I’m a notoriously slow tea drinker. This clever invention means I never have to suffer through another lukewarm cup
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November kicks off the season of itchy sweaters, gusty weather and elaborate excuses not to leave the house. For me, this also means a dramatic uptick in tea consumption. Few things make a chilly morning more tolerable than a steaming hot beverage, like this hearty pumpkin and red bean tea I have been quaffing lately.
The problem is that I’m a painfully slow tea drinker. I’ll make myself a lovely cup, take a few sips, get distracted by work and remember it exists 45min later, when it’s gone miserably lukewarm. I’ll then drink my sad tea or get up to boil the kettle again (while finishing my sad tea as I wait). In the past, I’ve kept the kettle on to avoid this predicament, but I recently found a much better fix: the Ohom Ui self-heating mug, a small luxury that has made my tea habit considerably more pleasurable, and possibly ruined regular mugs for me for good.
Ui Self-Heating Mug Set
What is this thing?
At first glance, there’s nothing particularly tech-y about its appearance, which is nice when you don’t need more ugly gadgets on your desk. The Ohom is a handsome, minimalist ceramic cup with a matching lid, the sort of thing you might pick up at an overpriced little tchotchkes shop in Brooklyn. But the mug has a metal base, and when you plug in its egg-shaped warming pad, it keeps your drink at around 130F (55C), a temperature perfect for sipping.
Unlike my kettle, which announces itself every time it gets going, the Ohom doesn’t make a sound. I can leave it beside my laptop, forget about it and return to a still-hot cup of tea hours later. I’ve used it throughout an entire workday from home, taking occasional sips between emails, meetings and whatever else demands my attention. As long as the mug stays on its plugged-in warming pad, my tea stays warm. The pad works like a tiny induction plate, except its surface doesn’t get scorching hot. What’s more, it can wirelessly charge phones and AirPods – a bonus reason to keep it at my desk.
With it, a freshly brewed tea stays hot from morning til night, and it can also warm up a cup that has gone completely cold, though the latter can need 20min at least. It is an especially wonderful invention for people who are busy, easily distracted or occasionally too lazy to stand up (me). And now I never have to rush to finish my drink before it cools. Winter is long but life is short! Your hot bevs should stay hot.
My Zojirushi hot water dispenser is better than any tea kettle
There are a few caveats. To work, the warming pad must stay plugged into an outlet, and I wish it were truly portable. The price is also an investment for something that, technically, a regular mug and a kettle can accomplish together. If you like to down your morning coffee in five minutes, you probably don’t need it.
But if, like me, you can spend hours nursing a cup, it’s a practical yet indulgent upgrade. Rather than plastic or metal, the Ohom is made of ceramic and really does look and feel like a regular mug, with the reassuring heft of good-quality ceramicware – and it heats even faster when covered by its matching lid. (Plus it’s dishwasher safe.) The whole setup looks lovely enough that I’m thinking of giving them as gifts. It turns out, after spending years accepting lukewarm tea as a part of life, I could have just bought a better mug.
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