London Teapot tea infuser with lid/base in Stainless Steel

The pros: stainless steel should last, mesh reasonably fine, plenty of room for circulation, good width for almost any vessel, stack inside each other if buying more than one, can just about work as a filter in a 6-cup teapot.The cons: dodgy to suggest the bases can be used as lids as difficult to grip in that position, made worse by being almost the temperature of steam; most importantly, the mesh is folded into shape rather than formed, which means leaves can get stuck in the creases and are difficult to get out (unlike the formed basket in my Japanese Iwachu teapot); plus a bit pricy.I was torn between three or four stars, but the price and lack of functionality in regard to stuck tea leaves aren't quite eclipsed by the size, versatilty and potential longevity. Three and a half for me!

It is a good tea filter, but I was expecting it to be a bit better. I have a fairly good collection of teas from India and China and some finest teas like Darjeeling First Flush, Nilgiri Organic and some variants of Assam Black need a really fine filter to get the best result. I thought this one could have done the job to that level, but it does not. The filter is just not fine enough for the specialised teas.It is good though and ok for a large variety of teas.For the finest Darjeelings and other I still use the 10p filter that came with it and it works brilliantly.I will still recommend buying it. It is very handy and fits most cups ...

I've only used this a few times with standard loose tea leaves and it does the job very well. The mesh is very fine and although the odd bit of dust or extremely fine tea leaf escapes, there is no Great Escape of the tea leaf kind in your cup of tea. I don't know how it'd fare with fine leaf teas as I haven't used it for that but, like I say, the mesh is very fine. It fits across my mugs and cups perfectly and the saucer part is very useful both as a lid (although I don't often use it for that) and to place the infuser on when you've finished infusing and before you wash it up. Saves a puddle of tea on your worksurface! Four stars and not five only because I can't comment on its use for fine leaf teas but for me it serves its purpose perfectly.

Contrary to other reviews this does NOT strain tea dust ( see photo). The filter is fine ( see 2 orher photos) and may be as good as a stainless steel filter can be. In my judgement you would need a cloth liner to strain out dust. Size is covered elsewhere. Worthy of mention is the cute tea pot design of the top rim ( see photo). I recommend this because its an excellent design and the next best thing to a muslin filter. I also think it offers a preferable alternative to cafetierres - glass breaks & stainless steel scratches, letting the underlying heavy metals leech into your drink.

While a little dust does come through this infuser when I am using fine Sainsbury's Ceylon tea, with every other tea it is perfect. It seems a little bit bendy (hence I meanly knocked off a star) but it is strong enough for its purpose and there is no wasted stainless steel resource! A very good product and worth its price. Fits every cup and mug that I have.

This infuser is a rare beast: a mesh filter in a stainless steel cup sized & shaped frame. It ought to be a 'hot' seller as the only other ones like it are plastic and, in our experience, rather tedious to keep clean thus impairing tea flavour.This infuser promises to solve this problem but sadly doesn't: The frame and mesh are too flimsy meaning that it'll not survive more than a few washing cycles. Plus a poor fitting base/lid means emptying out is somewhat of an art to practice.It just doesn't pass muster and the near £8 price tag - and non-free return at ~£3 - mean this is one to avoid sadly.:-(

Works well and looks good. The fine metal mesh means my Assam tea never finds its way into the mug. A few leaves get stuck between the well-made inside though, it stains a tea colour, but this adds to the character of the shiny metal tea-pot top.

My old nylon one wanted replacing this one is ok but a small amount of tea falls through so as long you do not drink it all its ok