The teapot emoji is finally here! From today (6 November 2020) anyone with an iOS or Android device can start using it.

Why is it important? Well, since emoji began, all us tea drinkers have had to represent our chosen beverage is a little picture of green tea and a little picture of coffee. And they’re really not up to the task of depicting a proper brew.

So we put a formal application together last year and sent it to the people who decide on new emoji – the Unicode Consortium.

“Let’s have a proper teamoji,” we asked. “Please can we have a little picture of a teapot?”

We included lots of complicated data about global tea drinking, and elaborate justifications about how having a choice of only a green drink or a dark brown drink was letting down a whole world of tea drinkers.

Did we expect it to succeed? Nope. But we felt it was our solemn duty to try.

And yet… it worked! The Unicode Consortium said yes – and recognised tea for the glorious, life-affirming beverage it is.

It turned out we even had some help. Another application also went in last year for a teapot emoji, which shows that its time really had come.

It’s sharing the limelight in 2020 with a bunch of other new emoji, including a bunch to help lots of people feel properly represented. Plus some other stuff you can’t quite believe wasn’t in there already, like ladder, rock, boomerang, toothbrush, mirror and roller skate.

And now, at long last, the teamoji has finally arrived. Apple and Android users should find they can use one they do the latest software update.