Customer Reviews

Glass Tea Cup Thermos - 12 ounce

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Whenever I evaluate items, especially food-ware like tea pots, I am very focused on how easy it is to maintain them. The glass tea thermos comes with three main components - 1 double-walled glass thermos bottle, one
metal strainer, and 1 plastic cap covered with some shiny metal finish on the outside. For those that are comparison shopping, I chose this item because I only make tea for myself and hate over brewed or cold tea I can't finish in time, and I wanted to avoid plastic bottles because of concerns with hot food in plastic as much as possible (yeah, I know the cap is plastic but it's not necessarily in contact with the hot water if you don't fill it up all the way).

The bottle has a good weight to it and seems sturdy for a glass container. Though the opening is too narrow to put your hand in it, it is glass so it shouldn't be too difficult to keep clean if you have the right cleaning tool. It is big enough to squeeze a sponge through it, so I've been doing that.

The metal strainer has a little handle that you can tilt to get it out of the way or so that you can pull on it to take it out of the bottle (just imagine the handle on a shopping basket). The strainer can snap into place in the bottle so that it won't fall out when you're drinking from it or pouring tea out of it. Cleaning it is tough, however. It's small and has little bends and the edge of it is a little sharp on the sides because it's a thin piece of metal. It's sturdy, however, but it's impossible keep the tea stains off with a sponge. I've been using cotton swabs and it's working for now.

The plastic cap also appears to be of good quality construction and, for better or worse, it screws on without too many turns. I did a simple test of putting the cap on and turning the thermos sideways and upside down and no water leaked out, but it is a glass thermos so I wouldn't recommend being too rough with it. Cleaning it thoroughly also required a cotton swab because of the cap's leak resistant design. However, I expect that it will be easier to keep clean than the strainer since it's doesn't come in contact with the tea as much. If you want to try to visualize it, it reminds me of a screw-on cap (like a cap on a jar, but taller) with the leak resistant plug on a coffee thermos.

Now here's the kicker that might turn you men off from the thermos. The one I received does not have that picture of the bamboo stalks on it. Instead, I got one that has a picture of a flower pot with flowers, an opened book in the center of the design, some fence thing in the background, and some small Chinese characters on the side. I found the bamboo stalks elegant, but the flower pot thing more on the pretty side. Since it's just a tea thermos, I was okay with it (I'm male in case you were wondering), but it was disappointing since it wasn't what I had expected. FYI, I bought mine directly from the Summit Tea Company website since they sold a variety of green teas on there and charged me only one flat rate for shipping all 4 of the items I had ordered. I contacted them about the picture so maybe the image has changed by the time you read my review, but just thought I let you know.

Overall, a solidly constructed product with some cleaning hassles (though, what tea/coffee product doesn't?), and not necessarily the same picture as the exact item.

I wasn't looking for a tea thermos, particularly, since I get a coffee from the corner shop every day. Not wanting to add to landfills, I would bring my own stainless steel cup with plastic lid. As you may know, stainless steal adds a metallic flavor to the drink, and plastic adds its own set of chemicals and chemical flavoring. Now that I'm trying to watch, not only what goes into landfills, but also what goes into my body, I wanted to find a safer material to hold my "acidic" fluids.

This is the thermos I've been waiting for! I did my half hour commute, in NYC, this morning on foot, through 30 degree weather, and my coffee stayed warm! AND I was able to hold the thermos with my bare hands. The top didn't get hot, as it seemed to for other reviewers, but I could see that happening, if you fill the cup to the top with steaming liquids. I think a warm lid is worth it. I don't get that metallic taste, like when using a stainless steal cup, nor that chemical flavor when using a plastic cup. No more harmful residue in my COFFEE!

I am purchasing a small Built NY insulator bottle holder, just to protect the glass during my crazy commutes. It doesn't need it for warmth.

