The TeaTotal prototype.

Cambridge engineers have come up with a way to infuse a sense of theatre into the art of tea making – to rival the experience enjoyed by coffee drinkers.

The TeaTotal machine uses loose leaf tea in a theatrical brewing pot that fills with water and swirls the leaves around as it steeps before pouring straight into a cup.

The aim is to capture the market in the current economic climate for consumer spending on ‘little luxuries’.

TeaTotal also offers personalisation to help create the ‘perfect cuppa’ and brews the tea in just two minutes – half the time of traditional methods.

The prototype device has been developed by technology and product development company Cambridge Consultants, based at the Science Park.

“Tea drinkers stand in line in a retail outlet and watch as their coffee-drinking fellow customers are treated to a personal ‘barista experience’,” said Edward Brunner, principal engineer in the firm’s consumer team.

“Meanwhile, they are presented with a mug of hot water and a soggy bag on a string. Tea drinkers deserve more, and will demand more as tea becomes the new coffee.

“The TeaTotal prototype brings that same sense of everyday luxury to tea, where we have seen a richer approach to leaves and flavours but not yet to the brewing process itself.”

TeaTotal allows the customer to specify not only the leaf, but also the intensity of the tea flavour and the relative bitterness.

The design team was able to identify the independent variables that affect flavour – and how to separately manipulate them to deliver each person’s ideal cuppa.