Teforia Brewer (for office use)

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d.manuk
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Thu Mar 15, 2018 1:17 pm

Since the company Teforia went out of business, I have been considering buying one of the devices that you can use to brew your own loose leaf tea with (because prices have gone down dramatically).

I was wondering if anyone else has been thinking the same thing and I was wondering if there were any cons to doing so other than not being able to buy replacement parts and needing to have a separate iOS device that will be running an older version of iOS since the app will no longer be updated.

I've been thinking about buying this device because I don't want to drink Western style at work, and going to the kitchen is a hassle for gong-fu even if I do 2 infusions at a time. Has anyone here tried the Teforia?
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pedant
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Thu Mar 15, 2018 2:11 pm

i haven't considered buying one and haven't tried one either, but what are they going for now?
they were 1k usd before, right?
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d.manuk
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Thu Mar 15, 2018 2:14 pm

pedant wrote:
Thu Mar 15, 2018 2:11 pm
i haven't considered buying one and haven't tried one either, but what are they going for now?
they were 1k usd before, right?
You can buy a used one for less than $200 now.
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pedant
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Thu Mar 15, 2018 2:31 pm

so you're thinking of having one of these at your desk instead of going to the kitchen?
how would it reduce trips to the kitchen vs a normal gongfu setup?
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d.manuk
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Thu Mar 15, 2018 3:09 pm

pedant wrote:
Thu Mar 15, 2018 2:31 pm
so you're thinking of having one of these at your desk instead of going to the kitchen?
how would it reduce trips to the kitchen vs a normal gongfu setup?
No, it would have to be in the kitchen too. I was told I can't have water heaters on my desk (otherwise gongfu would not be an issue).
With this, it brews several infusions over the span of 10 minutes or so which means I can just pick it up once when it's done. As opposed to waiting for water to boil and doing 2 back-to-back gaiwan infusions and wasting a lot of time!
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pedant
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Thu Mar 15, 2018 3:38 pm

what about an insulated hot water dispenser?
like those things for coffee?
or just a big thermos.
you could fill that thing up once or twice a day and have it at your desk.
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d.manuk
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Thu Mar 15, 2018 4:25 pm

I am a perfectionist and did not like using a thermos. :D
The glass ones got too cool and the metal ones taste like metal to me.

I bought the thing, let's see what it's like when it gets here :lol:
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pedant
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Thu Mar 15, 2018 5:02 pm

nice. do a review of it lol
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d.manuk
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Mon Mar 26, 2018 6:39 pm

Here are my initial thoughts after using it a bit. I'll post more if something else comes to mind later on.
How can I describe it?
Well, it's as if a machine were making tea.

The creator of this device clearly did not intend it to be a replacement for gaiwan brewing -- if it were, then the steeping times and temperatures would be a lot more customizable. There's just light, medium, and strong setting for each tea type. It actually comes off as egotistical, as if he were pushing his brewing parameters onto you, as if you the customer didn't know any better. Excuse me, I'm pretty sure I do know how to brew better for my tastes. :roll: It's also hard to tell what strong vs medium does to the brewing parameters. It seems like for some tea types it just increases the water temp and keeps a similar decanting schedule. I would still prefer to use a gaiwan over this device because I can make better tea than it, but at a place like an office, this device is helpful if you can't have a kettle at your desk. It can come close to gaiwan brewing (but not surpass it), but can also not be as close as I would like for some teas that I like to do longer brews with like oolongs. With some oolongs I prefer to start off with a 2 min steep. You can't really customize it to do a specific brewing routine, which is not great. Rinsing puer is not programmed into the software, which is also a major flaw. As a result, I would never brew shou in this which is a shame since its the most forgiving tea type and probably the best suited for this kind of device. Maybe it's meant for stuff like Rishi tea where it doesn't really matter how you'll brew it. But if you're brewing something that's of at least some quality, the lack of customization is irritating.

Overall this seems like it will be a good option for me for what I wanted it for, and at the $200 price I paid I am only slightly unhappy. Since I bring teas that don't fit my ideal to brew at work, this will work fine as a solution and will save me a lot of time waiting around. I would feel very burned if I had paid $1,500 for this due to the lack of customization. The next gen of product like this should allow for fully customizable brewing routines.

The marketing strategy was also a miss in my opinion, since I don't think individual consumers were the target.
I'm sure the next version of this will be better, whoever decides to take another swing at it.
Last edited by d.manuk on Tue Mar 27, 2018 2:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Victoria
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Mon Mar 26, 2018 8:15 pm

Is this the one you got? http://www.adagio.com/teaware/teforia.html
Looks to work with tea pods...
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d.manuk
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Mon Mar 26, 2018 8:20 pm

Victoria wrote:
Mon Mar 26, 2018 8:15 pm
Is this the one you got? http://www.adagio.com/teaware/teforia.html
Looks to work with tea pods...
It works with both pods and your own tea. I also forgot to mention that the brewing chamber is plastic instead of glass which is a big con for me since that affects the flavor too.
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pedant
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Mon Mar 26, 2018 8:51 pm

thanks for the entertaining review.

maybe it could be reverse engineered for more customizability.
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OldWaysTea
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Tue Mar 27, 2018 11:58 am

Shine Magical wrote:
Mon Mar 26, 2018 8:20 pm
It works with both pods and your own tea. I also forgot to mention that the brewing chamber is plastic instead of glass which is a big con for me since that affects the flavor too.
Interesting. I thought that they did a glass inside plastic outside design. I've never seen one in person. When they did that fire sale I considered buying one.
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d.manuk
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Tue Mar 27, 2018 12:35 pm

OldWaysTea wrote:
Tue Mar 27, 2018 11:58 am
Shine Magical wrote:
Mon Mar 26, 2018 8:20 pm
It works with both pods and your own tea. I also forgot to mention that the brewing chamber is plastic instead of glass which is a big con for me since that affects the flavor too.
Interesting. I thought that they did a glass inside plastic outside design. I've never seen one in person. When they did that fire sale I considered buying one.
I don't think I would recommend one even for the $200 price you can buy it for now.
The brewing parameters just seem off. I'm pretty sure that if you brew sheng on a light setting, it uses less than boiling water and initial steeps are around 30 seconds.

It's hard for me to tell if the inside layer is glass since it's hard to put my finger inside, but to me it feels like plastic based on the sound when I flick it.

Anyway. It was fun to try it out but grandpa style would probably be similar or even better to using this machine if you can't do gong fu.
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d.manuk
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Tue Mar 27, 2018 2:34 pm

I don't like it -- I'm just going to give it to my friend. :lol:
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