The British Standards Institution (BSI) evidently has strict guidelines for how a cup of tea should be brewed. These include brewing the tea in a “white porcelain or glazed earthenware” pot, and pouring the milk into the cup first. Evidently, we’ve never had a proper cup of tea from a proper tea pot.
A 22-year-old designer named Uttara Ghodke seeks to further test the boundaries of these standards with Mychai. The pocket-sized, battery-operated device both heats the water and holds the leaves, so all you need to do is add it to a mug of cold water.
The whole thing is shaped sort of like a baton. The removable bottom acts as a diffuser, so you can fill it with leaves. Whatever your tea type, you can press a button to specify temperature and brew length. Green, white, and yellow teas all brew for two minutes at 172 degrees Fahrenheit (78 degrees Celsius), black tea steeps for three minutes at 190 degrees Fahrenheit (88 degrees Celsius), and Oolong and herbal teas both brew at 210 degrees Fahrenheit (99 degrees Celsius) for three and six minutes, respectively. The hatch opens when the temperature is right, then closes again so the tea doesn’t get over-steeped.
Sounds like a more precise method than ours, which is to just boil the water and dunk the teabag in until the water changes color.
The battery is rechargeable and is good for making two or three cups before needing more juice. It heats using thermoelectric material.
Right now, the Mychai is just in prototype form, but Ghodke hopes to get the word out on Behance, and potentially launch a crowdfunding campaign if there’s enough interest in her invention. Should the device go into production, it will retail for about $54 (£35), she tells the Daily Mail.
