When this tumbler first arrived, I was a bit surprised at how small it was. With the double-walled design, intended to keep your tea hot as long as possible, the interior volume is quite smaller than it appears. After several weeks of use, I have determined that there are three primary ways in which this tumbler can be utilised.

First, the strainer can be removed from the mouth of the container, the tea bag or leaves put inside, water poured into the tumbler, and the strainer replaced. This allows tea to be steeped indefinitely, and tea to be sipped while the leaves are still inside the tumbler. This works well if you are drinking a tea that is unaffected by long or indefinite steep times.

Second, the tumbler can be used as an on-the-go container for prepared tea. Simply remove the strainer and leave it at home, and the tumbler could be used for keeping tea, prepared in a pot or other vessel, hot on the way to another location.

Third, in the case of a lack of another brewing vessel, this tumbler can serve for that job too. Remove the strainer, put in the tea, put in the hot water, replace the strainer, wait for steeping to finish, and then simply pour from the tumbler into cups for serving.

My experience with these three methods was varied. With the first method, I found that, because the leaves or bag float loose inside the container and are not held back from the strainer, they would often float forward with the steeped tea and block/clog the strainer while I tried to drink. The second method worked out fairly well. My only complaint was that it seemed as though the tea still cooled off a bit fast, despite the double-walled design. But the double-walls did insulate one’s hand from the heat of the contents. In the third case, this worked only slightly better than the first method, running into the same issues, yet being a little more controlled for pouring, as I was attempting to pour into a mug that I could see rather than my mouth.

Overall, while I appreciate the design of this tumbler, I am not sure that the functionality is quite at the best point yet to make it worth a purchase. For overall usability, I would rate it a 6.5/10.

You can purchase the Tea Tumbler with Stainless Steel Tea Strainer directly from the Blue Q website.

Note – thanks to Al Fabian in the comments, it is noted that the London Teapot Company does not sell retail directly to the public. There are many different retail outlets to purchase Chatford Teapots from, but one to consider is devotea.com

Of all the tea ware that I own, my Chatsford remains my favorite. The Chatsford Teapot is an earthenware pot made by the London Teapot Company. I have compiled a list of good and bad points in the hopes it will provide someone valuable information before purchasing a teapot.

Good points about the Chatsford. Let me see, the infuser basket would have to be the best part of this teapot. The infuser is huge, almost as large as the round belly of the teapot itself! The infuser is made of polypropylene with fine mesh to keep any and all tea leaves from getting into your cup. The infuser also has a little tab that you can pull it out of the pot without burning your fingers. I have a two cup teapot, that little infuser fits perfectly into a small butter dish allowing you to save your leaves for a later steep. You can purchase the infuser baskets separately which will allow you to have one for herbals, one for blacks or just to have a spare if one is in the dishwasher. Since the teapot is earthenware, it retains heat beautifully. Your first cup will be hot, but your next cups will be even hotter. I have kept tea hot in my Chatsford for upwards of an hour.

Bad points about this teapot would have to include the limited colors that are available. It comes in a dark blue, dark green, yellow, white and brown. The only other bad thing about a Chatsford would be the cost. You can buy cheaper teapots in more vibrant colors, but would it have that great infuser basket that fits perfectly with the lid of the teapot. I think not.

I highly recommend this teapot. It is charming and makes darn good tea.

You can purchase the Chatsford Teapot directly from the The London Teapot Company website.

Please bear with this review, it is going to be a longish one! I have been putting this off for some time now, simply because I am not really sure how to review the product in question.

A few months ago, Gina Wu, President and Founder of Tea GW mailed me 2 tea travel pillows. Here at It’s All About The Leaf, we will review anything tea related, and I was very happy to receive this product, as it is something truly different. I had never heard of such a thing! Turns out, neither had anyone else that I talked to.

