Product test
Your top picks: kettles
by Raphael Knecht
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.
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?
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.
«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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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:
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.
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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