Tea Strainers

My recent afternoon tea experience reacquainted me with the humble [or not so] tea strainer. The little silver gizmo made my heart sing! I am not sure if it was the fact that it was a delicate silver implement or that the cafe was thoughtful enough to 1. Use real tea leaves 2. Consider that I may not like to have leaves in my drink!


I grew up with tea strainers. We had a lovely little silver job, as I recall. It was used every time the teapot was. I can remember that one of my grandmothers had a teapot leaf catcher which was placed inside the spout. It was very effective and I thought ‘clever’ – I also thought that only very old people used them! I realise they are still around and obviously just as popular and ‘trendy’!

A tea strainer is a type of strainer that is placed over or in a teacup to catch tea leaves.
When tea is brewed in the traditional manner in a teapot, the tea leaves are not contained in teabags, but rather are freely suspended in the water. As the leaves themselves may be distasteful, it is usual to filter them out with a tea strainer. Strainers usually fit into the top of the cup to catch the leaves as the tea is poured.


Some deeper tea strainers can also be used to brew single cups of tea, much as teabags or brewing baskets are used - the strainer full of leaves is set in a cup to brew the tea, and then removed, along with the spent tea leaves, when the tea is ready to drink. By using a tea strainer in this way, the same leaves can be used to brew multiple cups.


Tea strainer use declined in the 20th century with mass production of the tea bag, but is still preferred among connoisseurs who claim that keeping the leaves packed in a bag, rather than freely circulating, inhibits diffusion. Many assert that inferior ingredients, namely dust quality tea, are often used in tea bags.


Tea strainers are usually either sterling silver, stainless steel, or china. Strainers often come in a set, with the strainer part and a small saucer for it to sit in between cups. Tea strainers in themselves have often been turned into artistic masterpieces of the silver- and goldsmith's craft, as well as rarer specimens of fine porcelain.


Brewing baskets (or infusing baskets) resemble tea strainers, but are more typically put in the top of a teapot to contain the tea leaves during brewing. There is no definitive boundary between a brewing basket and a tea strainer, and the same tool might be used for both purposes.

In my surfing, I came across many varieties of tea strainer; from the very basic cooking strainer variety to the solid silver and even gold finely made posh ones. I rather like the bamboo strainer. I used to have one which I used for my herbal & fruit teas. The bamboo imparted a special flavour which added to the drinking experience.

Tea strainers today come in all shapes and sizes. What do you think of the beautiful glass flower, the scarily clever silver spider, the silicone spoon-shaped strainer, the little man clinging on to the cup? They are very clever.

What do you use to catch your leaves?