#infuser

As a blogger, Its hard to write about things you don’t like, especially when its tea - at that point, its more up to the person who drinks it because all of our palettes are different. However, today we are reviewing teaware. I personally, never use infuser balls, bags w/e because I want to give my tea ample room to expand. If you use a small infuser for lets say - oolong - chances are your tea will come out more bitter than if you used a more open design like a tea maker from teavana or davids tea(this is because the tea leaf gets bruised in the process of expanding which releases tannin). So there’s my first gripe about this product - it doesn’t give you much room to work with, now my second gripe? It doesn’t close all the way - there are holes on the side of the infuser and this causes smaller more chopped up teas - like you would get from blends or tisanes, to come out into your cup. Doesn’t sound very functional does it? Over all - this product is cute, nice idea - but I’d only use them to make tea baths - throw some leaves in, throw them in your bath tub and enjoy. 

A friend of ours recently asked…

“Do you recommend using a tea strainer or a teapot?”

We recommend using a Gaiwan or a YiXing with full leaf teas.  You can definitely get by using British style teapots too.  

Some tea strainers/infusers are great, but it really depends on the size of the strainer/infuser.  This type by ForLife is great 

Stump Teapot by ForLife

  while these types, though cute, are only good for certain teas.

The reason being tea needs room to expand and infuse.  A tiny strainer will choke most loose-leaf teas, so you don’t get the full flavor out of your tea and end up wasting most of it.

At Mountain Tea, we tend brew our teas using Gaiwans and filter out smaller particles using these:

If the vessel you’re brewing in is much bigger than your teacup, for added control over the strength of your tea you can pour out and strain the contents into a serving cup/pitcher so your tea isn’t over-steeping while you drink.