Upon opening our third store, we thought it would be fun to try a product that Bunn had previously been selling only to coffee shops and use it to make tea. Adagio Teas is currently the only tea shop to carry the Trifecta, as the Bunn product is called. The Trifecta has 12 main parameters that you can calibrate on the machine. They include weight, volume, pre-wet, pre-infusion, fill pause, brew time, turbulence on, turbulence off, turbulence power, press-out power, press-out time, and temperature. Most of these are pretty self explanatory, but I’ll expand on a couple of them. The pre-infusion is the percentage of the total amount of water you use just to wet the leaves. The pre-wet is the time it takes to add the correct amount of unheated water to the leaves before brew time begins.
It’s amazing how many settings you can change on the machine. Just one tea can take forever to calibrate. Depending on how fresh the tea is, the taste can be dramatically different. What I love most about the machine is that you’re able to calibrate it such that you can pull out the nuanced flavors of your classic teas. We’re able to take our gyokuro and make it extra buttery and smooth. We’re also able to take our wild strawberry, which is usually very tart because of the hibiscus base, and make you think you are drinking liquid strawberries.
Another advantage of the machine is that most teas are brewed in less time. Our foxtrot is an herbal tea made of rooibos, peppermint, and chamomile. Usually it takes a minimum of 5 minutes to steep. With the Trifecta, we can have it done in 30 seconds because the turbulence allows it to brew faster. This forces you to ask yourself this question: If the machine makes great-tasting teas in less time, why not use it to make all of your teas all of the time? The bad part is that we can only program in 12 or so teas at once. The other bad part is that it cannot make more than 16 ounces of tea at a time, which forces us to sell only small-size cups using the machine. Our 20-ounce cups of tea to go have to be made using more traditional methods. However, I still highly encourage any tea café that’s looking to add something unique for their customers to learn more about the Trifecta by Bunn.
This does sound interesting. Too bad it’s not feasible for residential use. I love that it takes less than a minute to steep delicious teas. I look forward to hearing from Diane to see how it differs from her rapid tea making device.
Hi Michelle,
It sounds like the main differences are:
1) We can do any type of teas and herbals
2) There is no pre-programming or calibration..aka ‘fool proof’. Our consumer reviews pretty much tell the story on results.
3 ) At California Tea & Coffee Brewery, we can also brew (on this model) 6 simultaneously at one time of any type, tea or herbal, in 1 minute, opposed to one at a time in 40 seconds, which allows us to do a number of samples or beverages in much less time total.
3) We have had our technology taste tested on visits to our store by industry professionals including judges/sponsors of World Tea Expo who have come, one with their own teas–starting with a tightly wound Formosa oolong–and are amazed that we can do virtually any tea or herbal simultaneously with amazing and consistent results.
Regarding the time, we have found that one minute is actually perfect; it gives time to get the shaker of ice or steam the milk if you are making a specialty beverage with the tea and be ready to pour without the tea sitting & waiting. Anything under a minute, we have found from four years of making thousands and thousands of beverages in a store environment, would not be optimum; we can make it faster but find we don’t need to.
From what I understand from the owner of one, the Bunn also requires more tea to be used to get the time down from much under a minute and still make an optimum flavor profile? Maybe Chris could expand on this. We use the same amount of tea for any tea or herbal. For samples, we use 1/2 tsp to make two 2 oz. samples, so we can show them sweetened & unsweetened if desired.
Amazing. Perhaps Adagio will consider trying one of your machines……..it certainly sounds like the better brewer on multiple levels. I look forward to Chris’s reply as well.
Michelle, we are not currently able to offer the machine to other businesses but, if someone is interested in hearing more, they’re welcome to contact me through my Contributor’s Profile here.
I was just at the SCAA in Portland this past weekend and saw the Trifecta for the second time. The demo was with a mid grade yin zen silver needle. I was quite shocked at how much tea she had to put in the porta filter to get a decent cup of tea. The infusion was done in 150 seconds and the tea was quite good, but the top layer of leaves were hardly wet. The brewing chamber bubbles water up from the bottom, so any teas that are prone to floating are not going to fully release their essence. This is a problem because it’s going to throw your serving costs all out of whack – especially with the higher end teas.
I know a ton of thought has gone into this machine but the fact is, in a busy cafe or teahouse environment, there is no way that this $3000 unit will serve the needs of the operator. I am not sure who is buying them or what Bunn foresee’s as their market or intended application, but as it stands right now, a $12 French press and a digital timer will yield better results.
BTW – Michelle, I was in Hood River for a few days prior to the show as well. What an amazing spot! You must love it there.
Interesting observation Brendan. Sounds like Diane’s machine would be optimal for a busy cafe/teahouse.
So sorry you didn’t give me a heads up when you were in town. It would have been my pleasure to show you around. Please let me know when you’re in my neck of the woods again. I feel blessed to be able to live amongst such beauty. I would so love to see a tea shop open here. Hood River is a coffee town but I believe tea would do very well as we’re a health conscious community.
I will be back Michelle, as I have a good female ‘friend’ there now. Will look you up the next time I am down (which will be pretty soon I suspect)
Funny that you mention the tea shop or lack there of in Hood River. I had that discussion with Nate at Dog River Coffee and as well with another dwntwn business. A great space is open right down from Flow Yoga – perfect space. Do you think the market is big enough to support a dedicated teahouse?
Nate is a good guy. I usually go to Dog River actually when I’m hanging out. There is about 7 – 8,000 residents in Hood River. It supports 2 Starbucks and atleast 6 coffee shops off the top of my head. Why not 1 tea shop?
Sounds like a fantastic machine that brings a whole new level of control to tea making. I can see it being great for flavored tea beverages because of consistency and control. For pure tea though, I wonder if customers will look unfavorably upon it because after all, isn’t each tea experience supposed to be unique?
Hi Diane, Thanks for posting about your machine on here. I do like that yours is able to do multiple teas at once. What does one of your machines cost? Its true that you do have to use more leaf. But honestly that cost is a fracture of your total cost for a cup. We’re talking about pennies. The cup, lid, and sleeve are costing me much more than the tea.
The downside to the Trifecta is that you also have to wait for the water to heat up inside the machine, which adds to brewing time. Do you have this issue at all with yours?
LIke Brendan said some of the lighter teas do float on top. I’ve really only ran into this issue with our white teas.
David- Thanks for your comment. Truthfully I don’t know how you could get anymore unique. Most of the time when customers purchase a tea from the trifecta its because its unique. The beauty of it is that we both could have the exact same leaf and use this machine and based on how we program it could have two entirely different cups of tea that taste fantastic.
Hi Chris,
Michelle brought me into the thread and I was happy to respond– Water temperature for us is not an issue.
Brendan Waye’s take was especially interesting to me, as I know he stays on top of the latest in all things tea.
Another plus for us in a shop environment serving lots of types of teas & herbals (50+ options) is that when we get an order wrong & have to rebrew, we don’t have to wait for another one to finish so we can use the machine again and never have to recalibrate depending on what we brew. We routinely have 3-4 going at once and on a really busy day, being able to brew multiples at a time of all types is imperative.