cuzen matcha grinder

cuzen matcha grinder

I purchased this myself and did not get compensated in any way

I have a sharp tea cere matcha grinder however it's discontinued and as such I wanted to find a current company in case anything happened

They do not ship to Canada so I shipped it to a friend in the United States who is kind enough to unbox it and troubleshoot it and give me notes so that I could get started right away once I picked it up

We measured and on strength three it only produced one gram of powder which we would have expected two

note the machine says that it makes 2 g on the high strength setting so I will have to troubleshoot why that's not happening

The item arrived well packaged and it does look pretty

The item does work as advertised you put in tea leaves it grinds them and then the whisks them

A few suboptimal points of the design are as follows

The plastic on the interior is not smooth so it easily catches dust and matcha powder and so frequently looks dirty and needs frequent cleaning

The cup itself is plastic with a ridge for where you should fill it with water it would be nice if there was a upgrade option to get glass that was taller so that you could pour in hot liquids after whisking if desired. It also would have been nice if the ridge was on the outside not the inside for cleaning purposes

The power cable is a box style instead of a wall wart style, it would have had less things on the counter but depending on the plugs people have available Wall warts sometimes are too large to fit in tight places but it would have been nice to have an option.

If they would have made it a little bit larger they could have had the grinding area separate than the whisking area which would have eliminated or reduced the concern about steam getting into the grinder and gunking it up and causing problems, you could have just shifted the cup over a couple of inches

The grinder does create a lot of dust and dirt inside of the tube so not everything seems to go through the grinder which to me seems like the design is not very good of funneling the leaves through the grinding process.

I think it would have been good to introduce a cap for the funnel at the bottom to reduce the amount of dust that falls down when not in use.

They recommend cleaning the grinder after every use and that is absolutely not going to happen it's probably going to be more like once a month for me.

Overall I am happy with the grinder, I will likely utilize it to whisk matcha and then pour it into warm or iced milk.

I definitely prefer the tea cere as it heats up the water and whisks it so that you get a hot matcha or a hot matcha latte. It also is easier to clean and has a drip tray in addition to a little cup that goes under the grinder to catch any eventual leaves that fall down between uses.

I wish there were separate controls for "grind" and "whisk" so i could whisk pre-ground matcha or just grind extra matcha.

Videos

Grind

https://youtu.be/ajfqXuiGa9w

Unboxing

https://youtu.be/kauKr0rhATI

Breville One-Touch Tea Maker BTM800XL

Breville Website http://www.brevilleusa.com/tea/one-touch-tea-maker.html

A few quick notes, yesterday I went to Williams and Sonoma in Columbus Circle shopping center after finding out from Breville Jason they had some of the one-touch tea makers in stock. These are not yet available on the Breville or Williams and Sonoma websites.

I went immediately after the Steepster meetup at Radiance Tea House & Books.

We’ll ignore how I got lost three times on the way there, even using google maps on my blackberry.

I purchased my new teakettle and took it to my mother in laws, then left again to continue my NYC adventures; we ended up going back and buying a second one for my mom later that day.

This morning I got to use the kettle for the first time at my mother in laws house, it’s well lit which leads to bad pictures, sorry. I rinsed the kettle and made three cups of tea. First confusing point is the side of the kettle measures in milliliters not ounces. I had to use the conversion chart. My next issue is that the power cord is too short; really I’m going to need an extension cord.

I was easily able to make the tea without needing to read the directions, the buttons and display are intuitive and there is a nice loud beep when your tea is ready. I have not yet played with the timer feature or custom overrides but will let you know how well they work later. I will also do a comparative review between Zarafina and the Breville once I have gotten used to the Breville.

So far I highly recommend this as an easy to use tea maker.

Below are pictures of the unpacking.

Kati Review

On April 14 there was a request to have some reviews of a Tea Forte product.

I of course jumped at the chance.

No strings attached - off in the mail went my grass Kati cup!

"In short, we are trying to introduce loose tea novices to the world of
loose tea. We wanted to provide a simple and easy way to provide an
alternative option to our pyramid bags."

Included:
loose tea single steeps™
Loose tea by the cup...simple
An exciting sampler of organic, loose leaf tea. Each Loose Tea Single Steeps™ is perfectly measured to guarantee fool-proof brewing in a generous 12 ounce mug. The ideal companion to our new loose tea accessories: the Kati Loose Tea System and Luci Loose Tea Infuser.

kati loose tea system
Our double-wall ceramic tumbler and integrated stainless steel infuser make brewing loose tea by the cup simple. The innovative double-wall construction keeps tea hot and the tumbler cozy to hold. Brews a generous 12 oz cup and is dishwasher safe.

It arrived today!

Initial assessment, the Kati mug is pretty, functional, and not a lot of fuss (dishwasher safe is a must!).

Then I tried to brew tea, as a normal loose tea drinker. I evaluated it as an effective tea maker: It passes with flying colors. I can steep my tea with a tight fitting lid, or without. The strainer fits onto the lip or inner rim of the cup perfectly limiting the number of leaves / debris that makes it into the tea itself. The lid is handy and doubles as a drip catcher for the strainer when the steep is complete. The strainer handle sits outside the mug and is cool to the touch even after a 7 minute steep. The ceramic holds the heat and temperature for the steep.

As a work tea mug / brewer this is a good solution - the leaves come out of the strainer fairly easily with a few thwacks (we have no kitchen sink at my work) and he drip catcher is great to save my desk from the mess.

I will evaluate this Kati system as an introductory to loose leaf system in another post.

The one downside I have found is that the mug does become too hot to comfortably hold. This is despite the double walled construction, so although the liquid is scalding, and the cup is not as hot as the liquid, it is still uncomfortable to hold.

The box was adorned with adorable little leaf stickers (like the tags on their pyramid bags)!



The box was well packaged with green paper.



The Kati Box






The grass Kati

Zarafina

So a while back I bought my mother a Zarafina tea maker for either her birthday or mothers day or both?




She introduced me to tea with her two earl grey a morning habit. She was always very picky about the teas she liked, but also liked to try new ones in order to have alternate during the day / evening tea (forget replacing her wake up earl grey though!)

So anyway, today she gave me hers! she doesn't use it often because she is a work-a-holic like me and tends to use a little Teavana Perfect Tea Maker when at work



YEA!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyway, I thought I'd introduce you to some of my other teapots and mugs I use that haven't been specifically featured before;