Samadoyo E-01

Last year for my birthday I was lucky enough to receive a Samadoyo E-01 teapot.

The idea behind this clever device is to give you a simplified version of “Asian” style infusion, i.e. more tea leaves per volume of water, in a smaller vessel, using shorter steeping times, and all at the press of a button.

The main body of the glass pot has a capacity of 500ml. The upper, removable, 200ml chamber, where the tea infusion actually takes place, has a built in fine mesh filter, activated by a small button.

To make tea, you place the tea leaves in the top chamber, add water, and steep for the required amount of time. When your tea is ready, you simply press the button, which allows the tea to drain through the mesh filter into the bottom chamber. The lid of the pot simply rests snugly on the rim of the upper chamber, with a clearance hole for the filter activation button.

At 200ml the steeping chamber has the exact same capacity as many gaiwans, so you can use the weights and volumes you are familiar with for your favourite teas right off the bat.

The finished tea drains through the filter fairly quickly, potentially an important factor in Asian infusion where every second counts if one wishes to avoid oversteeping the tea. You don’t have the ability to finely regulate the flow of the tea, as you would with a gaiwan by changing the gap between lid and bowl, but this is not too bad a trade off given the ease and convenience of the push-button operation.

Usually in Asian style infusion, to obtain as clean and even a taste as possible one would initially transfer the tea from a gaiwan into a tea pitcher through a traditional fine mesh Chinese tea strainer, to remove tea dust and stray leaves from the finished liquor. Here, all this functionality is built-in to the one pot.

The Samadoyo E-01 in use

I was happy to see that the resulting tea matches the clarity of tea prepared in the traditional way.

I was also pleased to note that the filter chamber cleans up very easily. A good rinse out under running hot water was enough to remove all traces of dust and small leaf particles from the filter.

The main body of the pot, effectively your tea pitcher, has good heat retention characteristics, keeping the finished tea at a suitable temperature for a reasonable period of time.

If you want the quality of tea produced by Asian-style infusion, but a more casual, everyday method as a change from the traditional full-blown gaiwan experience, then this pot offers a practical alternative with good quality of construction at a reasonable price. We paid 199 SEK here in Sweden, which at the time of writing equates to roughly £16 UK, $23 US, and €21.

Disclaimer

I am in no way connected with Samadoyo. The opinions expressed here are mine and mine alone!