Tea Infuser Ball
The Tea Infuser Ball is a simple little device that is for the purist tea drinker. It is a way for the tea enthusiast to enjoy tea straight from the leaves in the freshest manner possible. In the most simple of descriptions the tea infuser ball is that it serves as a sort of self serve tea bag where you are able to put the tea in yourself. The tea infuser became very popular in the early 1800's. In Britain, in the time of Queen Victoria, all proper British households had at least a few tea infuser balls.
Most tea infuser balls are made of metal so as to not affect the taste of the tea in any way. There is normally a series of fine holes in the ball, or a fine mesh that makes up the ball. There are many different shapes of tea infuser balls, but most resemble a round, square, or cylindrical ball. The holes in the infuser are normally very tight in order to ensure that none of the tea leaves are able to escape the ball and get into the tea.
Many of the most purist of tea drinkers will insist that a proper cup of tea can only be made with the tea directly in the infuser. There are tea infuser balls that are small enough to make a single cup of tea and some that are large enough to make an entire pot of tea.
To use the infuser you first add the tea leaves to the infuser. You then put the tea infuser ball into the hot water for a few minutes. The length of time you leave the infuser in the water depends on how strong you wish the tea to taste. When using the infuser for the entire pot you will want to leave it in longer than for a cup of tea in order to allow the tea to circulate throughout the infuser.
If you are new to using a tea infuser, one way to test your methods of making tea with it is to use the tea that you normally use, but brew it with the infuser. This way you will be able to get a feel for how to brew the tea to taste, because you are using a tea whose taste you already know.
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