Use this tip and you'll save space, money and time. This tip is great for small spaces, but even if your kitchen is large enough to make Martha Stewart envious, owning fewer appliances means less to buy, less to clean, and less hassle to organize and store away. An added bonus? All of this translates into a convenient way of being a bit more eco-friendly…
People who love tea swear by electric kettles because they boil water faster than conventional stovetop kettles. Many people have either a stovetop or electric kettle for tea, and an additional coffee maker for coffee. Sometimes, people have all three!
Instead of owning all these things to eat up valuable cabinet or counter space, cut your kitchen gadgetry down to one. Use a common coffee maker to make both coffee AND tea. It's simple. A coffee maker is essentially a specialized hot water maker. Using it to steep tea is incredibly quick and easy. With the exception of tea aficionados who have a passion for exact steeping temperatures, many people will love the convenience and simplicity of using their coffee makers to brew tea.
The How To:
• Fill the coffee maker with water as usual.
• If using a teabag, pop it into the empty carafe, making sure to stick out the tag before closing the lid on the carafe.
• If using loose leaf tea, use a tea infuser or, depending on the type of tea, pour the desired amount in the compartment designated for coffee.
• Place the carafe in the coffee maker and turn it on as usual. Walk away and when the coffee maker finishes running the water, you'll have a very enjoyable pot of tea.
• Keep track of the steeping time the same way you would for a kettle. I use a kitchen timer or cell phone timer.
This tip works especially well when entertaining. It quickly makes large volumes of tea and keeps it warm at the same time.
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Tried this. All my tea tastes like coffee. It's insidious, that coffee flavor. No amount of cleaning has managed to completely eliminate it.
My solution for minimizing stuff but still having tasty tea is to have an electric hot water kettle, and then a teapot for the steeping tea and a french press for coffee. Still three objects, but only one appliance.
I use an electric kettle for both tea and coffee too, but I skip the teapot and just use the french press for tea too.
No, no, no. Tea and coffee makers do not mix. As QHARTMAN notes, coffee flavor lingers. This is especially true when using coffee makers for some milder teas, like green or herbal blends. Coffee makers don't allow you to control the steeping time either.
Also, many teas are best at different water temperatures, and I've not seen a coffee maker that has that option (they may exist, just haven't seen). My electric hot water kettle was made for tea, and has multiple temp settings. An electric kettle with multiple settings, along with a french press, could cover both coffee and tea needs, but not a coffee maker.
So maybe I'm a tea snob. I know some coffee snobs, too. I get not wanting to have multiple devices, but I think this is definitely one case where you shouldn't cross the streams, as it were.
@Southpaw: You just tickled me pink with your Ghost Busters reference.
I drink copious quantities of tea but never coffee (it is too bitter), and this tip really upsets me! I agree with the previous posters that you cannot get the coffee flavor out of the tea. We have one of those Keurig single cup coffee makers at work, and someone thought they were being nice by providing tea pods as well as the coffee ones. I tried it once, but NEVER AGAIN! The tea just tasted like coffee and it was horrible. Also, using the wrong water temperature and/or steeping time to make tea will lead to tea that is either flavorless or terribly bitter and astringent. Water kettle + french press and teapot is definitely the way to go if you don't want to have a bunch of appliances.
I agree with the coffee flavor gripe...this would NEVER work in a conventional coffee maker!
That being said, it would be interesting to see a hot beverage maker that eliminated all plastic parts that touch the liquid (before during and after brewing), replacing them with glass, steel or even ceramic. I bet that could be used for both, would eliminate plastic leaching...and if a temperature control were added could actually create a decent cuppa.
Please mentally insert comments in my parenthetical list.
I do the same game plan as Ladygoat... Electric Kettle for hot water that goes straight to the cup for tea or to the french press for coffee. No coffee flavor in tea and the best coffee ever!
Ditto: completely lame post. I am not a tea snob (I say that in a self disparaging way: I respect tea snobs!) since I'll even drink Lipton Tea bag tea, but suggesting using water that's been run through a coffee maker be used to make tea? UGH. Coffee flavored tea. Really disappointed this made it on to one of my favorite websites: no one who has actually done this would think it's a good post.
BTW, you can't make Martha Stewart "envy", but you can, however, make her "envious".
