By Morgan Lloyd, campus editor

At the request of President Joseph E. Aoun, Northeastern installed high-tech tea vending machines on campus Feb. 8.

The new TeaBOT machines are being installed in 37 locations across the United States and Canada, including the University of Toronto, where Aoun first saw the machines.

“Apparently, your president is a big tea fan in general,” said Nolan Schachter, TeaBOT’s sales and marketing director. “He’s an innovative guy; he’s very forward thinking.”  

The machine, described as a “robot that blends tea” on TeaBOT’s website, enables users to create a customized tea blend that the machine brews.

“They tell you different blends and how much caffeine is in each blend,” said Jared Hong, a fifth-year business administration major. “I don’t feel like I’m missing out by not drinking coffee.”

Currently, two machines are installed at Northeastern: one in Curry Student Center and one in the Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Complex.

Schachter said TeaBOT grew out of co-founder Brian Lee’s desire to help his mom’s tea business.

“[His] mom owns a small tea store in a small town called Sudbury, [Ontario]” Schachter said. “It was getting to be so popular, even in a mining town, that Brian, being a chemical engineer wanted to figure out better processes. He wanted to figure out a way to get tea in the cup faster to help his mom’s business.”

Lee and co-founder Rehman Merali were accepted to the Y Combinator program, a competitive seed investment firm for startups. Y Combinator helped launch several very successful startups, including Dropbox and Airbnb.

The TeaBOT machines are now in their seventh generation, and the company is working on developing a countertop version.

The variety of blends TeaBOT offers was a draw for first-year communication studies major Ksenia Rokhlina, who said she could not find the tea she wanted elsewhere.

“I just like tea and it’s good there’s a place now where you can get my blend,” Rokhlina said.

Hong said he felt the price of a cup was a downside for the machine, however.

“At first I thought it was a little expensive — $3 for tea,” Hong said. “But the blends they have are cool.”

Schachter said there are no current plans to add more machines to campus. However, he said the company was open to suggestions.

“It’s possible, but nothing’s been discussed as of yet,” Schachter said.