He wouldn't even need to touch a hot handle, everything else can be kept the same. the only difference would be a little required filling of a tea ball before he started and emptying the tea ball after he is done. an additional 10-15 seconds for tea that is streets ahead.
I must ask, have you watched Community? Otherwise, they have successfully coined the phrase "streets ahead" to the point were people actually are using it seriously, and that would be cool.
I think the story is that it was an idiom used in England and the show runner for community heard it and thought it was stupid so he incorporated it into Pierce's character.
