Tagline: The most convenient teapot you will find anywhere – we guarantee it. This is the teapot that got me into loose leaf tea after using it at DrFaulken‘s house. You just have to heat the water to the appropriate temperature, add the right amount of tea, pour in the water, allow the tea to steep and place the tea pot on top of your preferred drinking container causing the tea to drain and discard the used tea leaves. This teapot has not one but two US patents: US Patent 5,826,493 – Infusion coffee maker and US Patent 6,058,827 – Structure of a tea flushing device. As per DrFaulken’s Adagio.com review and recommendation, I bought two of the pots (one for home and one for work) as part of Adagio Tea’s starter set for $19. They sell the teapot by itself for the same price go figure.

Brewing a Pot of Tea: I already outlined the basic steps but here are some more details. I like to use filtered water, usually with a Brita pitcher of some sort, particularly at work where tea made with unfiltered water is an entirely different color then the same tea with filtered water. I use a Rival Electric Hot Pot which I got for $10 from Bed Bath & Beyond to heat the water. There are electric kettles that will heat the water to precisely the desired temperature, but they cost a lot more then $10 and it isn’t that difficult to determine boiling from almost boiling. For this demonstration, I brewed Ooooh Darjeeling which is an oolong leaf tea. Here is the teapot with tea waiting for the water to boil and here is what it looks right immediately adding water. At home, I set the timer on my microwave and at work I use my Web Timer and set it to whatever Adagio Teas has printed on the label for the recommended time. The slick part is watching the tea go drain from the pot into the cup, so I made a short video of it. You can also watch Adagio Teas Shockwave Video of the pot in action though it doesn’t have sound.

Construction: Since I first saw the ingenuiTEA teapot in use, I have wanted to take it apart for some reason. It proved easier then I expected. Just a slight poke with a pointed chopstick from the bottom of the pot freed the small plastic ring that holds the bottom portion on the rest of the pot. Here are the individual parts of the pot spread out. Reassembly was also fairly easy requiring just a bit more force on the small ring from the other angle. The mesh infuser comes out pretty easily for rinsing. This can be both good and bad. Once I had the infuser poorly situated and it came loose when I added water. I have had the infuser fall out on several occasions during cleaning but I haven’t lost or seriously damaged it yet. Over time my work infuser has become rather discolored but it doesn’t seem to affect the taste of the tea. Adagio Teas does sell replacement infusers for $3 should Something Bad Happen. I am not sure exactly what the pot itself is made out of, but it seems to do an adequate job of holding the heat. I have to wait a bit before the tea is comfortable to drink.

Conclusions: I have been using this pot at both home and work since mid-October and I have been quite pleased with it. With the possible exception of how well it holds heat (I don’t have a suitable thermometer for testing), I think it passes most of if not all of Tommy’s How to Make Tea qualifications for a tea pot. The $19 Starter Set from Adagio Teas with the ingenuiTEA Teapot seems to be an excellent way to get started or continue using loose leaf tea.