Takeya 1 Quart Avocado Iced Tea Maker with Patented Flash Chill Technology - BPA-Free, Made in USA - Perfect for Home, Office, and Outdoor Picnics

Making Ice Tea isn’t “rocket science” to be sure; that said, the difference between good tea and great tea is as different as Coke-A-Cola and Diet Coke or “Tab” for those who remember the 70’s breakout diet brand from the Coke-A-Cola Bottling Company and a “Roman Candle” dying out in the mid eighties.Takeya Iced Tea makers are very simple in principle and use; most great things are, and absolutely make great iced tea. (The instructions could be more user friendly for they are just a little “to simple” and the use couldn’t be easier?!!? So here is my blueprint for excellence Takeya Iced Tea!1. Select the tea that you want to brew; tea bags, cold brew tea bags and loose tea will all work.2. Take the pamphlet out of both the carafe, AND! The fusion filter where you will find the main instructions of sorts. Wash all parts well with mild soap and hot water. (The independent cup is for holding the fusion assembly after brewing is my best guess!????!)3.(Hot brew) Boil four to four and a half cups of water and pour into carafe. Then insert fusion filter with eight regular tea bags pushed down into the filer mesh with cap extension on. (This is another piece of the assembly I do not fully understand other than maybe for easier cleaning of fusion filter?) The main cap screws onto the top of the extension while brewing.3.5 (Cold Brewing) same as above except use cold and filtered water. (all unboiled water should be filtered) Make sure the tea used is designed for “Cold Brew” brewing; the tea may be weak or even bitter if not “Cold Brew” tea bags- “Celestial Seasonings” Cold Brew tea bags work well like I have pictured above. I recommend eight to nine bags inserted into the fusion filter then submerged into at least half of the carafe cold water for five minutes.4: Remove fusion filter assembly, (rest in fusion filter assembly cup until washing for storing). Fill remainder of the carafe will filtered cold water and server over ice.(Flash chill, my personal recommendation- instead of filling the remainder of the carafe with cold water, use ice cubes instead! With the lid securely fastened, shake the contents back and forth like a James Bond Martini until the carafe is chilled top to bottom, cold to the touch- about thirty seconds.)That’s it. I use “”inexpensive”” “Signature” tea bags from “Safeway”, also pictured above, it’s very nice and boldly smooth Black tea- I even enjoy as much if not more than Lipton Tea bags that also works well in the “Takeya”. The only thing I do not know yet is the products durability; longevity. Based on the materials and girth of said material; I would think at least a few years of regular use should be expected.I can't believe that I love this item so much. It is perfect for using to store my tea. I make tea by the gallon which is quite heavy. I use these small pitchers to divide the tea into these smaller containers. This allows me to better handle and store tea in fridge.my favorite part is the extra cup to set the strainer in while filling it with leaves or removing it from the pitcher. it has two different silicone rings that are easy to remove, clean, and put back on for a tight safety seal. i store mine in the fridge on its side and it works great! this is also my first time having cold brew tea, just room temp water and tea leaves for 10 hrs in the fridge, so much easier than making myself a hot cup everyday!I purchased both this and the cold brew coffee maker as a way to make my own beverages at home and save some money as well. They are both great products and you might be wondering if they are different at all.First of all, this product works great. Like all Japanese products, it feels high-quality. It is essentially a pitcher with a two-piece detachable filter and an airtight lid with basically two "notch" positions - closed and "open enough to pour," though you'll probably just take the lid off when you serve. The pitcher is oblong, which doesn't come through in the pictures, so you can lay it on its side, though this is only recommended for the cold brew coffee maker and not this one, which is intended to be used upright only. The handle is also big and thick, with a rubberized grip.The differences between this and the cold brew coffee maker are basically that the filter material used feels different. The cold brew coffee maker has a silky, denser mesh, while this one is a more standard, coarse, more open mesh. You can buy replacements for either one. You can either cold brew your tea like I do, which works the same way as the coffee maker, or you can use the "flash chill" method, which is basically a method where you pour hot water directly into the pitcher with the filter and tea inside, seal it, let it brew, take the filter out, screw the lid back on airtight after you drop ice cubes inside the pitcher, and shake it until it is chilled and ready to serve.This method of pouring hot water directly into the maker is only for this, although everything is exactly the same as the cold brew coffee maker except for the filter so I'm pretty sure you can use that method with the coffee maker as well, although again the filter material itself is different. The iced tea maker also comes with a little cup that acts