Editor’s Note: “My Journey” is a new series at World Tea News, where entrepreneurs and founders share their experiences with launching their business or introducing/developing their product. The series features lessons learned, insights and advice, or showcases the thought-process behind an idea. This article is a first-person account from Pierre Baston, the founder and inventor at Qterra Travel Brewers near Philadelphia. Baston created the Qterra Craft Travel Brewer, a temperature-controlled travel brewer that makes fresh tea or coffee with the twist of a dial. If you’d like to contribute to this series, please contact World Tea News Editor Aaron Kiel.
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My journey to inventing the Qterra Craft Travel Brewer began simply. My parents were typical casual tea drinkers. As a child, when I’d ask to taste a little tea, they’d respond with the playful forced rhyme, “Do not drink any, until you are twenty!” I was a 19-year-old film student in Rome when I discovered cappuccino. I would go to the bus stop, have a cappuccino at the corner cafe while I waited, get off the bus, have a cappuccino there, walk to my destination and have a cappuccino before I walked in, and so on, for the entire summer. But since quality cafes were not so plentiful back home in Philadelphia as they were in Rome at the time, the drink devolved into a special treat I reserved for special occasions.
A Deep Appreciation for Hot Beverages
I developed a deep appreciation for hot beverages, though, during many trips to Argentina since 2001. There, I was struck by the Argentine passion for mate – a hot herbal infusion created by indigenous Guarani people some 500 years ago. In Argentina, to drink mate is to brew mate, as it’s almost always prepared by the drinker on the spot, just moments before drinking. For the sake of freshness, Argentines can be seen in the streets toting kits made up of hot-water thermos, mate cup, drinking straw (bombilla), and the herb yerba mate itself. I figured there must be an easier way, so to impress my Argentine girlfriend at the time, I decided to invent an integrated unit that would enable mate-brewing spill-free in the palm of your hand. That design earned a patent in Argentina, and later, the United States and Japan.
It eventually became clear, though, that Argentina’s economy was not conducive to a successful product launch. So, I made one of several major pivots in my journey, and I decided to adapt my design for tea lovers worldwide.
Mate and the gongfu tea tradition mirror each other to an amazing degree. Both involve steeping a large quantity of leaves with small doses of water, drinking and repeating with the same leaves multiple times. As the leaves are re-steeped, the flavor of each 1- to 2-ounce beverage serving changes. This evolving-flavor phenomenon is highly valued in both traditions.
Amazed by Teaware and Teas in China
To develop the design, I hired a firm in Hong Kong, and visited there and with other manufacturers in Shenzhen, China. I was amazed by the variety of exotic teas, and the beauty of the teaware. I was sorely tempted to buy a magnificent water-draining tea table, and only resisted the impulse when I pondered the cost of bringing the massive stone object back as check-in luggage on the flight home.
Subsequently, I engaged multiple engineers and product developers for some time before I realized that my new portable tea maker would need something that my mate design never did. While ideal water temperature for mate ranges as low as a drinkable 150°F, I could not expect consumers to sip near-boiling black tea from my travel mug. All but the most delicate green or white teas would have to be cooled by my mug somehow, to avoid long waits or burned tongues.
I then learned that a few manufacturers had come out with travel mugs that cool beverage with a special heat-absorbing material called PCM (phase change material) in the walls. I developed new ways of applying PCM, consulted thermodynamic engineers and industrial designers, and in 2014, ran a Kickstarter campaign to launch my multiple-steeping Qterra Novo to the world.
However, the Novo didn’t attract the response I had hoped for. Although there were other contributing factors, it seemed clear that getting tea drinkers to switch from their normal brewing practices to the gongfu/mate style would take much more time and effort.
At this point, I was faced with the choice of whether to continue my quest, or to turn my teacup over and step away from the table. I had invested personal funds, and countless hours of research, travel, communication and thought over some years, and at the risk of my financial security, to reach this point. I had graduated from Yale, earned a master’s degree in film directing from the AFI, taught foreign languages, and worked successfully in the pharmaceutical industry, in addition to starting several businesses. I could have just opted to switch to pursuing a different business opportunity.
But intercultural understanding has been the theme of my life, and I saw promoting the enjoyment of tea and coffee as a medium for also promoting an appreciation for the connection between all people everywhere, and their universal contributions to human civilization.
From Sip to Sip
From my research, I’d learned that ever-evolving flavor in a beverage from sip to sip was valued not only by the age-old mate tradition of indigenous South American people and by the gongfu tea practice started in 10th-century China. It was also echoed in the drinking method invented in German East Frisia in the 19th century: layering rock sugar, tea and cream in a teacup, and sipping through each layer without stirring.
Millions of consumers – especially Millennials – want to know about their tea and coffee’s origins, the various methods of preparation, and the culture of the people who grow the products they love. And those are stories I want to tell, to a tea and coffee market that is eager to hear them.
So, I looked at my designs (which had garnered another U.S. patent in the meantime), pivoted again, and decided to advance from multiple steeping to a whole-mug brewing method that I hoped would appeal to more customers. I invented the Qterra Craft, which just completed a successful Kickstarter campaign this month.
Qterra Craft is a travel brewer that makes fresh-brewed coffee or tea on the go with just the twist of a dial. The Craft carries ground coffee or tea leaves and hot water separately, starts and stops brewing on demand, and quickly cools hot beverage for safe drinking – all without the user’s ever opening the mug. A bright yellow ring changes color to signal when cooling is done. Swappable artistic medallions attach to the bottom and show the user's style every time he lifts his mug to drink.
Tackling the challenges of Qterra Craft's temperature control required a search for exceptional insulating and cooling materials, computation of ideal tapering angles, thermodynamic modelling and prototype testing. I found inspiration in items as diverse as telescopes, mechanical watches, 18th-century Japanese tetsubin teapots and high-end footwear. The result is a slim design enabling the fresh brewing of hot beverages on the spot, safely and seamlessly, for richest flavor and maximum antioxidants.
Freshly Brewed, Peak Freshness
Everyone intuitively knows that “fresh brewed” means supremely rich and flavorful. The National Coffee Association declares, “Prepared coffee begins to lose its optimal taste moments after brewing.” The same can be said of tea. And up to 41 percent of antioxidants can be lost in the first hour. I figured, “We wouldn’t accept tea or coffee from Starbucks that is one, two or three hours old. Why should we accept it from our travel mugs?” With Qterra Craft, we don’t have to accept it any more.
In addition to peak freshness, Qterra Craft users can enjoy an unlimited choice of their favorite loose leaf tea, precise control of brewing time and agitation, and freedom from high coffeehouse prices and long lines. And the eco-friendly Craft works without electrical power, wires, chargers or batteries, and no paper-cup or plastic-pod waste.
I have long been quietly motivated by the message sent by a backer of my previous Kickstarter for the Qterra Novo travel brewer. She wrote:
“The art of tea is something that brings me pure joy. Novo would allow me to bring the beauty of tea anywhere… to travel with my art and my ritual."
I believe the next big wave in the craft tea and coffee movement will be an on-the-go fresh-brewing revolution. Qterra Travel Brewers aims to help lead the way.
Pierre Baston is the founder and inventor at Qterra Travel Brewers near Philadelphia, Pa. In the name, “terra” stands for the earth, which provides the tea and coffee we enjoy. “Q” stands for the added element of human ingenuity. Qterra’s mission is to bring new utility, convenience and cutting-edge technology to traditional tea and coffee practices enjoyed in modern ways. Next steps for Pierre are to debut a new Qterra model in February, to field additional offers from distributors, and to secure investment to move to the next level.
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