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Comment by simias | Hacker News Reader

I've been using these tea balls in office environments: https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51mTZ1eURrL...

In terms of convenience I don't think it's significantly worse than sachets. But yeah, I do buy my own tea and store it in my drawer.

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I have about 3 different devices, all of which seem to work well.

1. A device identical to your picture.

2. This "other" tea ball: https://i.imgur.com/Hg0mWFl.jpg

3. Tea "infuser". Similar to this one (but a different brand): https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41QJxs18f1L... . This is the bulkiest option though, and you still need another cup to transfer the liquid to.

My favorite tool is #1: the "springy clasp ball on the end of a stick". So I can recommend that to everyone over the other two devices. #2 isn't bad, but there's a lot of convenience factor to #1's spring design.

> In terms of convenience I don't think it's significantly worse than sachets.

In making tea, no, not much difference. But I dislike cleaning metal-meshes. Cleaning is a minor inconvenience... but if you've ever just used a paper-cup + Lipton tea bag and just trash everything when you're done... lol. Lazy lifestyle (but wasteful).

But yeah, its probably better for the environment to have these reusable tools, like a coffee mug.

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By the way, Lipton does sell loose tea, if you're a fan of Lipton. But I live near a tea / coffee shop with superior teas at low prices, so I just grab what they have instead.

As far as store-bought tea is concerned, Twinings is tasty and widely available. I'd take Twinings > Lipton any day. Lipton is slightly cheaper, but Twinings really does taste better.

I use option 3 at work. I like it a lot. It's not too hard to clean. It's actually the very one you linked a 16oz black Teavana Tea Maker.

For those wanting to buy one, it's sold by IKEA as the Idealisk tea infuser, $1.99. Also available in lots of other stores, I guess.

https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/idealisk-tea-infuser-stainless-...

I've had one of these for what feels like centuries. Sturdy. Machine washable. Inexpensive as hell. Along with my single-serving french press also from Ikea[0] some of the most value per dollar I've ever got.

[0]: https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/upphetta-french-press-coffee-ma...

The ingenuiTEA is the best tea brewer I've used, it works great for all loose teas.

https://www.amazon.com/Adagio-Teas-ingenuiTEA-Bottom-Dispens...

When I drink tea I usually drink something spicy like Chai and use either my ingenuiTEA or a Cafetière.

Other price extreme: Vorwerk (of Thermomix fame) is selling a loose tea machine: https://temial.vorwerk.de/

Only 600 Euros!

Wow, that thing has GPL’ed code in it. Who says GPL code is anathema for business?

Personally, I prefer my tea makers without Apache in them; I recently got the Breville BTM800XL (a.k.a. Sage The Tea Maker™), and it is very nice, in that it is fully automated.

I was using this infuser but it's also plastic and might be a problem: https://www.amazon.com/Fred-SLOW-BREW-Sloth-Infuser/dp/B00V6...

I might go back to non-plastic bag tea (usually stash or celestial seasonings)

IKEA sell another type of tea infuser which works much better than tea balls IMO, which I find hard to clean and often leaks leaves out.

https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/ljudloes-tea-infuser-stainless-...

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