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These reports are a forum for discussing gadgets and offbeat tea-related news, but it seems that the coverage sometimes is slanted toward the former. So I’ll start things off this time around with what I thought was a decidedly offbeat bit of tea news. According to this article, it seems that black tea – in addition to being my own personal favorite type of tea for drinking – can be used to clean windows.
H.M. British Tea Colour Chart (Photo source: screen capture from site)
Who knew? The author of said article claims to have “steeped an extra-strong glass of simple black tea,” using three Earl Grey tea bags in eight ounces of water. The resulting concoction allowed her to create a veritable window wonderland. For my money that’s really about the only good use for Earl Grey tea, but I realize that such a comment is hardly appropriate and so I retract it.
Does bouncing your tea bag actually do anything substantial? I can’t take credit for coming up with the question and I wasn’t really wondering, thank you very much. But if you’ve ever found yourself musing about the science of bouncing teabags look at this article, where a so-called tea chemist does an in-depth analysis (math and physics alert – beware) of what bouncing can do for you.
I’m not sure what to make of this H.M. British Tea Colour Chart. It claims to be “intended for use as a visual aid in the correct preparation of the United Kingdom’s most popular hot beverage.” I’m not sure how hues such as Brown Zero, Nigerian Sunset and Mountain Chimp contribute to correct tea prep, but then I never claimed to know all that much.
This one’s not specifically related to tea, but since it has to do with the caffeine found in nearly all tea we’ll go with it. Apparently some plants use caffeine as an enticement to bees to come back around again and aid in the pollination process that helps plants keep going from one generation to the next. Make of that what you will.
As we come to the end of this report I find that I haven’t presented even one gadget. Which just won’t do. I’ll close with a fine gadget you might want to get for the tea lover who has everything except for a place to sit whilst contemplating the scope of their many possessions.
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given to Online Stores, Inc., and The English Tea Store Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
I’ve been writing about tea gadgets at this fine site for a while now, and not so long ago I began writing a regular monthly feature on the topic – with a side of offbeat tea-related news tossed in for good measure. Yes, I do run across enough tea gadgets in a month’s time to allow me to write a regular column. That’s a lot of gadgets.
Which is nothing new, really. As I wrote in an earlier article, one of the first tea-related patents in the United States was for a device with a rather fancy name but that was essentially just a teapot. But as I skimmed through the patent office files for tea stuff patented prior to 1900, it became apparent that the problem of what to do with tea leaves was one of the main issues inventors of the day sought to resolve.
If you thought for even a moment that the many tea balls and strainers that are available nowadays were a new concept, guess again. As far back as 1861, an enterprising chap named Nathan Ames had come up with a clever but incredibly simple device that attached to the spout of the teapot and solved the problem of what to do with the leftover tea leaves after you’d made your tea. It was just a decade and a half later that Ohio resident John Brewster took a crack at solving this same problem with a removable strainer that ran the length of the teapot and thus could be slipped out and easily rinsed.
Then there’s the tea ball. Tea purists will be only too happy to remind you that these little gadgets often don’t give tea leaves enough breathing room for the water to circulate properly and thus extract the greatest amount of flavor. But that hasn’t stopped enterprising inventors from devising them for more than a century now. For more on this theme, check out these gizmos that were both patented in 1892.
It wasn’t all that long ago – perhaps about a week – that I wrote an article for this site in which I sought out the earliest patent for the humble tea bag. There are said to be such creatures dating back as far as 1896, but in my researches I didn’t run across this device from 1893. The inventor calls it a Tea-Strainer but judging from the drawings and the description it doesn’t seem all that far removed from a you know what.
Last up and perhaps one of my favorites in the Way Out category is this Design for a Sign for Tea Dealers, as the inventor calls it. It was patented in 1881 and I’m pretty sure it will never win any awards for political correctness, but it is an interesting historical relic nonetheless.
See more of William I. Lengeman’s articles here.
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Show’s over. Time to plug in the kettle for a cuppa. (Photo source: The English Tea Store)
If I may pull out my swami hat and gaze deeply into my crystal ball, I’ll forecast (educated guess) that 2013 will be a year that’s going to bring us many tea gadgets. Which is hardly what you’d call a bold prediction, given the number of these clever little gizmos that regularly make their way to the market. The gadgets were flying so fast and furious last year that this particular feature was switched over to a monthly schedule and I don’t see things changing anytime soon. So let’s get on with the gadgets and offbeat news.
The consensus seems to be that the British like tea – or so I’ve heard. But seriously, according to one recent estimate I ran across, the Brits drink about 78 million cups of tea every day. Which is impressive enough, but consider this report which suggests that so many Brits fire up the kettle for a cup of tea at the end of popular TV shows that it produces a noticeable impact on the nation’s electrical system.
