My timolino isn't keeping tea hot?

I don’t have a Timolino but five hours is a lot to ask of any travel mug. Part of your heat loss will be from steeping the tea in another vessel and transferring, though I remember you do that to improve the taste. Transferring from one vessel to the next can easily drop the temp so you are already starting out with cooler tea than those who steep right in the Timolino. Then, as you mention, the cream would definitely cool it another couple degrees. I’m guessing even if you used boiling water to steep at first, You’re hovering around 80 – 85 by the time you add cream and get it in the Timolino. Then the five hours on top of that is taking it down even more. Obviously the more heat it starts with the longer it’ll stay hot. I guess that doesn’t really help you, but basically I am saying that it is normal to have cold tea after five hours under those circumstances.

Hmmm yeah, all really good points. Maybe i’ll play around with a tea ball or something. I’ve just never really had faith in the brewing basket since it’s really small and doesn’t even have holes in the bottom at all. You’re right about it losing heat as its transferred, though—I don’t think I can put my teavana teamaker in a microwave to even help with that (not microwave safe). even if the water comes boiling out of a kettle, the transfer alone cools it down quite a bit.

Do you preheat your Timolino? When you pour water over your leaves in your other steeper, I would add hot water to your Timolino, when your tea is steeped pour the water out of the Timolino and the tea in, less heat loss…. If you are already doing that, then I would check the seal on the lid and see if you are loosing heat through a leak.

Another thing you could try to keep it hot for longer is to get a mug cozy. You would likely have to make one yourself or know someone who knits. I used knitted sleeves (similar to a beer koozy) to put around the travel mug and it helps hold a bit more heat. Just slides on like a sock/ankle warmer.

Thanks!
Dex, I’ve never even thought of doing that. It sounds like it might be a mildly annoying step, but it’s worth a try. Have you done this yourself? It sounds like a neat idea.

lala, you might be onto something, although the outside of the timolino always remains cool to the touch, so I wonder if the cozy would even “know it was keeping something hot” for lack of a better term lol.

Oh wow! I didn’t know prewarming teapots and other tea things was actually a thing. What a neat idea.

Oh wow, I had no idea. So do you fill your timolino right up? Or do you just fill it half way? (with the heating water, I mean, not the tea). Also, do you leave the lid on while the heated water does its heating so as to retain more heat? (have I said ‘heat’ enough times? LOL). Do you think it would make a difference if I added the cream before or after pouring my tea in?
Thanks for being so patient with me! I’ve asked like nine million questions on the boards since getting here about a month and a half ago.

Genius. I’m going to try that tomorrow morning.

I use my contigo mugs, make the tea around 6am and it’s still warm by 11, but not HOT. Still drinkable at 1pm but it’s basically warm temperature at that point heh

Oh yeah, those contigo mugs are hardcore, it’s true.

Ok, so this morning I did things a little differently. Brewed right in the mug using one of David’s tea’s filters, and my tea has been piping hot and perfect all morning. So it seems as though much of the heat loss was happening when I transferred from the teamaker into the mug itself.