This ‘French Press for Tea’ gives you the perfect brew in a portable travel flask

As an enthusiastic tea drinker myself, I’m honestly a little offended that we haven’t done much to make tea-brewing portable beyond the simple teabag. Sure, teabags are easy to carry around, but you don’t really have much of a choice when it comes to choosing your tea leaves… what’s inside the bag is inside the bag. Nevertheless, the teabag is a standard format, meant for a single small serving, which isn’t enough for some people who like their cup of tea to actually be a large mug of tea! Meet the ECLIPSE, a portable tea brewing station that isn’t as limiting or as archaic as the teabag. It combines a travel thermos and a french-press-style brewing system in one easy-to-use, easy-to-carry design, and lets you brew two cups (or one large mug) of the tea of your choice.

Designer: Chufunyu

Click Here to Buy Now: $98.10 $109 (10% off with Coupon Code ‘YANKO10’). Hurry, deal ends March 9th.

Measuring Graduations: Hiding inside the cap with 10ml spaced-out graduation lines for easy tea portioning wherever you go.

In all fairness, I’m not surprised that a device like the ECLIPSE hasn’t become ubiquitous all this while. Tea is the second-most consumed beverage in the world, and as far as tea cultures go, its brewing methods are still deeply rooted in tradition. What ECLIPSE does is simply modernize it, by providing the same steps you’d expect in regular tea brewing. The multi-part travel press comes with a measuring cup, a brewing teapot, a plunger (that acts as a strainer), and a drinking vessel.

Double Wall Vacuum: Consistent temperature ensures even extraction during infusion and great taste to the last sip.

The inner layer of the ECLIPSE is lined with a ceramic coating to honor the traditional practice of brewing in ceramic teapots (while also ensuring that the tea doesn’t get a metallic or plastic taste), and gives you authority over how strong or mild you want your tea to be by letting you control brew-times.

Full Chamber Infusion: The brew chamber takes advantage of the whole capacity for tea leaves to fully unfurl and achieve optional infusion.

Easy Clean: Fully detachable parts. Minimal dead spots. Hydrophobic ceramic coating. Thoughtful details to make every clean-up a breeze.

If you’ve used a french press, using the ECLIPSE should come quite naturally to you. The long, cylindrical design of the ECLIPSE is naturally reminiscent of the french press, with a plunger that lets you push the leaves down to strain the tea. The contraption comes with a cap that doubles as a drinking cup, and a measuring vessel underneath. Pop both off and you’ve got the ECLIPSE’s brewing chamber, with the plunger that lets you push the tea leaves to the bottom of the vessel once you’re ready to pour yourself a drink.

The ECLIPSE is built with double-wall insulation, allowing you to pour hot water into the brewing chamber, while the outside remains cool to the touch, and has a matte-finish exterior that’s easy to grip while being anti-scratch too. Once you’re done drinking tea, the ECLIPSE can simply be cleaned out by unscrewing its base so you can easily fish out the tea leaves. The inner ceramic coating is hydrophobic and can easily be rinsed under running water… while the entire ECLIPSE is designed to be resistant to damage and breaking, giving you the unique ability to be able to travel anywhere with your tea-brewing apparatus! Try doing that with a porcelain teapot and teacups!

Click Here to Buy Now: $98.10 $109 (10% off with Coupon Code ‘YANKO10’). Hurry, deal ends March 9th.

The post This ‘French Press for Tea’ gives you the perfect brew in a portable travel flask first appeared on Yanko Design.

Classic Novel And Punny Title Wooden Book Coasters: Jurassic Perk

Let’s face it, a good book and a nice cup of coffee or tea go together like peanut butter and bananas. But where do you rest your beverage? Personally, I rest mine on my open laptop because I like to live dangerously. But maybe you’re more cautious; maybe you need these classic novel or punny title wooden book coasters made and sold by Etsy shop Cutting Boredom. Me? I need a new laptop.

