The Story Behind Qi Aerista

…as told by Rick, the founder of Qi Aerista

It all started with a tiny wish way back in my early childhood.

I am a native of Hong Kong, and tea plays an important part in Hong Kong culture. In fact, the term “Yum Cha”, which means “Drink Tea” in Cantonese, refers to the style of Chinese cuisine that tea is served alongside a variety of delicacies and small dishes, commonly known as “dim sum”.

My dad is a big fan of tea. Every Sunday morning he would bring the family to the nearby restaurant to have dim sum and tea. His way of preparing the tea is very simple, just use a porcelain tea pot or gaiwan to make his favourite Shoumei white tea.

Even though the dim sum tastes great, but what makes me remember the most is the tea, albeit in a not so good way. As we eat and drink and chat around the table, the pot of tea would just sit there for a long time, where it would get all dark and bitter and cold. Since then, I wish there is a way to prevent over infusion.

Such wish remained unfulfilled for many years until one day when I became part of a project to brainstorm on new tea making solutions. My immediate thought was not to make good tasting tea with managing basics such as brewing time and water temperature, etc., but to solve the over-infusion problem that upset me for so many years.

After some background research, successive experiments and a few sparks of inspiration, we have come up with the basic designs for Qi Aerista.

Besides solving the over-infusion problem by separating the tea leaves and water after brewing, Qi Aerista allows independent control on brewing time and water temperature, thereby making a truly automatic brewing process possible. We have also added in user-friendly features such as handled tea infuser, rinse tea, smart kettle extension and more.

In addition to traditional Chinese teas, it is by coincidence that we found out that Qi Aerista is able to make good-tasting milk tea as well. A rich and flavorful cup of milk tea requires a strong tea brew, which is easily achievable with our unique patented circulative infusion system.

Another surprising breakthrough is that Qi Aerista can also make cold-brewed tea at significantly less time than the normal process. Traditionally, you would first brew hot tea and then make it cold by adding ice or chill it in the fridge. Or you can directly infuse the tea with room temperature water, but it would take hours. With Qi Aerista, we can do the same in mere minutes, and the resulting tea shows an accentuated sweetness and decreased bitterness.

The app part was added later in the project, initially as a way to make it easier to troubleshoot performance issues during the brewing process. But then we discovered that controlling and customizing the brewing process with our smartphone is very efficient. And the app paves the way to a wide range of possibilities in expanding our project.

We are super exicited about Qi Aerista’s launching on Kickstarter on November 15th, please join us and support Qi Aerista today!

Qi Aerista, the Smart Tea Brewer

Making tea may seem easy, but making that perfect cup consistently requires some work. Let Qi Aerista help you! Qi Aerista is an app-connected smart tea brewer that lets you hot brew, strong brew and even cold brew your favorite tea to perfection every time. Want more info? Check out our Facebook page now!