Coffee & Tea Glass Filter Straws

Coffee & Tea Glass Filter Straws are inventive devices that make it easy to brew a single cup of tea or coffee at a time – no special equipment required. To brew, pour hot or boiling water into a large cup with fresh coffee grounds or your favorite tea leaves. Once the mixture steeps, sip up the hot liquid through the straw. Each has a special filter on the end to strain out the leaves/grounds on the way to your mouth.

The Tea Straw has a glass strainer attached to a hand crafted glass straw, while the Coffee Straw has a mini French Press filter attached to a hand crafted glass straw. The French press filter is great for coffee, but it works well for tea, too. The tea strainer might be a little large for coffee grounds, however. Each one comes with a carrying tube to protect the straws on your way back and forth to the office (or any other destination where you might need to grab a cuppa).

Tea Code Cups

I’ve never liked the little strings that come attached to bagged tea. I appreciate that they make it easy to handle the bag, but more often than not the string slides down into the hot tea as it steeps and needs to be fished out – defeating the purpose of having a string in the first place. The reason for the slide is that the string is hard to secure. The design of these Tea Code Cups neatly solves that problem and makes string tea bags a lot more convenient to use. The cups have what looks like a button on their sides that you can wrap the tea bag string around to hold it in place. The sides of the cups, which come in various sizes, are double walled so they don’t get too hot to handle when you are drinking (or trying to remove the tea bag string). A spoon will work well for fishing out a tea bag, but this type of cup could be a nice addition to the collection of, say, a Lipton lover who wants to stick with the string-ed tea bag no matter what.

There is a cute little animation showing how these cups work here, although if you end up ordering some, I think you’ll find them to be pretty self explanatory.

Shark Tea Infuser

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I’ve seen function and stylish tea infusers, but this is one that is both – and clever, t boot! The Sharky Tea Infuser is a creation of Argentinian designer Pablo Matteoda. The lightweight infuser has an air pocket in the top of the fin to keep it upright and afloat in your tea, while the perforated base (removable, for easy filling) lets your tea infuse into your cup. Rooibos – or another herbal red tea – is a good choice for this infuser simply because it fits the look well.

Unfortunately, this lovely piece of design is still just a concept for now. It will be great for Jaws fans when it is released, though!

Variable Temperature Electric Kettle

If I’m going to brew a french press or want to make tea for more than just one or two, I turn to using a trusty stove top kettle to make the required amount. It’s quick and hasn’t let me down yet – although you do need to stay on top of it to watch when the water boils. This Variable Temperature Electric Kettle from Breville has some interesting advantages over the traditional stove top kettle.

The Breville kettle does a lot more than just boil water. It allows you to quickly bring water to a preset temperature – and includes temperatures for green tea, white tea, oolong tea,black tea and French press, in addition to boiling – and will hold that same temperature for up to 20 minutes. The ‘hold’ feature is extremely convenient if you like to work or take care of things around the house while you’re waiting to make tea. There’s a safety shut off, in case you get too distracted and forget you left the kettle on. It holds 60-oz and has an easy to read water gauge on the side.

The downside is that the Kettle is pricey – no surprise given all its features – but if you can find it on sale and know you’ll make good use of a new kettle, you can’t go too far wrong with this one.

Alessi Tea Strainer

Alessi has such a great sense of fun throughout their entire kitchenware line, and this cute little tea strainer is no exception. The Alessi Te O Tea Strainer is a hands-off tea strainer. Its design is that of a playfull little man (creature?) holding up a straining bowl; his hands do the work for you, so there is no need to burn your fingers trying to squeeze a hot tea bag. Simply drop your bag into the strainer and let it sit for a minute. I can’t really overstate the cuteness of this little guy. It would be a great gift for a tea lover, for just about any occasion.