HIC Kitchen Premium Tea Strainer - 18/8 Stainless Steel Tip-Style Mesh Filter - Extra-Fine Loose Tea Infuser, Universal Fit for Mugs and Cups, Perfect for Black Green Oolong Herbal Tea

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This works great for loose leaf teas that come in small pieces. I recently bought a green tea that came in straight leaves (meant for a teapot), and I have to squish those down and break them into smaller pieces so that there is enough for how much I want to steep.I use this device to prepare tea for the morning and for my vacuum sealed bottle. The conical mesh focuses water out the tip, so even if I'm pouring hot water around the edges to catch all the leaves, the end result still comes out centered. This is nice.**Note:** This device isn't meant for steeping, but just for pouring hot water over the leaves. This works great for black leaves and rooibos, but I let green leaves sit for a couple minutes after the first pour just to get them to moisten up and draw the flavor to the surface (basically a crude steep). It works fine.I first pour the appropriate temperature hot water through this thing (with my tea of choice) and into a mug, and then I let it sit for a minute or two, place it over the mouth of my vacuum sealed bottle, and pour more water until full. Then I seal the bottle for work, and drink the cup before heading out. So far, this has worked well.**Note:** This is my bottle. Highly recommended for the office worker.https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07KZ6JZ5F

The idea behind this kind of tea strainer is that you use it in conjunction with a tea pot. You put the tea leaves in the pot to steep. After the tea sis ready, set the strainer on top of your mug and pour the tea through it. Ideally, the strainer catches any tea leaves which try to escape from the pot into your cup. Used in this manner, the strainer does its job just fine. I deducted one star because I had to pour the tea a little more slowly and carefully than is my habit. Pouring full speed tended to cause a little bit of backsplash. Otherwise, though, it worked as I'd hoped. It fits all my mugs and cups except for some demitasse cups I wouldn't normally use for tea anyhow.I wouldn't recommend putting tea directly into the strainer and pouring hot water through, like you would with a coffee filter. It might work if you poured VERY slowly and VERY carefully. However, it's not really designed to be used that way. There are better tools for brewing individual cups of tea.

They handled were a bit rough on the edges when I got it but cleaning it with a scrubby sponge removed the edges in no time. They weren’t sharp like other reviews claimed. It works really well for filtering tea and catches even small bits of tea like lavender flowers. I’m happy with my purchase and love the Star pattern on it.

Well, since you asked: I have a bird bath on my patio and I like to clean in daily as pollen and other airborne detritus lands there. While I do a deep cleaning regularly, I like to have a way to daily scoop out debris. While I know this is not at all the intended use, it certainly, perfectly, serves my purpose! :)

I use one of these to help improve my morning coffee. I have a small '5 cup' drip coffee maker. The 'wings' on the tea strainer are just wide enough to fit over the coffee ground basin. The strainer prevents the 'drip' water from boring a divot in the coffee grounds. This allows the water to more evenly percolate through all of the coffee grounds instead of just the middle where the divot forms from the water dripping into the center of the grounds.

Rewriting this because we just ordered two more. The one I bought 8 years ago still looks as pristine as the new ones, not a single fraying wire or anything. And although it is so fine it hasn't ever gotten clogged from buildup (I was expecting to have to soak it in vinegar periodically but nope). In the years since buying the first one we got a few locally because we wanted spares but didn't just reorder this to save the hassle of waiting for mailorder stuff. And we learned that most sieves have the handle spot welded onto the sieve edge, creating a weak point right at the part of the device that endures the most force, so eventually it snaps off. My husband strains the scary slime out when he pours a cup of of kombucha so naturally he taps the sieve face-down over the garbage or sink to remove the slime, and those other, flimsy, badly-designed sieves can't handle the impact. They kept breaking after less than a year of use. THIS gorgeous design has a single sturdy rod bent all around, forming the handle AND the sieve rim, ONE PIECE, so there's no spotweld to break! Being all-stainless, it also doesn't care about the acidity of all that kombucha, while we've has ones from the grocer that start to rust, making you wonder what's getting into your drink. These are so, so much better than other sieves!

It works fine as long as you use it as intended, to catch stray tea leaves from a brewing pot. Where it doesn't work is brewing on its own with leaf tea and pouring hot brewing water trough it into a mug or cup. The issue is that it is nor deep enough to have the leaves submerged in the water as it lies between the cup top edges. Thus, it cannot actually brew the leaves. One must brew in a separate pot with leaves then strain them through the device.