I am in a tough position here. I can talk about (and will) the aesthetic of the pillows. I can talk about (and will) the quality of the pillows. However, what has kept me from doing this review until now, are the health claims.

Gina kindly included an article that she wrote for the Tea Association of the USA on the health benefits of Tea Pillows. Wu claims tea pillows have been used for millennia in Traditional Chinese Medicine. She says the health benefits include the killing of bacteria (non-beneficial I am going to assume), to aroma therapy resulting in calming, relaxing functions, to treating headaches and insomnia. My issue tho is a standard argument when it comes to health – there does not appear to be any research to back it up.

Now I am not one of those people that will believe any “research” put before me, in fact I believe that for every “fact” proven by science, it can be subsequently disproved in other research, especially when it comes to measuring health benefits. I personally believe in my Chinese herbalist. He cured my wife of really bad allergies, ragweed and hay-fever, with a rank, disgusting tasting/smelling tea concoction, and that cure has stuck for 3 years now. We are talking someone who was constantly dripping, sneezing, stuffed up from September until first hard frost. Now – nothing. So there is something to millennia old medicine, no doubt, but it needs to be rooted, I believe, in logic and reason.

So – to logic. The pillow is VERY wrapped up. I mean, cover, then sealed bag. How does the beneficial properties of the tea get out? With no direct contact to the tea leave, absorbing the essential oils, or vitamins or other compounds seems unlikely. Aroma therapy – perhaps, but I could find nothing, and I mean literally NOTHING online to do with a tea pillow except to do with selling them.

No herbalist (certified) or natural-path that I spoke with has heard of anything to do with this before. No other health claims/mentions on the inter-webs, anywhere. That does not mean that there is nothing to it, but it makes this product fall into a category of unproven for me at the moment, and I dislike the fact that a health claim can be made without any proof of any sort.

With that out of the way, on to the pillow! I was sent 2 travel pillows. One Lavender, one Tie Guan Yin (Oolong). The packaging was gorgeous. A nicely decorated box covered with Chinese symbols, and tied with a pretty tassel and coin, all calculated to make it look “authentic”.

I opened the Lavender pillow first, I had some trepidation about it, not sure if it would be a really strong scent of Lavender (which I dislike). However, it turned out to be a very subtle scent, and very nice and relaxing if I do say so! The Tie Guan Yin was my favorite tho, with a sweet, almost woodsy scent to it.

The pillows themselves are of extremely high quality. The covering is well stitched silk, smooth and comforting. The print is rich looking, not at all out of place as high-end decoration in a fancy house (which I do not have…). There is no evidence of sloppy or hurried stitching, even the zipper was a high quality zipper, and well hidden so as not to dig into your head when laying on it.

Using them was a bit tougher, as I could not stand to drive with it behind my head, had no airplane travel plans, and found them way to hard and overstuffed to sleep with. I do wish I could have tried the actual full sized pillows, and maybe then I could have better evaluated my personal experience related to the health claims.

Of course, I HAD to open it up. I found that the tea inside was contained within a bag that was sealed up – no tea bits, no matter how hard I pounded on them, would come out, and I was loath to cut it open to actually check in there – so I cannot confirm that there is actual tea involved here. Perhaps when the one I loaned out comes back I shall endeavor to open it up, and maybe make a cuppa? (too gross? What do you think?)

So the bottom line for me is, they are beautiful, they are expensive (the travel pillow is $40USD and the full sized pillow is $100USD), but you certainly get, quality wise, what you pay for. I reserve judgement on the health claims. I appreciate the chance to review the products, and they would make a great (tho expensive) gift for a tea fanatic that you are lost to get a gift for.

You can purchase the Tea Pillows directly from the Tea GW website.

