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I recently asked all of you fine readers for suggestions on buying either a tea infuser and/or a tea pot, since I wanted to switch from store bought tea bags to loose tea. Everyone gave me great ideas, and I'm going to try several of them and report them to you here.
First up: this funky-looking infuser from Tovolo. I got the red one. It works well. I mean, I have nothing to compare it to since it's the first one I've ever tried, but I did notice some tea (Twinings Earl Grey) did get into the cup. Is that to be expected? Do you tea drinkers out there just find that this is something you have to live with for good tea or are there infusers out there that don't have this problem? I do like this infuser. It comes with a cool stand to keep the infuser in. It made a great cup of tea.
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12-07-2007 @3:08PM pedantic said... It's hard to see how big the holes are on the Tovolo infuser. Looks like it's mostly stainless steal with small holes.
My Adagio Ingenuitea catches pretty much everything. The only thing that gets through is generally dust like fannings on some type of teas.
I wouldn't be worried about small bits of tea leaves getting through, of course I will drink some teas (oolong) with the leaves still in the cup. The biggest thing is if the leaves have adequate space to expand. A lot of black leaves are cut, but some greens and oolongs often have whole leaves and expand quite a bit.
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12-07-2007 @3:58PM agent54 said... there's almost always some bits of tea in the bottom of the cup no matter what i've used. usually i just drink them. sometimes i'll dump the last sip or 2 into a house plant. i have noticed that twinnings and the like have an awful lot of tea dust in them. if it really bothers you, switch brands. the teas i get from tea shops are usually less, um, dusty?
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12-07-2007 @4:03PM Harlan said... I just like the disposable tea bags. You can get them from the likes of Adagio.com for $3 for a box of 100. Keeps the tea safely out of the water.
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12-07-2007 @4:28PM Steve said... If you want to try some excellent loose leaf tea, I highly recommend Tay Tea (http://www.taytea.com). I stumbled upon it after reading an article in Catskills Magazine while in upstate NY. The teas are hand blended by the owner using local ingredients. Great stuff! She let smell all of the different jars of tea and it made me want to buy them all!
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12-07-2007 @4:28PM Steve said... Also, I agree with Harlan above...I have tried many infusers, but the cheap disposable tea bags are the best at keeping the tea out of the cup.
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12-07-2007 @5:49PM Andrew Gadsden said... Perhaps I can help?
I declare an interest - All About Tea.co.uk is my business! I have a mission to make the best loose-leaf tea available to all.
I use and recommend my Mug Infuser which is simple, inexpensive, and produces excellent tea - almost as good as a teapot and certainly better than the various small infusers which do not allow sufficient space for the leaves to expand and move around. It's a bit like a chip pan basket that fits a mug.
If you go ahead and order one, do put a note on the order and I'll send you a free sample of tea of your choice which will NOT be dusty!
Hope this helps
Andrew Gadsden
Saviour of Tea
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12-07-2007 @6:36PM rainey Smith said... Yes, dustings in the bottom of the cup are typical of infusers — all of them.
Try the long tea filters you can get at Peets. If you're thinking, "no, no! tea bags are the worst!" you need to stop and consider. We're not talking the broken bits of unpedigreed leaves sealed up in tiny packettes. We're talking whole leaves (if that's what you buy) of whatever flavor you enjoy most spooned into a generous filter sack. The tea will have all the flavor of the leaves you select but the fine paper (which has no flavor of it's own) will entirely retain any tips or bits that break off when you spoon them in the bag.
The bad rep that tea bags have is based on manufacturers using bags to salvage the saleablity of whatever broken dust and sweepings are left when the better quality leaves are sold as loose tea. When you simply use a bag for the superior tea you buy as loose leaves, you get exactly what you're paying for. ...only pristine in your cup.
It is a damned cute infuser tho. ;>
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12-07-2007 @7:01PM Barbara said... What's a little dust in your cup. Certainly better than cheap a tea bags. I agree with Rainey you can't get excellent leaf tea in tea bags but they will be more expensive. I'm happy with leaves which I put into infuser.
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12-07-2007 @11:13PM Charlotte said... Heh. I like the "tea eggs" best--and have had a really hard time finding them in this country, so much so that I actually wrote about it (http://theatricalmilestones.blogspot.com/2007/11/egged.html)
I get all my teas from Germany, and, trust me, it's a huge difference. Welcome to the wonderful world of tea leaf liberty!
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12-07-2007 @11:31PM rainey Smith said... What I'm saying is not that you buy more expensive commercially filled tea bags. I'm saying you buy filter sacks such as this http://www.hhaus.com/tea/teabags.jpg and fill them with exactly the tea you like.
You get tea that's as excellent as the leaves you buy AND you get a pristine cup or pot.
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12-08-2007 @12:15AM sue said... I think the lower quality the tea, the more "stuff" you'll get on the bottom. I like whole leaf oolongs, and there's usually very little in the bottom. I've had Twinnings before, and the leaves are very small.
On a side note, the tea industry sometimes grades leaves by size (like Orange Pekoe, Flowery Orange Pekoe, ...Special Fine Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe - i'm not kidding)but the gradings are pretty silly and everyone considers them useless. Interesting to read up on though.
Anyways, all this to say that I think Twinnings is OP, so not the best.
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12-08-2007 @7:43PM MIke said... Coffee-Press
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