You’re brewing it wrong: The 42tea sensor helps you make a perfect cup of tea

By Tom Cassady October 14, 2016

You’ve heard that a watched pot never boils, but did you know that the same principle applies to tea kettles? Are you finding that the temperature of your water is overpowering your tea leaves, sapping out all of the flavor? Don’t have the memory capacity to remember the specific brewing instructions for the more than 1,500 types of tea? Thankfully, courtesy of a company called 42tea, you no longer have to worry about such problems.

The 42tea smart sensor and companion app promise to take all of the guesswork out of brewing the perfect cuppa. Simply tell it which variety of tea you want to brew, and it will tell you the exact water temperature, ratio of tea and water, and brew time to get those leaves steeped to perfection. It even helps get the temperature right. Simply drop the small sensor cube into your boiling kettle, and it will alert you via a notification when the water is at the perfect temp.

More Smart Brew Gadgets: The Voltaire smart coffee grinder aims to bring Starbucks-level coffee to your kitchen

The app will even start to fine tune its recommendations based on your personal preferences. If you like your tea sweeter, it will shorten the brew time accordingly. Like it a little stronger? It will turn up the heat and prompt you to steep for just a bit longer.

What’s more, the app also acts as a tea sommelier, tracking which types of tea you frequently brew. Once it gets a handle on your tastes, it starts recommending other types for you to try out.

The cube is expected to last three years, if used five to 10 times per week, according to Engadget. At which point, you can buy replacement batteries from the company.

Rounding out the selection is a smart tea caddy with a reprogrammable Near Field Communication chip in it. Just put up to 50 grams of your favorite tea in the caddy, program the NFC chip so it knows what variety it’s holding, and next time you go to brew, just drop the cube on the lid and the app will load up the recipe.

The product successfully surpassed its $15,000 goal on Kickstarter, raising $15,358 at the end of September, and should be on sale by the end of this year. It will cost $55 when it launches, and you can pre-order now.

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