How have you tried to brew / steep your loose leaves?

i’ve always loved the little ingenuiTEA and similar items…but I can’t see where they fit for me personally – at work i have no sink and only have a hot water spigot (hence paper filter bags), and at home i love my filter basket – how do you think the IngenuiTea compares to the filter basket?

AmazonV- it doesn’t! The ingenuiTEA gives the leaves so much room to float around and you can make more too for that reason. It also makes resteeping a lot less messy. The only thing I don’t like about it is that it isn’t glass. I’d suggest not letting your hot water spigot affect your steeping method, but rather what tea you steep as a proper water temp is much more important than what steeping equipment you use.

Could you explain the reverse french press? I think I get it, but never the less…

It’s a plastic vessle (16 or 32oz), w/ a filter on the bottom. When done steeping, place it directly on top of your mug and the spring loaded bottom decants your tea for you. Making 2 cups? When you lift the ingenuiTEA off, the bottom goes back into the off position and stops the flow of decantation. Freakin awesome… if only it wasn’t plastic.

I love using my mom’s Zarafina – too bad she’s notice very fast if it walked off ;)
amazing how the baskets multiply over time isn’t it?

I love my Zarafina. Of course it has different pros and cons…but for a quick cup and the fact that it looks cool on my counter, it gets big points in my book.

the paper filters?

They’re amazing. Now I just need a Roo mug so I have somewhere convenient to put it between steeping. Unfortunately I enjoy tea most in a clear glass vessle and they do not have a clear Roo mug:(

that cloth sock thing looks nice for those who hate particles

I tried out the first one in a teahouse and like it a lot! That was the first time I saw something like this and I thought, what a smart idea! In this way the teahouse only needs to provide customer a mug and saves costs on teapots. I think it works perfectly for black tea and makes it easy to control infusion time. It may work better for larger cups than smaller cups.

Actually now that i think of it, the teahouse near me usees #1 ! duh how did I forget.

Now that is a marvelous recipe! I have also use a large metal cage(tea ball) that I purchased at World Market.

I seldom drink Japanese green tea but always love Japanese porcelain and ceramic ware. I use a small kyusu for oolong and love it. Kyusu is always very handy!

I had to google “Kyusu” – so the handle is hallow? but it doesn’t act as a second spout or anything right?

Yeah it has a horizontal handle, and only one spout. Japanese also call the small kettle (used for brewing not for water boiling) kyusu. But most of the time when people talk about kyusu, it’s the side handle teapot.

do you find the french press hard to clean? I use one to make coffee and the grounds get stuck between the coil and mesh and drive me nuts

I will admit to trying to use an auto drip coffee pot and an espresso machine with loose leaf…neither worked out well

i think i would make quite a mess with the gaiwan … did it take you much time to learn to decant with the lid and not make a mess?

Actually pouring water without spilling is not as hard as it seems. To me a bigger problem is sometimes fingers hurt from the hot rim of the cup. I try to minimize that problem by using smaller gaiwan with thin porcelain.