True tea lovers know that while the act of brewing tea appears to be a simple process, it’s actually just the opposite. Tea is sensitive to temperature and brewing time and when not brewed carefully, the true taste, flavor, color and even the correct drinking temperature of the tea is disregarded.
Over the past year while pursuing our MBA’s at the F.W. Olin School of Business at Babson College, we often got together over a cup of tea and brainstormed ways that we could take tea drinking to the next level. All three of us had a strong tea background, coming from Japan and India, and when we came to the U.S., we were surprised that more and more people were interested in tea (and switching from coffee for the health benefits). At the same time, we questioned the current tea industry which often ignores the uniqueness of the human sense. When we go to a tea shop, we get the exact same tea as other customers, yet we all have different tastes. We tried to figure out how we could combine technology with the brewing process to not only brew the perfect cup of tea, but be able to learn individuals behaviors towards tea in order to provide the best possible experience.
So, with a passion and eye for innovative technology and design, we came together to invent a revolutionary way to brew tea. Our product is called Teplo: The Smart Bottle For Tea Lovers. We designed both a hardware product and software to go along with it. While brainstorming features of our product we asked a number of tea lovers around and they said they loved simplicity. They believed their cup of tea is the most peaceful and soulful drink in the entire day. With this idea in mind we showed them our prototype which had a sleek glass design. They loved it and contributed saying glass was the most important component of the drink because it helped them enjoy the color of the tea. Also, while thinking about color of the cap and the bottom of our product we realized the color of the tea was more important and therefore chose a very subtle and natural color of wood. With this version, tea lovers were very excited as they said it reminded them of purity and sanctity.
This being the exterior of the bottle, we designed the app on similar lines and made the app very simple and easy to use. The app was the most important component of our product, because it allowed us to control the brewing environment and also track user habits. Thus through user behaviors we were able to learn a user’s personal preference of tea. We took a step forward and made tea from all over the world available to everybody through our app. With a single mission of making people drink the best quality tea and also making tea from all over the world available at a click we launched Teplo.
The first generation of Teplo is now available for pre-order on Kickstarter. Visit the site to learn more and pre-order.
Help us spread the #TeaLove!
Mayuresh Soni is the co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of Teplo. With his co-founders, Kazunori Kawanobe (CEO) and Abhinav Sureka (COO), they have begun pre-selling their product, Teplo, to tea lovers everywhere. His favorite tea blends are Hibiscus Tea, Green tea, and Darjeeling Tea.
I think this is an exciting and innovative device. To provide tea on the go in a beautiful and efficient container is such an important function for tea lover on the go….. and who isn’t on the go these days! Best of luck with your Kickstarter campaign. This is a must have product.
This is interesting! I’ve been thinking about investing/manufacturing a portable tea maker before, but always got stuck with the technology. With Teplo, I now realize that everyone owns a smartphone, and that a lot of available technology is already available in everyone’s pocket. The integration a thermometer in the bottom is really well thought.