Slow Food Tea Infuser Initial Research

Megan Dattoria

November 10^th, 2009

Nowadays people need to move so fast just to keep up with the ever-changing world. Everything in our lives is designed for optimal speed. Text messages let you say just what you need to without the hassle of chatting. Search pages let you look up information instead of having to think a problem through or remember an ounce of information for yourself. Online shopping lets you purchase clothes without having to go in a store or talk to a single person. Drive-through windows let you pick up your morning coffee without even leaving your car. Though these advances in technology allow the common person to get more done in their day, this also severely limits one’s actual human interaction and keeps society highly strung and impatient.

The slow food movement is an excellent concept meant to work against this overly fast paced and stressed out routine that society has adopted. When I first heard of the movement I was on the New York trip and was visiting the Droop exhibits on Governor’s Island. I honestly spent no longer than five minutes in each house since I was trying to fit too much into the day. When my group came across that house I was taken aback. My thoughts were, “Who has that kind of time? Are you kidding? Not a chance!” and we quickly skipped past it. I regret doing so now because I didn’t really stop to think what the purpose of this was. Our society places so much value on speed that I couldn’t even understand the people who were participating in the exhibit. I fear that this will be the response of the common American and this movement will have trouble turning many heads.

I think that tea is an excellent method to spread the slow food movement into society as it is already used mostly to wind down and have a break. I know that I, myself, drink tea every night before bed to calm myself down and just breathe. My intention with my tea infuser is to extend this soothing experience and accentuate the purposes of the slow food movement in its design. When I think of slow food several words come to mind: indulgence, enjoy, savor, break, breathe, experience, inhale, watch, together, communicate, connect, be, live, calm, aromatic, anticipate, wait, and appreciate. My goal is to emphasize these elements of the tea-making experience. My first thought was to make a long cylindrical infuser like the one pictured to the left. I thought this had a very modern aesthetic appeal and might make people stop and think but then I realized it was designed for speed and was against my intentions. I then realized that I would have to make an infuser that sits inside the cup and brews with little human interaction, lengthening the infusing process.

I then considered an infuser that clips to the side of the mug, as pictured above, because I like the idea of being able to see one’s tea brewing. This allows one to appreciate the process and watch the colors of the leaves bleed into the water. I then abandoned this idea because I felt like this design made the infuser seem too much like an accessory to the cup and not as much a main focus. I then came across a photo of a paper infuser that is skewered and balanced atop the cup by placing the skewer across the opening of the mug. I liked this idea because it was simple and had a modern appeal. It also allows the drinker to watch the tea brew. I like that, since I am making the infuser out of copper, an excellent heat conductor, I am able to make the skewer out of a material that would stay relatively cool and wouldn’t scold one’s hand if they wished to adjust the infuser. I am thinking of turning it out of wood because my dad has a pen turning station set up in his shed and would be happy to couch me. In this way I would be able to make notches in the skewer where it rests on the rim of the mug so it cannot roll around.

I am also considering making the straining element inside the copper part of the infuser highly intricate and decorative so the drinker’s eye is brought down into the cup and occupied for a longer time than if they were using a plain, ugly tea bag. I am hoping this will force the drinker to spend more time watching the tea brew and enjoying the process. I hope that the drinker will then think of having tea as an activity, rather than a means to the end of having drunk tea. I also think that this design will allow the aromas of the tea to escape and entice the drinker so that they anticipate and look forward to the tea so they appreciate it more.

There is one more element that I am considering incorporating into my infuser. I believe that tea should be a very social event and is a means of communicating with others. Thus, I was interested in making my infuser accommodate two drinkers. In this way each drinker has to wait for the other’s tea to be done before they can drink and are forced to spend time together in a relaxing setting that allows easy communication; talking without a direct purpose, just talking to get to know one another. This is just an idea and I’m not sure if I’m going to stick with it, as this also prevents one from enjoying tea when they are alone. I don’t know if I want to limit my design in this way. Overall I am designing my infuser to embrace the idea of watching the tea brew enjoying the process.