Made from reclaimed wood, the coasters are available in 20 different classic literature titles (see above) and 15 different tea/coffee/booze related punny titles (see below). They start at two for $20 and get cheaper the more you buy. I’m going to buy all 35 of them so I can use a different coaster every day of the month like I imagine rich people do.

I love reading. I also love coffee. As a matter of fact a few weeks ago I ordered one of everything at Starbucks and I still haven’t run out of energy. Or slept. Or been able to read because my hands are too jittery to hold a book steady. I’m starting to think the eventual crash is going to be a real doozy.

[via The Awesomer]

This eco-friendly packaging design for premium Chinese tea draws inspiration from the plantations!





Packaging designs that pay homage to what’s inside or the process or creating it truly tug at our heartstrings. Especially, eco-friendly packaging designs because they showcase the best of innovation and sustainability. Chatu is a shining example of all of that – the packaging is an ode to the tea plantations in Sichuan, Henan, and Fujian provinces from where the premium Chinese tea is collected. Each tea package has a unique shape that represents the terrain and resembles the patterns on the hands of tea pickers.

The Chinese tea plantations were the source of inspiration for the packaging design. The texture of the package mimics the shape of the land on which the tea is harvested which is so sacred to the tea pickers. Even the colors were carefully chosen to match each of the three types of tea – white, green, and red.

The packaging is made by molding pulp and then colored with natural dyes. The shape resembles traditional Chinese teapots while the texture is a reminder of the plantations. The loose-leaf tea leaves are packed in two-layer cotton bags because it is breathable and environmentally friendly.

Each package also comes with a note that gives you more information about the province and the type of tea – it educates you about the flavor and the agricultural features of the plantation that make it special. It also tells you how the tea should be brewed for the optimum experience. Chatu is minimal but yet so powerful in communicating about the product, the process of making it, the art of brewing it, its origins, and more in the most simple yet elegant form.

Designer: Xenia Alexandrova

This adorable little tea-infuser looks exactly like the Piranha Plant from Super Mario!

When you’re not using it to brew tea, you could turn it into a prop for your Lego Mario set.

OTOTO‘s Tea Trap puts a fun spin on the art of brewing tea. Unlike those boring metal infusers, the Tea Trap models itself on a carnivorous plant that chomps down on your tea leaves. Once the Tea Trap’s stomach (or mouth) is full, just dunk it in a cup of hot water, and the tea begins infusing through the perforations on the sides of the infuser. Use the Tea Trap’s elongated handle to stir it around till your tea reaches the right color, and when you’re done, the Tea Trap will very kindly spit out the tea-leaves into the waste-bin, because nobody likes eating tea leaves… not even carnivorous plants!

Designer: OTOTO

The Tea Trap is made from stainless steel along with BPA-free silicone. It’s 100% food-safe and dishwasher-safe too.

Award-winning ‘Inclusive Kettle’ allows the disabled and impaired to easily brew tea

It’s difficult to shake the fact that products that have existed for centuries can sometimes be prime examples of non-inclusive design. Stairs are a notorious example – they’ve existed for centuries, but are an accessibility nightmare for people in wheelchairs. The humble kettle is yet another specimen… It’s been around for practically 5000 years, and is a visual icon with its short stout body, handle on one end, and spout on the other. However, ask any disabled or visually impaired person, or someone with reduced strength or dexterity and they’ll tell you how cumbersome the product’s design can be. The handle on one end means you need a fair amount of wrist strength to hold a kettle upright without it tipping over, and pouring the hot liquid into a small cup can be very challenging for people with physical or visual impairments. Nick Fitzpatrick’s ‘Inclusivitea’ hopes to change that.

A winner of the Lakeland Design Award, the Inclusivitea reimagines the quintessential kettle shape, allowing it to be easily carried and used with little effort. Styled almost like a pour-over coffee maker with handles on either side, the kettle comes with its own stand that lets you brew and then directly dispense tea into your container.

