Finum
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After recommending this, I realized I’d never written a note for it. Oops…
This is what I use for 99% of my teas when steeping Western-style. It fits most mugs well, unless the mug is rather wide, and even then it still fits just doesn’t sit as solidly. There is a larger size as well (I use the medium) so that would likely fit larger mugs better. The mesh is super fine and doesn’t let even rooibos through, and is easy to rinse out. The lid doubles as a drip tray, which is super convenient if you just want to lift the basket out and don’t feel like dumping the leaves, or are planning to resteep them. It is extremely durable, I have been using the same baskets for a few years with no issues. Eventually it will build up a layer of tea residue, which darkens the mesh, but I find a run through the dishwasher fixes that right up. They are also quite inexpensive in my opinion, with the 2-pack that I order through Amazon costing about $13.
The only tea that I don’t use this basket for is chamomile, as the tiny stamens/pollen can get stuck in the mesh. But I don’t drink chamomile often, so this is not a big deal for me.
Definitely my favorite teaware! 10/10, would recommend!
This is by far my most favorite loose leaf tea filter. I have tried many shapes and sizes and materials. I find this filter keeps all teas inside instead of finding tea leaves or particles in my water. It fits perfectly on so many mugs. It is spacious and therefore allows the tea leaves to expand really easily. It is a little challenging to clean fully, but not impossible. I love that it has a little lid to help get the best steep. And it makes a wonderful little tray to set your wet tea filter on once you’re done steeping.
I just bought this on Amazon and used it for the first time. I’ve been looking for a finer filter since I drink mostly herbal teas, and the stainless steel teaballs I have leave grit in the bottom of my cup if I’m drinking rooibos or honeybush and are really hard to clean if I make chamomile. I made a cup of Adagio’s Honeybush Hazelnut and there was a bit of very fine dust in the bottom of my cup, but no grittiness. It rinsed out easily with water, and I gave it a quick scrub with a bottle brush to make sure it was clean. I am a bit concerned about flavor contamination with the plastic, I have a couple of similar filters that I use for iced tea and they have taken on a bit of the scent and flavor of the teas I brew in them. With the iced tea I’ve taken to using one to brew black tea and one to brew hibiscus tea. I think I’ll do something similar with these filters since they come in four different colors. I’ll probably use the black one for rooibos/honeybush/roasted barley/brewing cocoa, the blue one for floral teas, the red one for fruity teas, and the green one for minty and herbaceous teas. It means I’ll need to buy three more filters, but I think it will be worth it. I’ll probably try this one with chamomile just to make sure it works before I buy another, though.
It’s interesting you’re using them like yixing pots. It does make sense. I have a ball infuser I’ve been using for a few years and it’s stained quite a bit from all sort of teas and herbs ad flowers.
If it were all metal I wouldn’t be as concerned, but I know plastic picks up flavors and smells a lot more easily.
I love almost everything about these filters. I have two mediums, and they fit perfectly into all of my cups, mostly 8oz, some 12. There’s lots of room inside for leaves to expand fully, and the superfine mesh is wonderful – only the very finest dust escapes. You will never find stray rooibos needles or fannings in your cup.
There are two things about these baskets that make me unable to rate them 100.
I find them aesthetically pretty blah. They’re very functional but not very beautiful.
And, the plastic frame traps smells more than all metal brew baskets. I find that with flavoured teas, it can be very difficult to get the fragrance out enough for it to not taint my next cup of tea, even with soap, bleach and soaking in hot water. The smell does fade fairly quickly if the basket dries completely, but it’s a pain.
Still, these are awesome brewing baskets and I haven’t found anything better.
Yup. The smell trapping thing. I still love my finum, but I hate that it does that sometimes… I’ve also noticed that if I use strong smelling dish soap, that soapy smell can get absorbed. Even with that, though, I do love the thing. lol
so weird. I’ve never had a problem with smell contamination. I own 5? of these. whatshesaid – imo yes.. but if you ever want to buy these and the cad $ stops sucking upton is generally the best pricing out there…but maybe not anymore with the exchange rate :(
I haven’t tried the infuser from DAVIDs, so I’m not sure how fine the mesh is on those. The Finum has mesh that’s as fine as woven fabric, so pretty much nothing escapes.
I bought mine from Amazon.ca – a two pack for $19, and I have Prime, so no extra shipping. Upton definitely has the cheapest base price I’ve seen, but with the exchange rate and shipping maybe not the cheapest overall for Canadians.
The Finums are way finer than the metal filters from DavidsTea. :) I don’t have a Finum, but I have Takeya pitchers and they use this kind of mesh.
I just bought one of these off Amazon this week. Thanks for the heads up about strong smelling teas!
hmm. I haven’t really had too much issue with Davidstea’s metal steeper… I think i would rather have a few errant floaties once in a while than have to worry about a plastic steeper that absorbs all the smells of every tea I drink.
although – denture tablets probably would work!
I have the 5oz system, and I love it. I received this one for my birthday.
I like it a lot, but not quite as much as the 5oz one. I love the glass. The size is really nice. I like the filter, but I wish it had a little handle on it, like the 5oz size does. I also wish there was a little bit of a raised area in the tea hat/tray for the filter so it wasn’t sitting flat against the bottom. Otherwise, I really like it.
I just got both the medium and large sized brew baskets. The large is narrow enough to fit a regular sized mug, so you don’t really need to have both (unless you need multiple brew baskets; I happen to need a spare at work.) The large worked great in my tea pot. And best part of all: in Deutschland hergestellt!
This basket works great! It doesn’t let anything through except for the extremely fine dust in some low-quality teas, and then barely any of that can even get through.
It has room for the tea leaves to expand, and it’s super easy to clean.
I can’t think of anything that could be improved.
Now I have used a variety of tea infusers and my biggest complaint is that there are tea leaves in the bottom of my cup. This tea infuser prevents that. The mesh works wonders and I never find any tea particles in the bottom of my glass. I have two of these (medium) and they fit well in mugs, but also 2-3 cup tea pots. I highly recommend this infuser over any other infusers on the market.
I have this same tea filter, but its made by Teeli. It looks 100% like this. I bought it at 7,59€ from local internet store about year ago, and its still good.
http://www.teeli.com/englisch/products/index.html
I love this, its easy to wash, you can even but it in dishwasher. It fits perfectly in any cup, and gives lot of free space for tea leaves. And when you want to reuse the tea leaves, just lift the filter and put the cap under it, and leave it there. It doesn’t leak.
i can’t recall/am too lazy to look but upton tea had the most inexpensive finum baskets i could find..similar to that amazon price if i recall…depending on size