Let me start off by saying that this is a bad idea.
We’ll get into the details why below.
But I do understand the question.
You want to start drinking loose leaf tea, but you don’t want to have to buy a bunch of equipment. You already have a coffee maker and both coffee and tea are made with hot water, so why shouldn’t it work?
Well, there are a few things wrong with that line of thinking.
First of all, tea does not require any special equipment. I can guarantee you already have everything you need. More on that below, too.
Second of all, most teas don’t get brewed with boiling water. But before we get into all of that, let’s go ahead and answer the main question first, just to get it out of the way.
Table of Contents
Can You Brew Tea In A Coffee Maker?
Yes, you can brew tea in a normal countertop coffee maker, no problem. I’ll show you how below, but I would not recommend it.
Since a coffee maker is just a machine that runs hot water through a basket filled with whatever you want to put in it, it makes no difference if you fill it with tea or coffee.
However, do not start dumping your expensive loose leaf tea in your coffee maker’s basket just yet! There are a number of reasons why it is not a great idea.
And if you have a pod-type coffee maker, things are a bit different. Can you make tea with a Keurig? Yes, in a number of ways, actually. Read that article for more.
Why You Shouldn’t Put Tea In A Coffee Maker
- No accounting for steep time
- Can’t be precise with water temperature
- Intense cleaning process to get it ready
- It’s not the proper way to make tea
Steep Time Issue
When you make tea in a normal coffee machine, there is no way to tell it to soak the tea for a certain amount of time before releasing the water into the carafe. This is a major problem for most loose leaf teas, which needs to steep for a certain amount of time.
Not steeping your tea for enough time results in weak and bland cup. Steeping for too long results in bitterness. This reason alone is enough to keep me from using the coffee maker for tea.
Water Temperature
This is also a big issue. Coffee makers usually heat water to a temperature just under the boiling point. Black tea needs water that is about the same temperature for optimal brewing. The same goes for most herbal teas.
But other types of tea should be brewed using cooler water. Oolong tea should be 10 to 15 degrees below boiling. Green tea and white tea should be another 10 to 20 degrees below that.
This means that a coffee maker uses water that is far too hot for green or white tea and somewhat too hot for oolong. Water that is too hot results in a bitter cup of tea and is another reason to avoid brewing tea in a coffee machine.
This is a similar issue you face when boiling your water for tea in a microwave. There is no way to know how long to microwave water for tea to get it to a specific temperature.
Coffee Maker Cleaning Issue
To remove weeks, or maybe months, of coffee residue from a coffee machine it is going to take some work. You will need to use white vinegar and hot water to remove all the brown coffee grime that builds up on a coffee maker.
And don’t even think about leaving it! If you have ever had a nice green tea made from a coffee maker and tasted that nasty coffee bitterness you will not want to repeat the experience!
But the vinegar smell isn’t much better, so you need to make sure to rinse that all off, too. Plus you will have to scrub the carafe, and all the plastic parts like the water reservoir and the basket as well.
Doing the job properly can take up to 30 minutes. And it is not fun. I recommend avoiding this nightmare by just making tea the correct way, like a civilized human should. You can just brew it the Chinese way in regular glass.
Not the Proper Way to Make Tea
This one is more of a principal objection. I simply do not like the idea of making tea this way.
If you are British or from some other western country, tea is meant to be enjoyed with a teapot and a teacup and saucer. And if you are going ham, your pinky will be sticking out when you hold the cup.
If you prefer the Asian way, you brew it in a gaiwan or a yixing or a kyusu.
Bottom line: if you go to the trouble of buying loose leaf tea, why would you want to ruin that by brewing it in a coffee maker? It just seems inappropriate at least, and blasphemous at worst, to use a coffee maker to make your precious cup of tea!
Plus some teas can’t be made in a coffee maker at all. Top of the list is matcha, which is actually the best tea if you want a caffeine boost like you get from coffee. Our coffee vs matcha comparison has more.
All that said, if you must go against all that is holy, here is how to do it.
How To Make Tea In A Coffee Maker
To prepare your coffee maker for tea duty, you will need to clean it first.
- Take out the filter and any coffee grounds that are in the basket compartment. Wipe the area down with a damp cloth and wring out the cloth. Take the damp cloth and wipe down the inside of the carafe as well.
- Put a few cups of vinegar along with some tap water (however much you normally need to brew a full pot) and run the coffee maker as normal.
- After the machine has finished its course, go ahead, and dump out the vinegar water mixture. Take the carafe and rinse it out in the sink using warm water, and then cold.
- Run another full pot of water through the coffee maker with nothing in the basket. You are just rinsing it out with hot water. This step will help remove any of the vinegar residue left over from the previous step. However, in my experience you can taste a bit of vinegar for the first few pots, so you may want to repeat this step a few times.
- Now you can put your tea in the basket. Use the amount recommended on the box, bag or tin. If there are no instructions, go with one teaspoon per cup.
- Run the coffee machine as usual and wait until the tea is cool enough to drink.