Through my use of the tea tray, I have come to determine that it is a wonderful product.
At first, the tea trays seem a bit frivolous. The question that initially came to my mind is “Why would anyone spend money on something created specifically to hold used tea bags, when they could just as easily use a small plate, or even just dispose of the tea bag straight away?”
So, determined to answer this question, I prepared myself some tea (Tea Forte’s Orchid Vanilla, as the trays were clearly meant to be primarily used with Tea Forte pyramid bags).
Here were my findings:

Great things about the tea trays:
-They’re small, thus conserving the space used on one’s desk/table/etc. (This was especially helpful on my desk, which has a lot of papers and other items on it, and where a small plate for used tea bags would be a waste of space)
-They provide a drip-free resting place in the chance that you want to save the tea bag for another steeping.
-The tea trays are aesthetically pleasing, making them great to give as gifts or to add a bit of decoration at tea time.
-The size of the tea trays is such that they could just as easily be used with other tea bags as drip trays.
-The construction is really solid. These trays are not going to break easily if they are accidentally dropped.

Not so great things (that might not matter) about the tea trays:
-These trays really are not so special and innovative that one would go out and buy them to complete one’s collection of teaware.
-The shallow indentation in the tray was not deep enough, and the excess liquid in my teabag ended up overflowing the lip of the tray’s depression. (I may not have let the tea bag drip off long enough.)
-Because of the shallow indentation, when I picked up the tray to drain it off and clean it, the smallest tilt caused tea to run off the edge.

You can purchase the Tea Tray directly from the Tea Forte website.

I was excited for the opportunity to review this cup, as I had seen it while browsing the Tea Forte website and appreciated the clever-looking design.
In reviewing Tea Forte’s Cafe Cup, I decided to create a simple pros and cons list. This is not a complete list by any means, merely a list of the things which most stood out to me.
Pros:
-Comes with a lid, to hold the heat in while steeping.
-The lid keeps your tea hot, even when you leave it for some time.
-The cup is quite pretty, in a simplistic way.
-The hole in the lid is perfect for the tag and string from the tea bag.

Cons:
-The construction of the cup is such that, because of the heat emanating through the walls, it is necessary to hold it by the handle alone.
-The size of the cup in comparison to the handle makes for a slightly awkward or unwieldy experience when lifting a full cup, especially because it seems the handle is not meant to be held with more than one finger through it.
-The lid gets quite hot while steeping tea, which can be problematic when you try to remove it to drink.

The biggest improvement I think could be made to this product is if it came with a saucer, to catch any drips, and provide a resting place for the hot tea cup, so that items under the tea cup are not in danger of being damaged by the heat.
Over all, it is a very nice cup, and the wooden box it comes in makes for a very nice gift all together.

You can purchase the Cafe Cup directly from the Tea Forte website.

I was surprised at the size of this infuser. It is small. When you see it online, it looks really big. Filling it to the brim gets 16 ounces in the infuser. In reality, you are only making 12-15 ounces of tea with this infuser.

Now, I have water and tea leaves in the infuser. I wait the prescribed amount of time depending on the type of tea. A word of caution here, make sure the cup you intend to use is large enough to hold 12-16 ounces of tea and that the brim of the cup is as wide as the bottom of this infuser. When the tea is ready, place the infuser over your cup and gravity does all the work. Thank you Sir Isaac Newton! When you lift the infuser off your cup, the mechanism closes. No drips.

Here are a list of pros and cons to help you decide if the IngenuiTEA is right for you:

Pros
It is clear, you can watch the agony of the leaves as they unfurl. And with it clear, you can easily get it clean.
With it being gravity fed, it is effortless to pour a cup of tea.
The IngenuiTEA is microwave and dishwasher safe. I personally would never put it in either appliance, but you could if you wanted.
This is great for using loose leaf tea to make iced tea. It fits right on top of my iced tea pitcher.

Cons:
It is plastic.
The lid does not come off, so it sits at an angle in the drain board.

I would recommend this to any tea drinker. It makes the using of loose leaves easy and fun. This is great for anyone who travels or wants to make great tasting tea at work. The IngenuiTEA is smart looking. It would certainly start a conversation about tea.

