Patent ID: 7594469

Claim:
An apparatus for brewing tea, comprising: a brew chamber that holds water; an infuser disposed in the chamber that holds tea leaves and allows the water to contact the tea leaves, wherein the infuser includes a valve that opens when the water in the brew chamber reaches a predetermined temperature allowing heated water in the brew chamber to flow into the infuser; a heater that heats the water in the brew chamber; a control that sets a tea characteristic of the tea leaves; a control circuit in communication with the heater, wherein the control circuit controls power to the heater to heat the water to a steep temperature and then controls power to the heater to maintain the steep temperature for a steep time, the control circuit determining the steep temperature and the steep time based on the set tea characteristic and wherein the tea leaves steep in the heated water to produce a brewed tea; and wherein the predetermined temperature is lower than the steep temperature and the steep time begins when the water in the brew chamber reaches the steep temperature, wherein the control includes a user settable tea format control that is set to select whether the tea format is bagged or loose, the control circuit basing the steep time on the tea format set by the tea format control.