Tea strainer
A small mesh strainer held over the cup while pouring, catching leaf that has been brewing free in the pot. It is the traditional western answer and the correct one for gongfu too, where the leaf must be free to move rather than confined to a basket.
Identity
- Category
- Filter or infuser
- Also called
- pour-over strainer, mesh strainer
- Material
- Stainless steel mesh; sometimes with a ceramic or wooden holder
- Skill level
- Beginner
Porosity
Not porous. It contributes nothing of its own to the liquor, so it can be moved between teas freely and washed with detergent without consequence.
Where it comes from
Universal.
Named here rather than presented as generic equipment. The object belongs to a practice, and TeaHQ describes it from the outside.
If you do not own one
A gaiwan lid or a pot’s own integral filter usually suffices; a strainer catches what they miss, particularly with broken leaf.
This one is not marked essential. The tea can be made without it.
Brewing methods it is used for
- Gongfu brewing (gaiwan) — A high-leaf, low-volume, many-infusions approach: a great deal of leaf in a small vessel, steeped for seconds at a time and poured off completely, repeatedly.
- Western brewing (teapot or mug) — A small amount of leaf in a large volume of water, steeped once for a few minutes and then strained off. The approach most English-speaking drinkers already know, and the one most teas sold in the West are made for.
Care and maintenance
Rinse promptly. Fine mesh clogs with leaf dust if left to dry.
Other filter or infusers
Sources
This page is TeaHQ synthesis. No external source stands behind the description, the material or the account of how the object is cared for. Where the record names a tradition, that attribution is TeaHQ’s own reading of common practice rather than a citation.
TeaHQ names no maker, brand or shop and has nothing to sell. Nothing on this page should be read as advice to buy the object — the substitute note above exists because owning it is usually optional.
Written comparisons
Where TeaHQ has set this piece of teaware against something it is routinely confused with, and argued the differences out in full.
- Basket infuser vs strainer vs fill-your-own filter bag — Three ways of keeping leaf out of the cup, and they differ on the one variable that decides how strong the tea gets: how much room the leaf has while it steeps. A confined leaf cannot circulate, and most of its surface never meets water.
- Tea sock vs mesh strainer — A cloth filter bag on a wire hoop against a metal mesh held over a cup. Both separate leaf from liquor and the cloth does something else besides: it is used to pour the brew through repeatedly, which is the technique behind Hong Kong milk tea’s smoothness.