Entrepreneur develops steeper to ease preparation of beverage.
LONG BEACH — Brewing loose-leaf tea can take an elaborate setup, according to Mei Tung, of Long Beach. Her tea set sits on a large, hand-carved wooden tray and includes small, ornamental porcelain dishes. Most hold dried tea leaves of different varieties; others are for steeping them. She poured boiling water into one of the steeping dishes. Water dripped from the kettle and ran in thin streams around the tray. After a moment, she removed a perforated ceramic basket holding the tea leaves from the hot water and poured it into tiny cups. Again, the tea dripped from the dish’s lip and wet the tray.
“Because we’re tea lovers, we really wanted to design something for tea lovers who travel so they can enjoy their favorite tea on the road,” Tung explained as the tea steeped. So she began producing the Perfect Steeper, a small, portable device that brews loose-leaf tea.
The Eight Cranes Perfect Steeper is available online from Amazon.com
“I think bagged tea is OK but it’s not the right way to drink tea,” she said. She describes the quality of the tea in bags as lower and the flavor more bitter.
“I see western cultures enjoying tea, especially Chinese tea, and I really want to show them how to brew the tea,” she said. She placed the Perfect Steeper on the tray. It is a glass cylinder standing about eight inches tall with a metal base, top, and a metal strip around the middle. She twisted it and pulled the cylinder in half. The lower half was a glass jar – for the boiling water, she said – and the upper half held the tea.
She twisted the top part and pulled it in half, filled it with small, wrinkled black leaves, and screwed it together again. She then filled the bottom part of the steeper with hot water and put the two parts back together. She held it up and showed the top and bottom parts are separated by a fine screen. Then she turned the steeper upside down, letting the water flow into the tea leaves. She sat the steeper on the tray as an orange glow began to radiate up from the leaves. She picked up the jar and slowly tilted it. The lid exhaled rolling clouds of gold that filled the water.
She explained she likes her tea light, but to make it stronger she could turn it over for longer. She tipped the jar again, waited a moment and tilted it to let more golden plumes darken the water. She unscrewed the lid and poured the tea into two tiny cups. The taste of the tea was clean and sweet. This is great for traveling, she said, because the user can drink the tea straight from the steeper.
“I take it wherever I go,” she said. Unlike tea bags, which are good for a single use, loose-leaf tea is good for as many as 10, she added. So the user has no need to take extra tea. Though she perfected and manufactured the Perfect Steeper, her friend came up with the idea. She said she would rather not mention his name because, being a devout Buddhist, he avoids attention. Two years ago, he called Tung because he considers himself a bad businessman, despite being a creative inventor.
He knew Tung was business-savvy; her history proves it. She left China when she was 22 in 1983 to attend Smith College in Massachusetts. In 1989, she returned to China to open a high-end gardening tool factory. Her business know-how served her well. In 1990, she had five people working for her. Today, she employs 300. That is not the only reason her inventive friend came to her with his steeper prototype. He knew she has a passion for tea. In fact, she dedicated an entire room in her home to this traditional Chinese drink.
“Tea is my passion. I feel like I have endless energy and motivation to pass on my experience and knowledge,” she said. She opened the closet in her spare bedroom. From the wooden floor to the ceiling, barrels painted in classical Chinese artwork were stacked among piles of plastic storage containers, themselves stuffed with delicate paper boxes. They were all filled with tea. Sitting on a knee-high stool in front of a statue of Buddha, she recalled the first time she used the Perfect Steeper prototype.
“I really loved it, but it had a lot of flaws,” she said. So she put a metal base on its glass bottom, changed the threading on the top of the jar and changed the shape of the wire mesh keeping the tea leaves in the lid. Then she started a new company to make the Steeper and called it Eight Cranes. Eight is thought to be a lucky number in Chinese culture, she explained, and the crane represents good health. Even the word crane has a deeper meaning. In Mandarin, the word “crane” is made of two words: “xian” and “he.”
“Xian” means “immortal,” she said, and “he” means “drink.” So, naming a device that brews a healthy drink such as tea the “immortal drink” makes sense, she said. Currently, she is working on a “huggy,” or a foam rubber holder that will keep the tea warm, for the Perfect Steeper.
The Eight Cranes Perfect Steeper is available online from Amazon.com