I love multitaskers too, but I think it's okay to keep stuff seperate. Like Ladygoat I adore my electric kettle (thanks Kitchn blog for giving me the idea!) and I like seperate pots for tea and coffee (French press). It's kind of a ritual for me.
Tea definitely has a slight coffee taste with this --- enough to ruin a good cuppa . & Getting a kitchen timer or phone involved in the process ? no thanks. not easier.
a small electric kettle and a tiny french press ~ I traveled with these and was fine making good tea and coffee in hotel rooms. At home, a kettle on a stovetop is a lovely thing.
Absolutely not. The coffee flavor STILL permeates. One of my friends even keeps separate MUGS for coffee and tea.
For best coffee flavor, French press is the only way to go. But if you must have your coffee maker, it's a one-use item.
My coworker does this- he has never mentioned a lingering coffee taste- but I have heard that coffee machines with a hot water spot will taste like coffee!! I just use an electric kettle...im only having one cup, dont need to brew a pot :)
French press is the better solution, coffee flavor does not permeate! : )
My grandmama does this with her sweet tea, and it ALWAYS tastes like coffee. Even after being sweetened and chilled.
I just keep a stovetop kettle with a teapot to steep tea in and a pour over cone for single cups of coffee.
This is just a shamefully bad idea, maybe the worst idea I've ever seen on AT in all the years I've been reading. For one thing, the oils in coffee are all over the innards of a coffee machine and will ruin the flavor of any tea made by this method. For another, tea needs to steep by floating freely in the maximum amount of water being used for three to five minutes - something that is NOT possible when water is running through it continuously; beyond the coffee taste, there'd be no tea flavor to speak of. Third, the temperature in most coffee makers is considerably higher than the temp required for tea - especially green, white, or herbal tea - and would destroy whatever flavor you managed to eke out that way. Fourth, black tea leaves a fine hard to remove residue that would clog up your coffee maker over time. And lastly, the coffee maker likely uses a significant amount more power than the average tea kettle - so this idea is not even particularly green.
To sum up, just... NO. No no no. You don't have to be a tea snob to realize this is a dumb idea.
i've tried this. it doesn't work. nice idea though. you don't need to be a tea freak to notice either.
1. the coffee flavor sticks around
2. if you try to use the loose leaf tea by putting it in the place of coffee, it won't steep long enough
3. you will RUIN any green tea at that temp.
however, french press + electric kettle works
i'd like to know if the writer tried this or just thought it was a good idea. :/
Hilarious. The assumptions about 'most people' are in themselves laughable. I couldn't wait to read the comments.
I like how the writer says "Some people have all three! " like it's strange. In my travelsI've seen --in even the most basic kitchens coffee and teapots, some battered and old, all much used. This machine is the freak, not the home with two old coffeepots and a tea kettle.
Eh, I have a coffee pot but I've always used a regular pot on the stove or a cup in the microwave for tea.
Totally concur with everyone here. If it had a temperature control for the water and allowed an adjustable steeping time AND all the internal components were stainless steel it MIGHT work for both. Haven't you ever tried to make tea in an insulated plastic mug that had once held coffee?? And haven't you had terribly bitter tea that was brewed too hot?
People, please. Let's stop endorsing silly products like this and the fake reclaimed floorboards. There are plenty of good products out there to review. Stop being so lazy.
This was written by a coffee drinker, wasn't it?
There is nothing - NOTHING - that a tea drinker hates more than hot water poured through or into something that once contained coffee. You can wash that sucker a million times and your tea will still taste like coffee.
If you are a coffee drinker who wants to be ready for tea drinking guests, good for you, but please don't do this. Get an electric kettle or a stovetop kettle.
And please do not make your guests suffer tea from a coffeemaker.....
"This tip works especially well when entertaining. It quickly makes large volumes of tea and keeps it warm at the same time."
I just noticed this......unless your coffeemaker has never made coffee, I don't believe you have ever made, drank, or served tea from one.
To make hot beverages I use: 1) stove top kettle and 2a) French press or 2b) teabags or tea ball, 3) mug, 4) spoon
What a beautiful coffee maker. Does anybody know what brand that is? I would love to buy one! (For making coffee... not tea). ;) lol I really want to get one! Thanks :)
That coffee maker is very pretty. I just have an electric kettle and a French press like so many other posters. I have little strainer spoons for the rare times when I have loose tea. Usually it's just Red Rose.