Review of the Mr. Coffee Iced Tea Maker

Name: Mr. Coffee TM70 3-Quart Iced-Tea Maker

Type: Tea preparation equipment

Cost: $17.00 on Amazon, price may vary at your local store

Review: Grab a tall, cold glass of iced tea. This is going to take awhile.

I love iced tea. As some of you may know, I got started drinking tea after reading Mark “Dr. Tea” Ukra’s The Ultimate Tea Diet: Burn Fat and Lose Pounds Fast and Forever. The cornerstone of the diet drinking 6-8 cups of true tea per day, and using tisanes to curb cravings. While I enjoyed hot tea, two factors caused me to focus on iced tea: The first is that it was springtime, and I craved cooling beverages. Secondly, since the goal was to get a lot of tea into my system, iced tea, which is quaffed instead of sipped, was just the thing.

I soon realized that making iced tea is a pain in the patootie. Remember, I was a tea newbie, and so was ignorant of such wondrous gizmos as Adagio’s IngenuiTEA or Jing’s Tea-ire. Plus, for variety’s sake, I liked to have between 3-5 different flavors on hand, so I was making several gallons of iced tea at a time in an onerous process that consisted of:

Boiling huge amounts of water (using but one stove top kettle)
Pouring the hot water into a ceramic tea pot that contained either teabags or loose leaf tea
Filling large plastic pitchers with ice cubes, into which I then strained the brewed tea.

Eventually I came to a better knowledge of tea preparation, and became a particular fan of the cold brew method. Still, making iced tea in volume can be a challenge, so I was most interested when my parents bought a Mr. Coffee Iced Tea Maker. They use it frequently, so I decided to give it a try.

As far as gadgets go, I confess to really liking this one, as its design and operation are both simple and clever. The base of the iced tea maker is filled with water, and the tea (either bags or loose leaf) is placed in the “brew basket” at the top of the machine. A little “shower head” water dispenser hangs over the brew basket and sprays water over the tea. Eventually the tea is dispensed from the front of the machine into a specially-designed pitcher filled with either ice or cold water.

The process for making the iced tea is not completely automated: You still need to fill the machine with water, line the brew basket with a 4-cup coffee filter, add the tea, and then fill the pitcher with ice. However, once all this is done, you can just push a button and leave the iced tea maker to do its work, and go ahead and fix lunch or read a book. (If you want sweet tea, you can add your sweetener to the brew basket prior to turning on the machine.) Depending on how much tea you are making, and the strength of the brew, you will have fresh iced tea in 10-20 minutes.

Now while all this is quite nifty, there remains the question of whether or not the Mr. Coffee Iced Tea Maker is actually worth buying. I’m actually glad I got mine: I like being able to make a large quantity of iced tea without having to worry about kettles boiling, pouring hot water, or setting a timer. At the same time, this device takes up counter space, uses electricity, and requires “extra” items such as coffee filters and ice to work.

(I think the decision to buy this tea maker really comes down to personal preference.)

I’ve posted a list of pros and cons below. If you have one of these machines, I’d love to hear what you think.

Pros:

Once the ingredients are in the machine, you’re done. The process is automated, and you don’t have to worry about timers or boiled-off kettles.
While it is a unitasking-gadget that takes up counter or cabinet space, it isn’t very large.
It does what it says it will do: It makes good, fresh iced tea with a minimum of preparation or work.
If you buy some extra pitchers, this could be a great help in making iced tea for a party.
It also makes iced coffee.
It costs under 20 dollars

Cons:

It’s a unitasking-gadget that uses electricity and takes up counter/cabinet space.
It requires the use of coffee filters (and this is not mentioned on the package).
It requires a fair amount of ice: If you don’t have an ice maker, you will need about 4 trays of ice to make 3 quarts of iced tea. You can use cold water in place of ice, but I don’t think it works as well.
You can’t control the water temperature.

Preparation Tips: The tea maker does not have a temperature dial: If you are working with a very delicate green or white tea, you may want to be careful about using this machine. If your tea includes flowers (lavender, rose, jasmine), do not prepare tea on the “strong” setting: They get bitter and disagreeable. Some users on Amazon complain of leaks. I find that these can be avoided by allowing your pitcher to sit under the dispenser for a bit, then, prior to pulling the pitcher away from the machine, opening the lid and carefully removing the brew basket (there may be steam still rising out of the machine, so be careful, and let the machine cool a bit if necessary).

Product provided by manufacturer?: No

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