Xiaomi has another brilliant simple gadget: the new Mijia titanium thermos brews your tea by flipping it upside down

Xiaomi has another unusual gadget from the Mijia ecosystem. This time it’s a titanium thermos with a separate tea chamber, so you can control the steeping intensity just by turning the thermos upside down.

The Mijia Titanium Thermos Cup Tea-Water Separation Edition has a volume of 500 ml, a titanium body, and a transparent chamber for loose-leaf tea.

How does the Mijia titanium thermos make tea?

The whole concept is based on gravity. At the top of the thermos there’s a transparent Tritan plastic chamber. Pour the tea into it. Then fill the body with hot water, screw the chamber on, and turn the thermos upside down. The water flows down onto the leaves and the tea starts steeping.

The chamber is transparent, so you can see the color of the infusion the whole time. When the strength suits you, turn the thermos back. The tea drains into the body and the leaves stay trapped in the chamber behind the titanium mesh. That stops the steeping, so the tea won’t get too strong even if you drink it an hour later.

It doesn’t have to be just tea. According to the manufacturer, the chamber is for green, black, and oolong too, but also flowers, lemon slices, mint, goji, or ginseng.

The body, mesh, and lid are made of titanium

The main material is titanium with purity over 99 %. According to Xiaomi, both the inner and outer wall of the body, the mesh, and the inner insert of the lid are made from it. Purity was verified by a Chinese testing lab, and the material meets China’s standard for titanium grade TA1.

Titanium in thermoses doesn’t corrode and doesn’t give the drink any metallic aftertaste. Xiaomi also mentions an antibacterial effect. In a lab test, it reduced the number of E. coli bacteria by more than 24 % after 90 hours and golden staph by more than 95 %.

Without the chamber, it works like a regular thermos

You don’t need to carry the tea chamber all the time. When you unscrew it, the lid screws directly onto the body, leaving you with a regular water thermos. Of the total 500 ml, about 400 ml goes to the body and 100 ml to the chamber. Without the chamber, you get 400 ml.

The chamber is made of thicker BPA-free Tritan. Xiaomi does not recommend boiling or soaking it in very hot water, though, because it could warp. The lid has a seal all around the entire perimeter, and according to the manufacturer the thermos won’t leak. Pull out the sealing ring by its tab and wash it separately, as well as the mesh.

After six hours, the water is only 45 °C

Its weaker point is insulation. Xiaomi says that after six hours the water in the thermos is still at least 45 °C. The test was carried out in a room with a temperature of 23 °C. They poured water above 96 °C into the thermos and started timing until it dropped to 95 °C.

After six hours, it won’t be properly hot tea anymore—it’ll be more of a warm to mildly lukewarm drink. If you expect it to keep high temperatures all day, this won’t be its strongest feature.

Price and availability

The thermos will come in two colors: dark gray and silver. Dimensions are 66 × 66 × 236 mm and it weighs about 321 g.

In the campaign in its home China it costs 199 yuan (about 26 €); after it ends the recommended price will be 269 yuan (about 35 €). It’s sold directly by Xiaomi, with shipping starting from 21. October.

So far, the thermos is intended only for China, and Xiaomi hasn’t said anything about a global version. Youpin products often reach us via AliExpress, where they’re usually more expensive than in China. If this thermos also shows up there, we’ll let you know.

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