Tea egg: the small one, for a cup or a small pot
This is the classic infuser in egg form: two stainless steel halves pierced with rows of round holes, a smooth top and a short chain ending in a ring. At roughly 3 cm across and 3.5 cm tall it is a small object, and deliberately so. The egg drops to the bottom of an ordinary mug and stays out of the way while you pour.
Those holes are larger than the weave of a mesh filter. For whole leaf, dried flowers and coarsely cut herbs that works well: water moves through quickly and the leaf gets room to unfurl. With finely ground tea or herb dust this model lets more through, and then a woven mesh filter is the better pick. Stainless steel holds on to neither flavour nor smell, so last week's herbal brew will not show up in your next cup.
How to use it
- Pull the two halves apart.
- Fill the lower half loosely, halfway at most; wet leaf swells and needs room to move.
- Put the halves back together, lower the egg into your cup or pot and pour hot water over it.
- Lift it out by the chain when it has steeped and knock the leaf out while it is still warm.
Tea egg or mesh tea ball?
Avalon stocks both. This egg is the smaller of the two and fits a mug; it is meant for one cup or a small pot. The Tea ball mesh is bigger and uses woven mesh instead of punched holes, so fine particles stay inside. If you often brew finely cut herbs, take the mesh model. If you mostly drink whole-leaf tea from a mug, this egg does exactly what it needs to do.
Looking after it
Rinse the egg right after use, because dried leaf wedges itself into the holes. Let it dry open rather than closed in a drawer. If brown residue builds up over time, soak it for half an hour in hot water with a dash of cleaning vinegar and go over it with an old toothbrush.
Loose tea and herbs at Avalon Magic Plants
Alongside this tea egg, Avalon Magic Plants stocks the Tea ball mesh and loose herbs to put in it: Chamomile 50 gram (Matricaria Chamomilla), Damiana - Turnera diffusa, Blue lotus - Nymphaea caerulea 10 grams and Passion flower 20 grams - Passiflora incarnata. Everything ships discreetly packed.
