Tea on the go

[eanglin]

I've always loved the use of glass and seeing the actual tea. But i noticed few of you use anything like this, any specific reason?

Glass gets terribly scratched up and breaks fairly easily. Its delicate.

The camping stove Scruff points to looks very utilitarian but, I have to say it fails me on an aesthetic level. (ANd I'm pretty aesthetically flexible.) I've also used similar stoves when camping and found them to be prone to tipping and spilling unless you had access to a perfectly level, flat surface to perch them on- put a full pot of water on top and they are quite topheavy.

Could you come up with a way to eliminate the separate stove or make the stove low, wide and more aesthetically pleasing?

Everything Geekgirl mentioned goes for me also. If you make it electric, make the cord easy to store and the whole unit simple to pack up into a compact bundle.

A pot that fits snugly inside the kettle would be nice too. I know you like the idea of brewing inside the kettle, but honestly the teas I drink *need* to be rinsed and I don't like the idea of dumping dusty tea leaves directly in without rinsing, not to mention that the tea just tastes better if the leaves are rinsed first.

Having a separate heating vessel also allows you to have water heating up for the second pot while you are still enjoying the first.

Make an interlocking/nesting set with an induction plate or stove, kettle, brewing vessel and cups that is both easy to use and aesthetically pleasing and I think you'll have a winner.

[nada]

hi jase,

if you're in London and want to get more of an idea about tea, you could do much worse than to pop in to Tea Smith (teasmith.co.uk) for some ideas. They've got quite an interesting 'Tea Bar' set up going, and if it's not too busy the staff are chatty and will be happy to share their tea knowledge.

nada.

(i've no financial interest or otherwise in this tea shop)

[wyardley]

hey nada, thanks, right now though I'm in annecy, france interning out here. dont spose you know anything about tea in france?

If you make it to Paris, you could check out La Maison de Tres Thés (http://www.troisthes.com/). I believe it's pretty expensive.

[edkrueger]

Partiality is a word without any objective meaning.

What is the most practical bike?
Is it the 40 lb. full suspension downhill or is it the 1lb single speed? Most of us would be inclined to say neither.

What is the most practical tea set?
Is it the full gong fu set that makes the best tea? or the English tea vat that sits around all day never running out of tea? Most of us would say neither.

[edkrueger]

about the sorapot: I could hardly imagine any thing so impractical. It appears it takes forever to open and close it. It may also be too big to make good tea in. 12oz is really pushing it. For 200 to 250 dollars, I'd buy a real [and really practical] Zhuni teapot [or maybe a fixed gear bike!]

[Pentox]

This is a pretty interesting idea in my opinion. What you need to do though is figure out what you're making and who you are making it for, for what purpose, etc. Use cases. How you want the item used. Then decide how to make it, how to do it, and with what.

There are a bunch of conflicting interests here that need to fight before you decide the product.

Practicality vs Durability vs Functionality vs Style vs Usefulness vs etc.

Not saying that any given item can't have aspects in all of these, but it's a tradeoff that you need to balance for a good design of a pot here.

The sorapot for example is a perfect example of this. Some people scoff at it's usefulness, others gaze at its style, others enjoy the construction of the thing. For everyone there is a factor that weighs more than the other. How well it brews tea is secondary to it's style. But with an ingenuitea for example style is secondary to functionality.

[britt]

The type of tea you're targeting should be determined before you design this. A first flush sencha has very different qualities than a darker Wuyi oolong. The leaf size and leaf tenderness are worlds apart, so they require different water temperatures, brewing time, filter hole size, brewing vessel size and weight, etc.

For serious brewing of quality tea, the standard methods and equipment seem to work the best. At home I do it the traditional way. On the go, tea leaves or a teabag in a cup or infuser mug is the simplest solution, but I don't expect to get the same quality results this way.

[ABx]

In my opinion, if you just stick with a kettle then you really can't lose. We enthusiasts can use our setups, and the rest can use teabags and the like. Make a good kettle with variable temperature control that could be used indoors or outdoors and maintain the water temp for some time, and I'd be first in line Maybe you could make a kind of removable insert for those that want to brew tea in it.

I haven't seen a kettle that can maintain temperature except for the big dispensers like my Zojirushi. I would love to have something that I could use to boil water at work and brew in my infuser cup, or have a gongfu session out in the woods. I don't know if you really could make one to fit both of those, but that would be my ideal.

If only you were in Portland; I would love to sit you down to a gongfu session to show you what all the fuss is about