The Best Iced Tea Makers

A Buying Guide for Iced Tea Makers

Iced tea is an excellent beverage choice, especially during hot afternoons. Its iciness is refreshing, and it is both sweet and a little bitter at the same time. This combination makes it perfect for quenching your thirst. Of course, you can go to a restaurant or another similar location and buy an excellent iced tea, or you can brew your own glass of deliciousness with an at-home iced tea maker that will be ready in minutes. It is this convenience and immediate availability of the drink that have made these devices more popular lately.

Why You Need an Iced Tea Maker

Making a glass or a pitcher of iced tea is a much more involved process than simply boiling water and adding a tea bag for a cup of hot tea. Likewise, you cannot simply make hot tea, throw in a handful of ice, and expect to have instant iced tea. Refrigerating hot tea is an option, but it would take hours for the tea to reach the optimal chill, and by then, you might not want that iced tea any more.
Instead, you should invest in an iced tea maker. These devices steep the tea over the top of a mass of ice, instantly cooling the beverage as it is brewing. Using this device will give you the distinct tea taste with the benefits of real tea but at the perfect iced tea temperature.

How Iced Tea Makers Work

It is true that iced tea starts with the same basic process as hot tea. You take either tea leaves or tea bags, and you steep them with hot water. This process typically takes a few minutes as the chemicals in the tea mix with the water, and then your cup of hot tea is ready to drink.
However, when ice is added to tea, it often dilutes the flavors. Therefore, many iced teas are created with extra tea leaves or tea bags to increase the flavors. Most of the time, brewing is done directly over the top of a large chunk of ice, lessening the strong favors and cooling the drink at the same time.

The Two Types of Iced Tea Makers

A manual iced tea maker runs on the power of your arm strength rather than on a battery or on electricity. This type of device is much like a French press because you will need to operate it in order to create your glass or pitcher of iced tea.
An electric, or sometimes called automatic, iced tea maker is more like a drip coffee maker. Your glass or pitcher sits directly beneath the spout, creating and pouring the tea over your ice.

How to Choose the Best Iced Tea Maker

If you and your family enjoy regular glasses of iced tea, then investing in an iced tea maker is a good choice. These devices can be simple to set up, easy to use, and quick to enjoy. However, finding the one that best fits your iced tea needs can be confusing. Consider these different aspects when looking for your ideal maker.

1. Your iced tea consumption – Before you purchase an iced tea maker, you really need to consider how often you drink the beverage and how much you need to make at a time. There are options that brew an entire pitcher and ones that make a single glass at a time. The size and features of each of these options can be considerably different, so you want to make sure that you are buying the right product for you and for your iced tea consumption.
2. The right size and capacity – Once you decide how much iced tea you will be consuming, realize that the amount should indicate the type of device that you buy. If you only need a glass, choose the iced tea maker that brews 8 ounces at a time. If you are making larger volumes for more people or for storing in your refrigerator, look into the pitcher option. Keep in mind that the larger pitcher will save you brewing time since you will not be making iced tea constantly, and this could give you more flexibility if you have the room to store it.
3. Your budget – As with any type of appliance or kitchen device purchase, make sure that you take your budget into consideration. You can find small, cheap iced tea makers that will cost somewhere around $15, and there are many high-end options that run closer to $200. As with any product, there are advantages and disadvantages to all models. You just need to choose the iced tea maker that will best match your budget of what you think is reasonable to spend on this type of device.
4. The necessary convenience – You are looking for an iced tea maker because you want to brew iced tea more easily. You do not want to be frustrated about the process of using your device because this would completely undermine the entire reason for buying it in the first place. When you are examining the different features of your main options, make sure that the device seems easy to use. Look for step-by-step instructions and guides that will show you exactly how to operate the appliance. If you are a more visual person, look for instructions with diagrams and pictures. Your new iced tea maker should improve your life and not make it more stressful.
5. The ease of cleaning it – As with all kitchen gadgets that come into contact with food or drinks, you are going to need to clean your iced tea maker frequently. If you do not get it clean, the taste of the tea will be affected. Therefore, you need a product that will not only be easy to use, but that will also be simple to clean. You need to prevent unwanted bacteria, dirt, or tea sediment from sticking around in your iced tea maker so that your freshly brewed beverage will continue to taste good and to be refreshing. You might want to look for something that is dishwasher safe, making it even more convenient for you to clean.
6. The programming options – If you want even more ease of use, consider an electric iced tea maker that features programming options. Although these are not necessary to using the device and to enjoying your cup of iced tea, there is something to be said for the ease of setting up automatic timers and other options. As with other features, think about whether or not this is important to you and whether or not the cost of such features will fit nicely into your budget.
7. The extra features – Like programming options, there are many different features available in iced tea makers. For example, you might want to look for a maker that has an adjustable steeping control, a special brewing basket, or the ability to handle both tea leaves and tea bags. As with the other recommendations, make a list of the features that are important to you, and make those the focus of your buying search.
There are many different options on the market for making your very own glass of iced tea at home. When going into this type of purchase, be prepared with what you think you need in an iced tea maker, and focus on those features in your budget. You will be brewing your own cold, refreshing glass of iced tea in no time.

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This page about Iced Tea Maker was composed by V. Tobies and published by Alternative.me.
It was last updated on 2024-04-26 08:19:04 and has been viewed 1959 times.