What types of tea cannot be extracted with the teplo teapot?

This article introduces why the teplo teapot can brew a variety of teas, including green tea, black tea, Chinese tea, and herbal tea, deliciously. While the teplo teapot can handle a wide range of teas effectively, like other teapots and tools, it has its strengths and limitations. This article will discuss the types of tea that teplo struggles with.

To be precise, teplo doesn’t struggle with specific types of tea, but rather with certain extraction methods. One such method is extracting with very small amounts of water, such as 100ml. This method, often referred to as “shizuku tea” in the tea world, involves using about 10g of tea leaves with approximately 100ml of water. In comparison, typical sencha tea uses about 7–10g of leaves with 300ml of water, making the tea-to-water ratio for shizuku tea 3 to 4 times higher.

During extraction, the tea leaves absorb water, so the final drinkable amount of tea is only about 30–50ml, roughly equivalent to a small sake cup. This method produces a highly concentrated tea with intense flavors and sweetness, similar to espresso in coffee.

teplo struggles with this specific “shizuku tea” method. As mentioned in the article, teplo uses a rotational extraction system, which requires at least 200ml of water due to its design. Below this amount, the infuser cannot rotate properly, and the tea leaves do not come into contact with the water, preventing proper extraction.

The tea made using the “shizuku tea” extraction method has a very distinctive flavor. While there was a desire to replicate this method with the teplo teapot, its highly specialized extraction process and the relatively low frequency of its use compared to other methods led to the conclusion that it is better to leave this to a dedicated “shizuku tea” teapot.

In fact, even professional tea makers often use specialized small teapots for the “shizuku tea” method. These teapots, though small and charming, are packed with essential features and represent a refined example of functional beauty. If you are interested in “shizuku tea,” I recommend trying a dedicated teapot designed specifically for this method.

Whether it’s overcoming shortcomings or enhancing strengths, this remains an eternal challenge for both people and products. We will continue to objectively assess teplo’s limitations and strive to improve our products.