Living a Tea-Rated Office Life
29 Mar
One of the main tricks when trying to experience the glory of tea when you aren’t at home is how to brew it properly! Last week, I talked a bit about general guidelines to follow when brewing your tea. So how do you take that information and apply it to making tea when you’re at work?
I’ve taken the liberty of narrowing down this topic into the top options that I’ve found useful myself.
1. Consider using a small teapot when in the office. I’ve found this to not only be an effective way of brewing tea, but it also acts as a nice conversation starter with co-workers with even a vague interest in tea as well. To be honest, it isn’t always convenient to have an actual teapot, though. It can take up more space than you’ve got available, or even cause a little mess with drips and the like.
2 & 3. Some of the simplest tools for brewing in a smaller space are either an infuser mug or, interestingly enough, a french press (like is used for coffee most of the time). I’ve actually found the french press to be particularly useful, as you don’t even have to figure out somewhere to set the infuser once you remove it from your mug. However, many infuser mugs do come with a matching, fitted lid which, when removed and overturned, is ideal for placing the temporarily out of use infuser safely without creating a mess.
4. You can always use a simple travel mug or thermos and just bring the tea from home ready-made. This is not ideal unless you plan to drink your tea during your morning commute or don’t mind your tea tasting… less fresh …as the day progresses.
5. This next suggestion is my primary method of brewing tea in the workplace these days. The item itself has no consistent name from brand to brand, so I just refer to it as a Tea Pooper. Yeah, I know. I’m classy. In any case, it’s pretty simple… you put the tea leaves in the top section and add the water. Once it’s done steeping, just place the whole pooper on the top of your mug and it poops it out for you! (Strictly speaking, it’s more watery than all that, but I don’t want to call it the Tea Diarrhea-er… not least of all because it’s awkward to pronounce.) You can find an example of one of these here.
6. This last suggestion I’m making is not necessarily “office-friendly” in the sense that it will be too large for most office spaces. However, I’d like to see the person who honestly can tell me they don’t WANT this on their desk:
Seriously. It’s a cold brew drip brewer of majesty. I would feel like a mad scientist every day. How do you not want one of these?
Images
All photos by Briana Morrison with exception of the mad scientist contraption, which is from the product page.
How do you heat the water to the right temperature while at work?
Great question! And one I can’t believe I missed out on covering!
Most offices will have, at the very least, a coffee maker. And these coffee makers, in addition to brewing coffee, typically have the ability to heat up water as well. Either that or have a hot water spigot, of a sort. When my company had a coffee maker, that was where I got my hot water. When the water from it was too hot for the tea I wanted to make, I simply got the hot water, let it sit a bit, then added my tea once the water was cooler.
Now, my company has a couple of options. First, we have a filtered water dispenser, which has the ability to provide hot or chilled water. Second, we have a hot and cold water dispenser on the sink. It is connected with a point-of-use tankless water heater (simple options for this to maybe recommend to your own HR department is an InSinkErator water dispenser with their filtered hot water tank, the SST-FLTR… oh dear god, my work life suffuses with my tea life even more! For those who don’t know, I work for a company that sells home improvement items, including ISE items. In all seriousness, if you want me to help you put together a bid with discount to propose to your HR department, let me know and I can totally help you out with that.).
While not every office will have options, you could always pick up a simple, cheap (mine cost $35) electric kettle at a local big box store or online. Once I get a nicer electric kettle for home (one that can set to precise temperatures), I’m going to bring mine into the office as well so I can have heated water at the press of a button without leaving my desk.
Or you are lucky and you can have your own tea machine (mostly a heating and brewing thing).
Yes! I almost included items like the Breville tea maker, but decided against it. I honestly included the mad scientist one because, well… IT’S AWESOME. And the idea of that thing on my desk in the office is too good to pass up.
I don’t have a Breville at work, I only have a kettle.
If I had a Breville at work, I think I’d make a lot of people jealous! Then again, I don’t have one at all and, if I did, it would be at home so I could wake up to a nicely brewed pot of tea.
I have one but I am in line with you, it stays at home.
Couldn’t have said it better myself – we’ll have a section like this on our site!