You can purchase the IngenuiTEA directly from the Adagio website.

The Product Description on the Tea Forte Site is:
Our double-wall ceramic tumbler and integrated stainless steel infuser make brewing loose tea by the cup simple. The innovative double-wall construction keeps tea hot and the tumbler cozy to hold. Brews a generous 12 oz cup and is dishwasher safe.

My findings on the products…
First – I would like to mention the tumbler itself…
It’s heavy-duty which I LOVE. I am keeping this at work so I tend to walk around with my WORK mug. I will say that THIS has officially REPLACED my old ‘mug’ completely. I really LOVE the design! Like I said, it’s the GRASS one and it’s “so me” because some people refer to me as a tree hugger or hippie! It’s earthy, natural-looking, and FUN!

I really appreciate the fact that it has a LID. ONE…because it keeps the tea itself warmer than if the tea is exposed while steeping or infusing like I did it before. And TWO because I am a klutz and will really benefit from the usage of this lid!

The double-wall ceramic that the description refers to – is something else I must mention!  I also like this feature because you are still able to pick it up while hot. YES, it’s still warm to touch but I would have to say it cuts down on the ‘holding temperature’ by about half…this is my estimated guess I haven’t officially or technically tested it…but this is just to give you an idea of the ‘heat to hand’ comparison..

As for the “integrated stainless steel infuser” I would give it a thumbs up as well! I did find it a little less heavy duty than other strainers I have used but it also allows for more movement of the loose leaf. Having said that – it’s also easy to remold into the original shape. 

The Strainer PERFECTLY fits the tumbler! While the loose leaf is infusing the leaves stay put regardless. They DO NOT “Jump Over Board” into the liquid…NO FLOATIES!  YAY!

When you discard your loose leaves they do stick a little but it’s nothing I can’t deal with.  Just simple whack or flick the ‘leftover’ loose leaf out or rinse, even.  I have tried this tumbler and strainer with all kinds of teas.  I have found that Green Tea tends to be more stubborn than others, generally speaking.  I have also done Rooibos in the KATI and haven’t had much of a problem with the very thin Rooibos sneaking thru the cracks…that’s a definite PLUS.  Heck I have even tried a teabag (minus the strainer, of course) and the tumbler works well…as a matter of fact, I have noticed that all of the tea bags I have tried in there so far have floated to the top when fully wet so there is no fishing around in your tea for the bag to discard because it’s right there!

The only thing I miss is a handle on the side…but because I am so excited about the actual product and ‘know’ it’s supposed to be ‘different from a mug’ I will certainly look past that!

So far I give the Tea Forte KATI 2 thumbs up! It’s a great addition to ANY Tea Lovers Collection!  I even have non-tea drinkers EYE BALLING it!  By getting this KATI it just might encourage me to get into more accessory hunting/purchasing.  When you purchase this little darling you will receive the Tumbler, Strainer, Lid, and 3 Loose Leaf Tea Forte Samples.  A great deal for the price!

You can purchase the Kati Loose Tea System directly from the Tea Forte website.

We all have a ton of different travel coffee mugs in our cupboards, each bought with certain standard expectations.  Short ones, fat ones, tall ones, double walled, you name it.   They usually work ok.  Good for the commute to work, keeping your morning coffee warm for an hour or so. They aren’t truly meant for sitting for longer periods or for really cold activities.

I have spent a lot of money on travel mugs that make big promises and rarely deliver, until now.  My wonderful husband (actually my 2 little boys who know my love of all things tea) bought me 2 of these for Christmas this year and they are by far my favorite useful gift.

I decided to do a little experiment to see just how long the liquid stays warm for.  I boiled water, put in white tea, positioned the strainer and placed both tops on it.   I used the bag it comes in as well.  That was 4:10 in the afternoon.  I tested the tea at 11pm and it was still 120 degree’s, more then warm enough, I left it in the tea in the cup for the night and tested it again in the morning and to my complete surprise, it was still 95 degrees.   That was 16 hours and it was still warm, seriously!  I’ve never come across any other travel mug that has come close to this.

