Tea Net

Tea Net – infusing tea the old fashioned way

A tea net, also known as tea sock, is quite an old fashioned way of making tea or infusions. It is made from unbleached cotton, looks a bit like a sock, and has built in holder of coated metal.

You can hang it in a small to medium tea pot or a mug and it will sit nicely on the rim usually. Fill it with tea or herbs of your choice and pour the water, just like you would normally do.

Once the tea or the infusion has steeped long enough, you can lift it by the handle, maybe squeeze it a bit, and put it aside. To prevent burning your fingers, we can recommendo our teabag squeezer, that is also quite helpful for these sort of work.

What are the benefits?

Some people prefer the tea net over a metal strainer for various reasons. It is definitely a way to avoid unnessary waste or teabags and still get the full taste of tea. The only downside, we have to admit, once you have used it, it will get a brownish colour from the tea. But that is normal and nothing to worry about.

To clean it, you just rinse it under hot water, queeze or wring it and let it dry. Job done. If you feel the need to wash it, you can do that, but make sure that you afterwards rinse it several times in water to get every residue of washing detergent out of it. My mum used to dip it in the fresh bowl with water and dishwasher detergent then rinsed it with hot water (which then filled up the bowl further for the dishes) and put it on a hook on the tiles over the sink to dry.

The net is 9 cm in diameter and can be used for around 4 cups of tea at a time. That is roughly the size of a tea pot up to 1 liter / 2 pints