Collection: Tea Strainer / Filter

A tea strainer is a type of strainer that is placed over or in a teacup to catch loose tealeaves.
When tea is brewed in the traditional manner in a teapot, the tea leaves are not containedin teabags; rather, they are freely suspended in the water. As the leaves themselves are notconsumed with the tea, it is usual to filter them out with a tea strainer. Strainers usually fitinto the top of the cup to catch the leaves as the tea is poured.
Some deeper tea strainers can also be used to brew single cups of tea, much as teabags orbrewing baskets are used - the strainer full of leaves is set in a cup to brew the tea. lt isthen removed, along with the spent tea leaves, when the tea is ready to drink. By using atea strainer in this way, the same leaves can be used to brew multiple cups.
Despite the fact that tea strainer use has declined in the 20th century with massproduction of the tea bag, it is still preferred among connoisseurs, who claim that keepingthe leaves packed in a bag, rather than freely circulating, inhibits diffusion. Many assertthat inferior ingredients, namely dust-quality tea, are often used in tea bags.
Tea strainers are usually either sterling silver, stainless steel, or china. Strainers often comein a set, with the strainer itself and a small saucer for it to rest on between cups. Teastrainers themselves have often been turned into artistic masterpieces of the silver- and goldsmith's craft, as well as rarerspecimens of fine porcelain.
Brewing baskets (or infusing baskets) resemble tea strainers, but are more typically put in the top of a teapot to keep thetea leaves contained during brewing. There is no definitive boundary between a brewing basket and a tea strainer, and thesame tool might be used for both purposes.