I love a hot cup of tea in the morning to go along with my breakfast. During the work week, I typically drink Stash Tea Premium White tea from individually packaged tea bags. On the weekend I’m more adventurous and like to try different loose teas. I’ll either use a French press or a mesh cup infuser to steep the leaves. Recently I reviewed the Teastick, which is a cool idea, but turned out to be a little awkward to use and clean. In a comment to that review, someone suggested that I try the ingenuiTEA teapot from Adagio Teas, Inc. My friends at ThinkGeek sent me one and here are the results of my review.
The ingenuiTEA (say it like the word ingenuity) is a small teapot made of food grade plastic that will not shatter or break. It can hold / dispense 16 oz. of liquid and is dishwasher safe.
The teapot is a little over 6 inches tall, has a large handle and stand off feet. These feet are important, but I’ll get to that in a minute.
The teapot has a nice lid that you can flip open with your thumb in order to fill the 16 ounce reservoir with water.
In the bottom of the teapot is a small plastic filter that will keep loose tea leaves from ending up in your cup. The filter can be easily pulled out and removed for cleaning after you’re finished using it for the day.
The way the ingenuiTEA works is that you put some loose tea leaves in the pot, then either pour in boiling water or fill with cold water and put the pot in your microwave. You want to make sure that you set the teapot on the included plastic coaster or on a flat surface.
After you have waited the desired length of time for the leaves to steep, you’re ready to fix your cup.
The ingenuiTEA is unique because it has a built in dispensing valve on the base of the pot. It’s activated by pressure. When water is in the pot, the valve is closed and won’t leak.
But, when you set the teapot on top of a cup, it will press the valve up, causing it to open and the brewed tea to flow out the bottom of the pot and into your cup. It’s a very clever design. Most cups hold less than 16 oz. so you have to pay attention to the tea as it pours out of the teapot. When your cup is filled, just lift the ingenuiTEA to stop the flow.
Mmmm, Jasmine tea…
I will say that the ingenuiTEA is a lot easier to use than a French press. It’s also easier to clean.
All you have to do is reach in to the teapot and pull out the filter. This might be slightly difficult if you have large hands though… You can then just knock the wet leaves into a trash can and rinse both the filter and pot. Clean up is pretty easy, but in my opinion, it’s not really something I’d want to do at work as I would need to take the ingenuiTEA into the restroom to pull out the filter, clean off the leaves, rinse and dry both parts. At home this is much less of a hassle and doesn’t feel inconvienent at all, but at work it just feels more awkward. I guess it all depends on where you where too. The ingenuiTEA has replaced my French press and mesh infuser at home for sure. At work, I’ll just continue to be lazy and use tea bags 🙂
Product Information
| Price: | $18.99 |
| Manufacturer: | Adagio Teas, Inc. |
| Retailer: | ThinkGeek |
| Pros: |
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I had gotten one of these for work, and found the cleaning of it in the bathroom to be a real problem….so I don’t use it anymore. Sticking to tea bags at work.
At home, I use loose tea and have been using the Tea Wand (Wisdom Wands). I take my Bodum Bistro double wall 16oz jumbo mug, drop the loose tea into it, add hot water and use the wand to drink the tea (I also add a little Agave)….
TheDreamer:
I’ll have to check out the Tea Wand now! 😀 FYI: I’m a Stevia convert.
We use an “in mug tea infuser” – a mesh baskey that fits right in the mug with a wider lip that sits on top of the mug. This gives the tea room to “breath” while it infuses, works much better than the little spring-baskets that so many people use. I think ours is made by Bodum but I’m not sure of that. The Tea Wand (and Java Wand) seem like an interesting idea. My wife now uses a Bodum French Press for coffee and she loves that, has no interest in going back to a standard coffee maker (and it’s nice because it takes almost no counter space unlike a standard coffee maker).
Kevin:
I use a mug infuser too at home… it’s a bit of a pain to clean though because the leaves tend to stick to the sides. After reviewing the Teastick and the ingenuiTEA, I was trying to think of what I would design as a perfect infuser. So far, I’m coming up with a blank 😉
weirdly enough i’m currently drinking a cup of tea mmmmmmmm
I have a number of tea “devices” but the one I picked up over the holidays is the best I have found. It is called “Tea Control” by Finum. It is glass and will do up to four cups of tea. It has an insert that you place your loose tea or bags. When the tea is finished brewing, you simply turn the top of the insert. That will move the tea to a section of the insert that no longer has contact with the water. Clean up is a snap too.
Eric:
Wow, another infuser that I’ve not seen before. Thanks for sharing the info! 🙂
I love tea gadgets! I’ll have to pick one of these up 🙂
I use something very similar to the ingenuiTEA, with a few differences. The device I have is the Teavana Perfect Tea Maker, and it’s also 16 oz and activated by setting it on a cup. The differences are 1) the filter on the PTM is non-removable, and 2) the filter on the PTM is metal mesh instead of plastic.
So, I end up nuking water in a cup, pouring it into the infuser, waiting and then putting the infuser on the cup I nuked the water in. It’s dishwasher-safe, but the mesh does discolor, just like your old in-cup infuser did.
Gary:
I’m either going to go broke, get a caffeine overdose or both if I buy all these tea gadgets 😉
It’s probably a good thing there’s no Teavana store out here in West Texas. I’d go broke if I bought all the teas that they tempt me with on trips to Dallas or San Antonio. 🙂
I find the Paris tea strainer at to be much easier to use and clean. True, it does not have the “gadget” appeal but what a breeze it is to brew tea at work!!!
Just would like to add my cup of knowledge.
I own a “TeaMate,” purchased about eight years ago and which sadly is no longer available. It looks like coffee maker, but does not operate like one if you were to use a coffee maker to make tea. The great thing about the TeaMate is that is steams the leaves for a number of minutes, which you can select as the water heats up to boiling. This is similar to the principle of a Russian Somivar. After it steams, extracting the essence, the hot water pours over and through the tea. The tea does not steep in hot water. The taste is fabulous completely devoid of any bitterness.
The TeaMate makes the clearest best tasting tea for iced tea.
Steve in snowy Chicago
julia, have you experience any leakage from the ingenuitea after a few weeks of use? i have read on some of the reviews on other sites that people experienced leakage from their ingenuitea.
@fondoo: No leaks yet…
I have used this to make tea at a restaurant, but has anyone tried to use it to make coffee?
I LOVE loose tea! This seems like a really handy gadget, especially at home, like you said. It really does seem a lot easier to use. Do you guys have any favorite loose teas that I should try?
How did you manage to pull out the filter?
I can’t and I’m afrain to break it if I insist.
I’ve only managed to remove the bottom part (the one that makes the water flow).
@Andrea You mean the filter shown in the last picture of the review? If I remember correctly (I no longer have this device), I just reached in and pulled it out.
@Julie, Apparently my version (the 32oz that I’ve just got it) is somehow solded to the cup.
That’s bad and should have been clearly stated on the product description: I would probably have bought the smaller version in this case.
I’ll go complaining in the offical site 😉
Thank you for your answer anyway.
It’s also possible that they changed the design. I posted that review back in January of 2009.
When it comes right down to it. I have to say that I prefer using an old fashioned tea strainer like this one: http://www.amazon.com/Tea-Services-Paris-Tea-Cup-Strainer/dp/B004T8FDGA/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1343042602&sr=8-3&keywords=tea+strainer
Easy to clean and no breakable parts.
I think so Julie.
I wasn’t complaining with you… sorry if I was misunderstanding: I’m not a native English speaker.
If they changed the design, they didn’t improved much, making impossible to remove the filter.