I've tried a tea light as well with similar results. The problem is that the tea light doesn't hold enough alcohol. At least not enough to boil 16 oz of water in my experiment. No way you can boil 24 oz with it. It might be fine to boil 1 cup of water.

It's also not a super efficient stove, basically it just holds a puddle of alcohol that is burning. But some people would argue that the lack of efficiency is made up for by the fact that it's so light. So you can carry a bit more fuel and still be ahead from a weight perspective. But you also have to limit yourself to meals that require only 1 cup of hot water.