A completely new look at the samovar — designed for cafés, restaurants, and open kitchens, scaling from 4 to 7 liters, and good-looking enough to sit on the counter.
After Arçelik's Telve redefined the Turkish coffee machine category, a similar gap became visible in tea: cafés and restaurants needed a high-capacity tea station that didn't take up the footprint of a full tea urn, looked acceptable in an open kitchen, and could genuinely be left on a counter without becoming an eyesore.
Samovar Pro was designed to fill that gap — a modern, minimal commercial tea station scaling up to 7 liters, capable of brewing multiple teapots simultaneously, keeping cups warm, and in some configurations, automating the entire brew process. The same platform, with a few component changes, also converts to a 4-liter home version.
The samovar hasn't been reconsidered as a product category in a long time. Most versions available today are either traditional in appearance — unsuitable for modern café environments — or scaled-down home appliances that can't meet commercial volume demands. Samovar Pro was built from the assumption that neither answer was good enough.
The design approach was deliberately modern and minimal: an object that could sit in an open kitchen or on a café counter and look like it belongs there — not hidden, not apologized for, but displayed. The technology and capacity were built into a form that earned its place visually before a single cup was poured.
The samovar never changed because nobody asked it to. Until now.
Idea
The idea started with a real market gap: after Arçelik's Telve, there was no equivalent moment of rethinking for the tea side of a café menu. Tea stations were either too large, too old-looking, or too domestic. Samovar Pro asked what a tea station would look like if it was designed the way a good espresso machine is — as something worth showing off.
The modular architecture made the platform genuinely flexible: swap the reservoir and a few components, and the commercial 7-liter version becomes a 4-liter home unit — one design system that serves two completely different contexts.
Form
Modern and minimal — a deliberate break from the ornate, traditional samovar aesthetic that dominates the category. Samovar Pro is a decor object first: clean surfaces, considered proportions, a visual language that would look at home beside a professional espresso machine rather than hidden behind a service counter.
The form scales gracefully from the commercial to the home version — the same visual identity across both, with only internal components changing between them.
Function
Up to 7 liters of capacity for commercial use, supporting multiple teapots brewing simultaneously for fresh tea on demand. A cup-warming mechanism at the base keeps glasses ready to serve. Herbal teas can be brewed alongside standard black tea without additional equipment.
In fully automatic configurations, the entire brew process is managed by the unit — from water temperature to brew time — removing the need for manual monitoring during a busy service period. For home use, the same platform at 4 liters handles household-scale demand with identical ease.
Differentiation
No current product in the category offers this combination: commercial-grade capacity, a form designed to be displayed rather than hidden, full automation capability, cup warming, and a conversion path to a home version — in a single platform.
The closest comparison is what Telve did for Turkish coffee: not just a better product, but a category redefinition. Samovar Pro attempts the same for tea service in commercial environments.
Impact
Presented to Arçelik as the primary candidate — the concept was not taken forward, but the platform is fully designed and licensable to any brand looking to enter or redefine the commercial tea station segment.
The hardest design problem in this project wasn't the technology — it was the identity. Samovars carry centuries of cultural weight, and designing one that looked nothing like a samovar required building the case that the category was overdue for exactly that break. The modern minimal direction wasn't a stylistic preference; it was the argument that this product had to make to justify its own existence.
The modular conversion between commercial and home versions was the engineering challenge: keeping the visual language completely consistent while the internal architecture changed substantially between the two configurations.
A fully designed commercial tea station platform — scalable from café to home use, automatable, and designed to be displayed rather than hidden. Ready to license to any brand willing to rethink what a samovar can be.
The design and strategy are complete. This concept is ready to license today — get in touch, or let's bring it to market together.