I know the purist will call this blasphemy, but today I went to a local
restaurant in town which is known for serving very good tea. The way they
make it is they take ground up tea leaves, place it in a coffee maker and
pour hot water at the top of the machine. Within 3 minutes, they have a
great pot of tea.

Have others in this NG tried this method to make tea?

- wrote:
> I know the purist will call this blasphemy, but today I went to a local
> restaurant in town which is known for serving very good tea. The way they
> make it is they take ground up tea leaves, place it in a coffee maker and
> pour hot water at the top of the machine. Within 3 minutes, they have a
> great pot of tea.
>
> Have others in this NG tried this method to make tea?

No.

Don't know why it wouldn't work, as long as it isn't a "coffee maker"
with traces of coffee or soap in it. The water could start at boiling
and brew appropriately, and the leaves would be filtered out of the
poring. Toci
- wrote:
> I know the purist will call this blasphemy, but today I went to a local
> restaurant in town which is known for serving very good tea. The way they
> make it is they take ground up tea leaves, place it in a coffee maker and
> pour hot water at the top of the machine. Within 3 minutes, they have a
> great pot of tea.
>
> Have others in this NG tried this method to make tea?

- wrote:
> I know the purist will call this blasphemy, but today I went to a local
> restaurant in town which is known for serving very good tea. The way they
> make it is they take ground up tea leaves, place it in a coffee maker and
> pour hot water at the top of the machine. Within 3 minutes, they have a
> great pot of tea.
>
> Have others in this NG tried this method to make tea?

So... do you drink all the leaf-grounds along with the "tea"?

MarshalN
http://www.xanga.com/MarshalN

I haven't actually tried it Toci but it would seem to me that coffee is
brewed differently than tea in the sense that it is brewed longer to my
knowledge (for instance, if I do coffee in a French press, which is
basically steeping it, I use 7 minutes or more) and also if they are using
an automatic coffee maker to do it, the coffee maker may have special design
features specific to coffee. For instance, I think my home coffee maker
doesn't just run the water through straight, it might let the grounds get
wet first, expand, then put the water through or something. Also, though
generically the compounds to be extracted may be generally similar
(flavinoids, etc.) they may differ in solubility ratings.

Anyhow, like I said, I haven't tried it. If I compare the closest methods
coffee vs tea, that is, steeping loose leaf and steeping grounds in a french
press, the coffee takes a longer bath. FWIW.

Melinda


"toci" > wrote in message
oups.com...
> Don't know why it wouldn't work, as long as it isn't a "coffee maker"
> with traces of coffee or soap in it. The water could start at boiling
> and brew appropriately, and the leaves would be filtered out of the
> poring. Toci
> - wrote:
>> I know the purist will call this blasphemy, but today I went to a local
>> restaurant in town which is known for serving very good tea. The way
>> they
>> make it is they take ground up tea leaves, place it in a coffee maker and
>> pour hot water at the top of the machine. Within 3 minutes, they have a
>> great pot of tea.
>>
>> Have others in this NG tried this method to make tea?
>

I guess I was thinking of the old drip type coffee maker- the kind I
grew up with. It would just be a matter of pouring boiling water
over the tea leaf, timing, and pouring out- there's a filter that
wouold work for filtering tea leaves. The only thing I see wrong is
that it woldn't look very much like brewing tea. Toci
Melinda wrote:
> I haven't actually tried it Toci but it would seem to me that coffee is
> brewed differently than tea in the sense that it is brewed longer to my
> knowledge (for instance, if I do coffee in a French press, which is
> basically steeping it, I use 7 minutes or more) and also if they are using
> an automatic coffee maker to do it, the coffee maker may have special design
> features specific to coffee. For instance, I think my home coffee maker
> doesn't just run the water through straight, it might let the grounds get
> wet first, expand, then put the water through or something. Also, though
> generically the compounds to be extracted may be generally similar
> (flavinoids, etc.) they may differ in solubility ratings.
>
> Anyhow, like I said, I haven't tried it. If I compare the closest methods
> coffee vs tea, that is, steeping loose leaf and steeping grounds in a french
> press, the coffee takes a longer bath. FWIW.
>
> Melinda
>
>
> "toci" > wrote in message
> oups.com...
> > Don't know why it wouldn't work, as long as it isn't a "coffee maker"
> > with traces of coffee or soap in it. The water could start at boiling
> > and brew appropriately, and the leaves would be filtered out of the
> > poring. Toci
> > - wrote:
> >> I know the purist will call this blasphemy, but today I went to a local
> >> restaurant in town which is known for serving very good tea. The way
> >> they
> >> make it is they take ground up tea leaves, place it in a coffee maker and
> >> pour hot water at the top of the machine. Within 3 minutes, they have a
> >> great pot of tea.
> >>
> >> Have others in this NG tried this method to make tea?
> >

If we're talking about a drip-style coffee maker (like a Mr. Coffee
machine), the reasons it wouldn't work well are because the water would
not be hot enough (for black tea, anyway) and because the steeping time
would be insufficient. Those machines are designed for the water to
just wet the coffee grounds and then pass right through immediately.
Loose tea leaves need to steep for a few minutes, unless you like your
tea really weak.

