Tea "espresso" machine

[2010]

Hi All!

I'm new to this section of eG (usually hang with the P&B crowd).

Does anyone know of a machine, (home or commercial) dedicated to solely making tea lattes? I was in Vancouver earlier this month and there's a tea shop in West Vancouver called the Urban Tea Merchant that has such a machine. According to them, the only one being used in the country.

Thanks

[cdh]

Sounds like all that would be required would be a milk frothing device. You certainly don't want to put most tea through the espresso pressure brewing treatment.

There are toys out there that heat and froth milk, like this frothy thing.

I can't imagine a more expensive or complicated machine making a better drink. Tea is best brewed manually, milk is impossible to froth right manually... so get a machine that froths the milk.

[2010]

Thanks CDH. After much searching online, I haven't found this so-called tea latte machine. Maybe they were just pulling my leg.

Anyways, tried making my first tea latte today. I decided to use my Italian stove top espresso maker, instead, filling it with loose Mariage Freres Marco Polo tea. (I had a Marco Polo tea latte at the Urban Tea Merchant). Brewed it like I would espresso. I didn't think the tea brewed was strong enough to stand up to a lot of milk so I dumped out the leaves into a Tazo tea press and re-brewed the already brewed tea. (I know, I know, re-brewing tea leaves and even coffee grounds is a no-no, but I'm experimenting and my MP tea is expensive to waste!) Nuked some milk in the micorwave, and frothed it with a whisk. Added my strong tea and voila! Tasted just like the tea latte I had in Vancouver without the expensive machine and the $4+ price for the latte. A little effort, but enjoying it just the same.

By-the-way, thanks for the link to the frother. Cool toy.

[cdh]

No no no. Rebrewing tea leaves is by no means a no no. Some of the best Chinese oolong teas only start getting good after their second infusion and can stay good for at least 4 brewings, sometimes many more.

Many commercial black teas don't do so well with too many steepings, but they are not representative of all teas.

Tea in an espresso machine or moka pot won't do much since it doesn't pack together and provide the resistance that those machines use to extract lots of goodness from the finely ground coffee.

(Yes, however, rebrewing coffee is a no no. Don't do it.)

[2010]

^^Yeah, now that I think about it, I keep adding water to my flowering teas and other black teas when the my pot gets low. I just thought of the times my mom (and she still does) dunks her tetley tea bags once into her cup and saves it for another cup another time. Yuck! I'm thinking the 'no-no' part of my experiment was actually re-brewing my already brewed tea over the used leaves. Not adding new water as I was trying to extract more flavour out of the leaves. It worked anyhow. I'll know better to just steep the tea as usual, but longer for a stronger taste.