Mr. Coffee TM75 3 Quart Iced Tea Maker Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I had the old one with the orange top. That one has a top basket to hold the tea bags which incorporates a side lever to plug the bottom drain hole, and an overflow channel so just the last couple of cups steep the tea until you pull the lever to release them. The new one with the blue basket has done away with that lever (I'm guessing to cut costs) and just put a little bit smaller hole at the bottom. They also tell you to use a coffee filter in the basket in addition to the teabags themselves, which after all are little paper filters. This is probably to slow down the run-out of the tea to help it steep it a little bit longer. My favorite combination of bags is one bag or Celestial Seasons Red Zinger, one Lipton Mango, and two Red Rose decaf's. In the old one I would let this combination of tea steep for maybe 10 minutes, and it came out perfectly. Using the same bags with the new one makes *really* tasteless, watery tea.
I just found a new model that makes 3 quarts and has a dial on the front for what they call "brew strength". This is a decided advantage over the other revised model. Also, you get a quart more of tea per cycle. You pour the water directly into the unit, where there is a window on the front with markings for 1, 2 and 3 quarts. The container has markings for how much ice to use for 1, 2 and 3 quarts. This is a better design, IMHO. Also, the pitchers are shorter, so fit in more places in your fridge, and the handles don't attach at the pitcher bottom, so you can nest them for storage. This is a big advantage over the old style. The new one comes with 2 pitchers. You can turn them both upside-down over the base unit to save even more storage space.
My recomendation: don't buy the newer 2 quart blue basket model. Hold out for the 3 quart model. And here's the kicker- I found mine at Wal-Mart for $2.00 less than Target was selling the 2 quart model!
Once you get into the habit of drinking iced tea instead of soda, you'll never go back. The savings in calories, money and hassle of returnable bottles and cans will have you hooked.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Mr. Coffee TM75 3 Quart Iced Tea Maker

Make deliciously refresing great tasting Iced Tea in minutes. You can brew Iced Tea the easy way. Simply place Water in the Reservoir, place your favorite tea (loose or bags) in the brew basket and ice in the pitcher. You will have fresh iced tea in minutes.

Click here for more information about Mr. Coffee TM75 3 Quart Iced Tea Maker

Hamilton Beach 40911 2-Quart Electric Iced Tea Maker Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I drink tea like you breath air, but I'll bet my air against your tea that this is the maker you'll want.
We had a Mr Coffee tea maker for years. It was fine at first, but increasingly problematic.
First, physical weaknesses: The pitchers crack and warp slowly but steadily, so won't last forever. You can replace them for about ten bucks, but with shipping that's half the cost of an entirely new unit. And you can't put them in the dishwasher, so you'll probably want at least several up front anyway, so that you can clean them.
Second, cleaning problems. Unlke the Hamilton Beach tea makers, the Mr Coffee bags go in the brewing housing, which has to be removed and cleaned separately from the pitcher. And if you forget to do that, you'll have yucky (even moldy) tea bags the next time you go to make tea, even if that's within two days.
Hamilton Beach instead keeps the bags' brewing area inside the pitcher itself, which you can refridgerate and prevent yuck and mold from occuring. Plus, the Mr Coffee station drips TEA on the counter as soon as you remove the pitcher, whereas the Hamilton Beach only drips WATER since the tea process is all contained in the pitcher itself.
Further, the Mr Coffee series requires that the pitcher get very close to the brew housing station, with the tea just BARELY getting into the spout, or else you'll get tea dripped on the counter WHILE brewing. That messiness increases as the pitcher begins to warp and crack. Hamilton Beach bests that both by including a pull-out tray that HOLDS the pitcher in the correct position, and by having the tea drip directly to the center of the pitcher rather than milimeters from the edge of the spout.
Above all, the Hamilton Beach series simply makes better tea. It includes a dial that allows you to make weak, medium, or strong tea, and that's all automated. The Mr Coffee series has no such setting, but requires you to "close" the brewing area for a period and then turn a dial to "open" before it starts putting tea in the pitcher. That manual step both slows down the tea production, and risks making quite the mess if you forget to go back and open the dial.
(The reviewer who used 14 bags for 2 quarts is doing something insanely wrong. Above all, they're probably using individual bags. You'll definitely want to get a few boxes of "family size" bags. I use 3 bags for 2 quarts, and it makes as fine a tea as I ever had growin' up in Georgia.)
Finally, the Mr Coffee pitcher is a large and obtrusive ROUND cylinder that takes up lots of space in the fridge, even when there's only a glass or so left in the pitcher, plus a handle that takes up excessively additional space. The Hamilton Beach pitchers are instead elongated OVAL shapes, that fit in more places in the fridge, even in the fridge door, and are *shorter* so that you can put them on a shelf with a lower overhead.
Mr. Coffee: bigger mess, more manual, more cleaning, more risk, lower longevity, and lamer tea.
Hamilton Beach: no mess, no manual revisit, easy to clean, no risk, lasts longer, better tea, and more options when you make it.
No contest!

Click Here to see more reviews about: Hamilton Beach 40911 2-Quart Electric Iced Tea Maker

Make perfect iced tea and chill instantly with this electric easy to use iced tea maker

Get 36% OFF

Click here for more information about Hamilton Beach 40911 2-Quart Electric Iced Tea Maker