It always fascinates me how many people seem to want to use this method
for making tea. when all that is really needed is a teapot and an
electric kettle that switches itself off when the water is boiled? It
doesn't get any easier than that. This need to "build a better
mousetrap" serves only to complicate the process - and usually results
in an inferior brew.



toci wrote:
> Don't know why it wouldn't work, as long as it isn't a "coffee maker"
> with traces of coffee or soap in it. The water could start at boiling
> and brew appropriately, and the leaves would be filtered out of the
> poring. Toci
> - wrote:
> > I know the purist will call this blasphemy, but today I went to a local
> > restaurant in town which is known for serving very good tea. The way they
> > make it is they take ground up tea leaves, place it in a coffee maker and
> > pour hot water at the top of the machine. Within 3 minutes, they have a
> > great pot of tea.
> >
> > Have others in this NG tried this method to make tea?

> It always fascinates me how many people seem to want to use this method
> for making tea. when all that is really needed is a teapot and an
> electric kettle that switches itself off when the water is boiled? It
> doesn't get any easier than that. This need to "build a better
> mousetrap" serves only to complicate the process - and usually results
> in an inferior brew.

It's not really about building a better mouse trap, but rather an attempt to
reproduce the excellent results I have tasted in a restaurant that uses this
method. To me, it just looks exactly like a coffee maker that is used to
make tea at this place and it tastes great.

- wrote:
> I know the purist will call this blasphemy, but today I went to a local
> restaurant in town which is known for serving very good tea. The way they
> make it is they take ground up tea leaves, place it in a coffee maker and
> pour hot water at the top of the machine. Within 3 minutes, they have a
> great pot of tea.
>
> Have others in this NG tried this method to make tea?

If there is no residual flavor from coffee or cleaning solutions in the
coffee maker, I say go for it. The only problem is perhaps the leaves
not having enough time to keep in contact with the water. That also
depends on what tea you are drinking; I wouldn't see much of a problem
with blacks.

I think Jan was talking about a situation whre they didn't have a tea
kettle or teapot. You need one container to boil water and probably
another container to brew. That's how simple it gets. For fancy, you
need a timer or a good sense of brewing time, and a strainer unless you
don't mind unstrained tea. The bottom of a coffee pot gives this. For
pretty, you need tea equipment. Toci
Fran wrote:
> If we're talking about a drip-style coffee maker (like a Mr. Coffee
> machine), the reasons it wouldn't work well are because the water would
> not be hot enough (for black tea, anyway) and because the steeping time
> would be insufficient. Those machines are designed for the water to
> just wet the coffee grounds and then pass right through immediately.
> Loose tea leaves need to steep for a few minutes, unless you like your
> tea really weak.
>
> It always fascinates me how many people seem to want to use this method
> for making tea. when all that is really needed is a teapot and an
> electric kettle that switches itself off when the water is boiled? It
> doesn't get any easier than that. This need to "build a better
> mousetrap" serves only to complicate the process - and usually results
> in an inferior brew.
>
>
>
> toci wrote:
> > Don't know why it wouldn't work, as long as it isn't a "coffee maker"
> > with traces of coffee or soap in it. The water could start at boiling
> > and brew appropriately, and the leaves would be filtered out of the
> > poring. Toci
> > - wrote:
> > > I know the purist will call this blasphemy, but today I went to a local
> > > restaurant in town which is known for serving very good tea. The way they
> > > make it is they take ground up tea leaves, place it in a coffee maker and
> > > pour hot water at the top of the machine. Within 3 minutes, they have a
> > > great pot of tea.
> > >
> > > Have others in this NG tried this method to make tea?

- wrote:
> > It always fascinates me how many people seem to want to use this method
> > for making tea. when all that is really needed is a teapot and an
> > electric kettle that switches itself off when the water is boiled? It
> > doesn't get any easier than that. This need to "build a better
> > mousetrap" serves only to complicate the process - and usually results
> > in an inferior brew.
>
> It's not really about building a better mouse trap, but rather an attempt to
> reproduce the excellent results I have tasted in a restaurant that uses this
> method. To me, it just looks exactly like a coffee maker that is used to
> make tea at this place and it tastes great.

I'm not trying to be the wet blanket here, but even if you did have a
good experience I'd say you are much better off brewing it properly.
Coffee pots do not get the water to the exact temps needed for many
teas, and then there is no way to really control the amount of time the
water passes through the leaves. Frankly I'm surprised as many
responses even slightly considered the idea, I'm sticking with my first
response. Just don't do it.

In article <CZYnh.565764$R63.177117@pd7urf1no>, - > wrote:
>I know the purist will call this blasphemy, but today I went to a local
>restaurant in town which is known for serving very good tea. The way they
>make it is they take ground up tea leaves, place it in a coffee maker and
>pour hot water at the top of the machine. Within 3 minutes, they have a
>great pot of tea.
>
>Have others in this NG tried this method to make tea?

I could not imagine this working well for standard black tea, but I could
see it working for iced tea or the like.

I have not tried it, because to do it would require a brand new coffee
maker that has never had coffee through it and does not have nasty coffee
contamination.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."