Tea Bags For Slightly Better Results
If you are using tea bags, you can just place them directly in the carafe. This gives you control over the steeping time, at least. Simply run the machine with nothing in the basket, then put the tea bags in the hot water.
This works fine, because tea bags are usually not the best quality anyway and it doesn’t matter much if the water is too hot. Steeping time won’t actually matter as much with tea bags either.
But is this really the easiest way to boil water? I guess if you have no other way to do it, go ahead and make your tea bag tea this way. But for loose leaf, you really shouldn’t.
Making Tea In A Coffee Maker: Final Thoughts
Coffee is pretty much a one size fits all deal. You buy the coffee (does not matter which kind) and you place it in a coffee maker and press the button. It all gets brewed the same way.
But this is not the case for tea!
As mentioned, certain teas need certain steep times and water temperatures. For one easy example, green tea can easily be scalded and taste very bitter.
To ensure you get the best possible cup of tea, you want to brew it correctly. Our article on brewing tea properly will help.
Even if you don’t have a tea pot or any other type of brewing vessel, you can still brew it the right way. As mentioned above, you can simply put the leaves in a regular glass and add water. They do this in a lot of tea houses in China.
A better alternative, and still very cost effective, is to buy a simple tea infuser that you can use with any cup or mug you already have. They cost very little and make steeping tea so much easier. But honestly, even a good teapot with a built-in infuser costs less than $20.
Thank you! You sparked an idea…
I’m definitely using my coffee maker to make tea now.
Just run 4 cups of water threw it.
Dump that out.
I make a Gallon of Black Tea at a time BTW.
Then run 12 cups of water threw…
You said it’s almost boiling…
I steap for 10 minutes
Dipping 66 times at Start Then
Start another 66 dips at around the 8 minute mark
Pulling out at exactly 10 min.
Clean Glass as normal.
Done.
I Rather use a large saucepan, but only got a tiny one here.
Also it’s tea made to brew hot
Then add ice till you got your Gallon.
I keep refrigerated.
Called Iced Black Tea.
Great Taste, you feel.
Can run that first 4 cup threw strainer only 2-3 more times, to clean off coffee taste as much as possible.
Years ago, I used to make sun tea in a gallon jar on the porch, but with the invention of the coffee maker, I now make 2 gallons of iced tea every single day, and have done so for more years than I can count. I use 12 cups of room temp filtered water in the reservoir and 4 tea bags in the pot along with 1 tablespoon of sugar. It runs its cycle and then I cool it down after it steeps for 20 minutes. In a gallon plastic jug I add a large block of ice (frozen in a plastic tub) and stir till melted. Then I fill the remainder of the gallon jug with cold water. Let me tell you that this is delicious and everyone in my family loves it, even the kids. All I can say is “Yum!” Oh, use any brand and flavor of tea you like. Barb.
“Coffee is pretty much a one size fits all deal. You buy the coffee (does not matter which kind) and you place it in a coffee maker and press the button. It all gets brewed the same way.” – This shows a lack of understanding of coffee. Roast level dictates different ideal temperatures and quality/freshness matters a lot. I came searching for novel ways to brew tea but all I found was ignorance.
Barb here again…to clarify more on my way of making tea in a coffee maker, I did not mention that my coffee maker is dedicated to making tea only. If I want a cup of coffee, I use the one cup side for that. Now, keep in mind that your tea will be even better if you have a good water filtering system. We just installed a water system on our new sink and the water is so good. You know how you get a golden glass of iced tea in a restaurant? That’s what you get with a quality water filtering system. . Couldn’t be happier!!
Geesh. Relax.
Having used a coffee maker for making tea for the better part of a decade, and even having bought a dedicated “tea maker” (cheap single cup coffe maker) I can tell you that controlling the bitter/weak balance is just a matter of adding or reducing the amount of leaves in the basket, much like one would do with coffee. I don’t know if the green teas, I drink from time to time, would be better if they were brewed in less hot water, but they taste much the same as the matcha powdered tea I drink, so I’m guessing it doesn’t make much of a difference.
At any rate, coffee makers for tea brewing is underrated IMO.
after 52 years of coffee drinking, I just can no longer stand these awful coffees of today. One would have to be old enough to remember what REALLY good coffee tastes like. I have tried every brand, organic,too, and tried grinding beans,etc……the taste is just not there…nowhere near! . I know all the tricks of the coffee trade….adding cellulose products, sawdust,etc to the bags of ground coffee for wt and less coffee/lb in the bag…., and always they pick coffee beans before their time and then only halfway cure in the sun, in their rush to mkt….like they do the awful tasting tomatoes (pick green and let ripen by time it reaches the grocery store)….thus MUCH less flavor. Also the beans and ground coffee bags can sit for even a yr in warehouses…..thus the horrible taste of coffee in the 21st century! Younger people do not notice, because they were not born or old enough to drink coffee, when coffee was so scrumptiously rich tasting….you don’t miss what you never had.. I will now quit coffee…I give up. We will try this method of making tea in the coffee maker. We really like Milo’s tea in the jugs in grocery stores…no additives, it is just tea, and water…and sugar in the sweetened one. We could just pour into a saucepan and heat it in the morning for a quick method on rushed days. Good bye, my once beloved morning coffee…you have become gag worthy for quite a while now!
