Is That a Goldfish in Your Tea?

Charm Villa Oolong Goldfish - dry

Charm Villa Oolong Goldfish - dry

Imagine your teacup is a small aquarium. These days that wouldn’t be hard to do thanks to the help of Taiwanese company Charm Villa.  They sell a tea bag that, when in hot water, swells into a real looking goldfish.  Consisting of Japanese fabric and Taiwanese tea leaves, the goldfish tea bags take 16 steps to produce. It took a group of 28 students from St. John's University in Taipei to come up with the design. This award winning tea bag won the international Red Dot Communication Design Award in 2014 [1] and the 2015 iF Product Design Award for Discipline Packaging. [2]

Charm Villa Oolong Goldfish - wet

Pretty popular in Taiwan, maybe because it’s not only adorable but because for many people in Asia the goldfish symbolizes prosperity and good fortune.  The Charm Villa's novelty goldfish tea bags only recently became available in the Western world, too.  The joy of seeing a gold fish splashing about your tea cup will cost you.  I purchased a single tea bag of Charm Villa's Oolong on Amazon.com for $20.  My kids thought the tea bag was cute when it was dry and also when it was wet and steeping.  I found that hot water made it look eerily a bit too real.

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[1] http://red-dot.de/cd/en/online-http://red-dot.de/cd/en/online-exhibition/work/?code=04-01688&y=2014 

[2] http://ifworlddesignguide.com/entry/148588-goldfish-tea-bag