Sorapot 2 by Joey Roth

The Sorapot is a unique teapot design first conceived by Joey Roth whilst he was still at design school. This device took an unusual and engaging approach to producing tea by incorporating a horizontal glass chamber at the heart of the teapot which is held in place by a metal shell with a folding mechanism. This was 10 years ago and he has since refined his design in Sorapot 2.

Roth wasn’t satisfied with certain aspects of the original design and so decided to make several subtle improvements to the teapot without drastically altering the contraption’s unique properties. He lacked experience at the time of working on Sorapot — due to the obvious fact that he was still a student — and so after several years of working as an industrial designer, coupled with improved production methods, Sorapot’s second iteration is lighter, more efficient and has a more elegant curvature.

Images of the original version of Sorapot can still be seen on the Amazon page for the product (which has since been discontinued). In a brief interchange with an Amazon customer who wasn’t happy with his Sorapot, Roth amiably offered a refund and a complimentary Sorapot 2 so that the customer would ‘have a chance to experience the teapot as I intended it.’

A teapot is like a chair, it’s such a basic object. So the designer’s voice really comes through.Joey Roth, Cool Hunting

The process of making tea with Sorapot when compared to a conventional teapot seems cumbersome by anyone’s standards . But loose leaf tea is more about ritual and relaxation than a quick caffeine fix and the experience of making tea with Sorapot more than makes up for the multi-stepped process.