Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

*The Short of It* I didn’t quite know what I was getting into when I chose this item. I thought I was getting something similar to a k-cup maker for tea, with a little more attention to brewing. It is way more complicated than that. This thing is not ready for prime time. There are no instructions anywhere. You just have to figure it out. The android app is still in beta. It completely failed on me on day two, so I can't tell you how my own loose tea fared brewing in Teforia. I have no idea if or when it might be fixed. The FAQ section on their website is a black hole of queries, some of which have been ignored for months. There is some stuff buried in the website FAQ that *should* be in printed instructions that should have come with the machine. As a business owner in charge of printed materials that are in front of my customers every day, I cannot imagine printing things on such high quality paper that are so utterly useless. The android app must be fixed. There must be a way to brew without scanning a lid or using the app. An instruction manual must be included with the Teforia, and online. The cards are not enough. There is no excuse for not telling people how to use it. There should be instructional videos for assembly, brewing with a pod, brewing with an app, brewing with your own tea, brewing manually, and for cleaning and maintenance. However, it seems nobody can be bothered. They're asking a large sum for this appliance. I understand that a lot of effort went into making this product, and into their teas. The problem is that nobody is going to see that. They will see a big price tag and zero support for a glorified tea kettle. To quote Jurassic Park, I think they were so preoccupied with the fact that they *could* bring this thing to market right now that they didn't stop to think if they *should.* If you are interested in further details of my experience with the Teforia, there is an extended review below, but I cannot recommend the product at this time. It is simply not ready for the market. When I see a working app, instructions, a product that can function offline, and customer service, this will have a potential for four stars, but for now I can give no higher rating than this due to my actual experience. *The Long Of It* Assembly Assembling it was actually pretty straightforward. There's a little sealed box that fits in the bottom of the clear water tank, which is on the back. There's a picture on the package that shows which direction it goes. If you put it in the wrong way, don't worry. There's a loop on top you can use to pull it out turn it around the right way. The picture on the package is in very light colored ink. This needs to be darker so that people can see it. Depending on where you put the Teforia, you’re never going to know how much water is in there. If you keep it under a cabinet, you will have to constantly pull it out to fill it and check the water level. The on/off switch is also on the back. Remember this, because often when anything computerized gets stubborn, the best thing you can do is turn it off and then turn it back on. On the front, the infusion globe sits on top of the shelf in the grooves. *You must twist it gently and lock it into place.* This is not immediately obvious to everyone. The first time I did this, I didn't twist it and the machine kept telling me the globe wasn't there. I couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong. Then you pull the arm down on top of the globe. There’s nothing to lock or press down hard here. The carafe slides into the bottom of the shelf and hangs suspended, where it catches the tea. The carafe is so tiny. You can use the tea leaves multiple times, but really. This is definitely for one or two people, tops. There’s a little more packaging because the globe and carafe are made of double walled glass. If you’re a klutz, this product is not for you. The brewing globe and carafe will be the first things to die. Replacements for these are not cheap. Installing the App You should download the app to your phone to get full use of the machine. You can scan their packaged teas on the top of the machine to custom brew, but if you want full control, and if you want to brew your own loose tea, you need to get the app. This is because companies are too cheap to put an actual working control panel on things. Plus, if they do stuff on a phone, they can collect your data and do all kinds of crazy stuff with your info to make money. There is a QR code on a card for you to scan with your phone that will take you to the Teforia website, where there is a link to download the app. *The link for Android doesn’t work.* I have no idea if it works for iPhone. Go to the Teforia website, click on the menu, and choose the Google link, or get it from the play store, *if you dare.* *The android app is in the beta stage and says it may be unstable. In my experience, it is.* Download the app, and it will demand your email to work. They've already got your phone info; why they need an email as well is beyond me. So have an email ready. It will send a verification code to your email. You have 9 minutes to enter the code. If you don’t enter the code in 9 minutes, you will have to have a new code sent to you. The app may get confused and send it to you multiple times while you’re trying to enter the original code. This is because the link to ask for a new code is so close to the space where you enter your current code, that even if you're using a stylus, it's incredibly easy to fat-finger it even on larger screens. Don’t pause for anything during this process. Just get the code in. Otherwise you’ll get caught in an infinity loop of emails and expired codes. If you get past the ridiculous email security, you’ll get to the welcome screen. You can "Select a tea from your pantry," "Add a new tea," or "Learn how to use a Sip." "Learn how to use a Sip" does not work. Brewing Teforia seems pretty determined to talk about how great and precision brewed the tea is without actually telling you how to use the appliance. There are no instructions included and there are none on the website, or anywhere else I could find. It's like the Check Engine light on your car. No one knows what it means, and no one will tell you. What do the indicator lights mean on the machine? Where are they? There is a card that explains icons, but the cards don't say if they are referring to icons in the app, or icons on the machine. It says there's an icon for scanning your Sip, but it doesn't say where the icon is. It could be in Narnia. Teforia won’t say. Does Teforia brew a tea differently when it is on its second and third brewing? Why are they not answering any questions from people on their website? Like the number of licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll Pop, the world may never know. Setting up the connection between the Teforia and my phone was a pita that I don't want to get into because everyone has different phones, with different apps loaded on those phones that can complicate the process. All I can say is that I got caught in another infinity loop because of my settings, and there was some difficulty with it. Load your tea into the globe, lock it into place, select your tea on your phone, and it will brew with a timer. The unit itself makes a soft beep when it's finished that you may or may not hear. This app that probably knows when I call my mother assumes that I'm psychic and that I just know when the tea is done. This is a problem if you want an alert and you're in another room, or if you have a hearing impairment. You can’t exit out of the app and go back in for your second brew. It starts back on the first brew. It doesn’t know you are on your second brew. However, I don’t know if there is even a difference between first, second and third brews, because there are no instructions anywhere, and if it’s buried in the website FAQ somewhere, I haven’t found it. On my second day with this machine, I woke up ready to brew tea. I pulled up the app, and it was as if I had never signed in. It wanted my email again. I entered it, and it gave me an error message. I reinstalled the app, turned everything off and on, and it keeps giving me an error message. It's zero dark thirty, I'm a little tired, I'm a little wired, and I’m acting as some guy’s guinea pig for his $1500 Star Wars tea maker. So I scanned a lid, and pressed the button on the bottom, and brewed the tea that way. This went well enough, but if I'm using my own tea, I have no lids, and my app isn't working, what am I supposed to do? I'll have to get out a regular kettle because I've got an expensive paperweight that has NO analog controls whatsoever. I noticed that there were bits of tea leaf in my cup, and I haven't even reached my tenth brew yet. These weren't little specks, either. The Weird There is a self addressed stamped envelope included in the sampler. Somewhere on one of the inserts, or maybe the website, it was explained that you are supposed to save the lids, put them in this envelope, and mail them back to the company. If my recollection is correct, it didn't say why. I would love to know what this achieves. *If I send all the lids back, and the app fails, exactly how is Teforia supposed to work?* The Bottom Line In spite of my rating for Teforia, I love this tea. It's the perfect cup. There is no bitterness whatsoever. I add sweetener not because I like sweet tea, but because no matter how diligent I am, it always comes out bitter. This stuff is like velvet. It's fantastic. I don't have to add anything to it. I sure wouldn't put Lipton in it, but I bet it would be fabulous if I did. That's why it pains me to have to give this one star. I wanted it to work, but it's a struggle to use, and it's a terrible value. Millions in funding, and they couldn't pause long enough to ship a fully functional device with instructions. It's not a great tea maker, but it makes perfect tea when it works. Spared no expense.