BRU Maker One review: can a machine make a good cup of tea?
14.2.2023
Translation: Katherine Martin
The BRU Maker One is a sophisticated tea maker, which can either be filled with loose herbs or teabags. When I tested the BRU, it won me over from the very first cuppa. It does, however, come at a price.
Whether it’s thyme, hemp or annual mugwort, I’ll figure out the right season for every herb and active ingredient, as well as how best to consume them. Along with vaporisation, making tea takes the top spot in that last respect. Mind you, it does rule out my favourite herb hemp, as its most important active ingredients don’t dissolve in water. When it comes to other herbs, the process works well at the correct water temperature.
Until recently, I had a temperature-controlled kettle to help me find just that. Sadly, it’s now given up the ghost. Subsequently, I switched to using the hot water dispenser on my coffee machine, which only knows how to do one temperature – 90 degrees Celsius. For tea varieties that need brewing at a different temperature, I use a meat thermometer placed inside a cooking pot.
None of this is necessary if you have a BRU Maker One at home. It’s like a coffee machine, but for tea: a tea machine, if you will. You fill it with herbs or teabags, then select your preferred water temperature, the dispensing amount in millilitres and how long you want the tea to brew for.
The manufacturer gave me a tea maker in black chrome to try out, but it comes in other colours too:
In the manual, the manufacturer strongly recommends using a CA6702 water filter, but unfortunately, there isn’t one included with the tea maker:
How does the tea maker work?
Let’s get one thing straight. A tea maker doesn’t conjure up better cuppas than other methods of preparation do. It does, however, make it all easier. I don’t have to remember to take the teabag out of the mug – something I often forget to do. Similarly, I don’t need to put a coaster over the mug to keep in the heat while the tea brews. Plus, I save time and don’t need to fiddle around as much – I just pop in the teabag or herbs, get the mug into place and press the button.
The BRU works by pumping your preferred amount of water out of the tank. An instantaneous water heater brings the water up to the selected temperature without requiring preheating time. After that, a circle of nozzles releases the water evenly into the brewing chamber. A small hole in the machine lid allows any steam created during brewing to escape.
Source: Martin Jud
The machine contains a glass chamber where the tea is brewed. A large metal sieve with a lid allows the herbs or teabag to float in the water. The water drains out of the chamber into a silicone nozzle, which dispenses the water directly into the mug after brewing. Once the brewing chamber fills with water, a mechanism ensures that the silicone part snaps shut. Once the brewing time is up, the tea flows out automatically. But only if there’s a mug waiting underneath. If that’s not the case, the BRU’s cup sensor will ensure the machine starts protesting before you’ve even begun preparing the tea.
«Self-cleaning»
Something I particularly like about the BRU Maker is that once the tea is served, the machine releases a little bit of water into the cup by default in order to «clean» the glass chamber. In the settings, you can choose to only have this happen once the cup is taken away. You also have three rinse water volume options, as well as the choice of dispensing the water after a 60-second delay.
Though the rinse function works well, it doesn’t really do any cleaning. It just prevents the device from becoming dirty quickly. Depending on how powerfully you rinse and how often you drink tea, you need to clean the glass chamber and silicone nozzle by hand 1–2 times a week. I’ve noticed it gets dirtier when I drink fruit tea.
Despite a measurement slip-up, the tank, cups and tea sieve are still on the larger side
The drip tray attaches to the machine magnetically. The great thing is that there’s room for larger cups on it too. I measure a 12-centimetre gap between it and the silicone nozzle the tea flows from. If I take away the drip tray, I can even get a 15-centimetre high mug under the nozzle. The amount of tea per cup is limited to three and a half decilitres. If it’s just hot water I’m after, I can pour four decilitres into a cup at once. Or I use Infinity mode, which dispenses all the water in the tank at once into, for instance, a thermos flask.
Source: Martin Jud
Looking at the tank, I’m slightly perplexed. Although it does look sizeable, it seems smaller than it’s supposed to be. After measuring it, I see that it really does only hold 2.7 litres. However, it’s more like 2.5 litres once I’ve filled it with water – if I don’t want it to overflow with the slightest movement, that is. But how’s that possible? After all, the manual (and, at the time of writing, the manufacturer’s website) claim the water tank has a capacity of three litres.
When I confronted the manufacturer BRU AG, this is the answer I got: «We were surprised at this to begin with too. It turns out there’s been a misunderstanding between the three litres specified in the design and the actual usable volume.
Although the lid on the tank was always included in the design communication, thus giving a value of three litres, the usable capacity was unfortunately never altered accordingly in the product data later on.»
Nevertheless, even at these smaller dimensions, it’s still a generously sized tank. For example, you can brew ten regular-sized 2.5 decilitre cups of tea out of it.
Source: Martin Jud
You don’t need to worry about the size of the tea sieve. Just the way it should, it takes up a lot of space within the brewing chamber. You can fill it with more herbs and teabags than you’ll ever need.
Here’s one last stat for you: the machine measures 14.5 × 34 × 32.5 centimetres.
How to make tea with the machine
To get access to the tea sieve in the brewing chamber, I press a button located underneath it. The way the lid only opens a fraction at first reminds me of Discmans in the early 90s. I push it fully upright and grab the sieve. It’s suspended loosely over the chamber, held in place by grooves. If you brew several cups of tea in a row, you should be careful with the tea sieve and its lid – they can get hot.
