Even the more casual tea drinkers know these days that loose leaf teas provide a better quality cup of tea, lacking in that "paper bag" taste that can often be experienced when drinking bagged tea. More and more companies are providing nylon mesh tea bags that impart less of that flavor, but there is still the issue of the tea leaves having little room to unfurl.

One of the most common excuses for not jumping into the realm of loose leaf tea is that most people who've been making bagged tea for the entire span of their tea-drinking existence don't know how to conveniently and easily make a cup of loose leaf tea, which is all about knowing what equipment you need.

Traditional teaware varies, depending on the type of tea, but basic teaware to start off a journey into quality tea is less complicated. Many start with a tea infuser (often called a tea ball or sometimes a tea egg), but really, the typical tea infuser is still quite small and confining, and will likely hinder the proper diffusion of the tea leaves as they try to properly expand in the hot water.

My recommendations would include the following (itallics indicates what I used starting out):

1. Heating water:

- A regular tea kettle (just remember to take the water off the heat before boiling for green tea!)
- An electric tea kettle (if you'll forget to take the water off the heat before boiling)
- Water + mug + microwave (for the in-a-pinch-at-work method, undesirable but sometimes the only option)

2. Steeping loose tea leaves:

- A teapot (just dump in the proper amount of loose leaf and pour in the hot water)
- A teapot with a large infuser inside (put tea in infuser, pour in hot water)
- An IngenuiTEA (just dump in tea and pour in hot water)

3. Separating tea from the leaves:

- Tea strainer over a mug
- Remove the infuser, if you chose to use one
- Place IngenuiTEA over mug, pressing down to release the tea through the built-in filter.

Once the tea is made, no special teaware is needed for the loose leaf novice, although finding quaint or quirky tea sets is always a lot of fun, and you may want to venture into the various traditional sets that are often used with different types of tea as your new love for unfettered tea grows.

These are not by any means the only options available for making loose leaf tea, but they are good options to start with that won't break the bank, so put away the tea bags and (if you haven't before) go make your first cup of bagless tea!