Good old Yankee IngenuiTEA—the easiest way to brew loose tea—delights all who try it. Photo courtesy Targuman | Amazon. Get yours now!
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KAREN HOCHMAN is Editorial Director of THE NIBBLE and a fine tea enthusiast.
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October 2005
Last Updated March 2012
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IngenuiTea Cup Top Brewer
Good Old Yankee IngenuiTEA Is A Winner
The Best Way To Brew Loose Tea
Why don’t more tea lovers brew tea the way it’s supposed to be done—from loose leaves (the finest tea), which need space to unfurl and infuse the water?
Because there’s nothing more bothersome than disposing of wet leaves. Unless you have a garbage disposal, you must carry your tea strainer on a saucer (it drips) to a waste basket and thump it against the side to dislodge the wet leaves.
Tea balls and infusing spoons? Forget it—you can section a grapefruit in the time it takes to get all the wet leaves out. Recently, specialty tea manufacturers have begun to put fine leaf tea in bags; otherwise, bag buyers get bits and pieces, the cheaper parts of the tea leaf that make bitter, not better, tea.
But those beautiful teas in beautiful bags are not exactly economical; and with the increased interest in, and connoisseurship of, fine teas, there will always be varieties that are only available in loose leaf form.
That’s why we turned cartwheels when we saw the ingenuiTEA teapot from Adagio Teas, an online purveyor of quality traditional and exotic teas. Recognizing its genius, we have been using it daily for seven years, and can’t live without it. Everyone who visits THE NIBBLE office to see it in action similarly flips and proceeds to order several—for self, family members and friends.
How It Works
A patented invention, IngenuiTEA radically simplifies the brewing of loose tea. Perhaps it is the best thing since sliced bread. You can see it in an “action film” on Adagio’s website, but these “stills” will give you a good idea of how it works:
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| Add boiling water and tea leaves... |
Tea brews in the 12-ounce plastic pot... |
Wait 4 to 5 minutes until brewing is complete... |
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| Set pot atop any cup...tea pours in. Lift off, no drip. |
Enjoy! We use this glass mug, also from Adagio. |
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- There’s a mesh filter on the bottom of the easy-to-use plastic teapot.
- When you set the pot atop any cup or mug, a valve opens, propped open by the rim of the cup, and the brewed tea flows in.
- The leaves stay above, atop the filter. The valve closes the moment you lift the pot off the rim, and there is zero dripping.
- To remove the leaves, tap the teapot over a trash bag, or send them down the garbage disposal.
The lightweight IngenuiTEA teapot is made of shatterproof, food-grade plastic and is dishwasher-safe. It’s also microwave-safe: if you have no place to boil water at the office or dorm, you can microwave water in it. We brew it for two minutes in our microwave.
We love our IngenuiTEA so much, we even brew our tea bags in it. Why? We don’t need a tea bag caddy for the wet bag. It holds more brewed tea than our mug. It allows us to get a second infusion out of the tea bag: we only need 8 of the 12 ounces in the IngenuiTEA to fill our cup the first time, so we fill it up with more hot water and a second cup is waiting. The thick plastic insulates and keeps the tea warm. And last, but not least, it’s fun to use!
So whether you’re a loose tea user, a tea bag user who would like a faster, neater solution to cleaning up, or a tea bag user who wants to use loose teas...IngenuiTEA may be the best kitchen appliance or gadget (we can’t really decide what to call it) that you buy this year.
ADAGIO TEAS
IngenuiTEA Teapot and Infuser
Click on link to purchase.
Shipping additional. Prices are verified at publication but are subject to change.
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| Enjoy loose tea the easy way, with IngenuiTEA. We use them to brew tea with bags, too. |
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