I pause for a moment when filling the sieve. In front of me, I’ve got a jar of dried annual mugwort (Artemisia annua). That’s the tea I make whenever I have a cold, as it supposedly combats fever, stimulates digestion and has anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties.
Source: Martin Jud
When preparing the tea to relieve a cough or cold, it’s essential to do so at the right temperature. For mugwort, the water shouldn’t quite be at boiling point – and the herb needs to infuse for ten minutes. A teaspoon of dried herbs should be enough for 2.5 decilitres. Since my favourite mug can hold 3.5 decilitres, I add a little more. I then order the machine to make me a 350-millilitre tea at 90 degrees Celcius with a 10-minute infusion time.
My first cup tastes exactly the way it should: slightly bitter. Which, when enriched with a bit of honey, is fine by me.
Source: Martin Jud
Of course, as well as loose tea leaves, there are a tonne of teabags in my kitchen. If I make a cuppa using teabags, I need to guide the cord out of the machine and over the handle each time.
Press the buttons and wait
A round, smartwatch-style display with two buttons underneath and a function dial with an integrated third button ensure I can start prepping the tea in a jiffy.
Source: Martin Jud
At the moment, English is the only available display language. When I go to change it, a message on the display informs me that more are on the way. An app allowing the machine to be operated via smartphone is also in the pipeline. The device is already equipped with Bluetooth.
BRU has three presets for green, black and herbal tea. You are, however, free to choose how you want your brew. You can determine the time, temperature and amount of tea as follows:
- Set a brewing time lasting anywhere between 10 seconds and 60 minutes (10-second increments available for up to 10 minutes, then on a minute by minute basis).
- Set a temperature of 45–100 degrees Celsius (in increments of 5 degrees Celsius). There’s also a cold option.
- Set the amount of tea to anything between 50 and 350 millilitres (in 50 millilitre increments).
You then press Start, at which point the machine starts emanating its first sounds. It hisses and whistles softly while the brewing chamber is being filled. At the same time, a red LED lights up the cup. Once the chamber has been filled, the light changes to yellow. After the tea has been brewed and poured into the cup, the light goes green. I also hear three high-pitched beeps. If the noise bothers you, you can deactivate it in the settings.
Source: Martin Jud
If you’d like to know how long the tea has left to brew, you can check the remaining time on the display. The screen itself can also be configured slightly. More precisely, you can change the screensaver from a BRU logo to a time display, or put it in dark mode. The screensaver disappears as soon as you approach the machine or set a mug underneath it.
Incidentally, the device can do even more than that. For instance, you can fill it in the evening, then have it serve you your tea in the morning at a time of your choosing. As someone who starts their day with a coffee before moving on to tea later, this isn’t of any use to me. Still, it’s a great feature. Here’s an overview of some more features:
- Timer: have your tea brewed at a time of your choosing.
- Multi steeping: infuse your tea multiple times using the same teabag or set of loose herbs. If you place a large enough container underneath, that is. Similarly, you need to adjust the amount of herbs you’re using accordingly.
- Cool down mode: mixes tea with unheated water. You can choose how much of the tea should consist of this water, say 50 per cent. If you want 300 millilitres of tea, BRU will brew 150 millilitres first, then dispense it into the cup, before adding the same amount of cold water.
- Water dispenser: allows you to get up to 400 millilitres of water dispensed at a temperature of your choosing. Alternatively, you can use Infinity mode, which dispenses all of the water in the tank at once. Thanks to the instantaneous water heater, there’s no waiting around for it to heat up.
Verdict: the BRU is my new bro
I’m thrilled at how smoothly everything’s going with the BRU – right from the first cup of tea to the last word of this article. With the exception of the incorrect tank volume specifications, the device is just as uncomplicated and low-hassle to use as the manufacturer has advertised. Plus, I’m never in the position of leaving a teabag or infuser in the mug for too long.
What the BRU Maker One can’t do is prepare tea for several people at once. Apart from that, it’s been almost perfect so far. It looks well made, is easy to operate and doesn’t need much maintenance. Unfortunately, there’s no water filter included in the box, so you have to buy that separately. That’s a bit of a shame in my view, as the water where I live is harder than elsewhere.
Two weeks into the test, the BRU is a steady part of the family. Depending on your perspective and your tea-drinking habits, it’s either a reasonable investment or a costly purchase. If you’re just an occasional tea drinker, you won’t have any great desire for yet another machine. If, like me, you knock back two or three cups a day, you probably won’t want to do without it.
Compared to a KitchenAid kettle with a temperature display, the tea maker is a bargain. Not only does it cost about the same, it serves perfect tea as well as hot water. Pitted against other kettles the price might be on the steep side. That said, going for a typical kettle means foregoing the convenience of automatic preparation.
In comparison to other tea makers, such as Nestlé’s MINI.T (website in German), the BRU Maker One can’t be beat. The reason? It all works without any expensive tea capsules.
Header image: Martin Jud
Martin Jud
Senior Editor
martin.jud@digitecgalaxus.chI find my muse in everything. When I don’t, I draw inspiration from daydreaming. After all, if you dream, you don’t sleep through life.
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