Type: Object (Tea Cup)
Rating: 2/5
Not something I’d use again for its designed purpose.
I love tea. I’m not saying I’m inexperienced in drinking tea, because hey, chances are, we’ve all probably had tea for quite a long time. It was when I worked at the bookshop that I realized I really, really love tea, and when I started getting some decent income, I found that I’m someone who really loves tea to a probably unhealthy degree. Half of my boyfriend’s cupboard is all the loose tea that I’ve purchased in the past year. I’ve finished maybe four or five bags, tins, and jars of the stuff. Before I discovered loose leaf, I was the person who would yoink tea bags from hotel breakfast lounges. After I discovered loose leaf, I went to Daiso to pick up disposable do-it-yourself custom tea bags so I can have a quick and easy way to make my fancy teas at the airport (without having TSA stop me). Then it went to tea balls and tea strainers and temperature-specific tea pots and my goodness I have a problem.
Anyway. This is a pretty cool-looking tea mug. The brand here says it’s by company called Samadoyo, and it’s sold at the Wild Tea Qi store as part of their tea stuff collection. It’s made of sturdy glass, which is a huge plus, and it’s a really convenient way to steep tea perfectly. In the right circumstances, I’m sure I’d use this more often than not. Unfortunately, this time around, I don’t think I’m dazzled enough to use it daily (though it was definitely a cool thing to have at work – my coworkers have grown accustomed to my new “tea contraptions” that I bring in from time to time).
I haven’t yet tried my teas from Wild Tea Qi because this strainer combo wasn’t what I was expecting. I mean, to be fair, physics should have told me that the amount of tea this wonderful 400mL mug would hold would only be…well…less than half of the mug. Which, you know, is fine. If I wanted to do a tea tasting.
But work is stressful and horrible and I need mugs of tea at a time, and less than half a mug of perfect tea is not enough to keep me awake and relatively peaceable during the day. The best case scenario at work would be me having my boyfriend’s fancy perfect Bona Vita variable temperature kettle, my Adagio tea steeper, and my lovely Ren and Robbin in the Morning mug. But this is too much for me to carry on a 2.5 mile walk out to work. And I don’t like the idea of people touching my tea stuff. Which is why having one relatively good piece of tea steeping equipment is extremely important to my daily life.
Basically, this mug is awesome if you use it as a mug by itself, because it’s one of those cool clear glass ones and it holds a fair amount of your choice of wonderful hot beverage. But then it’s also branded, and some people might not care much for that. And in terms of tea, yes, it’ll probably be perfectly steeped, but it’s only going to be a small amount. If I want that amount small amount of tea for tasting, I’ll get a gaiwan. I do not what that small amount. I want so much tea that by half of my day I think to myself, “Huh, I did not know the human body could hold that much liquid.”
For $18.20, I think it would be better to find a different mug/infuser combo on Amazon. Most glass mugs minus the infusers are around $25-$30 for a 4-pack, so you can even have fancy tea in glass mugs with a friend or three.
robbin rates things 