It is now a staple for my daily tea enjoyment, regardless if I am home all day or out and about traveling.    When I know I am going out all day, I will make both travel mug’s and simply tighten the lid on the 2nd to enjoy it much later in the day, tasting as if I had just made it.  I now  get to savor my tea, all warm and comforting all day long!

You can purchase the JOEmo XL Tea Travel Mug directly from the TeaFrog website.

I had a number of teas that I was going to review but these were pre-empted in order to cover the JOEmo XL Tea Travel Mug. I have been on the lookout for a good travel mug for loose leaf tea for a long time now, and when I found this one I was so pleased I just couldn’t wait to get the word out.

There are a number of tea travel mugs out there, from the Teas Etc. mug, to the Mighty Leaf Travel Mug, but nothing has seemed just right. Most travel mugs just have a filter to keep the leaves from getting into your mouth. That is fine, as long as you are going to leave them in there to steep the whole time. Personally, I like to steep my leaves for a certain amount of time, and then remove them, especially when it comes to greens and blacks. Inside the JOEmo, the key to the whole thing is a removable stainless steel mesh basket. It locks in place to either:

A) Keep the tea in the water and out of your mouth – if you are leaving the leaves in.
B) Keep the leaves out of the water, once you remove the basket.

The mesh filter is super fine, and even with Rooibos teas, which are notoriously slippery when it comes to getting through mesh filters, it kept all the leaf right out of the water once the basket came out!

The JOEmo body is double walled stainless steel and very rugged (perfect for banging around during those canoe trips). Being double walled, no matter how hot or cold the liquid is inside, you do not feel it on the outside. No condensation from very cold, and no heat from very hot tea. This makes it pretty comfortable to hold!

The vacuume sealed lid keeps your liquid hot or cold, whatever it went in as. This leads me to one warning – it works almost too well! After steeping a black tea with boiling water, and removing the basket, I sealed it up, and promptly forgot about it as I went about my day. 3 hours later it occured to me that I had some tea to drink, and without thinking, sipped away and came close to scalding my mouth! 3 hours later, and the water was almost as hot as it went in as! So be careful….

The mug is very easy to drink from; you simply push a button on the lid and it opens for drinking, another push of the button closes the lid when you are done. You can sip from anywhere around the rim – no single spout to find while driving in the car! Even with the lid “popped” the heat does not escape the mug.

Hands down, I recommend this to every single loose leaf tea drinker out there. The ONLY downfall that this has is that removing the basket can be messy if you are on the go and have nowhere to put it. However, the length of time that the water keeps warm, and the ease of drinking out of the mug more than makes up for this minor inconvienience. I have already placed my order for 4 more for my family members, and as a bonus, they are on sale at TeaFrog right now!

In conclusion, I love it, I use it, and in my opinion, to date, this is the best travel mug for loose leaf tea that is out there today!

You can purchase the JOEmo XL Tea Travel Mug directly from the TeaFrog website.

On the same trip to Banff, (see this previous post on the Banff Tea Company’s French Blend) I found this cute little teapot. I was resistant to buy yet another tea pot, after all how many does one person really need to own! We’ll this one I was glad I picked up.

I like to make a small pot for myself, instead of brewing directly in the cup every time. The bright, cheery colors caught my eye and I picked up a pretty green with a white etching. It’s dishwasher safe and included the metal tea basket for brewing any one of your loose tea choices. It’s a one-cup pot, but makes about a cup and a half. Another thing I love about this particular pot is that when pouring, it doesn’t drip back down the spout. This would make a perfect gift; it was under $25.00, so very reasonably priced.

You can purchase HuesNBrews i-pot (sunflower) from the Amazon website (this is NOT an affiliate link!).