Tea Accessories

The Five Must-Have Tea Accessories

From tea cozies and paper tea filters to tea bag squeezers, tea drinkers can be roused into buying a lot of frivolous gadgets. However, when it comes to making the best cup of tea, you really only need great tea and a few essential tea accessories. The rest of those tea doohickeys are just for fun, but by all means dress your pot in a gingham snuggly if it pleases you.

1. A right-sized teapot: For day-to-day tea drinking, you need a teapot that holds the quantity you plan to drink in a sitting. So if you’re drinking tea on your own, use a single-serving pot and make one mug full at a time. That way you get great tea at a perfect temperature.

Making one cup of tea in a large pot allows too much air in, which can affect the flavor and temperature. And besides, tea is not as good reheated or kept warm in a thermos.

If you’re making multiple cups at once for say a tea party, try a tea press pot. For loose-leaf teas, tea snobs use a teapot rather than a tea infuser ball because a pot gives the tea leaves room to open up to their full-flavor perfection.

True snobs also use separate pots for each tea type, so as to never muddle the true flavor of any tea.

2. A basic strainer: When using loose-leaf tea in a teapot, you’ll need a strainer to catch the steeped leaves. There are lots of variations of this tea accessory: ones that fit in your pot, ones that affix your cup, and ones that stands alone. Any of these will do.

3. A proper storage container: It’s essential to store your tea properly in order to retain its freshness. The best container for storing tea is airtight and sunlight free. Clear glass jars or containers with glass lids are not ideal.

Most teas will stay fresh in a proper container for 6 months to a year. And remember, tea should be stored at room temperature and should never be kept in the freezer.

4. A great kettle: While the exact degree of your water is not important, the right boil is. Some teas need to be steeped in boiling water while others flourish to perfection in water temperatures just short of the boil. Check out our article on steeping times. And sorry fast Charlies, using the microwave to get the best cup of tea is not going to work.

Purchase a well-designed electric kettle for a quick boil with auto shut off or use the stovetop version with a whistle.

5. A timer: For the best cup of tea, you’ll want to time your steep. Again, a few seconds isn’t going to make or break your tea; however, close approximation is key. That’s why a timer is an important tea accessory. See our brewing tea article for accurate minute-by-minute for each tea type.