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 - A great appliance!I'm a tea lover, and I'm thrilled with the Hamilton Beach Iced Tea Maker. What I like: 1. It's much safer than boiling water on the stove (and possibly forgetting it!) or having to pour boiling water into a pitcher. 2. The tea tastes better than tea made the conventional way. I use 2 large bags of Luzianne tea, with the "strong" setting, and it turns out great - a pretty amber color, no bitterness, just the flavor of tea. Leftover tea tastes good hours later or even the next day. I love that this appliance allows you to dial the strength of tea you want. 3. The pour spout on the tea pitcher does not leak or spill over! This may seem trivial, but it's not to me. Most of the pitchers I've had in the past were messy to use. 4. The appliance is compact. The tower fits easily in the cabinet under my sink. The streamlined pitcher takes up little refrigerator space. 5. The price is reasonable. And, Amazon puts this item on sale most weekends, with free shipping for purchases over $25. I couldn't be happier with this appliance. I just hope it lasts forever (we'll see!). Rating: - Excellent ProductThis iced tea maker works as advertized. Much more controlable brew than with a Mr. Coffee. I like my tea strong and this unit has a variable brew selector. I received it in a timely manner fromt he seller and I am very satisfied. I have recommended it to my friends. Rating: - Wonderful Product - lets you adjust the strength of the teaWonderful Product - lets you adjust the strength of the tea The adjustment feature works. I started out on strong and found it bitter but once I lowered the setting to medium the tea is just right. I really like the tea bags being in the container in the pitcher since I don't forget and leave them in the machine. It is so easy to make iced tea now I save money since I cut way back on my soda consumption. Rating:  - Great little machineI read the reviews from others and, because of them, decided to give this iced tea maker a try. I was not disappointed. I've had it for about a month and have used at least once everyday. I love it. I agree that the pitcher could have been made a little sturdier(the only reason it didn't get 5 stars from me) but, since I immediately transfer the tea to another container and hand rinse everything it's not going to be an issue. It will hold up for a very long time. The machine is very simple to use. I, per directions, put one quart of water into the machine and then put about 1 INCH of cold water in the pitcher and add ice until almost the 1 quart line on the pitcher. I do this because the container that I transfer the tea to doesn't have a very large opening(2qt. juice bottle). To fill the pitcher with ice to the 2qt line on the pitcher(per mfg. directions) would require me to wait a long time for the ice to melt enough to make it an easy pour into my "holding container". Either way, the pitcher needs to be protected by ice/cool water from the very hot tea dripping into it or it could heat fracture over time. The 2qt rectangular type juice bottles are great because they take up less room than a round Tupperware type pitcher and they can also be stored on their side. And, if they break they're easily replaced when you finish drinking your cranberry juice.lol I digress. My recipe for iced tea to my liking: Selector on tea holder/"seeper" set to "strong" Two Lipton large size tea bags(on their side at the end where the hot water flows in). I also adjust the tea in the bags so it's spread out as it lays flat in the holder/"seeper". The large Lipton decaf bags are $3.46 for 24 bags at Walmart. While it's brewing I pour 13 packets of Equal type(Walmart brand 200 packets @$2.14) sweetener into my juice container and then squeeze in a good dose(1-1½ oz???) of Sicilia brand lemon juice. Unless you're using actual lemons Sicilia brand is the only way to go. IMHO, the other lemon juice brands, i.e. Realemon, are horrible and make for a lousy tasting tea. My local Walmart does not carry Sicilia but the other stores in my area do. It's 99¢-$1.50 for 4oz. Look in the produce section if they're not in the aisles near Realemon, etc... When the tea is done brewing, the ice(prepared my way) should be just melted and the tea will be room temperature. I take apart the unit, hang the just used tea bags in the pitcher of tea to cool off while I wash the tea holder/seeper and cover, and then squeeze out the tea bags into the brew and discard them. The brew then gets poured into my juice bottle with the waiting sweetener and lemon, shaken, and stored in the refrigerator until it's cold. I find that "aging" the brew for at least a couple of hours(while it's getting cold) brings out the flavor of the tea. Seeing as how I always have two containers in the "fridge" I don't have to worry about diluting the brew any further by pouring room temperature tea over ice to cool it. By the time I get to the "reserve" bottle it's cold. When I start drinking my "reserve" bottle I make a new batch to replace it. Rating: - Better than Mr CoffeeI have only owned the Hamilton Beach Iced Tea Maker for a couple of months but so far I am happy with my purchase. I have owned several Mr Coffee Iced Tea makers over the years and I can't even tell you how many pitchers I have purchased because of them continuing to split down the seam and leak. When it was time to replace the Mr Coffee yet again because of leaking, I decided to do some searching through the Amazon reviews to see if there was a better alternative. I came across the Hamilton Beach reviews and I liked what I read for the most part (except for the negative reviews, of course.)The Hamilton Beach Tea Maker was very reasonably priced and I thought I would take a chance on it. It has made great tea for me and been much easier to clean than the poorly designed tea basket for the Mr Coffee. The Mr Coffee tea basket has raised ridges in it that are impossible to remove the tannin stains from. The Hamilton Beach's tea basket is easy to clean. I like the trim size of the pitcher and it looks like it is not going to be splitting like the Mr Coffee pitcher. The only reason I gave it 4 stars was because I haven't owned it that long to see how it will hold up. If you like me are fed up with Mr Coffee, try the Hamilton Beach and I think you will be glad you did.
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