inside the kettle can discolor, but that is likely from the tannins and can be cleaned easily from my understanding. I’m leaving it the way it is for now to help build up flavor. Also, I wish that it had increments beyond 5 degrees, but that just nit picking. :)

Do not buy this unit , as i did for very light white-green to -oolong there is a taste chemicals in my tea !! .. i suspect it the large silicone witch is in direct contact with boiling water. if you like the strong tea , the chemically taste mostly disappears . is i stickly use it as a variable water heater .

Oh I love this tea maker! The only draw back is that you have to make a minimum of two cups (but I drink more than 8 oz at a time anyways). You can customize your brew temp and brew time and push the “tea” button let it do all the work. The tea comes out hot and delicious! It is a bit pricey (I got it as a Christmas gift) but well worth getting if you can! If I had three thumbs (I’d be a bit freaky) I would give it three thumbs up!