One of my favorite finds at World Tea Expo last year was the Sharp Tea-Ceré. My fellow tea bloggers and I were all drooling over its sleek design and unique functions. It’s only fitting that I share my review of it as today will be spent packing for this year’s WTE. Although I’m not lucky enough to own one (yet!), the kind folks at Sharp offered to loan me one for a month so that I could play around with it and share my experience with all of you.

This is the first product review that I’ve done on the podcast but I thought that the Tea-Ceré was something that would be hard to convey using only words. Overall I found the machine very easy to use. There really hasn’t been a similar product on the market. Matcha is really trendy these days but there’s still a bit of barrier for beginning users. Putting matcha into the context of things we already know, like Keurig machines, can make it a much less scary process.

So what about other kinds of teas? I did test out a Fujian black tea but found that the taste was really missing something. The leaf powder also seemed to sink faster than sencha did for some reason. I probably wouldn’t rely on it too much for drinking but the ability to grind leaves into such a fine powder could have a lot of culinary uses. Cookies, meat rubs, and sauces…the possibilities are endless.

What do you think of the Sharp Tea-Ceré? I’d love to hear about it in the comments!