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Attention tea lovers everywhere: Your day - maybe even your year - is about to be made. A local startup led by a bunch of Babson MBAs has developed a smart bottle and accompanying app that will empower you to brew the cup of tea of your dreams every time.
Kazunori Kawanobe, Mayuresh Soni and Abhinav Sureka made the Teplo Bottle, which lets tea enthusiasts automate, control and monitor the brewing temperatures and time of their libations depending on the particular blend they’re cooking up, as well as their personal preferences. Not only does the bottle ensure drinkers will always brew their tea to its fullest potential, but it also uses algorithms to suggest future tea blends that would appeal to each individual user and enables them to be purchased through the app. And it's all available through Kickstarter now.
According to Kawanobe, the original idea for the Teplo bottle came from serious exposure to tea culture. “As you can see on the video, I’m from Japan and [my co-founders are] from India, so we have a strong background in tea,” he told me. “We like tea and drink tea. When we came to the U.S., we didn’t expect the tea culture here. We realized that the tea industry is growing here, but the tea culture is not mature.”
They all saw room for improvement in how people consume tea. Basically, in a world full of customizations and personalizations, tea has lagging behind. That epiphany was about a year ago.
Kawanobe explained, "It's not a problem that is only in the U.S. The tea industry doesn’t expect the uniqueness of a person: how you feel about temperature, taste the tea, smell the tea and see it. When you go into a shop, there is no uniqueness for individuals. You are served the same tea or coffee as other customers. This industry should be improved, and we thought that personalization will be key."
So Teplo is simplifying the process of personalizing your tea experience. It will walk you through the process of picking a tea blend that’s right for you, in addition to automating an ideal temperature and amount of time to brew that tea to bring out the flavors you prefer most. For example, if you have a hankering for a nice cup of green tea, Teplo will ensure you brew it the right way (a very different way from brewing a hibiscus-heavy tea) so you pick up all of those grassy and jasmine notes you love so much.
The best part? It’s not going to break the bank. Personalization is often associated with high costs, but not in this case. Teplo is all about making gourmet tea-drinking easier, more affordable and more accessible overall. While countries that already have an established tea tradition might take a while to win over, the team believes that Teplo is going to be a hit in places like the U.S., where people are just starting to get into tea.
“I think an interesting point is that Japan and India have strong tea backgrounds and a strong culture so, for some people, it’s hard to embrace [our new] culture because they’re used to what they know," Kawanobe said. "In the U.S., tea culture is new, so they’re open and flexible...especially with technology.”
What should be even more appealing to Americans is how Teplo can guide them to picking new, custom blends of tea. Kawanobe explained that he mixes up his teas every day depending on what time he's drinking it, what kinds of health benefits he's looking to get out of it and what he feels like having with regards to flavor. And because of his personal knowledge of tea, he's able to create his own blends without much trouble. But for tea-drinking neophytes, thinking up new blends doesn't come so easily. Telpo will intervene, tracking what you like and don't like about tea so it can suggest custom blends for you. Pair that with the smart brewing functionalities and you've got yourself some quality beverages in your future.
Images via Kazu Kawanobe.
