REVIEW – I’m a tea drinker. I bet there aren’t but a handful of days in a year that I don’t have a cup (or two) of hot tea in the morning and then ice tea at night. I grew up on hot tea at breakfast and iced tea for supper, and I never strayed from that happy habit. When BOTA offered to send me their tea bottle, I didn’t hesitate to accept. Let’s see if the BOTA Tea Bottle is an essential part of a tea drinker’s EDC!
What is it?
The BOTA Tea Bottle is a self-contained tea brewing system.
What’s in the box?
- BOTA bottle
- Power cord
- User guide
Product specs
Temperature: 50°F – 212°F (10°C – 100°C)
Capacity 10.2 oz / 300mL
Voltage: 110V
Rated Frequency: 60HZ
Capacity: 10.2oz/300mL
Weight: .98lbs (without steeping chamber: 0.75lbs)
Size: 2.88 x 2.88 x 10in (without steeping chamber: 2.88 x 2.88 x 7.5in)
Design and features
The BOTA Tea Bottle is available in 3 colors, including the Apricot Bliss color that you see here. It also comes in Pearl White and Forest Green.
At first glance, the BOTA Tea Bottle looks like a regular water bottle or small thermos until you notice the small oval display on the base that is flanked by two touch buttons.
The back of the bottle has a plastic flap that protects the power socket.
The BOTA Tea Bottle has two sections. The bottom part holds and heats the water, and the top part is the tea steeping chamber. I was disappointed to find that the tea steeping chamber is made of plastic. I don’t like using plastic when it comes to cooking food or beverages. I really wish the tea steeping chamber was made of glass, but let’s press on with the rest of the review.
The top of the BOTA Tea Bottle has a removable cap with three tiny holes for steam to escape.
Removing that top cap allows you to see into the tea steeping chamber. You can also drink directly from the top of the bottle if you want to. The chamber has a slotted area to keep the tea leaves in the chamber while you drink.
You will notice two icons under the tea steeping chamber for lock and unlock. This allows the heated water to fill the chamber and then drain back into the bottle once the tea is steeped.
Here’s a view of the bottom of the tea steeping chamber so you can see that it is in the open position because you can see the small holes where the heated water can flow into the chamber.
The premium food grade stainless steel bottle can hold 10.2 oz/300mL of water.
Let’s brew some tea!
The first step to making tea with the BOTA Tea Bottle is to fill the bottle with water. I just used filtered tap water. Then you can screw the tea steeping chamber in place and add some tea.
BOTA actually sells two different types of tea like the package you see above. I’m not into flavored teas or herbal teas. I like black teas.
I usually order all my teas from STASH teas like the package you see above.
I filled the BOTA tea steeping chamber with two teaspoons of loose dry tea leaves.
Then with tea steeping chamber screwed in place and the cap on top, the chamber needs to be turned to the unlocked position. You can then set the temperature by pressing the buttons on the bottle’s base. Note that the temperature is displayed in Celsius instead of Fahrenheit, and there’s no way to change that.
After you set the desired temperature and press the confirm button, the BOTA Tea Bottle will heat the water in the bottom, and the display in the base will show the temperature as it heats. Once the water is heated to the set temp (it doesn’t take long at all!), the bottle will beep. You can then tip the bottle over so that the hot water fills the tea steeping chamber. When it is filled, you turn the chamber to lock it and then wait 2-3 minutes for the tea leaves to steep in the hot water.
This is where I think it would be nice to have a built-in timer to remind you that the tea is finished steeping. After the time is up, you unlock the chamber and tip it so that the water will drain back into the bottle.
This leaves you with soggy tea leaves in the chamber.
Now you can drink the tea right now directly from the bottle and through the wet tea leaves. But if you look carefully, you can see that some of the leaves are on top of the slotted partition. I don’t know about you, but I don’t really like drinking (eating?) tea leaves…
So I just removed the tea steeping chamber from the BOTA tea bottle…
You can screw the cap on top and be on your merry way.
But I prefer to pour the tea into a mug, add some sweetener and enjoy. I was kind of blown away by just how great the cup of tea tasted. I make this tea all the time in a glass kettle on my gas stove, and it tastes so much better from the BOTA tea bottle. It must be a glass vs. stainless steel thing. I don’t know, but wow, did it taste good! Also, I almost never re-use tea leaves because I find the second cup to taste terrible. When I re-brewed the leaves with the BOTA tea bottle for the second time, the flavor was almost as good as the first cup!
But it’s not all rainbows and unicorns…
Cleaning out the tea chamber is a bit of a mess because half of the opening is restricted by the slotted section. You also can’t clean the bottle in the sink or dishwasher. You have to clean the inside of the bottle carefully by hand without getting water in the power connector.
Another gotcha is that you can’t make tea on the go with the BOTA tea bottle because it has to be plugged into a wall socket to work. It would be nice if there was a battery-powered version.
Also, it only makes enough tea for one person at a time.
What I like
- Makes a delicious cup of tea
- Easy to use
What I’d change
- Ability to switch from Celsius to Fahrenheit
- Change from using plastic for the tea steeping chamber to glass
- A larger capacity would be nice
Final thoughts
I have to be honest and say that I wasn’t really expecting much out of the BOTA tea bottle as far as how well it would brew tea. But I was very impressed by the tea I’ve brewed in it. So much so that it makes me want to experiment with a stainless steel kettle and actually check the temperature of the water. If you want to be able to dial in the exact temperature of the water and you don’t mind that it only makes one cup of tea at a time the BOTA tea bottle works great.
Price: $90.00
Where to buy: BOTA and Amazon
Source: The sample for this review was provided by BOTA.
