New Tea Makers with Old Fashioned Style
Michalis 'BIG Mike' Kotzakolios


Defined Tag: Tea Maker.

If you drink tea every few weeks, you probably do not need a whole lot more than a bag and some hot water. That will suffice as your tea maker. But for those who pathologically consume tea night after night in a crazed frenzy, something that automates the process could reduce the amount of time you waste making tea, as well as improve the quality of the tea itself.

Of the many choices you have, the most promising option may be something called a tea diffuser. If you spend a lot of time reading or working out of your room or office, you can setup a tea diffuser right on a small table. In fact, you can put it right next to your bed on a table. In the morning, it will brew you a cup of tea and then set off an alarm, waking you up and treating you to a steamy brew before you even have to get out of bed.

Some of the homier tea machines are designed to include a ceramic teapot. With these, the brewed tea streams into a small rounded pot below and the pot then removed to fill the cups. Other models are similar in design to the coffee machines sitting on thousands of kitchen counters and sleek stainless steel and glass models fill in the high end (and high priced) variety.

Tea purists may choose to stay with their manual method of making hot tea and for those consumers, merchants offer traditional tea making supplies. Filters are made in paper, brown (unbleached) paper, cloth and fine metal screening. Unlike a flat or fluted coffee filter, paper filters for tea are square pouches with a flap that can be secured with a teafilter clip (sold separately, of course). The cloth filters, constructed of very fine cotton net, are constructed as cylindrical pouches with an open end held open by a vinyl covered wire circle with a small wire handle protruding for ease of use. The cloth filter is known for being taste neutral, contributing nothing to the taste of the tea itself.

If you are a serial tea lover, you have probably seen the wire mesh strainers that are oft employed when brewing loose tea. These are usually referred to as permanent filters. If you check at kitchen stores and at online stores, you will find that these wire strainers are actually available in a number of different sizes. Some of them even allow you to strain the tea without risk of any loose tea leaves slipping into your drink.