Can this smart tea set actually brew better tea?

Tea. Mankind has been brewing and drinking it for hundreds, if not thousands of years, and while the varieties of tea, techniques of preparation, and methods of brewing have changed as cultures and times have changed, at its core, it all boils down to steeping leaves in water.

But, as is often the case with technology, someone thinks they’ve got a gadget that can do it better. Specifically, Teamosa, a smart tea brewing set currently looking for backing on Kickstarter that claims to not only brew perfect tea every time, but actually do so better than traditional brewing methods.

There are essentially two parts to Teamosa — an “infusion chamber” on top, where you load either loose tea leaves or preprepared Teamosa paper pods (which contain... tea leaves, so not really much of a difference there), and a water reservoir. If this sounds pretty similar to a Keurig so far, you’d be right.

But Teamosa looks to stand out from simply just being an expensive tea pod machine by offering some pretty granular control over the brewing process through a connected app, which allows users to adjust things like brewing temperature, steeping time, strength, and the amount of tea brewed. The idea is to ensure that no matter what kind of tea you’re brewing or how you prefer to serve it, your finished product comes out the same every time.

The other interesting addition to Teamosa is the use of what the company refers to as “ultrasonic extraction” to increase antioxidant yield while brewing. Whether or not that actually has a demonstrable effect is probably still up for debate, although the company does cite several published research papers to bolster those claims.

Teamosa costs $239 at an early bird price on Kickstarter for a set that includes the Teamosa itself, two tea cups, and ten Teamosa pods to get you started, which the company hopes to ship by September 2018. The long lead time and the fact that Teamosa is a new company looking to fund a first time hardware product on Kickstarter are possible causes of concern, but with any crowdfunded project like this, it’s best to use your own judgement before backing.

It’s also worth nothing that there’s a very similar product out there called the Teforia Leaf that more or less does the same thing as Teamosa. It also sells for the same price that Teamosa intends to retail for, $399, with the added bonus that it actually ships today — something that may be worth considering as a option before backing Teamosa.