You can’t walk through any electronics retailer these days without being confronted with some of the best coffee makers ; compact Tassimos and Nespressos, vast Delonghi devices, and increasingly, smart coffee machines. As a Brit, and living in a world where tea is part of the national fabric, this leaves me bewildered, and wondering why the same energy isn’t there for our beloved kettles. They’re out there – we loved the Swan Alexa Kettle – but how many people do you know that actually own one? It’s not as if they’re expensive, either.
Take the Swan Alexa , just £85.99 in the UK. While that kettle is not available in the US, a feature-equivalent device like the Govee Smart Electric Kettle retails at $79.
99. In Australia, the Nedis SmartLife Kettle is $114 AUD. My introduction to the concept of the smart kettle was in 2017 when I reviewed a device called the AppKettle, a smart, internet-controllable kettle that you could program to prepare boiled water at a set time – from anywhere.
I was blown away; as a tea drinker, this was next-level stuff, yet it was rare to find any connected kettles in electronics stores. Even now, you don’t see these kettles demonstrated, which I think is selling them short. Trust me, this is the sort of tech that has to be seen in action to be believed.
The developer of the AppKettle knew this – the team made several promotional videos ( like this one ) positioning it as a lifestyle device, a bold move I think should have paid off.