There are many tea-cooling ideas on here, but I think this is fresh.
Many people* initially sip freshly-boiled tea from their mugs (putting in a pot properly before transferring to a cup will normally have taken the initial burn from the tea), especially when almost brim-full, by lowering their upper
lip over the surface of the liquid and inhaling sharply. This results in a cloud of droplets coming off the surface and being drawn into the mouth transferring enough heat to the surrounding air that they can now be drunk without scalding the mouth. This method suffers the problem, however, that the droplets don't really allow the full flavour of the tea to be revealed - I'm not sure why, perhaps they fly past one's tasting sensors too fast and there is no time for the vapours to pass into the nasal cavities.
The solution involves a method of artificially dropletising the liquid and then re-forming it into a gulpable mouthful.
Two pipes leading to an injection moulded plastic venturi are inserted into the nostrils of the drinker. The venturi vents to the atmosphere. A rigid pipe comes at 90 degrees to the flow from the throat of the venturi into the top of a cyclonic separator - this is held next to the drinker's cheek, perhaps by a glasses-frame type holder. The side inlet of the separator is piped, by a flexible pipe, to a nozzle that rests just above the surface of the tea. This is achieved by a set of floats around the rim of the nozzle. Since prototypes are not yet fully assembled, I'm unsure of the optimum geometry of the nozzle, but it is anticipated that it should float between 1 and 2mm from the surface of the liquid.
The operation of the device is as follows:
The drinker will breathe in/out sharply (three models will be available as detailed later). This will cause a low pressure in the pipe at the side of the venturi and will suck air through the cyclonic separator. This will cause a rush of air above the surface of the tea and will draw up the tea/air suspension into the separator. The separator drops the heavy liquid droplets out at the bottom into a flexible pipe that is held in the mouth of the drinker.
3 available configurations are: venturi oriented for intake breath, oriented for output breath, or the deluxe model with two venturis next to one another with appropriate valves to allow more consistent drinking without hyperventilation.
An economy version is also in development currently and is planned for release a year after production of the deluxe model. This consists of a reasonably long coil of copper brake pipe, one end in the tea and the other end held in the mouth, and is oparated by oral suction.
Unsuitable for cooling the traditional lemon-and-honey drink for treatment of colds.
*Greater than, or equal to, one