Refreshing Fresh Brewed Iced Tea in Minutes

Are you an iced tea drinker?  I am.  There’s nothing like a nice refreshing glass of iced tea.  I drink probably 3-5 glasses of fresh brewed iced tea every day.  It all started when I was a child.  I’d watch my dad take out the jar of Lipton Tea mix and make his iced tea on the weekends…glass by glass.  We never sweetened it, we liked it plain…with the included artificial lemon flavoring of course!

Somewhere along the line, I stopped drinking tea.  I started up again after my son was born.  He was my second child and I was bound and determined to lose all my baby weight from both of my kids.  I read about the benefits of green tea…both for your health and for your metabolism.  I began brewing green tea on the stove and drinking it throughout my work day.  It’s 8 years later and I’m still brewing my tea on the stove…well, at least up until last week.

Health Benefits of Green Tea

According to Dr. Christopher Ochner, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, regarding green tea,

“It’s the healthiest thing I can think of to drink,  Green tea is beyond a super food.”

This quote is from an article on webmd about all the great health benefits of green tea, like it

• includes antioxidants called catechins which may prevent cell damage

• is shown to lower cholesterol and improve blood flow

• may prevent memory issues – studies have linked green tea to help block against the formation of plaque that is linked to Alzheimer’s disease

• helps to keep blood sugar stable in people with diabetes

• can increase your metabolism, to help you burn more calories from fat

While shopping at my local Walmart, I found a Mr. Coffee Fresh Tea Iced Tea Maker.  Wow, it made it look like easy to make fresh brewed iced tea.  Could this machine really take out the chore of making iced tea?

It’s Easy to Make Fresh Brewed Iced Tea

When I used to make my fresh brewed ice tea on the stove, I would first boil the water for 12 minutes or so .  Sometimes I would forget the water was on the stove and would jolt up from my chair after hearing the exhaust fan going off because it was getting too hot.  

After it finished boiling, I would remove it from the stove and stick in my green tea bags and let them soak for about 10 minutes to 6 hours…dependent upon whether I was around or not.

Next, I would  skim off the top layer that had formed and pour the tea into my tea pitcher.  As I drink tea often, I always hate it when I’m almost out of tea because I know how long the process takes for the tea to brew and then cool down.

But with the Mr. Coffee Iced Tea Maker, here are the easy steps:

STEP 1:  Fill the pitcher with water up to the desired level (1 quart, 2 quarts, or 3 quarts), as marked on the pitcher and pour it into the Iced Tea Maker.  For some extra St. Patrick’s fun, I added a few drops of green food coloring!

STEP 2:  Place 5-7 tea bags into the brew basket.  You can use tea bags or loose tea leaves.

STEP 3:  Choose whether you’d like a Strong or Mild brew strength of your tea…

STEP 4:  Fill the pitcher with ice according to the indicator on the side of the picture (for 1, 2, or 3 quarts of tea).  It takes less than 10 minutes for your tea to brew.

If you pull up the lid, you can see the brew action happening.  The heated water is coming up from the water basin (where I put the green dye) and pouring onto the tea bags.  It will then pour into the waiting pitcher, full of ice.

That’s it!  You now have a pitcher full of tea and you can begin drinking it right away.

Pros

• easy-to-use
• automatic shut-off
• can adjust the brew strength to Strong or Mild
• brews tea bags or tea leaves
• easy to add fresh fruits and other flavors to enhance your tea
• comes with nice dishwasher-safe pitcher for brewing and serving
• price is reasonable
• variable servings – choose from 1 quart to 3 quarts of tea to make

Cons

• another appliance to busy up your countertop
• uses a lot of ice – which could be an issue if your refrigerator doesn’t make much ice

The Mr. Coffee Fresh Tea Iced Tea Maker sells for $19.94 at Walmart.

A Mom’s Perspective

I cannot believe how much easier it is to brew my tea now.  There’s no boiling pot to watch, no worries about forgetting that I left the Iced Tea Maker on (because of it’s auto-shut-off), I can infuse my tea with fruits or fresh mint, and the dishwasher-safe pitcher is easy to clean and store in my fridge.

The pitcher has a stout type of body, so it’s not too high to fit on shelves in the refrigerator.

I feel as if I have been liberated from my stove and now it’s easier than ever to make fresh brewed iced tea and ensure I have plenty of tea on hand for friends when they come over, who enjoy drinking green tea with me.