I first took notice of Breville as a brand with coffee products.

None more so than the Barista Express which wowed a lot of coffee lovers that enabled then to make quality brews in the comfort of home.

This was why I wanted to give the Breville BTM800XL One-Touch Tea Maker a try as soon as I learned about it from a tea-loving colleague.

I’ve tested a lot of tea making machines in my time.

They usually deliver below expectations. And the best ones tend to run out of business in a short period of time as the demand is too weak for premium priced tea makers.

This is partly attribute to what such a machine actually does. Because unless one is a tea master who knows the ins and outs of making fine tea, the average tea drinker is just going to perceive these machines as glorified hot water kettles.

So I was pretty reserved with my expectations on this machine to save myself from the disappointment.

Features of Breville BTM800XL one-touch tea maker

• Tea basket that rises and falls automatically to steep tea leaves with immersion
• Timer to automatically start brewing at a specified time
• Timer to monitor the time-since-brew
• Keep warm feature
• Temperature control
• Set how strong you want your tea to be
• Pre-programmed  brewing settings
• Backlit LCD digital monitor
• Can be used solely as a kettle to boil water

That’s an impressive array of features for a tea maker.

After all, most people know tea brewing as just infusing tea leaves of tea bags into hot water.

It is also built with a stainless steel power base supporting the glass kettle which adds to the modern look to it.

• Jug capacity of 51oz (1.5l)
• Dimensions of 10.7 x 6 x 11 inches
• Glass kettle
• Stainless steel base

Honestly speaking the build quality of this thing is feels premium to the touch.

Just like how some smart phones feel cheap in the hand while some instantaneously feel top-end the moment you hold it.

This Breville tea maker belongs to the latter category of consumer products.

Testing the Breville tea maker

The product comes with a user manual in the box if you need more information on how to brew some of the most common types of tea.

For this test run I grabbed my stash of Genmai green tea nicely stored in a vacuum container. Use the scoop that came with the appliance to dig out 3 scoops of the loose tea leaves and dropped them into the tea basket.

The tea basket is secured to the top of the jug post with magnets.

Then filled up the jar, beaker, kettle or whatever you might want to call it with filtered water to about half it’s water capacity. That’s about 750ml.

While my friend suggested to go with a mild brew strength, I went ahead and selected strong with the button and pressed start.

This was a mistake in my part. Because then I saw that there was a preset option for green tea. So I immediately stopped the previous command given to the machine.

Then I selected the green tea brewing option and ordered it to run on auto pilot.

All these took less than two minutes. And the tea maker started to get on the job.

I must admit. I was mesmerized by the lifting and lowering of the tea basket for immersion and infusion. I’ve probably spent too much time waiting to catch it in action than I’d like to admit though.

It took about 5 minutes for the tea brewing session to stop.

At that point, the tea basket rose to the top of the jug on it’s own and the machine beeped to alert us that it’s finished with the task.

After which I pressed the “keep warm” button so that it would keep the beverage warm for the next 60 minutes.

I need to stress that I used the automatic brew feature to make this pot of green tea.

But this machine can be manually set to your chosen temperature and brew time. This can be useful when you purchase tea leaves with instructions on how to brew them optimally.

The temperature range that this tea maker is capable of is between 160°F (70°C) and 212°F (100°C) in 5°F increments.

Should you buy the Breville BTM800XL tea machine?

As with all tea baskets, cleaning it is the biggest chore.

But I do it all the time in the cafe and have become pretty accomplished at cleaning these things quickly and effectively.

I can see people finding it such a tedious chore that it’s not worth the trouble.

However if you have that mindset, then this machines is not made for you. It is targeted at tea lovers who would go through this hassle just to sit down and enjoy their tea in peace.

The biggest complaint I have with this tea maker is that it takes out the traditions and customary practices of tea sessions, especially those practiced in the oriental east.

To me personally, having tea is more than just having a drink to quench my thirst.

It is a ritual, a zen session, or even an event by itself.

I still prefer the tea pots made of clay or porcelain with a kettle sitting on top of an open flame when having a zen session.

And when I just feel like drinking tea in the afternoon instead of coffee in my usual routine, I might make use of this Breville tea-maker for how easy it has made the whole brewing process.