The Best Tea Accessories
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Tea is the world's most popular beverage. Well, after water. Whether you like to brew from a bag or only sip rare yellow tea smuggled out of China by yak, there's something for everyone. However, if you're new to drinking tea, the different gadgets and styles can be overwhelming. To get you started, we put together a roundup of some of the tools and teas you might want to try on your journey to finding the perfect cup.
Be sure check out our other beverage buying guides, including the Best Espresso Machines, Best Cold-Brew Coffee Makers, and as well as gift ideas for your amateur bartender friends.
Updated September 2023: We've added a new tea pot, go-anywhere matcha packets, and updated prices and links throughout.
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- Photograph: Fellow
The Best Kettle
Fellow Stagg EKG Electric KettleOur favorite gooseneck kettle for brewing coffee is also our favorite kettle for brewing tea. Fellow's stainless steel electric kettle lets you dial in the target temperature to the precise degree, so you can set it to stop heating—and hold—the water inside at the exact temperature you need. Use it to make delicate green tea (175 degrees Fahrenheit), the best-tasting oolong (195 degrees) or perfect black and herbal teas (212 degrees). The thin, curvy neck gives you a controlled and accurate pour with no mess.
We love this pricey pick, but if you don't want to spend that much we're also big fans of Cosori's electric glass kettle, which is a much more approachable $40. See our Guide to Electric Kettles for even more options.
- Photograph: Oxo
The Best Tea Infuser
Oxo Tea Infuser BasketOXO's tea infuser basket is our favorite way to brew loose leaf tea. It's made of durable stainless steel that won't impart any flavor during the brewing process, and the hole pattern does a good job of keeping out most small particles. Our favorite part, though, is the lid. It helps retain heat while you're brewing, but also serves as a drip tray when you're done. Alternatively, you may be civilized enough to have a saucer, in which case congrats. But we still love this thing's drip tray.
- Photograph: Amazon
For Iced Tea Lovers
Hario Cold Brew Tea PotThis simple and inexpensive glass flask is our favorite gadget for making strong iced tea. Drop in 8 to 10 grams of loose leaf tea (or two tea bags), fill it with room temperature water, snap in the cap, then pop it in the fridge overnight. (Twelve to 18 hours is best.) The tea will steep gently in the cold water, and the next morning, you'll have one liter of excellent chilled tea to get you through the day. There's a metal mesh filter in the cap that keeps all of the leaves in the bottle when you pour. It's super easy to clean, too. Give it a quick rinse and brew another batch.
- Photograph: Hydro Flask
For Extended Hotness
Hydro Flask 32-Ounce Wide Mouth Vacuum FlaskI (Michael) use this vacuum flask to keep freshly brewed tea hot all afternoon. The company claims its double-walled vacuum insulation keeps hot drinks hot for 12 hours, and in my testing, I've found that the tea brewed directly in the Hydro Flask is still hot enough to burn my lips after four or five hours. Of course, you can also use this bottle to brew fresh cups of tea individually. Just fill the Hydro Flask with piping hot water, then pour out one cup at a time onto your waiting leaves or teabag. It's an essential bit of equipment for anyone who drinks their tea at the office or on the move, but don't forget to check out our guide to the best travel mugs for other options.
- Photograph: Amazon
For Making One Mug at a Time
Grosche Tea SteeperThis is a fun, innovative design for a tea kettle. Pour in your loose leaf tea and hot water like a normal kettle. But when it comes time to serve a cup, don't tip it to pour out the tea. Instead, rest the kettle directly on top of your mug. The weight of the kettle opens a spring-loaded valve in the bottom, and hot tea flows out. To stop the flow, just lift the kettle and the valve springs shut. There are many designs like this, but we like this one because of the good price, quality build, and cute shape.
- Photograph: Hario
A Glass Pot for Two
Hario ChaCha Kyusu Tea PotThe word “kyusu” normally refers to the side-handled earthenware Japanese tea pots used to brew and serve green tea in formal settings. Here, the word is used more playfully. Hario's cute little kyusu has a short, snub-nosed spout and a generous loop handle. It's made of the same strong, heatproof glass as Hario's other coffee and tea products, so it's more durable than it looks. The mesh strainer basket where you put your loose tea leaves is removable, so when you see your tea has steeped long enough to reach your desired level of robustness, you can pull the basket out. The metal lip of the basket feels a bit hot on the fingertips, but it doesn't get hot enough to burn. The kyusu comes in three sizes: 300, 450, and 700 milliliters. The biggest one makes tea for two. If you're sipping solo, get the midsize 450-ml pot; it makes just enough tea to fill a standard coffee mug.
