Making tea seems like the simplest of tasks -- boil water, pour over tea -- but there's always some fancy new gadget promising to transform your tea into an astonishing culinary experience. I'm very skeptical about such devices, but occasionally I'll come across one that actually seems worth investigating.

As long as you start with good tea or coffee, the temperature of the water often means the difference between a good and a great cup, and that's where Breville's new variable-temperature electric tea kettle offers something new.

Four settings allow you to quickly heat water to specific temperatures: 175 degrees for green tea, 185 for white tea, 195 degrees for oolong tea and 212 degrees for black tea. There's also a setting for 200 degrees for French-press coffee. The kettle beeps when it reaches the proper temperature and maintains that temperature for up to 20 minutes.

One caveat: At $149.95 (on Amazon.com and at Williams-Sonoma.com) this kettle isn't cheap, so if you're only an occasional tea (or French press) drinker, then you should probably stick with a stove-top kettle or a less expensive electric model. But if you find yourself constantly breaking out the thermometer to measure the temperature of your tea water, this kettle may be the best thing that ever happened to your mornings.