Design Concepts: Streamline Tea Time and Upgrade Coffee Dates

The Web is teeming with the unrealized ideas of both students and established designers who set out to produce astonishing renderings and prototypes for unusual products. Unfortunately, due to the lack of time, money, or technology, many of those products never progress from the planning stages to the mass market. But that doesn't mean we can't salivate over them, nevertheless.

Our elders may complain about the rapid changes to the societal landscape as a result of technological advances, but one thing will never go out of style: caffeine. Caffeine has driven culture from the coffee houses of the Ottoman Empire and the European Enlightenment, to the elaborate tea ceremonies of Japan and the colonization of South Asia by the British East India Company. The Boston Tea Party was crucial to this country's move toward independence and has, of course, lately been co-opted by fans of small government. So we can't understate the importance of new designs in tea and coffee consumption, because these very products have the potential to topple kingdoms and foster revolutions. Or, at least, they can make a bangin' cuppa steaming beverage.

Coffee Stick by Heo Jeong Im

While this design has one key flaw, we absolutely adore the idea. Heo Jeong Im's Coffee Stick contains a solid but soluble mixture of your favorite blend at the end of an elegantly curved stirrer. Just swirl the Stick in a cup of hot water, and the solid dissolves to liquid. Say what you will about Sanka and its instant brethren, but we'd take a fresh cup of premium powdered stuff over the stale office drip any day. But our major gripe is over all the waste we leave behind. What to do with all those leftover stirrer bits? We'd love to see the stirrer removed entirely -- or maybe made from of sugar, instead. Sweet idea!

Arietta by Christian Peder Torget

Single-serving coffee makers are nothing new, but most of them suffer from the fact that they're still typically larger than they need to be. Not so with Christian Peder Torget's Arietta, which looks like a bullet tumbler and takes up very little surface space. Beautifully crafted in porcelain, blond wood and stainless steel, this streamlined wonder works much like a stove-top espresso pot but without the flame. Water is heated in a pressurized chamber at the bottom, which flows up through another chamber containing your coffee grounds, while a dial on the side modulates the strength of your brew. Presto espresso!

Kettle Design by Product Tank

If you're a serious tea or French press brewer, you need a solid kettle. Stovetop varieties have given way to electric models that don't rust and heat more quickly, and we've written before how essential these contraptions are to your kitchen. This design by Product Tank addresses some of the common functional problems of electric kettles, such as scale, filling and steam. The best part is the fact that the lid (which contains a mesh filter that limits splash-back) swings open so that it can be filled without having the central reservoir under the tap. (Check the video here to see what we mean.) A rubber gasket keeps steam from escaping and limiting the possibility of burns, while the ample size will ensure no need for refills during a brewing session.

Tea Time Joe by Antonia Haaf

Lifting the hourglass shape from both the timepiece and coffee snob's Chemex carafe, Tea Time Joe by Antonia Haaf lends a novel solution to the problem of loose tea leaves. Unless you're a tasseographer, you have no need for them in your cup -- in fact, over-brewing leaves only leads to bitter flavor compounds. Tea strainers are unitaskers, so Haaf incorporates one into the brewing vessel itself. Pour in your water and tea, let it brew and then tip over to filter out the spent leaves. Double-walled glass keeps heat in, instead of on your finger tips. And the design is so open, we could think of a zillion uses for this in the kitchen once the tea is through.

Hanger Tea by Soon Mo Kang

You may have seen this one blowin' up the design blogs lately, but we'd be remiss to omit it in our roundup. Let us first get the adorableness of Soon Mo Kang's Hanger Tea out of the way: have you ever seen a cuter comestible? The tea bags take the shape of t-shirts attached to cardboard hangers. Functionally, the tea bags can hang on the side of the cup, eliminating the frequent problem of having to dip your fingers in sub-boiling water to retrieve your sunken tab. The unspoken function of the design is that it makes it easier (and more aesthetically appealing) to reuse your tea bags if they haven't given up the ghost. Just rehang your bag as you would your favorite t-shirt, let it dry and give it another go -- all without a significant increase in packaging materials.

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