Teabags in fractional sizes for those who like just half a cup of tea or a whole cup of half-strength tea.An assorted pack of whole teabags, half-size teabags, quarter-size teabags, etc., down to 1/ 2^n sized teabags will allow you to brew a cup of tea to the nearest 1/2^(n+1) of the strength of a normal-sized teabag.-- hippo, May 10 2004 minibags might help.. http://www.halfbake...ix_20Mini_20Teabagsalthough I wonder if you really want tea leaves [neilp, Oct 04 2004] the good brew. http://www.k-1.com/...ssays/cupoftea.htmlone way to get it right. [cromagnon, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004] Hot beverage district heating Hot_20beverage_20district_20heatingPrior Art [8th of 7, Nov 29 2019] Strength = Amount of tea * Time Simply take the bag out sooner, and enjoy the seconds you save!-- MikeOliver, May 10 2004 I thought you Brits shunned tea bags," loose tea is the only civilised way to make tea" I was told, in which case a half Tbs. will do nicely thank you and one lump please.-- dentworth, May 10 2004 [MikeOliver] No - some tea flavours develop over time - you need to keep the teabag in the water for a certain amount of time to get all the flavour components.-- hippo, May 10 2004 Or just have round teabags with perforated sections like pizza slices. Remove as many as you wish, depending on your taste.-- lostdog, May 10 2004 Loose tea is more civilised [dentworth] but there are times when only a cup of builders tea will do.-- hazel, May 10 2004 loose tea blocks up the sink. no, teabags are more civilised.-- po, May 10 2004 What if I want an irrational fraction of a cup? Could there be special sizes such as 1/e?
(Oh, and the reciprocal of pi to your good wife.)-- AO, May 11 2004 think you just need mini bags (see link)-- neilp, May 11 2004 What about having them in a roll of deci-teabags joined by perforations like bog roll. Then you just tear off as many (or as few) as you need.
[AO] I appreciated the F&S reference. Some of the perpetual motion merchants round here could do with listening to the song that follows your quote:
"heat won't pass from the cooler to the hotter; you can try it if you like but you'd far better notta."-- Gordon Comstock, May 11 2004 It will if you put one ot those peltier elements in between!-- my-nep, May 11 2004 Good idea for those individuals who like weak tea. [ +] Not for me though. [link]-- cromagnon, May 12 2004 "some tea flavours develop over time" I only drink tetley, so i'm not sure... Although, i'm sure if this was baked you'd be charged a premium (see heinz soup for one, half the amount at twice the price), so it would be more economical to make a full cup o tea, top up with hot water to desired concentration, and chuck out what you don't drink!-- MikeOliver, May 12 2004 How about 'roll your own' tea bags? You buy a sheet of rolling papers (in similar packets to those for roll your own cigarettes) which have been specially designed to tolerate boiling water, so that they don't just 'unroll' when dunked. Then loose leaf tea can be popped in to the bag, and sealed with a heat proof glue stick so that it looks like a piece of ravioli.
This has the advantages of having exactly the right amount of tea, and the disposability of your standard tea bag, i.e. no bits down the sink.
It would all be biodegradable of course, so as to be compost heap friendly.-- WYBloke, May 12 2004 Not a bad idea, why don't you post it seperately? Alternatively use a tea strainer...-- MikeOliver, May 12 2004 glad you said it M.O., seems obvious to me, or a tea ball, isn't that a difuser?-- dentworth, May 12 2004 Isn't it rude to ask for an irrational cup of tea?-- k_sra, May 12 2004 Roll your own tea bags is now a separate item. I'm brewing on gas today!-- WYBloke, May 12 2004 Can't you just not drink what you don't want? Don't you just add water if you want it weaker? Whats wrong with "bits down the sink" ?
I guess this is the same as individually wrapped cheese or like MikeOliver mentioned about the individual soups. Do those count as good ideas? Definately marketable but I don't know if they are good ideas.
Tea always tastes like watery flowers to me.-- Bamboo, May 12 2004 Perhaps coffee flavored tea would better appeal to you.-- bristolz, May 12 2004 boys and girls: a tea difuser, The Civilised Way to Sup, clean, reliable, adaptable and available in funky designs. Cheers.-- etherman, May 12 2004 I'm getting this idea confused with Roll your own...... anyway I say the Brits get exclusive rights to export only loose tea to the states, and btw put a really high tax on it and ship it to Boston...-- dentworth, May 12 2004 [bristolz] Aye, maybe to those around me but I never got into coffee either.
