Got the 16oz Ingenuitea system, and we love it! Will be ordering a case or two in the next few days, gonna sell a bunch of them. But one of our more cogent customers detected a minor flaw: If you put the full 16 oz in, or anything more than what the cup you're gonna perch the thing on holds, there's gonna be a mess, as there is no shut-off on the valve. Any chance of some sort of a shut off device, perhaps a float attached to the valve system, to stop the flow when the brewed tea gets near the top? I don't see this as a fatal flaw, but more of an inconvenience.
Thoughts and/or prognostications?
David Davenport
Savannah's Restaurant
Sep 19th, '05, 22:22
Posts: 328
Joined: Aug 12th, '05, 14:05
Location: Philadelphia
Contact:
klemptor
My suggestion is to offer clear cups to sell with your Ingenuiteas - there's no problem with overflow with transparent mugs because you can see the level to which you're filling it. Maybe you can offer a discount for purchasing an IngenuiTEA with a clear mug, or strongly suggest that they be used with clear mugs.
If I have to use an opaque mug, I just guestimate.
If I have to use an opaque mug, I just guestimate.
I came in from the wilderness, a creature void of form.
I don't think you really need a separate shut-off valve. If you want to stop draining tea from the pot, just lift it off the mug/cup. If you're watching or listening, you should be able to tell when it's getting close to the top. Or just make sure you use a big enough cup/mug to start with and don't risk an overflow. In my experience so far, 1 tsp of leaves with 8 oz of water results in 6 oz of brewed tea, so my first suggestion is to keep that water absorption in mind -- you get out less liquid than you put in. I think it would be hard to find a cup/mug that won't hold at least 6 oz, so one cup shouldn't cause overflow problems. If you're making double, the resulting 12 oz of brewed tea could overflow a cup or mug if you're not careful. You can see how much tea is draining from the pot since it's clear though, so you could make little marks on the side of the pot, or move the clear warning sticker (what I did), to indicate where one cup stops and the second cup begins. Since I make one cup at a time, I marked 8 oz of water going into the pot and drain off all the brewed tea. You could do something similar for brewed tea with the leaves in the pot, but my guess is that the empty pot 8 oz mark would still work for getting half the amount of brewed tea when you put 2 tsp in 16 oz of water. (To measure it, I'd put in 2 tsp and 16 oz of water, drain the brewed tea into a 16 oz measuring cup, see how much you have left, pour half of that back in the pot with the leaves still in and mark that level. That should indicate the level for half of the total brewed tea, with leaves in the pot, when you make 2 cups. As noted, I'm guessing it will be about the same level as 8 oz of water in the pot by itself.) I hope this is of some help.
P.S. -- I think this question would have been better placed in the Teaware forum, not the Announcements one, since it's a question about the pot.
P.S. -- I think this question would have been better placed in the Teaware forum, not the Announcements one, since it's a question about the pot.