Thanks to Martin Zöllner who brought to my attention his new mobile app, iTea. It's a full-scale tea timer, handy and useful like many other tea timers available. But it's got one unique feature I really like. Not only can it time the brewing of your tea — it times the cooling down of your water.
For instance, got a nice Japanese bancha tea you'd like to steep at 176 degrees? You could stare at a thermometer, or you could boil your water and set the iTea for the amount you've got (0.2, 0.5 or 1 liters), and it counts down the estimated time for the water, off the stove, to cool down to that approximate temperature. Then use the same app to time the steep the tea, complete with a slider tool to select how mild or strong you prefer your brew.
The cool-down calculations are approximations, of course, but it's darn handy to have an alarm for even a best guess. Can't tell you how many times I've gotten distracted in the kitchen, only to find that my water got too cool.
Available for iPhone: iTea Lite (free, 11 teas), iTea ($0.99, 75 teas) and iTea HD (for the iPad).
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