Pros: Size; size of holes; plunger; handle; dishwasher-safe; saucer
Cons: Size
Rating: 5 out of 5
First published 1/17/2005
Review item courtesy of Cuisipro and Jardina Communications
You wouldn’t think there would be much difference between tea infusers, would you? You put some tea leaves in them, you pour hot water over them, you wait for four or five minutes, you take the infuser out, and you have tea.
Well, I have to admit I was surprised by how much of a difference a good design can make. It’s amazing the little features some designers can think up!
The Cusipro tea infuser isn’t round, like most of them. Nor is it made of mesh. It’s elongated, steel with little holes in it, and it sort of half-screws half-locks together. It has a metal cable that trails out of the top, with a little plastic frobbie at the end; this attaches to a metal disk “plunger” inside.
You can fit one or two cups’ worth of tea leaves inside the infuser. You pour your hot water over it and wait as normal–or you can speed things up by using the plunger. Then you use the cable to pull the infuser up out of the water and you set it on its little metal saucer. You open it up, knock out the tea leaves, rinse it out, and drop it into the dishwasher.
What makes it cool
It just looks nifty. I swear it looks like some sort of alien listening device. It’ll make a great conversation piece next time you have a visitor who wants tea!
I don’t know who finally thought of including a saucer with a tea infuser so you could put it down afterward without needing a separate plate, but they deserve some sort of award for being the only person to see and solve what probably should have been the obvious, yet wasn’t.
The plunger is nifty. It really does make your tea brew faster, if you’re the impatient type. It’s the equivalent of sitting there stirring your teabag around or swishing your infuser through the water, except niftier.
The holes are small enough that you end up with a minimal amount of tea leaves actually in the water. It’s pretty close to using a tea bag, and better than the “minuet” infuser mugs we have.
It’s dishwasher-safe! I just take it apart, put the pieces in the part of the utensil bin that closes shut, and it’s fine. Not the tiniest sign of rusting or damage. It’s made of 18/10 stainless steel.
You can brew two cups of tea at once. So you can use this in your mug, or you can use it in your teapot.
One drawback
I find the infuser displaces enough water (because of its size and its solid steel construction) that if you use it directly in a single cup of tea, you end up with a smaller cup of tea than you might expect with a tea bag. This isn’t a big deal; just brew your tea in a pot and then pour into a cup, or have a slightly smaller cup of tea than normal.
I admit I’m surprised to find this much to say about a tea infuser, but I do like this one. Not only does it work very well, but it’s quite the conversation piece, too!
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