Cuisinart Electric Kettle Review
Anyone a tea lover? My love affair with tea began at a young age with enjoying Earl Grey Tea. Today I am sharing my tea adventure along with a product review of Cuisinart Electric Kettle. As full disclosure, I am not getting paid a commission for this Cuisinart Electric Kettle review or the websites where you can purchase tea.
Enjoying a Good Cup of Tea
Sharing My Tea Adventure
I enjoyed Earl Grey Tea on a daily basis for a good decade before branching out to other teas. And I am in good company with Captain Picard from Star Trek Next Generation famous command to the replicator: Tea, Earl Grey, Hot! Perfect since he is my favorite Star Trek Captain beside Captain Kirk!
But Over the years I broaden my palate with green tea, white tea, ginger tea, Indian Chai among many other teas. Exploring different teas is a lot fun along with learning about their health benefits, how they grow the tea and history. Loose tea is always a favorite, in my opinion, providing one of the best cups of tea. How you store loose tea is important by ensuring the tea leaves remain fresh by using an air proof bag or container and keeping it out of the sun. Air and sunlight are the enemy! That also goes for tea bags which are my typical way of enjoying tea. Especially when I am at work. The loose tea becomes a bit too cumbersome with attending meetings and remembering to clean the tea diffuser or having time to prepare a tea bag.
Where I Purchase Tea
A couple favorite sources of tea includes Harney & Sons and Teavana. So much fun visiting a Teavana store to enjoy the wonderful tea aromas and sampling a brewed tea before making a purchase. Actually it is a bit dangerous to the credit card! But their wonderful containers keep the tea fresh for a very long time. Harney & Sons is dear to my heart as I started purchasing their teas before you could even order on the Internet! Catalog sales only! And I love family owned businesses!
My tea adventure led to understanding the aroma, body, and briskness that typically is rated on a numeric scale from low to high. Understanding the type of tea you enjoy and the time of the day can make a difference in your selection including do you want caffeine in your cup of tea. Did you know some teas are made with fillers and not from the pure tea leaves? As you try different teas, learn to tap into your four senses of sight, touch, smell and taste. A good cup of tea is like a good glass of wine. Not all wines are equal in quality and taste – the same with a cup of tea. Pure Leaf is a favorite bottled brew tea of mine. They have a nice article on Identifying Quality Tea.
Water Temperature is Critical
Now that leads up to the water temperature – an important step in brewing a good cup of tea. Different tea leaves require a different water temperature. For a good cup of black tea you need to bring the water to a boil. If you use lukewarm water the tea does not properly brew. However green tea can become bitter if you boil the water! Each type of tea requires the water to heat to a certain temperature. This means heating the water in the microwave or on the stovetop while ensuring it is the right temperature!
One day going through my tea magazine, I noticed a gadget to heat the water to the correct temperature! The cost $99. A little steep in price even for the perfect cup of tea. Of course I kept looking at this electric tea kettle trying to justify it. Then one day, there it was on Amazon for $79.99. That was enough for me to purchase this gadget! In December 2016 we purchased the Cuisinart CPK-17 PerfecTemp 1.7-Liter Stainless Steel Cordless Electric kettle, 1.7 L, Silver. And I never regretted the purchase.
Cuisinart Electric Tea Kettle Review Ratings
My overall rating is an A+
- Pros
- Simple to use by pressing the preset tea buttons (see below)
- Water reaches temperature quicker than stove top or microwave
- Looks really good on the countertop
- Kettle is removable from the base for cordless convenience
- Boil dry protection feature
- Stay cool handle – never gets hot!
- Cons
- Pricey, definitely a luxury item over a need
Preset Tea Buttons
- Delicate 160 degrees
- Green 175 degrees
- White 185 degrees
- Oolong 190 degrees
- French Press 200 degrees
- Black 212 degrees boil
How to use the Cuisinart Electric Tea Kettle
- Add water: Press open button and add desired amount of water to the kettle
- Plug in: If the kettle is not plugged in, then plug into outlet
- Select preset: Press one of the preset tea buttons
- Start: Press start button and the preset button “flashes” while heating
- Tea: Get your tea mug ready with a tea bag or tea leaves
- Beeps: Kettle starts to heat and beeps when water reaches desired temperature
- Enjoy: Pour your perfect cup of tea!
- Warm Setting: Keep Warm is the kettle’s default function that automatically maintains selected temperature for 30 minutes. (The warm setting text is copied from Cuisinart’s instructions for accuracy purposes.)
- If you have selected the Boil preset, your unit will hold a temperature just below boiling during the Keep Warm cycle.
- To bring water back to a rolling boil, press the Start button twice. Keep Warm can be turned off by pressing the Keep Warm button at any time before or during the heating cycle.
- Remove Water: Pour out any extra water. Leave the lid open for the kettle to dry.
- Unplug: Unplug unit or you can leave it plugged into the outlet.
Tea and cake…seems like the perfect recipe!
I love both!!! ☕️🍰
My wife recently made Earl Grey “ice tea” for the first time. Normally we have regular black tea. It was quite an eye opener having a really different flavor like this– and quite good. Have a good one, Bernice.
Art
Earl Grey tea is wonderful and unlike other teas with the bergamot. Glad you enjoyed it!! 💕