Zojirushi D-Mug/ Stainless Mug with Tea Strainer

[beachape]

http://www.zojirushi.com/ourproducts/ss ... cte35.html
or
http://www.zojirushi.com/ourproducts/ss ... cte35.html

I really really want to drink tea during the day...but taking tea to work/class is such a pain. Sadly I have been drinking mountain dew every day to get my caffeine fix (wish i could just sleep more).

I have tried those chinese thermos things with the strainer, but the tea sitting in there makes the tea too bitter.

Supposedly this cup has a removable basket, and even a little storage compartment for tea. My plan is to bring this thing and carry a thermos full of hot water to refill throughout the day (yeah...no hot water access sucks). I can easily bring tea to refill the basket. I'm sure I'll get strange looks when I throw out the leaves, but it'll be better than when I tried to drink from my clear glass tea thermos....had to stop because i got so many questions....and because I accidentally broke it...

Question to anyone who has this. How does it work? Can you take the tea basket out and rest it on the cap like coaster (can't really plop it down on a library table and get it all wet). How convenient is the little tea storage compartment. Can you use it for tea leaves effectively? Is it worth 30 bucks?

Question to everyone else? I know i've seen similar products out there any suggestions? This one is lined with teflon, which is OK by me. Not looking for plastic or poly carb though.

Thanks

[jester]

Have you looked at the new chinese tea thermos available at xiuxiantea? I've heard good things about their previous model and this one has a removable tea strainer like the one you posted. I'm not sure if its plastic or glass, but you can probably give them a call and find out. Because I can't post links yet, just go to their site and click on Tea Cups (1st one in the second row) and it has a description of the thermos.

If anyone owns this, let me know because I'm curious too.

[beachape]

I own a stainless tea thermos like that and have owned a glass one just like it. I have found that it is difficult to brew tea with them on the go. They insulate so the tea brews very fast and you cannot remove the tea untill you are done. The reason I am curious about the zoji cup is because it has a removable basket potentially allevoating some of the difficulties I had with the Chinese style themoses. You can make your tea brew slower by adding coole water but then you get less caffeine. Also they are challenging to refill leaves without a sink.

[beachape]

Found this video:

http://www.invodo.com/Zojirushi-D-Mug-S ... p/J4AGCD1X

Wished they spent more time looking at the mug rather than the photos. At least i found out that the lid can hold the tea strainer. I'm tempted to buy this. Wish it wasn't so expensive though.

Also more pics

http://www.teawan.com/product_teaware/P ... oductID=58

Looks like has enough room to store leaves, not sure if it would be hard to get the leaves out if you're using sencha.

[beachape]

For anyone that is interested, here is a blog that describes features of several tumblers. Stumbled upon it during my search.

http://teafinelybrewed.com/blog/tea-travel-mugs/

[tenkaichi]

The plug-in mug is hilarious. Something looks fishy about it right off the bat.

The price for the Zoji mug sure is steep! But you can argue it to yourself by saying you'll use it and it'll make you happy though make sure to get a thermos for hot water that is guaranteed not to leak, otherwise you'll be one sad panda. I kind of feared that a little since I used to carry a stainless steel thermos in my bag along with my xiuxian glass double-walled thermos... but it kept the water heated for a good duration of the day. I actually don't like keeping the leaves in there the whole time, but I just end up drinking teas that don't tend to get bitter.

I think if you're going to be sitting around and can maximize the use of the basket inside, by all means I think it'd be worth it to spring for the cup. But otherwise, you have a basket of leaves sitting around, and that would suck if you're going to move around a lot. Then the basket goes back into the cup, and it's brewing when you close the top, doh... does that make sense? I'm kind of interested in the gong-fu thermos for this reason... it can be attached to the bottom, right? Hmm...

[beachape]

I like the zoji cup, and will probably buy it unless someone has had a bad experience, or has a better product to suggest.

tenkaichi- the gongfu thermos definitely looks cool, but I bet that thing is made with BPA. That polycarb stuff is a little suspicious. The idea really is neat where you flip it to brew and you get just the right steep. On the downside, I imagine it is pretty big. I wonder if it leaks though. Be very careful with the glass double walled thermoses I've broken two and one of them I don't even know how i broke...it just cracked.

Now I'm faced with a hot water dilemma. I can boil water with me in the morning and carry in a thermos. But I'd probably need a 34oz thermos and that would probably be pretty heavy to lug around with my books etc. I wish hot water was more easily obtainable. What do other people do? I could bring a cheap hot water pot to school to boil water then put back into my locker, but I wonder if that would be more cumbersome than carrying around a 34 oz thermos of water. Suggestions? Curious if anyone else has this dilemma and what they do.

[bennate]

I have the Joemo Stainless Steel travel mug and I love it.

http://www.coffeecakes.com/large-stainl ... l-mug.html

I use it everyday day. The tea infuser is very fine mesh, so fine that I use it for my teapot at home too. I like that the infuser is all metal too. It also keeps my tea hotter than any thermos I've ever owned. I also like how I can pour tea by pushing the button on the top. I don't drink directly from it though, as it's too hot. I bring a ceramic mug with me. I know it's risky, in terms of it breaking, but I like my tea the perfect temperature and I hate the feel/smell/taste of plastic and stainless steel.

I too have been struggling with how to make more than one cup of tea. I like the idea of bringing an electric kettle, if I could find one portable enough. I've been looking at a small stainless steel travel kettle that is only 2 cups, but it's from the UK and I'm not clear how long it would take to heat up. If anyone has experience, I'd love to hear it.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Wahl-ZX643-Trav ... B000XROF3I

One con of any kettle is that it has to cool down. I'm not sure what I'd do with the kettle after I've made my cup of tea. I don't feel like walking around with a kettle while it cools.

[tenkaichi]

True. Who knows if there's BPA... I just shied away from the plastic anyway, it didn't seem too appealing.

Don't really know how else the hot water is going to get to you unless you bring it outside (dependent on how much tea you want to drink or how long you'll be out for) or if you bring a kettle like the UtiliTea. Pro to that is that water heats to boil in less than 5 min, but cons would be cooling down and quality of water maybe? Depends where.

[virago_ns]

I use the "Aladdin Essential Infuser" travel mug every day and love it. It's BPA free and is super durable. The tea basket folds up into the lid after steeping. It also fits into the cup holder in my car which I find most of the infuser mugs I've tried don't.
The only negative things with it is the infuser basket is small, so it's not very good for large leaf teas. It doesn't let them expand and unroll fully.