The Inclusivitea kettle highlights the two biggest problem areas when it comes to using a kettle – the filling and the pouring. The redesigned kettle comes with two handlebar-shaped arms that let you easily carry it to fill it up with water. Dock it in the stand and plug the kettle into a power outlet and it begins brewing your tea. Once your tea’s ready, simply put the cup in its dedicated zone right under the kettle and press the main button that both filters the tea and dispenses it right into the cup. The dispensing stops once you release the button, completely eliminating any chances of over-filling your cup and/or spilling tea all over the place.

Each Inclusivitea tea-set comes with the kettle and stand, but also with an assortment of containers housing everything from sugar cubes to tea bags, spices, and even a small dairy creamer jug. The easy-to-hold kettle is also accompanied by a tiny cup with an extended rim instead of a handle. Made so you can grip it by its rim comfortably (rather than with your finger through a small handle), the cup even has a small cutout in the extended rim from which to sip through.

Designer: Nick Fitzpatrick

This smart kettle is an upgrade your kitchen REALLY needs!

That plastic kettle sitting on our kitchen counter probably looks like something from a time capsule compared to all the other appliances that have gotten design makeovers. Finally, it is the kettle’s turn and the B POINT shows it all off. It features a touch interface that instantly gets the appliance up to speed with others and lets the user form a more organic connection with it. The circular display has two rings – the outer ring shows the temperature and the inner ring shows the water level inside. Countdown starts after setting the water temperature and will beep once its ready!

The choice of CMF really elevates the simple appliance into an aesthetic product that you can display proudly on your kitchen counter. The minimal form has metal and wooden details that are evergreen as well as work with all interior settings. The body has a linear shape that is well complemented with the oblong ring that connects the handle which looks like it is almost floating. B POINT is possibly one of the most beautiful kettle designs we’ve seen.

Designer: Andrew Chang

This tiny tea café fits in a 1.5 sq. ft. fold-out box on the back of a Vespa





Ask any Indian what their country runs on and the answer will inevitably come, “Chai”. Introduced to the country by the British and the Portuguese, Chai (or tea) is as much of a legacy to India as the New York Pizza Slice or the Chicago Deep Dish is to America. We’ve taken the drink and co-opted it, introducing our rich culture and complex flavors and spices to what’s otherwise a simple beverage of tea leaves, water, milk, and sugar. Today, chai can be found everywhere – At tiny roadside stalls in the city or on highways, and even in the up-market urban Chai cafés that are the “tea-quivalent” of Starbucks. However, possibly the most iconic form of Chai is found on the roads, sold by people on push-carts or even out of canteens on the back of scooters. The CHAIGAADI builds on that culture, modernizing it and turning it into even more of an icon.

ChaiGaadi is the world’s tiniest tea stall ever made. At just 1.5 sq. ft, the foldable tea stall fits right on the back of a Vespa, allowing the tea vendor to easily set up shop anywhere and sell tea along with select confectionery and snacks. Everything fits right into a 1.5 sq. ft. box that’s mounted on the back of a Vespa. Designed to work like a food truck, traveling from location to location (and often parking outside large offices in the evenings to businessmen can get their ‘chai break’), the ChaiGaadi can be set up anywhere in minutes. The box opens out into an elaborate setup comprising a copper tea boiler, a cup-warming tray fitted with signature ‘cutting chai’ drinking glasses, a tray for confectionery like buns and tea-cakes, and a fold-out counter for serving your wares and collecting cash. Once consumed, used tea glasses can even be docked in a special tray on the side, along with a small compartment for food waste.

The copper construction on the tea boiler is a bit of creative fusion from the designer, Arun Prabhu. Inspired by the copper glasses used by Turkish baristas to brew their coffee, the ChaiGaadi’s copper boiler relies on the metal’s conductivity while hinting at that cultural inspiration from the Middle East. Vents on the top of the boiler serve two purposes. Not only do they help keep the chai-glasses above warm (the vendor or ‘chaiwallah could pre-pour 10-15 glasses to quickly serve hot to customers), but they even occasionally let out steam, spreading the familiar whiff of strong milky tea in the air.

