Sunpentown Automatic Herbal Medicine Cooker – Yellow
Chinese herbal medicine has been popular for many centuries. Sunpentown Medicine Cooker brings you the benefits of herbal medicine, but takes the hassle out of the once time-consuming process. Simply place the ingredients, prepared by your herbalist, into the cooker and add the specified amount of water, plug in the unit and your medicine will automatically be reduced to one bowl, as prescribed! Automatically switches to Keep Warm.
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November 13th, 2009 at 4:11 am
I’ve been using this to cook Chinese Herbal Medicine for a few months now. I used to use a ceramic pot to cook the medicine. This unit is much easier to cook. You plug and let it do its job. The ceramic pot is easier to clean and costs $5.99. This unit you cannot put into a dishwasher due to electronic components being part of the unit. One time I was rinsing the unit trying to clean it and the water got onto the base and the unit stop working for 24 hours … until it was dry again. Normally this does not happen if you clean it carefully.
This unit works by cooking the medicine until the water level drops to a certain point. Then it switches to warm mode. This often takes 1.5 to 2 hours for the medicine I cook. However the herbalist whom I get my medicine from says to cook it only for 30 minutes after it boils and not to exceed 40 minutes. Well since he is an OMD, and a former professor of the Beijing College of Traditional Chinese Medicine, I’ll take his word for it. I have to use kitchen timer and then un-plug this unit after 45 minutes (15 minutes before it boils + 30 minutes of boil).
November 13th, 2009 at 4:57 am
I just got one of these at a local herb store (mine is the Chinese model ss-3040 but is exactly the same thing as the NY636). After using it once I can tell several things right away:
1) overall it’s well made and looks nice (nice thick glaze over the ceramic with some cute calligraphy on the front).
2) there is very little circuitry inside so there is less to fail but at the same time the unit is “dumb”. It will just keep boiling until the water level drops enough to expose the top of the stainless steel heater element (which rises about maybe 1-2 inches from the bottom) then will switch to keep warm. After boiling it seems you are left with around 2 cups of liquid.
3) much easier to deal with (IMHO) than boiling herbs in a ceramic double-lid “ginseng cooker”. Just plug in and let it go (after adding your pre-washed herbs and water, of course).
4) it is not suited for aromatic herbs or herbs with high volatile oil content as steam escapes through both the pouring spout (which I covered with a small piece of tin foil until I find something better to use) and a small hole (perhaps around .5 cm) on the lid. Actually covering the spout may just make it take longer to cook as the liquid would evaporate slower…
5) as previous poster mentioned, you need a kitchen/electric timer! You can’t manually switch to keep warm (with a button or switch, etc) you need to remove/stop the power. The little front lights are indicators only, not switches or button. Some herbs/formulas you just can’t let cook like the cooker is meant to, however most you probably can if you balance the water and herbs correctly, and know what your doing. Ask your TCM doctor, which I am not (yet). Also consult a good Materia Medica for herbs in question. With a timer this could also be used for other (related) purposed liked Chinese Medicated Diet therapies, etc, but a hot pot may work better in many cases that require very slow cooking.
Other notes: as it says in the manual, once the heat has switched to keep warm don’t let your tea sit for more than 2 hours as the herbs may soak up some of the active ingredients you just decocted as they dry.
One last thing, it does come with a 1-year warranty (or so the company claims), so keep your receipt and box. While it is made in China, it’s distributor is in CA (so no you won’t have to ship to China for warranty issues).
All that aside, get one… they look cool
November 13th, 2009 at 5:32 am
It works great, heats fast and looks very nice on my counter. I agree with the other reviewer, unplug it after 45 minutes (15 minutes to heat-up, 30 minutes to boil…) More than 30 minutes can diminsh the efficacy of some ingredients. When in doubt, ask your pharmacist!