Stainless leaches nickel into your hot drinks - searched high and low for a glass lined travel mug but there are none to be had. This is a really great substitute - keeps the liquid hot for quite some time with the added purity of glass. I added an energy drink coozy -- perfect. I'll be buying more in the future for other uses.

When I first got this infuser, I loved it. Then, after using it a few times, I hated it. Now, after using it a few more times, I pretty much love it.

I bought it primarily for the lack of plastic parts. The thermos is glass and the filter and lid are stainless steel. The lid also has a silicon seal that sits under the lid. This seal was the reason why I hated this infuser until I understood how it functioned.

Making tea is simple:

* add loose tea in the thermos
* snap the filter into the thermos
* add hot water in the thermos
* screw the cap onto the thermos

A minor issue with the filter is that it lets fine tea leaf pieces through. Either the mesh is too porous or the space between the stainless steel filter and the glass thermos has fine gaps. Understand that the filter is not an infuser in that the tea is not placed in the filter, with the filter being removed before drinking. The filter remains in the thermos while drinking.

The big problem I had with this infuser was tea leaking from the lid while turning the thermos upside down to disperse the tea leaves. This only started to happen after making tea a few times. Finally, I realized that the silicon seal was not seated properly in the lid. The silicon seal became slightly warped and 1 of the 3 nibs used to secure the silicon seal into the lid popped out of its hole in the underside of the lid. The remedy was simple. Pop the nib on the silicon seal back into the hole in the lid.

The lid, like the thermos, therefore, is also chambered. Since i now remove the silicon seal while washing the lid, I wonder if water can become trapped inside the lid chamber and become a breeding ground for bacteria. I now make sure the lid is facing down while drying so that the water can drain out of the holes for the silicon nibs.

The thermos does not get very hot, thanks to the double-walled construction of the thermos and the lid. Watching the tea leaves disperse throughout the thermos while I turn the thermos upside down is satisfying, knowing that I am getting a well-brewed cup of tea. Some people may want to pour the tea into a lighter cup but I prefer to drink straight from the thermos.

The design of this infuser has been well-thought out by people who understand brewing a serving of tea from both a technical level and an emotional level.

While I really liked the idea of this tea glass in principle, in practice it just really didn't work for me. At all. The main problem being that unless you drink your tea REALLY fast, you are going to end up with an over-steeped cup of tea and tea leaves that need to be thrown away when they could otherwise have been used for multiple steepings. My fault I guess, for buying in the first place something that clearly leaves the tea leaves in the water while you drink, but I did try very hard to like this and find a way to make it work for me. The only useful purpose I could find for it was as a very small teapot to be used at my desk at work (steep tea in tea glass, pour into another glass when ready to drink, then re-steep leaves when I'm ready for another cup), but I ended up just buying a Bodum Yo-Yo Personal Set instead, and I'm very happy with it. I'd also say that the lid on this item didn't screw on very tightly or securely, that it was fiddly and difficult trying to wrestle the 'strainer' out of the top of the jar, and a bit of a pain to clean. This has the potential to be a great item and I know a lot of people are happy with theirs, but I think it could do with quite a lot in the way of design improvements to make it better.

I just got this mug, and I love it! It keeps tea warm for a lot longer than a standard open top coffee mug, but should be easier to clean than those insulated steel mugs, which which develop some wierd off-flavors with use (e.g. use for coffee once, and end up with coffee-flavored tea for weeks). I recommend this product.

I purchased two of these and they are great. If you are a serious tea drinker, this is the product for you !!

We use these glasses to infuse seaweed in distilled water. A dash of seaweed in the bottom, pop in the strainer, top with distilled water, and you have "pond water" - a refreshing and nourishing beverage! We refill with water once or twice before discarding the seaweed (into the dog's dinner) and washing the glass & strainer. We don't use the lid, but it is metal with a plastic (silicone?) gasket... Perhaps that would be troublesome for some uses/preferences. We like the fact that only glass & stainless steel touches the infusion, and that we don't have to "brew" the infusion in batches and then store it before consuming; we also like the ability to reuse the seaweed several times.