I find tea-balls fiddly and hard to clean. The Ikea strainer looks better but still small. What I found easiest is a Chinese tea strainer: it's a metal mesh (stainless, hopefully) that is as large in diameter as a standard (American) mug, so it just sits on the rim and curves down half-way into the mug.

Put in your dose of loose-leaf (black or green), pour water over it, and when done steeping just let drip over your mug and place on a saucer nearby (as you would a tea-bag). Some strainers have a small handle, but the rim is usually cool enough to grab after steeping. When cleaning, put used tea into the compost, and rinse the strainer as you would your cup. Set to dry on your mug, ready for next time.

These are available in any Chinatown dry-goods store, and similar shops (or Chinese supermarkets such as Ranch 99 in California).

BTW, this article comes as no surprise, but I'm happy to see basic science prove what we often think about plastics. I've been drinking loose-leaf tea for years for flavor and lack of wasteful packaging.

I too can't stand typical ball strainers and use a big one taken from an Ikea tea pot. It fits most mugs perfectly filling up almost the whole space inside.

I've been using these tea balls in office environments: https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51mTZ1eURrL...

In terms of convenience I don't think it's significantly worse than sachets. But yeah, I do buy my own tea and store it in my drawer.

I have about 3 different devices, all of which seem to work well.

1. A device identical to your picture.

2. This "other" tea ball: https://i.imgur.com/Hg0mWFl.jpg

3. Tea "infuser". Similar to this one (but a different brand): https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41QJxs18f1L... . This is the bulkiest option though, and you still need another cup to transfer the liquid to.

My favorite tool is #1: the "springy clasp ball on the end of a stick". So I can recommend that to everyone over the other two devices. #2 isn't bad, but there's a lot of convenience factor to #1's spring design.

> In terms of convenience I don't think it's significantly worse than sachets.

In making tea, no, not much difference. But I dislike cleaning metal-meshes. Cleaning is a minor inconvenience... but if you've ever just used a paper-cup + Lipton tea bag and just trash everything when you're done... lol. Lazy lifestyle (but wasteful).

But yeah, its probably better for the environment to have these reusable tools, like a coffee mug.

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By the way, Lipton does sell loose tea, if you're a fan of Lipton. But I live near a tea / coffee shop with superior teas at low prices, so I just grab what they have instead.

As far as store-bought tea is concerned, Twinings is tasty and widely available. I'd take Twinings > Lipton any day. Lipton is slightly cheaper, but Twinings really does taste better.

I use option 3 at work. I like it a lot. It's not too hard to clean. It's actually the very one you linked a 16oz black Teavana Tea Maker.

For those wanting to buy one, it's sold by IKEA as the Idealisk tea infuser, $1.99. Also available in lots of other stores, I guess.

https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/idealisk-tea-infuser-stainless-...

The ingenuiTEA is the best tea brewer I've used, it works great for all loose teas.

https://www.amazon.com/Adagio-Teas-ingenuiTEA-Bottom-Dispens...

When I drink tea I usually drink something spicy like Chai and use either my ingenuiTEA or a Cafetière.

Other price extreme: Vorwerk (of Thermomix fame) is selling a loose tea machine: https://temial.vorwerk.de/

Only 600 Euros!

Wow, that thing has GPL’ed code in it. Who says GPL code is anathema for business?

Personally, I prefer my tea makers without Apache in them; I recently got the Breville BTM800XL (a.k.a. Sage The Tea Maker™), and it is very nice, in that it is fully automated.

I've had one of these for what feels like centuries. Sturdy. Machine washable. Inexpensive as hell. Along with my single-serving french press also from Ikea[0] some of the most value per dollar I've ever got.

[0]: https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/upphetta-french-press-coffee-ma...

I was using this infuser but it's also plastic and might be a problem: https://www.amazon.com/Fred-SLOW-BREW-Sloth-Infuser/dp/B00V6...

I might go back to non-plastic bag tea (usually stash or celestial seasonings)

IKEA sell another type of tea infuser which works much better than tea balls IMO, which I find hard to clean and often leaks leaves out.

https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/ljudloes-tea-infuser-stainless-...

I buy my own tea bags, paper with a string, and fill it myself.

I do the same, but I hire children in 3rd world countries to help fill the bags.

I've considered that too to get better tea at work, but for me the biggest blocker so far is that I'm so doubtful of some random chinese bags from ebay, considering how steeping in my view feels very adept process of extracting any harmful crap that the bags might have and this is something that very much would give repeated exposure. Am I just being too paranoid?

I don't use reusable tea bags, nor do I resteep. If simple paper/bamboo fiber bags are that bad, you'd be in trouble either way, since they're also used as spice bags for soups, curries, sauces, etc.