It should be safe to pour hot water in a cup during tea preparation. Holding the tea tag should therefore be prevented. The 'Cup-of-Tea™' concept keeps the tea bag in an upright position despite the lift of the hot water. This upright position is necessary for an improved infusion and to make it more easy to remove the bag safely after infusion. The patent describes the following design rules:

• The clasping function is realised by three clasping points. One in the middle at the outside of the cup and two at the outer edges of the circular surface at the inner side of the cup. The variation of the cup models and radial spheres will not change the exact location of these clasping points.
• At the side view, there is space between the outside clasping point and the two inside points
• The outside clasping point should be flexible in a vertical sense in relation to the inner side points. For this reason we have chosen to have a fold at the upper side not only to create space between the three clasping points but also to have enough stiffness to use the flexibility of the paperboard vertically
• The two inner side clasping points at the edge of the round surface should be flexible in a horizontal way. For this reason the "ears" have enough length to bend at the smaller width of the fold.
• The two inner side clasping points should be at the opposite edge of a round surface for two reasons. The first is to have the outer side more flexible than the inner side and the second is that when the clasp rotates a little the clasping areas will be kept in place.
• The tea bag will be fastened at the inner side of the tag. After clasping the tag by form inclusion there is enough space between the tag an the cup edge for keeping the tea bag in an upright position. The tea bag will hardly touch the inner side of the teacup. This makes that there is no need for firm fixation of the tea bag itself.
• After usage of the tea bag the tag will absorb some water as well from the filter paper. This will not harm the clasping because of a capillary vacuum.

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