Best travel tea thermos with infuser?

Thanks for the heads up, I will steer clear! The Aladdin one posted below looks promising, that’s if you wanna give tumblers another shot! I will post how I like the Aladdin one when I get it.

That one looks like a winner, and it’s under $20! Thanks for the link!

no problem, they are a huge seller in my tea house.

I second the Aladdin infuser! I’ve had mine since March/April and I lovelovelove it!

Thirding this recommendation. It’s fabulous!

I am always wary of Aladdin brand. I bought their chocolate colored chrome travel mug and it looked beautiful, but it was a horrible design! The lid always leaked, the chrome flaked off really easily, and when all was said and done I only got two weeks of use out of a $30 mug. It just got too leaky and ugly with all the missing chrome.

Aladdin has awesome customer service. I bought two of their infuser mugs. In one the infuser basket stayed up when you turned the lever and the other one kept dropping it down. I contacted them and they sent me a whole new replacement. I have had the mug for several years now and am still pretty happy with it. Only down side is the basket is a little small for teas that need lots of room to expand. It has stained a little over the years and holds a tiny bit of smell from the tea, but it is still going strong.

Sorry for my super late reply, but does anyone have any feedback on how well the aladdin maintains temperature? I love these double walled glass tea infusers, but every one that I’ve tried loses heat within an hour or so. In an ideal world I’d love one that holds its temperature as well as a thermos :)

It has been a little while since I have used it since I’m drinking tea at home most of the time, but I remember it holding heat well. It’s actually a little annoying. It feels like it takes forever for it to cool to a drinkable temp. I don’t remember it holding heat as long as a thermos (those have kept tea warm for 18 hours or so).

Thanks Dustin2Dust! I think I’ll give it a try :)

I have since done a review of this mug and a heat retention experiment. I’ll paste that part of it here…
I poured boiling water in the mug and took the temperature every half hour. It was sitting inside my house (kept at 70F) and I opened the part of the lid that you sip through to stick the thermometer in, then closed it again when I got a temp. Here is what I got: @0m/188F, 30m/149F, 60m/130F, 90m/120F, 120m/109F, 150m/98F It won’t keep your tea warm all day, but it will be warm for a couple hours.

Thanks Dustin2Dust! Those results seem to match up with the tests I’ve done with a couple of other glass mugs. It’s sad you can’t get full vacuum insulation with glass :/ Somebody should invent a product for that! Anyways thanks again for posting your results!

I love this one. It is the one I always turn to.

Anybody know of a company that will deliver this to Canada?

Try this thread? http://steepster.com/discuss/4806-aladdin-tea-infuser-mug-dot-dot-dot-cheap-in-canada

That one looks nice too, although I’m wondering if you have to use teas that taste great when you leave them in the entire time you’re drinking them or strain the tea into another cup?

How well does this thermos keep your tea hot?

Well enough—it’s double-walled. But nothing like some of the heavier-duty, vacuum-sealed/metal thermos’.

I’ve never straight-up timed it, though.

I don’t think it keeps the tea hot at all – luke warm at best.

I use the Aladdin and it’s fairly leak-proof. I always just toss mine in my backpack or purse and my textbooks and stuff always stay dry. One thing I would recommend though is that if you first add the hot water and seal and you hear a “whistling” sound, that means that there’s too much pressure from all the heat so you should open it to let all the pressure out and then close it again.

Thanks, Jenny! That’s really helpful.

I have to say that the Libre leaks. At least mine does as do the other two I bought as gifts. It has something to do with the plastic gasket in the filter-lid part as well as the thick plastic-lined neck. I was sent new, thicker gaskets from the company when I emailed them about it but they still leak. :( Maybe the three I bought are a fluke? But it was still a disappointment. The glasses are really lovely otherwise.

Boo! Thanks for the heads up though, Stephanie. Is that on the plastic&glass model?

Really? That’s so odd. I’ve only had the occasional problem with mine leaking when I flip it upside-down to brew, and didn’t make sure each piece was EXTRA tight before doing so. But other than that, I’ve had it in on it’s side in bags without a problem.

@teabird: Yeah, I got the poly ’n glass ones when they had a special sale for them.

@AJ: Maybe the one I have is defective. It constantly dribbles—liquid seeps through the filter-lid part—when I drink through it normally. I’m not even flipping it over! Very annoying. And I’ve followed the directions to the letter—making sure that the parts are clean and dry, that I don;t overfill it, that each piece was on tight, that I let time pass by so I don’t screw the lid on when it’s too steamy, etc . But it still dribbles. :(

Weird! That sucks.

@ Stephanie – If you are still having problems with your Libre Tea Glass please contact us again. We will solve the problem!

I really liked the idea of Murchie’s Libre infuser, but after about 10 uses, I’ve had to give it up. I burned myself three times with water coming out after i’ve inverted the unit to get the seeping process going. I even tried the tip of opening the top part to release some of the pressure, but that took more strength than I have, and needed another set of hands to hold the tumbler steady. I’m disappointed at the quality of the seal—I’ve never had a bad experience with any products from Murchie’s, but I strongly recommend against investing in the Libre unit.

TeaForMe please contact us at info@libretea.com. We will make sure you have a working Libre Tea glass.

Really? It only cost me 21 dollars (Canadian). However, I did buy it in a local Murchie’s, so that was no shipping or anything. I’m surprised Murchie’s didn’t mark it up. I haven’t checked Libre’s site’s costs.

32 includes the 8 dollar shipping charge. On the website, the base price is 24 dollars.

Aaaah.

Libre has a sale starting tomorrow 15% off with ‘shareLibrelove’ code.

I was kinda hoping for that. Thanks for the heads up.

You guys got in a new item too, I see. I like the looks of that stout travel mug. I might just end up waiting for it to come to Murchie’s or Tea Desire, though.

Have you guys seen the thread from Harney and Sons discussing a new tumbler? They seem inspired by the same design, although the top steeping chamber has its own window so that you can still enjoy the look of the tea when you reverse the the unit to steep. I thought it’d be neat if Libre did something like that; I’m generally more inclined to support Canadian companies.

Here’s what I told all my friends: “don’t do it!”. The packaging is attractive and the idea seems good—but it doesn’t work.