Posted by Tracy Monson
Tuesday November 15, 2011 | 8 comments
Tuesday November 15, 2011 | 8 comments
Last month I wrote about some of our favorite tea tools based on an object’s simplicity / elegance, ease of use, efficiency, and multitasking ability. Yes, there are a lot of “in-betweens,” that is, tea gadgets that we don’t love, but don’t strongly dislike (plastic to-go tea tumblers with oddly placed strainers come to mind), but below are objects that baffle me as to why anyone would use these when faced with a choice of better options.
This month, as we move into the gift-buying season and as you reflect on possible good sellers on your shelves or what to buy your loved ones, you may want to consider the following:
- French Coffee Press: Yes, there are some slicker, pricier press pots out there, but all too often in restaurants and even some tearooms / houses I see the traditional version being used. You know, the one where you press the leaves down (releasing additional bitter polyphenols) and let the tea liquor sit on top of the tea leaves, divided only by the strainer? Oversteeped tea = not good.
- “Perfect Tea” Measuring Spoon, aka Junk Drawer Clutter: You spend good money on those leaves, and a lot of hard work went into bringing them to you. Take a minute to learn how much tea to use by weight (or simply experiment). Then measure the volume using your eyes and feel in your hand and between your fingers. Once you make this knowledge your own, you’ll have it the rest of your life, so scales or spoons are never needed. We use a gram scale at the teahouse for consistency’s sake, but at home, this is a good skill to foster.
- Teaballs, Mesh or Metal, and Clamp-Style Teaspoons: Aside from the fact that your larger-leafed teas won’t be able to fully expand and your cut-leaf tea bits will flow out of the mesh / little holes into your liquor, fiddling with trying to properly open and close these things while making sure the tea doesn’t spill out is an added negative to using these for me. Messy, hard to clean, and ineffective.
- Iced Tea Makers with Teeny Tiny Infusers Located near the Top of the Pot: How are you going to make a decent pot of iced tea with a tiny infuser that doesn’t even have enough space for the dry leaves, much less the expanded ones? And don’t get me started on the plastic ones with the tiny holes (escaping broken bits of tea continue to steep). Not only is the plastic not durable (we’ve tested many), it stains easily and is a BIG pain to clean.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this topic, as I’m always looking for new, streamlined ways of doing things!
It’s about time someone wrote about these tools that are better left unused. I’m particularly concerned about #3. There are so many teaballs out there and they’re just no good. As you point out, they’re way too small the vast majority of times. Truth is, their best purpose is for an interesting and varied tea ball collection. I applaud your #2 suggestion as well. It’s great advice for the newbie who can gain confidence by learning to pinch the leaves with a few fingers and place the leaves into a small pot or cup. Trial and error is a great teacher.
As opposed to tea balls, there are some large size metal strainers that fit into mugs, filling the internal dimensions of the mug quite nicely. If one didn’t want to use an internal strainer at all, they could simply pour the liquor out through a hand held strainer into another mug and you’re good to go.
It pains me to say it but the tea ball seems to be a lesson most tea drinkers need to learn by experience, words of advice alone rarely do the job. Particularly for new loose tea drinkers, they view making the leap from tea bag to loose tea in a tea ball as HUGE. If you make it too complicated too soon, they go running back to their tea bag ways. For good.
I know what you mean Guy BUT I think a strainer that fits into a large mug can be suggested and available at tea shops and isn’t any more intimidating than the tea ball. If tea shop owners didn’t sell small, traditional tea balls but offered the larger sized ones, it would help that transition I would think. Every tea shop I have gone into carries a large variety of small tea balls – not sure why they do that…..?
Thanks for the comments Michelle & Guy! And yes, I love strainers too, Michelle! Even if you just use a cheap, simple small kitchen strainer, it’s still better than all that other worthless stuff out there.
Hey Tracy! Great article. I was wondering if you’ve ever tried the Perfect Steeper by Eight Cranes? I saw an ad for it recently. It looks like it is developed really well for a tumbler, but I’m a little apprehensive… It would be awesome to get your review on the product, I’m sure they’d be happy to have you do it and I’d love to buy one from the shop :)
Just checked that out- the Perfect Steeper. Looks interesting. I’m wondering if it’s plastic or glass. If it’s all glass, then it looks wonderful. If there’s plastic parts, I wouldn’t use it. Thanks for the information Lauren.
Michelle, I am not sure about plastic parts. There are two versions on their website, one is glass (which I too very much prefer) and one that is ‘PC.’ I am not sure what PC is, but I’m really thinking about giving the glass one a try. :)
Hey Lauren! Thx for the note–I have heard of this, and the video demo on their site is lovely. The only problem I have with this is how do you drink out of it? She removed the infuser part and what was left was a cup with a threaded lip, which I would think wouldn’t be so fun to drink out of…