Maybe this idea would be a great hit to the vast tea drinking world but to me it just sounds like another excuse to add more wrapping to a product (though I must say, I buy plenty of those "excuses" myself)-- Bamboo, May 12 2004 Perhaps Guinness flavored tea . . . ?-- bristolz, May 12 2004 <Muttered cursing/>
BorgCo beverage scientists have been considering the concept of "Incremental Tea Bags".
The idea is that if a mug of tea is made using a single tea bag and then consumed, by refilling the mug with boiling water a second mug of tea can be produced, but of greatly diminished strength.
However, if a tea bag were produced which contained 50% of the amount of tea as the original, an acceptable beverage could be produced at a proportionately lower cost, by re-using the original bag with the addition of a half-size bag.
The process can be repeated by successively removing the oldest bag in the sequence.
Regrettably the Prior Art above pre-empts posting the design as a standalone idea.-- 8th of 7, Nov 29 2019 The solution to this, shirley, is to be found in the Linear Teabag. The Linear Teabag is essentially a single, very very long tube of teabag paper, filled with teabags. Crimpings compartmentalise it lengthwise into alternating segments of 1" , 2" and 3", with 2" containing the amount of tealeaves needed to produce a single large cup (or small mug) of decent-strength tea.
When you want a brew, just cut off the required segments (as one contiguous piece, if possible). A weak single cup (or a normal half-cup) can be brewed from 1"; a strong single cup (or a normal large mug) can be brewed from either 1"+2", or from 3" (depending on how the previous user left things).-- MaxwellBuchanan, Nov 29 2019 Am I the only one who read the title as 'Fractal teabags' ?
Was expecting something about reusing the same bag but with ever smaller cups to achieve the same strength & appearance each time.-- Skewed, Nov 29 2019 It would be better if the system were subdivided along two axes.
The design needs to be akin to the charge bags employed by artillery.
Thus, cutting off a "unit" would give the user a 3-strip module subdivided as 20%:30%:50%
Placed in an average mug, this would deliver a beverage 30% stronger than a standard bag.
Standard operating procedure would be to remove the 30% portion for the first mug.
For the second mug, only the 50% unit is added.
For the third, the 20% and 30% units are added.
After 'n' mugs have been consumed, the gun crew is left with only the original surplus 30% charge, which is put aside. This procedure is followed for a successive fire mission. When the third is called, the two 30% charges are deployed, with a corresponding diminution of the amount of hot water (6/7, or 14% less) as the charge is only 60% of maximum. An adjustment from the range table will allow this to be efficiently compensated by increasing muzzle elevation.
Use of the 100% "top" charge will need to be subject to constraints, as there may be problems with bore and chamber erosion, excessive shock to the recoil system, and strain on the carriage including the traverse and elevation mechanism. There may be issues with blast and recoil, even if a well-designed muzzle brake is fitted.-- 8th of 7, Nov 29 2019 A little Googling produces the satisfactory information that a French pioneer of artillery was called Charles Ragon de Bange.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Nov 29 2019 Actually, hang on. Shirley the answer, for the UK at least, is to have hot tea piped in to each house along with water, gas and electricity. Most cities will have (within them or nearby) various sources of surplus heat, such as nuclear power stations, server farms or political debating rooms. This heat could usefully be captured and used to provide community tea. The delivered strength could be quite high (say, 15- 20kilobrews), and consumers would dilute it to taste with hot, cold or boiling water according to preference.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Nov 29 2019 // hot tea piped in to each house along with water, gas and electricity. //
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<Raises Spock-style quizzical eyebrow/>-- 8th of 7, Nov 29 2019 [8th], please put that eyebrow back down. It might belong to someone.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Nov 29 2019 Irrational teabags and the like are impossible on paper, but generally perfectly possible in practice. For example you can't write down 1/3 in decimal but bounded only by the planck length you can have 1/3 of an orange. If you don't think it's cheating you can shave off a tiny bit of the skin to get precisely 1/3 of an orange.-- Voice, Nov 30 2019 //For example you can't write down 1/3// but 1/3rd is rational (ie, it is the ratio of 1 to 3).-- MaxwellBuchanan, Nov 30 2019 <Considers technical challenges inherent in removing the irrational 1/3 of [Voice]/>-- 8th of 7, Nov 30 2019 Also, if you count in base pi, then pi is an integer.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Nov 30 2019 //count in base pi//
That's the most irrational thing you've said for ... hang on we're waiting till you've finished ... wait, hang on ...-- DenholmRicshaw, Nov 30 2019 Can a number be made up of different bases in different positions either side of the point? Doh , imperial measurement. I wonder if there's universal number whitespace?-- wjt, Dec 01 2019 random, halfbakery