The House Again Tea Infuser, Perfect for Poetry Teatime (a review)

Disclosure: Free product was received to facilitate my honest review.  All opinions expressed here at Homeschooling Hearts & Minds are my own.

Many years ago, I discovered the pleasure of brewing loose tea in a tea infuser that allowed the tea leaves to mix, mingle, and expand freely in my cup. 

While I still do occasionally drink tea brewed from a bag, and I keep herbal tea bags on hand for my kids, I definitely prefer to brew tea using an infuser.  If you like tea and have never tried loose leaves in an infuser, I definitely recommend it---it really is a different beverage altogether.

But I’ve been using the same stainless steel infuser since 2009.  This trusty old standby has gotten a bit…grottie…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The mesh is very badly stained and has seen better days.  It’s also a bit small to brew a tea pot. 

A couple years ago, I bought this infuser…

My oldest daughter wanted to brew loose herbals, and I wanted to give her something to use that wasn’t grottie with black tea.  You can see that it looks like a pretty finely tooled steel mesh, but in practice, my old stained standby outperforms it every time---the newer infuser always left bits of leaves in the cup, which my daughter found annoying.  It is also a bit on the small side.

When an opportunity came along to review a brand new House Again tea infuser, I was both excited and skeptical. 

Would this “super fine” strainer really be super fine?  Would it outperform the old standby?

When I opened the box, I was surprised.  The mesh looked almost solid it was so fine.  I actually had to hold it up and see if I could see through it. 

The House Again infuser is made from stainless steel and comes with a black silicon vented lid and a sleeve for the top edge. 

I’ve been using the House Again infuser all week and I have to say:  I’m impressed.

It has performed better than the trusty old standby and has become my new standby:

• No weird metal or plastic taste to the brewed tea
• Leaves little to no leaf residue in the bottom my cup (old standby generally leaves a little dust)
• Easier to rinse clean
• Larger size works with virtually any size cup and even a full-size tea pot
• Removable silicon sleeve keeps the top edge cool to the touch
• Silicon lid keeps the heat in your cup or pot

Here is the bottom of my tea cup after drinking my tea brewed in the House Again tea infuser.

Let’s take a look at how it fits into various cups and a teapot.  Here is our lineup:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As you can see, the infuser lid works perfectly on the tea pot.  I’m looking forward to brewing a pot for my kids.  Maybe we will have a poetry teatime.

I have only a couple of caveats:

The House Again tea infuser does not come with a saucer or some such for catching liquid after you remove it from your cup---I just use a regular saucer for this.

This infuser does not have a handle like my two older infusers, which can make it a bit tricky for removing from a larger mouthed cup or pot.  This is ok for me because I generally brew tea in a regular tea cup or in a pot.  I can easily remove the infuser from a tea cup and can just leave it in the pot while pouring tea.  But if you generally use a wide mouths cup (see the butterfly cup above), this may not be the right infuser for you.

You can purchase the House Again tea infuser at Amazon for $17.99 (price current as of 9/3/16).

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