Hi Donna…in case you missed my earlier post, my coffee maker is a dedicated machine to making only tea. This is what I wrote…
“Years ago, I used to make sun tea in a gallon jar on the porch, but with the invention of the coffee maker, I now make 2 gallons of iced tea every single day, and have done so for more years than I can count. I use 12 cups of room temp filtered water in the reservoir and 4 tea bags in the pot along with 1 tablespoon of sugar. It runs its cycle and then I cool it down after it steeps for 20 minutes. In a gallon plastic jug I add a large block of ice (frozen in a plastic tub) and stir till melted. Then I fill the remainder of the gallon jug with cold water. Let me tell you that this is delicious and everyone in my family loves it, even the kids. All I can say is “Yum!” Oh, use any brand and flavor of tea you like. Barb.”
Thank you, Barb….BTW, my mother used to make the sun tea you mentioned…wow, it was soooo good. Just about everyone in our home town made sun tea “way back when”. I will definitely try the coffee maker procedure you recommend for tea….and yes, because I do think I am about ready for a new coffee maker now, I will buy one just for the tea making. I surely love and will miss coffee,tho….been drinking it daily since I was 17 yrs old…now am 72. However, I definitely like iced tea on the hot afternoons and have enjoyed hot tea of various sorts at times, just here and there throughout my life. I do see why the younger set likes all that sweet junk they call “coffee” at Starbucks now….ha, because Starbucks just completely camouflages today’s awful coffee taste with tons of other sugary concoction ingredients!! I have always drunk my coffee black, so I just want coffee in my coffee! Thank you so much for the tea procedure instructions…am looking forward to it….Donna
Hi Donna, it’s Barb again…
I mistakenly said to use 4 tea bags in making the tea, but it’s 5. Or, you can experiment with the number of bags used thus deciding how strong you like your finished tea. Do let me know how it goes.
It’s soooo nice to not have to constantly clean my coffee maker with vinegar. Just think how much water is wasted in that process. My goal, at my age, is to reduce the amount of work I do as I am somewhat handicapped.
Hi Barb….Thanks for the correction. We will use up the last of the coffee (only a few days left of it) , before trying the tea…plus I need to get on the stick and go buy a new coffee maker for exclusively tea.. With Thanksgiving coming up on Thursday, everything besides prepping for it around here has been put on hold… over the this past weekend and all this week. I also am a great believer now in reducing work….for me, it is just mostly a matter of the aging process, tho I do not like to admit it…LOL!! I think tho it is smart to find quicker simpler ways of doing things, and especially a must with a handicap….and also how else can we ever find any time to smell the roses in whatever situation life dishes us.? I will let you know how the tea fixing goes….ha, if my brain still works post Thanksgiving and with Christmas coming up….maybe a “note to self” not to forget had better be posted pronto…I do not trust my brain alone anymore….especially during the holiday season!
Donna, may your holidays be blessed, and do enjoy your new “tea” maker 😁. We think very much alike. I’m all about making things easier these days…and enjoying life to the fullest, and enjoying my occasional cup of coffee. Keep me posted how your tea maker turns out. Barb…
Thanks , Barb….same to you!!
Thanks for your informative article. I will definitely follow your suggestion while purchasing the coffee maker. Do you have any article about how to cleaning the coffee maker?
Hi Ashley…good to hear from you,
Unfortunately, there is no quick and easy way to clean the literal crap that comes out of a coffee maker (as you’ll read below), which is why I switched to the cowboy coffee method of using a coffee filter, fine mesh strainer, and my single cup “water” maker to do the work.
For this process of using a DEDICATED coffee maker for just hot water, there is no need to clean it like you would if using coffee. My coffee maker is going on 3 years now and I still have the exact same results each time I make tea, and that is because the tea bags are in the pot and not the basket. I let them steep for at least 10 minutes. I make one gallon at a time. And Yes, it only runs water through it. My iced tea is golden in color and delicious (I also use black tea from Aldi, by the way.) all I can say is yum!!! My tea is golden when finished and not black., and that’s because of filtered water.
Oh, the process of finishing the “iced” tea is to fill a gallon plastic jug with ice and pour the hot tea over it. Stir til melted and add cold water to finish. So crazy good.
Have a great day!!!
Barb
I did a test by cleaning the coffee maker with vinegar and it came out completely clear. No residue, nothing. So running just water through it is okay.
I also purchased a slim “coffee maker” for making that occasional cup of coffee. I ventured out and made an actual cup of coffee with it and very quickly regretted my actions. It took forever, an hour at least, to rid it of the coffee residue and used way too much water in the cleaning process. So I’ve gone back to making cowboy coffee with a filter and fine strainer in my cup and used the hot water that came out of the slim coffee maker. You see, I don’t drink coffee every day but do enjoy a cup here and there. I’ve been at this forever—for more than 40 years—and feel strongly that I know what I’m talking about. It’s all in the finished product.