Do We Sell Tea Ball Strainers?

A common question that we get at the tea shop is if we sell tea ball strainers. We do not sell them—but if we did, we could probably sell quite a few of them. However, by doing so, we would be missing an opportunity to explain why they are not (in our opinion) the best tool for brewing high quality tea, and with that, we would also not be offering our customers what we believe is a higher quality, better tasting tea brewing experience.

So why don’t we carry tea ball strainers? We don't carry them because it is better for tea leaves to have space. When leaves have more room to expand, it allows the water to flow more fully around the entire surface area of the tea leaves, which subsequently improves the flavor and consistency of your brew, and also brings out more of the inherent health properties in the leaves. This is the reason most teabags have finely chopped tea leaves—if you place whole leaf teas in a small teabag, it will take a long time to steep and the flavor could become too bitter. Tea companies will therefore chop up the leaves in order to increase the surface area that comes in contact with the water. This process decreases the steeping time required to brew the tea, but it also accelerates how quickly the tea loses flavor and how quickly tannins (the bitter part) can be released into the water.

If you have a tea ball strainer, try an experiment. Keeping everything constant (water temperature, amount of tea, amount of water, steep time, etc.), brew one cup of tea with a tea ball strainer and then brew another cup of tea in a tea pot or cup with a large filter (like one of our Kung Fu Cups). Have a fellow tea drinker join you in this taste test! Most likely you will be able to taste a difference between the two cups of tea solely based on how much space the leaves have to expand.

Come visit our retail store to see the teaware that we offer, or you can check out some of our teaware on this site.