Slow Food Tea Infuser research

April Lambert, 11/9/09

There are two speeds in which Americans move in today: Fast and Faster. The average family has 2.5 children, since you cannot have .5 of a person for the purposes of this argument we'll round up to three children. To support all three children the both parents most likely work a full time job. If all three children participate in extra curricular activities after school mom and dad get home just in time to run through the drive through at a fast food restaurant and run to soccer practice or ballet. Everyone gets home after that just in time to go to bed, wake up, and do it all over again.

So for most Americans with this daily schedule the slow food movement not only seems bizarre, and unnecessary, but unpractical. The consumption of food used to be about more than just inhaling the necessary amount of vitamins and minerals to survive along with enough fat and sugar for three days. Not only is making your own meals a irritation, it can be difficult and time consuming. So to get someone in today's American society to slow down for ten minutes would be an accomplishment.

The only way, it seems, to get Americans to slow down is to throw a holiday at them. People usually make a nice homemade meal, order healthier food, or close to homemade that everyone enjoys together with good conversation on days such as Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and so on.

Tea is the perfect way to get people to slow down on days other than holidays. Tea in itself takes at least five minutes to steep and if, after the tea is brewed, it is still hot you also have to wait for the tea to cool. Many other cultures value tea and stop their whole day to slow down for a cup of tea. In England they have high tea everyday where they stop and have a cup of tea and some sort of cookie or tea cake. In Asia tea is consumed at almost every meal, and is used when people are sick as well. Many cultures make special cups and other china just for consuming tea and other consumables that go along with tea.

No in America people tend to slow down long enough to brew their own or buy a cup of coffee. Though coffee can make someone slow down to brew it and add sugar and cream to the persons liking, but coffee is often used to give someone energy and make them go faster. Americans can continue to have their morning coffee but instead of coffee at night or just crashing in bed it would be good for most people to slow down and brew a nice cup of tea. One cup at the end of the night would help slow you down and calm you down which would lead to a better nights sleep. If you get a better nights sleep you also might not need your cup of coffee in the morning to help you get up and go.

For my Tea infuser i have decided to go with some sort of Ocean design. I have chosen the ocean because most people go on vacation to relax and slow down and when most people go on vacation they go to the ocean. There is something about the ocean that makes people slow down and relax. Weather it be relaxing on the beach watching the water or peacefully swimming in the cool salt water. My goal is to get my tea infuser to make the viewer nostalgic of the ocean and hopefully trigger memories of the ocean that make the person stay longer thinking back at a time at the ocean before moving on with their day.