On the gadget front, here’s a rather unusual idea worth noting the next time you’re shopping for a tea (or coffee, I suppose) cup. They’re called Creature Cups and they come with various sorts of ceramic creatures and whatnot (skull, alligator, spider) built into the cup. Does that top a Lionel Richie teapot? Well, I guess that’s a matter of opinion.
Speaking of offbeat teaware, here’s a teapot that might take the cake. It’s designers apparently took a page from the steampunk movement that’s been all the rage lately. The Techno Steampunk Teapot is not all that practical looking and if the truth be told it’s actually designed more as a work of art than a working teapot. Fans of teaware and the like that’s more streamlined and sleek (guilty) might find something like the WMF SmarTea Teapot more to their liking.
From the Tea – It’s Not Just For Drinking category, here are a few items I ran across recently. Here’s a report that claims that various types of tea can be used to care for your hair. Such as chamomile to bring out your blonde highlights and, not surprisingly, black tea to darken your hair. Finally, here’s a report on a Georgia company who used epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), a compound in tea, to create a lip balm that’s said to be able to fight cold sores.
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Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to pay tribute yet again to the ingenuity of tea gadget makers everywhere – with a side of offbeat tea-related news. Let’s get on with it.
First up, the end of the tea bag. Well, don’t get too worked up about that one yet. There might be a little bit of hype going on in this report from London’s Telegraph about the “Tê, a pod-based tea maker prototype which could signal the demise of the very bag itself.” The makers of this gizmo seem to have initiated a bit of a publicity blitz lately with various reports appearing hither and thither throughout the media.
Tê, a pod-based tea maker prototype (Photo source: screen capture from site)
The Tê is said to feature “a disposable capsule and the ability to reduce brew time and increase drink quality” and is apparently a response to all of the single serving type coffee (and to a lesser extent, tea and other beverages) makers that have come out in recent years. Say what you want about it, but as the image that accompanies the article reveals, it sure does have a sleek and pleasing appearance.
When it comes to sheer ingenuity in tea-related designs, you’ve got to give a shout out to this “handcrafted necklace made from Yorkshire Tea boxes” that was featured at a tea site recently. If tea boxes sound like poor raw materials for the making of jewelry, take a gander at the pictures and you might just rethink your position. Speaking of cardboard, here’s an Afternoon Tea jigsaw puzzle that’s available from England’s National Trust.
If we’re to assume that the tea bag is going to be around for at least a little while longer, then dedicated users might want to take a look at the Tea Bag Buddy. It’s a rather clever device that, as one headline put it, “Holds Your Tea Bag While it Steeps and Contains the Mess When You’re Done.” And that’s a fact.
Last up, in that offbeat tea news category, here’s a report on a high tea of a decidedly different sort. It’s a tea tasting that took place aloft a while back, courtesy of the good people at British Airways and Twinings.
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As an accident prone young feller, I was without my two front teeth for a while. But I’ve got that covered now, so I’ll turn my attentions to a few tea-related items I might like to see under the Christmas tree.
Why have just a glass mug when you can have a whole tea set? (Photo source: The English Tea Store)
First, a few things that won’t be on my list. Like those fancy high-falutin’ tea-making gadgets that will do everything including clearing the empty tea cups and washing them after you’re finished. There are even said to be models in the works now that will give the dog a bath and trim your roses. Now that’s progress.
In any event, these gizmos are fine if you like that sort of thing. I have a lot of fun writing about them and various other gadgets in my now monthly tea gadget reports but when it comes to my own tea-making process, I like the minimalist approach. Although the one-quart Pyrex measuring cup I use to heat water is a bit scuffed and water spotted and may be due for a replacement.
When it comes to teaware I also tend to stick to the basics, and so there won’t be any fancy teapots or cups or whatnot on my Christmas list. Though I did lose (as in accidentally smashed in the sink) one of the pair of clear glass cups that I’ve used for so long and so I’m always in the market for just the right item along those lines.
But when it comes right down to it, the only tea stuff I really want for Christmas is actual tea. Everything else is just window dressing. I’ll pass altogether on flavored tea, as usual, but I’m always open to sampling the best black teas that the gardens of Assam and Yunnan have to offer. Nor would I turn down a good Ceylon or a less smoky than average variety of Keemun. You can also put me down for a fine Japanese green tea such as Gyokuro or Sencha or for that matter any of a number of great Chinese green tea varieties. And even though oolong is not one of the first types of tea I seek out, I’m not at all opposed to sampling some of the lighter varieties of that kind of tea.
I wouldn’t say that all I want for Christmas is tea, mind you. I’d also like to see world peace and an immediate and total ban on any and all mentions of the Kardashians in all forms of media worldwide, but I guess none of that is really relevant for an article such as this.
