Building telemetry for tea a.k.a. Tealemetry (2018) | Hacker News Reader

Building telemetry for tea a.k.a. Tealemetry (2018)

blog.benjojo.co.uk

63 pointszdw12 comments

I love this project!

As a fellow tea drinker, I suspect the British would be appalled by my day to day tea-making and drinking method. I boil water, pour it over a teabag into a mug, walk away, and hope that by the next time I notice it, it's down to a reasonable drinking temperature, at which point I remove the teabag.

I'll grant that if I'm making good loose leaf tea, I'm pretty attentive to recommended brewing times, etc, but that's more of a weekend leisure tea exercise.

As an aside, I'm pretty incensed that my new electric kettle overshoots its set temperature and only holds temperature for 30 minutes. I'm semi-seriously considering trying to dump the firmware and improve it.

No, I'm not brewing tea with it. I'm keeping hide glue warm. I dropped my old "glue pot" the other day and needed a replacement now, not tomorrow.

Author here -- before I made this I did the exact thing as you!

Leaving the teabag in as well? I thought that'd be sacrilege in England.

It's said that some people even put milk, hot water, and then tea bags! We are a weird lot.

If you are going to leave the tea leaves in the water continuously, you could consider buying some loose leaf tea. Just throw a few grams in the glass and then add boiling water. This style is commonly referred to as "Grandpa style". Since loose leaf tea is less broken up it will become less bitter than leaving a tea bag in.

Nah, that's the British method. Just add milk :)

The only thing (most) Brits aren't a fan of is adding milk before water.

We're not that picky about how long you steep for; everyone prefers their tea differently. I know some people who leave the tea bag in!

I'm very glad I stumbled upon this today. Also as a fellow avid tea drinker, I have also applied an absurd amount of home engineering to serve my tea drinking needs. Specifically on the steep time for loose leaf tea.

http://qedlaboratory.com/automatic-tea-steeper-for-perfect-a...

I am by no means a very good blogger and have really just started being a socially active engineer. Hope someone enjoys it!

I Love it! I built something very similar for a hackathon a few years back. Aside from emitting metrics to a server with a simple real-time graph rendered in a browser, I also had it connected to a janky servo that would lower a tea-bag or loose-leaf tea container only after hitting a target temp (e.g., 180F) and lift the container back out after a target time (e.g 3 minutes). Then I could continue monitoring the graph until the temp dropped down to a non-tongue burning level and it would notify me as well. While neat for a prototype, the setup was too clunky to actually use regularly, but I've often thought about making a nice version of it.

A friend of mine also made an actually cool looking build along these lines too. His doesn't emit metrics viewable on a graph, but it uses LED indicators to show temp ranges on the drink stand itself (though I suppose he could always build internet-of-shit integrations in the future, haha). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gJ1Rk6mqHM

As you continue the chart to 10°C and below, it starts becoming acceptable again!

I love cold-steeped tea, especially in summer. And it just might be the healthiest way to prepare it[1].

[1] - https://nutritionfacts.org/video/cold-steeping-green-tea/

There's a mug called the Ember mug that actually holds your tea at a certain temperature - it's a bit pricy though!

that's what I've always wanted, awesome!!

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