Half a croissant, on a plate, with a sign in front of it saying '50c'
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Heat exchanger tea mug

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Tea needs to be made with boiling water (note, especially to US and Canadian hotels - this means actually boiling water, not "water which has been boiled", nor does it mean giving me a small cup of warm water with a dusty, stale teabag on the saucer). However this means that immediately after making the tea in your favourite mug, when the desire for tea is strongest, it is slightly too hot to drink.

So, this idea is for a mug with a manually operated pump in it, powered by squeezing a lever inside the mug's handle. This pump pumps water from an insulated container at the bottom of the mug through a networks of pipes at the bottom of the tea, to draw heat from the tea and rapidly cool it so that it can be drunk. Later when, through natural 2nd-Law-of-Thermodynamics processes the tea has cooled slightly too far and is no longer at optimum drinking temperature, pumping the (now quite hot) water back through the heat exchanger will heat the tea back up. The water container at the bottom is not perfectly insulated of course, so the water will cool back down to room temperature before you make your next cup of tea.
hippo, Jul 06 2016

Here's one I made earlier Tea_20slurper
Works on a very different principle though, and won't reheat after excessive cooling. [TomP, Jul 19 2016]

And another rather elegant solution Self_20Regulating_20Hot_20Drink_20Cup
Uses alternate strips of conducting and insulating material around the mug so that they can either be aligned to conduct heat out or keep heat in. [TomP, Jul 19 2016]

Hot_20cubes [FlyingToaster, Jul 19 2016]

Eutectic_20Cup [FlyingToaster, Jul 19 2016]

[link]






       // manually operated pump ... water //   

       If it was liquid metal - like NaK or Mercury - or the pump was powered by a Seebeck-effect array, or if the Seebeck array charged a lithium battery which re-heated the tea using Peltier panels to scavenge ambient energy, then it might have got a bun.   

       While the objective is laudable, the means lacks inspiration.   

       // US and Canadian hotels //   

       The usual repeated violent brutal beatings would be a good starting point.
8th of 7, Jul 07 2016
  

       Look up Temperfect. It does the same thing with a phase- change material instead of a heat exchanger.
notexactly, Jul 19 2016
  

       //Look up Temperfect//   

       Or don't. I paid for, and haven't got my mug. Standard crowdfraudsters. We shoud just throw halfbakery ideas at such sites and snaffle the cash.
bs0u0155, Jul 19 2016
  

       A little prior art from the HB, though each slightly different from this idea.
TomP, Jul 19 2016
  

       A little prior art from the HB [link], though each slightly different from this idea, but neither re-heat the tea after excessive cooling (as this idea does).
TomP, Jul 19 2016
  

       This idea gets off to a rough start in the first sentence. While I sympathize with the unavailability of hot water for beverages, that source of all knowledge, the interweb, suggests that:   

       " Too high of a temperature will cook the leaves and ruin their delicate flavors. Oolong teas should be brewed at temperatures between 180 and 190 degrees Fahrenheit. Black and Herbal teas brew best at a full boil temperatures 208 and 212 degrees Fahrenheit. "
normzone, Jul 19 2016
  
      
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