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If you’ve been to this site before, you may have noticed that we’ve featured quite a few editions of gadget and offbeat news reports thus far. But since it’s such a frequent feature, the Esteemed Editor decided to put one together every month, and this will be the first of them. So, let’s get on with it.
A ton of tea? Yes, please. I’ll have one. While this much tea can doubtless take a number of forms, a few years back artist Ai Weiwei took a ton of tea and compressed it into a cube that measured one hundred centimeters on a side. Click here and scroll to almost the bottom of the page to see what it looks like.
If you thought that you’d seen everything in the realm of iced tea, it might be time to rethink your position. The Tea of a Kind by Gizmo Beverages is a clever little gadget that claims to allow you to brew iced tea on the spot in the bottle. Whether or not we needed such an innovation is probably beside the point because we’ve got it. As this article notes, the gizmo uses a nitrogen-pressurized cap to shoot a concentrated tea solution into a bottle of water, turning it into tea. Hmmm.
Streamlined Avian Tea Sets (Photo source: screen capture from site)
Of course, no edition of the gadget report would be complete without the requisite appearance of a novelty tea infuser. This one is actually rather understated as these sort of things go, being a simple model in the shape of a tea leaf. From the sleek and eye-catching department, here’s a steel tea set in a futuristic bird shape and consisting of tea kettle, teapot and cups. Speaking of teapots, here’s a brief article on a Saudi Arabian exhibit of what are said to be the “world’s oldest and most valuable traditional teapots.”
A car with a tea maker? Yes, please. I’ll have one. This article on the vehicular fancies of Asia’s super rich doesn’t go into much in the way of specifics on this gadget but it sounds like a great idea nonetheless. Last up, it’s not really a gadget but here’s an article on a sensory wheel that was created to help describe the assorted and sundry nuances of the herbal beverage known as rooibos.
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Forget about orange juice and sunshine – a day without tea gadgets is like a day without…well, tea, and it’s hard to even imagine such a horror. But, as I’ve said before in these occasional tea gadget reports, it seems that barely a day goes by without at least one new tea gadget calling itself to my attention.
Magisso Teacup (Photo source: screen capture from site)
One of the most tried and true of all of the tea gadget categories has to be the novelty tea infuser. These clever little items are churned out at a prodigious rate and you can check out one of the latest right here. It’s the Dunkfish, which bills itself as a coffee and tea infuser and which, not surprisingly, is in the form of a very colorful fish.
Novelty tea mugs are another gadget category that seem to be very popular. Quite a few of these address that age-old problem of how to keep your tea bag string and tag from taking a swim in your tea. I looked at one such solution in an article on novelty tea bags that ran not so long ago. Here’s a more recent attempt to surmount the problem in a way that’s all the more clever for being so deceptively simple. But that’s not all. Here’s a solution that combines clever, arty and a little bit silly but which ensures that you’ll never have to go fishing for that string again.
Speaking of clever tea cups, here’s one with a pleasing design that doubles as a teapot and a tea cup. It’s called the Magisso Teacup, it’s brought to us by a pair of Swedish designers and it’s available in any color you want – as long as it’s black or white. Last up on the tea cup front, a mug that’s color coded apparently to help users figure out how much milk to add to their tea. I’ll stick with the “Just Tea” setting, thanks.
For the person who really, really likes tea and who’s not afraid to be a little bit out there when it comes to fashion, how about a coat made of green tea? No, it’s not a gag. British designer Georgie-May Tearle made the coat out of a whole bunch of green tea bags and has dubbed it the Pret-tea Coat. I think it’s safe to assume that it wasn’t designed as a raincoat.
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Tab for a Tea Bag (Photo source: screen capture from site)
Say what you want about tea bags, but don’t say that there aren’t plenty of offbeat novelty ones to be found in the files of the US Patent Office (and probably other patent offices, but that’s another article). Our first look at this topic was an article that ran earlier this year. But since that didn’t exhaust the many possibilities, it’s time for another round.
To start with one of the more peculiar of the bunch, here’s a look at a Tab for a Tea Bag, which was patented in 1993 and which is just a graphic of a swami-type guy clutching a crystal ball. It’s not clear whether New Yorker William Lipton, who patented this one, has anything to do with the Lipton dynasty but it looks like this was his only patent.
One of the long standing problems with tea bags, at least as far as inventors seem to be concerned, is what to do with that dripping tea bag when you’ve finished making tea. Here’s a curious-looking spring-loaded gizmo from 1954 that takes a shot at resolving the problem. Another somewhat odd looking device, patented just a few years ago, attempts to do roughly the same thing, while also providing a way to stir your tea.
