Tea Code Cups

I’ve never liked the little strings that come attached to bagged tea. I appreciate that they make it easy to handle the bag, but more often than not the string slides down into the hot tea as it steeps and needs to be fished out – defeating the purpose of having a string in the first place. The reason for the slide is that the string is hard to secure. The design of these Tea Code Cups neatly solves that problem and makes string tea bags a lot more convenient to use. The cups have what looks like a button on their sides that you can wrap the tea bag string around to hold it in place. The sides of the cups, which come in various sizes, are double walled so they don’t get too hot to handle when you are drinking (or trying to remove the tea bag string). A spoon will work well for fishing out a tea bag, but this type of cup could be a nice addition to the collection of, say, a Lipton lover who wants to stick with the string-ed tea bag no matter what.

There is a cute little animation showing how these cups work here, although if you end up ordering some, I think you’ll find them to be pretty self explanatory.

Tea Forte Brewing Pitchers

This gorgeous Tea Forte Brewing Pitcher set might be better off if it were called a serving set, because the lovely presentation that this makes on the table is mostly what you’re going to see. The set is made of heat-resistant hand-blown glass and stacks neatly one on top of the other. The idea is that you use the top pitcher for brewing your tea, and the bottom one for ice for serving. This means that the tea can be as fresh as possible – still hot, in other words – and you don’t have to try to make time to brew a pitcher and chill it before serving. Just remember to try and brew the tea a little bit strong to account for the fact that pouring the hot tea over ice will water it down just a little bit.

Stain Tea Cup

The problem with white coffee mugs and tea cups is that they can stain and yellow with use over time . It’s usually not much of a problem (since it happens to the whole set), but one designer decided to take advantage of this by creating the Stain Tea Cup. The tea cups are etched with a design that is stained by tea with repeated use, so the more you use the cup, the more dramatic and distinctive the cup becomes. They are being sold by the designer for £35 each, and seem to be available with different patterns.

via book of joe

Chocolate and Cinnamon Mills

One of the easiest things you can do to spice up a drink is to add a little bit of garnish to the top. A dusting of chocolate or cinnamon can boost the flavor, as well as really enhancing the overall presentation of a drink. I like to put a sprinkle on my drinks just for fun, but I almost always do it when I’m serving family or guests. Ground spices and coarsely chopped chocolate work out nicely, but this pair of Chocolate and Cinnamon Mills makes the garnishing process a whole lot easier. The mills function just like pepper mills, but are filled with chunks of chocolate and pieces of cinnamon. Both are refillable, so you can change up the type of chocolate or use a custom blend of whole spices, too.

Bentwood Coffee Cuff

The Bentwood Coffee Cuff is a unique, multi-purpose piece of design. It’s a pretty chic looking cuff-style bracelet that doubles as an insulating sleeve for a standard to-go coffee cup (i.e. a Starbucks or similar disposable cup). The cuff is made out of a single piece of wood – your choice of ebony, bird’s eye maple, black walnut or benge – and each piece is hand-shaped by curling it around a real coffee cup to ensure a good fit. It is eco-friendly in two ways. First, the wood used is reclaimed architectural veneer that otherwise might have been scrapped. Second, using a reusable sleeve for your coffee cup cuts down on the waste of using disposable sleeves in addition to disposable cups.

[thanks, margot!]