“We spent months prototyping, itching to find the right balance between usability and the skeleton of the structure”, says Arun Prabhu, founder of cross-disciplinary design and research firm The BILLBOARDS® Collective, and the designer of the ChaiGaadi. Touted as the world’s tiniest tea café, the ChaiGaadi was designed for Hyderabad-based cafe chain, Chai Kahaani, and is currently going through testing and trials as it prepares for an eventual nationwide rollout.

Designer: Arun Prabhu NG

Japanese tea rituals inspired this flexible, modular, origami-like wooden table!

Tea time is significant in many Asian cultures, it is a moment of pause in the day where one can enjoy a peaceful moment of solitude or socialize and relax with friends. Tea time is a beautiful ritual in Japanese culture and Hasu is a tea table inspired by that zen practice. Hasu transforms itself as the tea ritual progresses making it a contemporary piece of furniture that still pays a tribute to the process.

It starts as a minimal compact structure and ends as a complete furniture set for tea time. Hasu’s design allows storing an extensive tea collection while presenting it in a unique and clean manner – it is almost like you can fold or unfold the tea time ritual like origami. There is a lot of storage for all the objects needed for tea rituals and the table allows you to present them one by one during tea time, it is all on-site so everything is handy as well as neatly tucked away. The unfolding of the four upper tabletops marks the beginning of the tea time ritual. Extend the seating to four guests by simply pulling the floor chairs from the table. Even when it is not in use, it still upgrades the space as an abstract piece.

Hasu is produced using several construction techniques (traditional + modern) and different types of wood joineries. The body is crafted from solid oak and features powder-coated aluminum details. It includes a brand new hinge system that was specifically designed for Hasu. The simple yet innovative design gives tea lovers a chance to elevate their rituals without adding clutter. It allows you to disconnect from the surroundings and cherish peaceful moments with loved ones while enjoying the warmth of the teacup in your palms.

“Just like an opening lotus flower, when the first rays of sun caress the horizon during sunrise, symbolizes the start of a new day,” says Mortelmans while perfectly describing the soul of Hasu.

Designer: Dieter Mortelmans

This portable kettle lets you brew and drink a single serving of tea wherever you are

The Pocket Tea Set really challenges the notion of the way kettles look and function. Deviating from the standard practice of having a kettle-body, a spout, and a handle, the Pocket Tea Set abstracts the form while keeping the function intact. Designed to be small enough to carry around with you, the Pocket Tea Set serves you a single serving of freshly brewed tea with a unique form that makes it convenient and fun to brew tea on the go.

The Pocket Tea Set’s kettle comes with a revolved form, with a distinct rim around the sides, and with perforations running around it. The rim serves as a visual indication of where the kettle and the kettle’s cover meet, while its protruding shape means that it always remains cool to the touch, no matter how hot the contents of the kettle are. Perforations run all along the circumference of the rim, which means the Kettle can be held and used either which way, and all you need to do is grab it by the sides and tilt it over and the freshly brewed tea strains through, leaving the leaves behind. The tea set comes with two cups too, which nest inside the kettle when not in use, and a hard-shell case that fits all parts in, allowing you to carry a complete tea-brewing kit with you in the palm of your hand!

The Pocket Tea Set is a winner of the Golden Pin Design Award for the year 2020.

Designers: Tai-Ming Wei, Rong-Hui Lin, Bo-Kai Yang & Chun-Yu Wu

A coffee cup with a color-guide to help you make the right coffee every time!

MyCuppa makes the question “How do you like your coffee?” a little easier to answer! The cup, which comes with its own color-matching guide along the rim, helps you make consistent coffee every time by allowing you to visually judge the coffee’s strength. The color guide ranges from milky beige (which incidentally is how I like my coffee) to a strong, dark black. Just pour your coffee in and keep adding milk or creamer till you get the color your heart and taste-buds desire. There’s even a color-guide version for tea-drinkers, so you can calibrate your beverage’s intensi-tea!

Designed by the fun-loving folk at SuckUK, the ceramic mug comes in a single standard size, and is microwave-safe and dishwasher friendly. Makes a perfect stocking-stuffer for any coffee-craver or a tea-vangelist!

Designer: SuckUK Design Team

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