A Tea Junkie's Dream...

Happy Monday friends! It's a holiday Monday here in Ontario, but I figured I would post a little something fun while B and I work away on a few projects around the house!


On my way home from work on Friday I made a small detour and stopped into Chapters. I'd gone in with intentions to look for some books to inspire our peanuts nursery, and see what other goodies they had on sale, and ended up leaving with my favourite thing ever... some British Shelter mags. While flipping through the pages of House Beautifuls February 2011 issue, I came across something I had seen on the British Property ladder the other week and had instantly fallen in love with. How about an instant hot water tap?

The style shown above comes from the company Quooker, which gives you instant access to 100C water on tap at all times. That is a dream for a tea addict such as myself... and that's just me, think of all of the other great uses. Need to boil water for pasta? Not any more! How about blanching vegetables or giving something a quick wash? This tap is absolutely genius!

Of course, upon bringing it up to B his first concern was safety since we have a little peanut on the way. Quooker has addressed those child safety worries by making the tap a child-safe push and turn handle. Also, the tap will only dispense 0.05L of water per second, in a fine spray, as opposed to a solid streaming jet. 

How the Quooker works is that the water is held in a small discreet tank below your kitchen sink. Being hooked up to your plumbing, your water will flow into the tank where it is held at a temperature of 110C. When you're ready for water it flows into the tap at 100C and when it reaches your cup, it is, according to Quooker, the ideal temperature of 93C. PERFECTION!

What makes the whole thing even better is that it's energy AND water efficient. Just think, because the water is flowing directly from the tap, no water is wasted and dumped from your kettle when you don't use it! Plus, think of the added bonus of losing that extra appliance stashed in your kitchen cupboard! I know we could do without having that electric kettle stowed away in there. Now if only I could get my hands on one of these bad boys for a reasonable price...

BUT WAIT! In continuing my research I discovered another company called Insinkerator that also produces an instant boiling water tap, and sells 'em in Canada... at HomeDepot.ca and Rona.ca!! I'd have to do a bit more research before I'm 100% convinced that one of these are good for us, especially since Insinkerator sells a variety of models at a few different price points. 

What do you think - could you use an instant hot water tap? What do you dream of using it for?