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Zarafina Tea Maker Suite with Ceramic Tea Pots, Cups, and Serving Tray | 
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| Brand: Zarafina
List Price: $149.99
Buy New: $99.99
You Save: $50.00 (33%)
Rating:  60 reviews
Color: Shale/Stainless
Shipping Weight (lbs): 12.3
Dimensions (in): 7.7 x 7 x 9.9
MPN: TH1000
Model: TH1000
UPC: 027045676861
EAN: 0027045676861
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
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| Features:
| • | 16-ounce electric tea maker steeps a variety of loose or bagged tea | | • | Customizable tea strength from mild to strong; auto dispensing | | • | Attractively housed in a dark shale color with stainless-steel accents | | • | Includes ceramic teapot, 2 tea cups, and serving tray | | • | Measures 19-3/7 by 12-3/4 by 25 inches; 1-year limited warranty |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Zarafina tea maker has a unique brewing chamber which allows you to observe the process, variable settings that allow you to control the strength, brewing time and temperature and a built in diffuser that keeps your tea free of leaves whether you are using tea bags or loose tea. It is designed distinctively to enrich your tea experience. Dark shale color with stainless steel accents
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| Customer Reviews: Read 5 more reviews...
 Pretty much exactly as advertised September 30, 2008
Steven Stewart (TN United States)
My Zarafina unit is pretty much exactly as advertised. It seems to make very good tea, and is very simple to use and understand after the first time.
Cleanup is a little bit of a hassle due to all the parts, but that again was known beforehand.
The carafe is not a "thermal carafe" as I've read elsewhere, it is actually just a regular stoneware carafe, and as such, does not keep the tea hot for very long.
The cups are very nice, with some heft, and do not have handles, which I like. But, they are made of the same stoneware material and become VERY hot to the touch, which is a problem since, as I said, no handles.
I use loose leaf teas from Adagio.
One minor annoyance is that I can't seem to ever position the carafe just right to where the tea flows in perfectly. I always have some tea that spills across the top of the carafe, which is no major problem, as the tea can drain from the top to the bottom, but still makes things more messy than necessary.
Overall a very good product, and highly recommended for regular hot tea drinkers. I am no tea connoisseur, but even I can immediately tell a difference between the loose leaf teas and a Lipton teabag.
One thing I read online that has been helpful is I practically always brew a second carafe full from the same tea leaves. I brew all my first pots on "medium" then brew the 2nd pot on "strong".
I drink the first pot hot, and then I put the 2nd pot in the refrigerator to have iced tea later.
It is amazing how some teas are so much different cold vs hot. I've been pleasantly surprised by some.
You're basically getting the 2nd pot full for "free" so why not?
A great machine if only it would continue to decant! September 28, 2008
Christine Cugino (Evanston, IL)
The Pros:
I bought the Zarafina Tea Maker Suite from another company since I found a great deal on it. I switched over to loose tea a year ago and the machine really worked wonders for me. I was always forgetting to remove the tea strainer from my cup before the tea went bitter when I used a teapot to heat water. The Zarafina Tea Maker Suite brewed my tea for me and decanted into a little pot and I never had to worry about bitter tea. And while there are 5 different tea settings on the machine I typically use the herbal/medium setting for my green tea (which is all I drink). That setting gets the water to a hotter temperature which I prefer and on a medium strength setting I only need to add one scoop of loose leaves for the perfect cup
The cons:
I used the machine to brew 3-6 pots of tea a day and I'd only had it 2 months before it stopped decanting. It would release 2-3 tablespoons of fluid and then nothing. I had to move the teapot into a precise spot before it would actually decant. By month 4 it was not decanting at all, no matter how I positioned the pot. I contacted Zarafina and they have shipped out a replacement machine free of charge and have not asked me to ship my clunker back to them.
The size is rather small at only 16 ounces but sipping from the tiny cups allows me to savor the flavor of the tea rather than gulping it down.
The tea infuser basket seems to let smaller tea leaves loose in the water no matter how tightly I try to fit the lid on the basket. The basket does stain easily but I am able to take it apart and run it through the diswasher and the stains disappear.
The brewing chamber stains just as easily but as other reviewers have said, one of those Magic Erasers does the job of removing stains quick enough. And the brewing chamber does keep the flavor of stronger teas so cleaning it out after a flavored tea or running a pot of water to clear it out is necessary.
Overall:
While that seems like a lot of negatives, they're not as great as having the machine brew the perfect cup of green tea for me. The convenience of setting it up to brew and having it decant before it becomes undrinkable outweigh the cons listed. Now if only it would continue to decant without breaking down so soon! At least I found a good deal on the one I purchased.
 Purchased for my office August 9, 2008
Robert M. Hoover (Redmond, WA)
This item works well and makes great tea. I keep it in my office to brew tea daily while I'm working and it makes tea making easy and enjoyable. I love that it has settings for various types of loose teas, which allows me to put some silver needles in the loose tea container, move the dial to white tea, and forget about until later when I come back to pour a cup of perfect tasting tea.
A very well made quality product. July 17, 2008
Sara Fitzhugh (Dallas,TX)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
So far I have been very impressed with the Zarafina tea maker. I thought it might be difficult to clean after use, but was pleasantly surprised that it is easy to keep clean. Requires a little bit of experimentation with green tea. I recomend brewing green tea on mild strength for the first infusion which steeps for 3 minutes at 170 degrees. The second infusion works well on medium strength. Some green teas should not be made in the Zarafina because of shorter steeping times required than the Zarafina can offer. LuShan Clouds and Mist green tea is one that should not be made in the Zarafina. If you drink the recommended 4 to 5 cups a day of tea for anti-oxidant benefits then the Zarafina is for you. It makes a consistent good quality brew without the hassle. It is also fun to watch the tea being brewed through the ingenious clear steeping chamber.
Good with reservations July 14, 2008
Dedra Johnson (New Orleans, Louisiana)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I got this tea maker for Christmas and have loved it, making 3-8 pots of tea a day. It's even good for green tea, despite some other reviews--the key is to brew green tea on regular or weak strength and to use only the amount of tea the instruction booklet recommends. That said, I am on my 4th tea maker since December. The first 3 worked wonderfully for weeks then the basket would not sink at the right time or at all. This time, the tea maker just stopped dispensing. Customer service is great, friendly and helpful, but I'm sure that I will need replacements past the 1-year warranty. If you are a total tea addict, it's the best tea maker around. But be ready to use your warranty repeatedly and to struggle until the replacement arrives.
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