as a holder for the filter, which can stand up by itself when the lid is not screwed on. The coffee maker does not come with the cup. I also found that, in general, tea soaks up less water than coffee, so I had to take out the coffee maker halfway through the brew, maybe before I went to sleep, and fill it up with some more water, whereas I didn't have to do that with the iced tea maker. I did find that the handle part of the pitcher where the lid screws in, the actual colored part, often feels slightly loose and made me feel like I had to tighten it slightly. Please note that only the color of this piece and the lid are different. The two-piece filter only comes in black no matter what color you choose. One piece of the filter screws into the lid and the actual filter part screws into that first piece. It has a flat bottom, so can stand-up by itself, as previously mentioned.Of course, this is a great airtight pitcher in and of itself, even when you're not using the filter and just need something big to mix/shake a drink in and pour it. Some of my favorites to make in this maker have been sencha green tea, which I find works better as an iced tea than regular green tea or matcha, various rooibos herbal teas, and a great maple black tea I found at Trader Joe's. I've needed 5-6 tea bags per pitcher, though the instruction manual says 8 bags. The iced tea maker seems to come in brighter colors than the coffee maker. Takeya also makes a spa water infuser version of this with a more open plastic filter, but you can easily use this or the coffee maker and just infusion spa water by dropping fruit directly into the water, without having to use the filters at all, which will give you a stronger flavor anyway.Much better than I thought it would be. I am going to get another one with a different color so I can easily tell my caffeinated from uncaffeinated iced tea.This works great for making both tea and iced tea. It is very quick to make the iced. The container i had before was too small and it took a long time for the tea to be cold. This one is cold within minutesI am an avid tea maker. I was buying Dunkin’ Donuts iced tea every day but then they started making it weaker so I decided to my own. This is so nice and easy to use. I put 8 tea bags of my favorite black tea into the infuser, add boiling water to fill the pitcher a little more than half way and then add the infuser with the tea bags in it. After about 30 - 40 minutes (I like strong tea), I fill the pitcher up with ice and shake to mix. Voila!I bought this for my husband's birthday and it is the most fantastic product. The lid is really air tight, it makes a whole bunch of tea, you can cold brew in the fridge overnight and it is the easiest thing in the world to maintain and clean. i got this to replace the electric ice tea machine I had in America and this is so much cheaper and easier and makes tea just as good, I would choose this over a machine now if I had the choice! The materials are really good quality, the handle has a nice rubber cushioning and it looks attractive. Could not be happier.I adore iced tea, and this is a good substitute for the electric iced tea makers available in states. It's fast and easy to use, and the seal on the lid is very tight so there's no leakage, even if you store the carafe on its side in the fridge. I'm very happy with this purchase - I've used it loads this summer.I've been using this pitcher for a few months now on a near-daily basis and I must say, this pitcher is amazing.I always use 8 tsp (roughly measured) of various teas from David's Tea and it works like a charm.Pros:- Very quick (30 seconds to flash chill)- Easy to clean (just soak in soap and water then rinse)- Perfect size for standard kettles- Great spoutCons:- Infuser doesn't have any mesh on the bottom which makes it harder to simply rinse out between uses.- Infuser has two sections that are incredibly tedious and difficult to screw together. I just leave them screwed together.Neither of the cons are significant issues that would factor into me buying this again but if they made a new version in the future I'd hope that they would address these minor issues as it would make this pitcher absolutely perfect!Note: I read another review saying it "doesn't instant chill" and it waters down your tea. Yes, shaking a container filled with very hot water and ice cubes will melt the ice cubes; that is the point of the pitcher. If you find this dilutes the flavour of the tea too much you can easily just add more tea.The quality is really good. It’s so easy to clean because each part detaches. I use it as a water pitcher. When I make juice I will use it as a juice pitcher. When I wanna make my portion of tea for the whole day, it is just so perfect. I also love its perfect size. I know how much water I need to drink each day. Why didn’t i own this sooner ?? It’s so versatile! Aaaaaa! Everyone should get thisI love this product. I had a Takeya ice tea maker several years ago. It broke one day when I dropped it, but it was getting on in years. For this order, I was stunned that it did not arrive in a box or with any bubble wrap or protection. It was just shoved into a plastic envelope. The product arrived in good shape, but being shipped by courier does not mean it's going to be an easy ride. I'm just glad I have the product in good order.