- Photograph: Umami Mart
For Making Matcha
Kotobuki Matcha Tea Whisk (Chasen)To make a proper cup of matcha, the delicate powdered green tea from Japan, you'll need one of these. It's a bamboo whisk for combining the matcha powder with hot water, then whipping it into a froth to bring out all of its bright, grassy notes. This whisk (called a chasen in matcha-speak) is sold by Umami Mart, a locally owned business in Oakland, California, that specializes in Japanese products for the kitchen and bar.
- Photograph: The Tea Spot
A Brewer And Mug Combo
The Tea Spot Mountain Tea TumblerThe Mountain Tea tumbler is an insulated 16-ounce thermos with a brewer basket that fits down into the top of it. Put your loose-leaf tea in the basket, secure the lid, drop it in the thermos, and pour water over the top. Put the lid on, let it steep for your preferred amount of time, pull the basket out, and you're good to go. If you're drinking bagged tea, you can skip the brewing basket and just drop your tea bag in (no tea snobbery here, I drink both).
Tea Spot claims the double-walled design will keep your tea hot for six hours. That's not as impressive as the HydroFlask above, but honestly, I don't think I've ever had a 16-ounce cup of tea last me more than an hour. The only thing you can't do with the Mountain Tea tumbler is put it in the microwave, but with six hours of hot tea, you probably wouldn't need to anyway. If you want a slightly larger brewer, there's also the Everest Tea Tumbler ($33), which doesn't have the sipping lid but is larger at 22 ounces.
- Photograph: Cuzen
For Iced Matcha Lovers
Cuzen Matcha Matcha Maker Starter KitMatcha is most commonly consumed hot. But cold matcha is also delicious, in matcha smoothies, iced hibiscus matcha, matcha overnight oats, and iced almond-matcha lattes. The Cuzen makes cold (more accurately, room temperature) matcha from freshly ground leaves in just a few minutes. Remove the machine's bamboo lid to access the hopper where you pour in dried tencha leaves sold by the company. (Tencha is the name of the tea leaf that's ground up to make powdered matcha.) Press a button, and the leaves are pulverized by an integrated grinder. The fresh matcha powder falls into the small plastic cup, which you've filled with water. A magnetic system beneath the cup spins a small plastic whisk at the bottom of the cup to fully integrate the powder with the cold water.
The tencha sachets come in different sizes—the 20-gram pack makes about 20 cups and the 60-gram packet makes about 60 cups—both of which are available by subscription or a la carte. If you love cold matcha and drink it daily, this machine is for you. If you don't like cold matcha, then it's decidedly not for you; It costs $369 and is not designed to make hot matcha. You could just use the machine's grinder to make matcha powder, then prepare matcha the regular way. But hot tea people are better off sticking to the kettle and the whisk. Just get the Cuzen for that person in your life who can't properly recover from a Glo yoga class without their iced matcha latte.
- Photograph: Amazon
For Matcha Everywhere
Aiya Matcha To Go Single Serve PacksYou just woke up in Lisbon. It's 7 am, and the pastelaria in the hotel lobby only sells espresso. What's a green tea fiend to do? Aiya's packets make it easy for matcha devotees to travel with their daily fix. Each skinny packet contains 4 grams of ceremonial grade matcha that can be used to make hot and cold drinks. For hot matcha, pour the packet into six ounces of hot water, then stir it with a spoon or froth it with a whisk. For cold matcha, pour the powder into a bottle of water, then shake it vigorously to mix the drink and work up a head of foam.
The taste is pretty good—not as good as what you make with your home rig using your top-shelf tea, but good enough and far less involved or messy than preparing it the traditional way, especially when you're in a passenger seat or on a plane. And while there are many to-go matcha satchets to choose from, we've found Aiya's to be the best-tasting. Just know there's some non-GMO corn starch mixed into the tea particles; it doesn't alter the taste of the matcha at all (it's there to keep the powder from clumping) but some people will want to avoid it for that reason. More tea for you then.
- Photograph: The Tea Spot
A Tea Subscription
The Tea Spot SamplerIf you're new to the world of tea, there's no better way to find your favorite than to try out a wide variety. If you don't live near a good tea shop, fear not! There are plenty of online subscription services. The Tea Spot is one of our favorites. The monthly box subscription features three different seasonally-appropriate samples (with roughly 5 servings per sample), plus one single-serving sample. There are also educational postcards with information about where the tea is from, along with the occasional bit of bonus swag.
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