Tackling the same problem in a somewhat different manner, here’s a gadget from 1940 that actually substitutes a small drip pan, of sorts, for the little paper tag that’s typically affixed to a tea bag. I don’t completely understand the intricate patent drawings for Louis Rosen’s 1969 (proposed) solution to dripping tea bags – you’ll have to take a crack at deciphering it yourself. But I’d hazard a guess that it was just a bit too complicated to be a success.
Once you’ve come up with a way to combat the drips you might also have to deal with having your tea bag string and tag submerged in your cup of tea. Which requires you to awkwardly fish it out or leave it there until you’ve finished the tea. Which is why this simple solution – a tea bag tag that “clips” on the tea cup handle – seems like it should have been a contender.
Last and perhaps the most clever of this bunch, a 2003 tea bag that includes an inner tag printed with text and/or an image. Somehow, as the patent document notes, “when the sealed pouch becomes wet and translucent, the text, or other message, is revealed to a user.” Imagine that.
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Did you hear the one about 900-year old cup of tea recently found in the southeastern United States? Well, don’t get too excited. First of all, it’s not an actual cup of tea – spillage and/or evaporation presumably saw to that. Second, as near as anyone can tell, none of the natives living here at the time had access to real tea, as in the beverage made from the leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant. But “tea” is a malleable word for most people, and in this case it’s one that can be used to describe a beverage brewed from the shrub Ilex vomitoria, a species of holly, which produces a concoction known as the black drink.
Zen Creative Ceramic Cup (Photo source: screen capture from site)
Then there’s the one about the tea swilling orangutans in a Sydney zoo. According to this article, they are particularly fond of jasmine and the tisane (herbal tea) known as chamomile. In “real” tea news, here’s an article about the big pot of the stuff that celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal brewed up not so long ago. It took place in Darwen, England, where the chef used a giant teapot containing about 500 liters of water and a pyramid tea bag with about 2,000 times the amount of tea found in a regular bag.
Have you ever wished for a site where you could view a new photo of a teapot every week for a year? Maybe not, but there’s one out there if you ever get the urge. It bears the appropriate moniker FiftyTwo Teapots and it comes to us from Sheffield-based photographer Luke Avery, who promises a new photo every Thursday.
From our Clever Teaware Bureau, here’s a report about a mug that (sort of) floats. Which could be used for other beverages than tea, now that you mention it, but it’s quite clever nonetheless and its designer is currently seeking to fund production through Kickstarter. What do you do with you tea stirrer after you’re done stirring tea with it? Here’s one possible solution (see photo above).
If you know anything about Star Trek: The Next Generation, the second of the five Star Trek TV series, then you might know of Captain Jean-Luc Picard’s fondness for Earl Grey tea, and more specifically “Earl Grey, hot.” Which led one enterprising marketer to come up with a Star Trek Earl Grey Tea.
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Save Our Cuppa
Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door, or so the old saying goes. While the pursuit of innovations in mousetrap design may not actually be the road to success and untold riches these days, it seems that there’s always someone trying to come up with a better automatic teamaker. The latest entrants into this sweepstakes, Cambridge Consultants, a British design and development firm, who have come up with a gadget called the TeaTotal.
TeaTotal’s makers claim that it’s “a fully programmable tea brewing device, allowing the consumer to specify not only the leaf, but also the intensity of the tea flavour and the relative bitterness.” While there are surely those who will grumble about the difficulty of capturing the nuances of the tea brewing process with machinery, it doesn’t seem to stop all of the manufacturers who keep turning out these devices. For a few thoughts from users of another such device, check out this post and comments about the Breville One-Touch Tea Maker, from the Steepster community.
Of course, gadgetry is all well and good if you like that sort of thing but, to be quite frank about it, not everyone does. According to recent articles in the British press, an initiative is underway there to try to get tea drinkers to prepare their tea the way it “should” be done – in a teapot and presumably using loose tea rather than a tea bag.
The Campaign for Civilised Tea Drinking was launched by Debenham’s, a well-known British retailer who claim to sell five million cups of tea a year at their cafes and restaurants and who bemoan the fact that demand for teapots has fallen by half over the past five years. The campaign has made quite a splash in the British press and is being backed by various British tea merchants as well, including Tetley, Twinings and Typhoo (and perhaps even some companies whose names don’t start with “T”).
Speaking of British tea, the only tea grower there of any significance recently announced that a mild winter in their part of the world has allowed them to accomplish the relatively rare feat of harvesting tea year round. Tregothnan Estate only began growing tea about ten years ago but now harvest about ten tons annually.
Last of all, from our Do We Really Need This Bureau, a “teabag accessory [that] removes the annoyance of the teabag string and adds humor and emotion by taking design inspiration from fishing.” Also, a plain-Jane tea tray that only exposes its intricate pattern when it comes in contact with a hot teapot or cup. Which is apparently for the tea drinker who has absolutely everything else.
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