Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsAfter trying fancier gadgets, this is now my most used tea item
Reviewed in the United States on August 24, 2011
I've been a tea drinker for 5 years now, and also REALLY into gadgets, especially ones that look cool. After trying many other ways/gadgets to make my tea, this is now my most used tea item. It's not the prettiest thing, but it works THAT well that I have trashed my other infusers. I have one of these Finum baskets at work and one at home. I am using the large size because it's more versatile in my opinion (it WILL fit in smaller mugs, but it will sit on the bottom and the top of it will extend up above the rim of cup - this is fine with me though).
I have yet to see a mesh as fine as this product has, and that is what really sets this apart from anything else I've found on the market so far. I have many types of strainers/infusers and the finer particles of tea always escape, but NOT with this Finum. It is a very strong, thick, but very fine mesh that works perfectly. The bottom is also mesh, allowing even more flow-through. I use it for coffee in the mornings and tea the rest of the afternoon each day, and it makes a yummy cup of coffee. It has much more flavor & strength and is less watery than what comes out of a coffeemaker. I let it sit for a few minutes in there, much like I'd do with a French press. The coffee almost tastes as good as French press-style, but still a notch below it. I did a little experiment and took some coffee & brewed it through our coffeemaker. Took same brand of coffee and used the Finum basket to make it. Poured them into 2 separate cups and asked boyfriend to pick his favorite one. He thought they were 2 totally different coffees... that's how different and better the taste of the Finum-made cup was! He loooved it and said it tasted much better than the cup made with the coffeemaker.
Some important points about this product:
1) Some people don't realize that the little round black piece can function as both a topper/cap to trap flavor in while brewing, AND is also the drip cup for when you remove the basket.
2) Makes a better tasting and healthier cup of tea than stuffing tea leaves into a tea infuser ball because of the fact that the leaves are allowed to flow freely around in the large infuser cup area and are completely surrounded by water during the brewing process, pulling the most antioxidants and flavor out of each leaf. The leaves can fully expand. When you stuff tea leaves into a tight ball infuser, they cannot each come in full contact with the hot water and aren't allowed to expand all the way. To me, this is a waste because the leaves in the very center of the ball aren't being used fully.
3) The mesh is very fine... so if you ever forget tea leaves in there and it dries, it's a heck of a time to clean it compared to normal mesh.
I am not a simple-type person in general. I don't purchase the "minimum to get by" and don't think "this is all I really need" about products. I am really into gadgets and robots and automatic-type things, but after trying all that with tea, this is really the best thing out there right now in my opinion. Sure it might be a little more work, but I have yet to have any other tea infuser/strainer give me the great result that I get with this one - great tasting tea, superfine mesh which means no tea leaf pieces in my cup, superfine mesh also allows me to brew some great coffee, tea leaves can fully expand and come in FULL contact with the hot water and so it's healthier, it's very portable, and p.s. the plastic is BPA-free. Interestingly, it's also the simplest and one of the least expensive. Don't waste a lot of time or money going through a lot of gadgets like I did, just purchase this :)
