tea tumbler

Recently, my fellow blogger and I made an important purchse: the loose-leaf tea tumbler. You can use it to brew loose-leaf tea! It's pretty much like a basic coffee thermos/flask, with the addition of a little tea-straining bucket. I've used it a couple of times now, and I definitely like it. Although, to be completely fair, you can sort of rig something like this on your own, with the use of one of those chain-ball tea strainers. But it is very neat and cute, and also keeps the tea fairly hot with a complete lid (instead of a lid with a hole, which I never understood--I mean, yeah, you can sip it on the go, but I try to avoid doing that anyway because I just end up with a second-degree burnt lower lip and chin).

Pluses: cute colors, and looks sophisticated. Also, the little tea bucket isn't too messy and it has a sipper with little holes to strain the tea as you drink it.

Minuses: it's plastic, which can keep things not so hot. Also, there are downsides if you want to make loose-leaf black tea and add milk and sugar, and then you're stuck because you have to take the bucket out, and add the milk etc. So, there's a point at which you wonder: why don't I just make the tea separately and pour it into a thermos? As far as I can tell, this thing is manufactured by REI, which means it's essentially American--which can explain the thinking behind the design. I can just see the designer thinking to himself, "why would anyone put milk in their tea?"

But yeah, I've kept this thing next to my laptop a couple of times over the last few weeks.

Available from: L.L. Bean, I believe, is so far the only retailer I can think of that has this. It might range from about $12-14.

And, of course, no commercial affiliation blah blah.