My wife swears by an almost identical infuser, but I find the tea ends up too compressed and doesn’t let the water flow through properly. That might say something about the amount of tea I use, but the fact that I can’t get a cup any stronger than I otherwise would with a teabag is pretty damning.
I use a hilariously large metal sphere (somewhere between a ping pong ball and just bigger than a ping pong ball) which just fits into a mug. Water goes in; tea comes out. You can’t explain that.
My current favorite teapot is a 1L lab beaker. I broke a $3 LabZap cleaning, so I got a $18 “heavy” version, which works great. For loose teas, a strainer that sits on top or one of our dunkable tea balls.
Ain’t nobody got time to brew tea one cup at a time.
Lego for scale.
Which anime is this from?
I say, Mark old chap, sorry to be a pedantic blighter but really! One only ever drinks tea from a receptacle made from bone china. It’s the law, don’cha’know.
Making tea in a mug is not the same as serving tea in a mug. I would (& have) give the plumber tea made in a teapot and served in a mug, partly because it’s easier to make multiple cups of tea in a teapot.
My main reason for always using a teapot is that experience has taught me that tea tastes better if the milk is unscalded; hence tea, at close to drinking temperature, must be added to milk*. This is not possible if it’s made in a mug.
*Yes, Orwell was wrong; if you want to know why, ask the Royal Society of Chemistry.
One makes tea in that? Good Lord.
Chemo is actually a very good example of when making a pot of tea is not reality-based. Too much liquid, too heavy to lift, too easy to spill everywhere. They have a special water dispenser that only patients (not even their loved ones sitting with them) are allowed to touch, so you CAN make your own tea knowing it’s going to be more sterile than someone running out to pick something up at a local shop. And the cup I was given did at least have a metal mesh container for loose tea instead of assuming tea bag usage. But that’s where the functionality ended!
I was also given the following by someone else, and it’s better, but doesn’t really let the leaves spread well. At least it’s compact, cute, and can be thrown in your bag afterward without causing a mess. If you are hoping to retain the tea leaves to use more than once, make sure not to put too much in since the whole contraption won’t then close fully to keep in the moisture between uses.
I have a similar device, but it just has a screen at the top so the leaves are loose inside the double-walled container, which is great… if you like super bitter tanin-y tea on the go… but I do not. So I make tea in it, then pour it out into a mug. Which is great for work, because who makes a whole pot of tea while at work?
*Raises hand!
I don’t drink it fast enough, I’m usually drinking at least half my cup cold, so a pot would get cold too.
One cup at a time is good enough for me. 
This is basically the device I’m talking about, we had some branded with our school logo and handed them out as swag for a couple year, I recommend!
We don’t have that brand in the States, AFAIK, but there are a couple of other brands just like it. They look great. Knowing my own klutziness, though, I’m hesitant to commute with glass! My choice is stainless steel…it’s virtually indestructible.
I have so many glass and ceramic travel mugs now, and (touch wood) I haven’t broken a one yet! You get really used to carting around breakables! (But you can take my stainless steel starbucks sippy cup from my cold dead hands!)
Also, that stainless one has a similar draw back to others in that the area to put the tea in is very small and won’t allow for proper expansion. I drink a lot of dried fruit teas, and expansion is key! If you search for tea infusers on Amazon with a dot-com in place of dot-ca you’ll find many with the screen on top vs. internal tea-ball dealies.
http://www.amazon.com/Double-Glass-Thermal-Infuser-Tisano/dp/B009VMWKQ0/ref=pd_sim_79_3?ie=UTF8&refRID=1BNJCM2B751BQ8JD9YGF&dpSrc=sims&dpST=AC_UL320_SR320%2C320
(Also, if you have not had cacao tea (tea made from the papery outer shell of cocoa beans) you really should, its amazing!)
Doesn’t the tea go in the bottom with the water and get screened as you drink it? (I know some people don’t like to let tea steep too long, but I’ve never noticed it get bitter, just strong, which can be watered down to taste.)
Yes, exactly, but I don’t like strong “bitter” tea, so I pour it out.
It maybe that my tastebuds are different, my Mom was a supertaster.
That’s the nice thing about the ones with the filter on top: you can turn the whole thing upside down to steep, then turn it rightside up to drink.
There is no single correct method for making tea, because individual taste preferences vary so much. It doesn’t matter that a chemist can describe the difference between MIF and TIF, because in the case of an ordinary cup of tea under ordinary circumstances the difference is minor and may be preferred. I actually think that scalding of the milk is a figment of the middle-class imagination - one of those imaginary ills like masturbation causing madness or bicycles causing women’s uteruses to fall out. While I agree on the subject of UHT milk, the only time I’ve encountered non-imaginary protein denaturing in tea is when using a thermos - in which case it doesn’t make a blind bit of difference whether you add milk or teas first. Because the temperature remains higher for longer, the milk cooks.
I suspect that the tendency to be rule-bound in tea preparation, and to espouse the rightness or wrongness of particular methods is similar to the observation of general rules of ettiquette, in that it is the preserve of those sections of society who are insecure about their station and use ritual to confirm it. The aspirational middle classes tend to both and it is interesting that they are also the last (and perhaps first) bastion of MIF. While Orwell has presented a set of rules, I would first by no means presume that he was free of class anxiety, but also observe that his essay is really using the presented rules as an entry point to discuss the variations that have developed in the British art.
In any case I would agree with him on most points - I prefer the water as hot as possible, teacups get cold far too quickly, and I’d agree that the amount of milk is a far more significant factor than any slight cooking of the milk, on which I am rather dubious. I am not given to loose tea generally, but perhaps teabag technology is improved these days. In many instances I find loose tea slightly better but the additional paraphernalia involved discourages me from using loose teas outside of herbal or Asian types of tea where a few leaves in the bottom of the cup do not detract from my experience.
My main tea-related trauma was moving to Germany where black tea is treated horribly and as a result no-one drinks it - the prevalence of UHT notwithstanding. I was forced to import Yorkshire Tea in vast quantities to slake my thirst, as it was locally unavailable. Interestingly, once my German in-laws were exposed to a proper brew, they now clamour for this variety whenever I visit. I attribute the parlous state of German Tea Culture to the continuity of Coffee Culture from its introduction to the present day, and also the strong new-age tendencies of the Reform Movement which has entwined itself inextricably with many aspects of German culture and thought. As a result of this, quasi-medicinal use of tisanes is firmly embedded in the hypochondriac-tending German culture, and this is utterly conflated with tea-drinking.
