It seems to me that this is the ultimate invention for people who have very little time (or very little patience) yet still want a hot beverage in the morning. Tefal has designed a kettle that heats your water (approximately one cup) in just three seconds, as opposed to a standard kettle which takes just under three minutes. Aside from just the speed and the obvious energy / water saving aspects, the Quick Cup has a few more things going for it too - you can adjust the amount of water you need by the touch of a button, plus the kettle uses a filter so your water will have fewer impurities. In addition, a separate button allows you to simply extract room-temperature filtered water for those times when you don't need it piping hot.
A little warning though - the water doesn't actually come to a complete boil, so you may not extract as much flavor from a tea bag and it won't be hot enough to sterilize anything. Otherwise though, it seems like a pretty efficient way to get some hot water fast. Currently the kettle is only available in the UK, but if it is a success I'm sure it'll make it's way over here soon.
6-14-2007 @2:07PM John Romkey said... Tea bags aside, many teas are best made using water around 180 degrees rather than boiling.
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6-14-2007 @2:05PM ozzy said... Unfortunately, it won't heat water in 3 seconds in the US. The 230v mains power in the UK allows for an electric kettle that's a lot more powerful than a 120v model could be in the US (~2000W vs 1500W). I've used electric kettles in both countries, and the UK ones heat water much more quickly. My 1500W US model is a bit disappointing, actually.
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6-14-2007 @2:07PM Liz Newcomb said... If the water doesn't come to a complete boil, I wouldn't use it to make my tea. Maybe I'm a traditionalist, or I have more patience, but I only use boiling water for my tea.
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6-14-2007 @2:49PM yoshi said... This appears to operate on the same idea that thankless water heaters operating under. Push water through a series of heated coils and expel. I don't see why it wouldn't work in the states with an adapter...
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6-14-2007 @2:56PM Mirko said... Just looking at the physics shows, that you need 24,64kW in order to heat 220ml Water from 20C to 100C (boiling point) in 3sec. This is more than 12 times the energy that can be legally drawn out of an electricity socket (at least here in europe). With the standard fuses having a 16A rating, the 6.7-fold overload for 3sec will not trip the 'slow-rated' fuse.
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6-14-2007 @10:01PM brandon said... well you wouldn't use boiling water for green tea, so that's fine with me.
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6-15-2007 @3:46PM JoJo said... Besides the fact that you do not use boiliing water for tea (as stated previous) this highly specialized gizmo looks like it takes up a lot of counter space - space that could be used for more versatile appliances. Also, I wonder what the water tastes like? You know, how like if you heat water in the microwave and make tea it just tastes a bit off. And finally, if you're too impatient to make a proper cup of tea, are you really going to enjoy it anyway?
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6-26-2007 @11:12AM Tea Laden said... FYI for everyone Zojirushi of Japan makes a hot water pot that keeps the water at a perfect temperature for loose teas. The pot also dechlorinates and descales. The water setting are 175 for white tea, 195 for green tea, and 208 for black tea. I will have them for special order on our website.
http://www.tealaden.com
1-877-TEA-DROP
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7-12-2007 @11:49PM b said... Hey,
There's a terrible condition washing over the country called Indooritis, and my agency was hired by Lipton to get bloggers to join the fight. We hope you'll encourage your readers to visit www.FightIndooritis.com, or at least get their friends to head outside and breathe some actual air.
Thank you for your support,
Brandon
PS – You can see which bloggers are already helping us conquer this horrible lack of outsidity by visiting picnic-in-the-parkes.blogspot.com
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11-14-2007 @3:16PM wana said... Great idea. I love all kinds of tea, but especially the red one! It's the sweetest.. just adore the vanilla taste in it. Just hope I won't have to buy appliance parts: http://www.appliancepartspros.com for it!
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