Tea Infusing Spoons

Okay, I am officially nuts. Feel free to say that if you want, but yes, I am about to rave about tea infusing spoons.

Over the years since I've become a tea drinker (favourite variety being the Murchies Orange Spice loose leaf variety), I've gone through more than a few different infusers: Tea balls, ceramic mug infusers, metal mug infusers, and my favorite has quickly become the tea infusing spoon when making single mugs of tea.

For pots of tea, you can't beat the old-fashioned tea ball - at least most of the time. I've had a run of bad luck with those lately, with my latest few leaking enough tea leaves into the pot that I practically have to pour through a strainer.

As I'm usually making my tea by the mug, I thought I'd try something else. I've had a couple of the ceramic-based infusers with silicone handles. They worked well enough, holding just enough tea leaves to make that mug of tea without wasting any, but there's one big downside to the lot of them:  getting the used tea leaves out when you're done. The opening's too small for fingers to pull the leaves out and they stick inside. Gravity's certainly not going to do the job! I've spent too much time trying to pry the drippy messes of leaves out with a spoon handle with mixed success - to the point where I was deliberately selecting other varieties of tea in bags rather than using the infuser.

Last year I saw one of these tea-infusing spoons for the first time and decided to give it a try. I haven't used the ceramic infuser since! No more spilled tea leaves when I'm trying to fill it - just pinch the handle and scoop the tea out with the spoon itself. No more spoon handle trying to scrape the used leaves out at the other end of the process either! Squeeze the handle open and give the whole thing a smart rap against the edge of the compost bucket and the wet leaves fall out in a mass. There are no edges for the leaves to get caught up on either or to make it difficult to clean.

After a year of use (including leaving the leaves in over several hours at a time while I re-steep them for new mugs of tea), there's no signs of rust either, which is more than I can say for some of the regular tea balls I've had over the years!