Tea for Two or Three or Me

New Yorkers always appear to be seen with a cup of coffee in their hand. Nearly every home has a coffee or espresso maker. In spite of all this, tea is still a more popular beverage. So it’s quite surprising that the Zarafina Tea Maker Suite is one of a handful of electric products exclusively designed to brew and dispense tea for the home.

Hot tea has its origins in China almost 5,000 years ago making it the world’s oldest beverage. It is the second most popular drink after water. The origins of iced tea can be traced to the 1904 St. Louis Fair where, because of hot weather temperatures, tea was poured over ice cubes (now we place ice into the tea).

Traditional tea comes from the Camellia sinensis plant, a warm-weather evergreen. How the fresh leaves of the tea plant are processed and their level of contact with oxygen determine resulting types of tea – Green, Black, Oolong.

Among many cultures, medicine originated by brewing herbs into an elixir that was very much like tea. For all we know, herbal tea may actually be older than traditional brews. And the shaman and alchemists of the past would have boasted that the beverage was far more sophisticated than merely soaking leaves in hot water.

Accepting bag or loose tea, the Zarafina Tea Maker lets you adjust tea strength as it steeps and dispenses up to 16 ounces of tea. The suite includes a ceramic teapot for storing and serving brewed tea, 2 teacups, and a serving tray.

As people become more conscious of their health, we expect that the Zarafina will be seen as a way to get an optimal cup of tea. Let’s see how real New Yorkers take to it.

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