Coffee Tea Kettle. We studied eight excellent Mr. Coffee tea kettles over the past 3 years. Pick which Mr. Coffee tea kettle is best for you. You can also Search by model, type, material and size or opt for one of our Mr. Coffee tea kettle feature picks. 1.7 Tea Kettle. We made a comparison of 8 top of the heap 1.7 tea kettles over the past 3 years. Locate which 1.7 tea kettle is best for you. You can also Search by model, type, material and size or choose one of our 1.7 tea kettle feature picks.
Once the machine detects it has hit its target water temperature (205 F, in this case) it emits a high-pitched beep and quickly flashes the tea preset button you've selected.That's your cue to add your dry tea leaves to the metal infuser. Next, twist open the kettle's lid from the locked position and remove it, then place the infuser basket into the kettle's supply of hot water, easy since the infuser sports a long, flat handle for the purpose.
Once that's done, hit the brew button again to activate the default steep timer for your chosen tea variety. In this case, Black/Herbal for a steep time of two minutes. You can also select a custom steep time of one, to four minutes, in one-minute increments. The Tea Maker beeps and flashes its light yet again to remind you when it's time to remove the infuser basket from the kettle.
Pressing the brew button a final time engages a 'keep warm' mode that cycles the heating element on and off to maintain a proper drinking temperature. It'll stay in this holding pattern for one hour unless you hit the Stop button.
As you can probably guess, all this beeping and button blinking does become annoying and potentially confusing especially if you're interrupted during the tea brewing process. I often found it hard to remember if flashing lights meant the machine was in full heating mode, steeping, or merely keeping its tea warm. I feel that even some backlit text or other rudimentary icons would go a long way to indicate exactly what the gadget is doing at any given moment.
Thankfully, the Tea Maker displayed decent temperature control. Using a thermocouple, I confirmed that the machine is adequately accurate, beeping within about a second or so of its targeted brewing temperature. This happened regardless of which tea-brewing preset (and default temperature) I chose. Be advised though, that the Tea Maker does tend to overshoot its ideal temp by a few degrees after it beeps, but it also cools back down in 3 to 4 seconds. If you're fast at placing your tea into the kettle for steeping, you may expose your leaves to hotter water than you'd like, at least initially.
And while the included metal infuser basket is a snap to pull in and out of the kettle, its cylindrical shape makes clean up frustrating. Long and narrow with a small opening, scooping spent tea leaves out of the container is challenging.
Conclusion
The $100 Mr. Coffee Tea Maker and Kettle is a capable little appliance which takes much of the guesswork out of whipping up quality tea at home. Its temperature presets for careful tea brewing function as advertised. Likewise, the Tea Maker's ability to time how long your leaves should steep is a further boon to creating proper tea beverages.
That said, while the Tea Maker usually hits its target brewing temperatures, it sometimes overshoots them slightly. And the machine's lack of a screen or other clear status indicators make it confusing to operate at times. This is no automatic tea brewer either, since you have to manually add your tea leaves, then remove them from the kettle. A true tea robot like $250 Breville Tea Maker, though certainly more convenient, is also more expensive.