CLEANING:
You use a scrub brush every few days if needed. One of those yellow sponges with green scrubbies on them. The infuster does NOT hold on to flavor unless you are simply not washing it. The infuser is plastic, so if you don't actually wash it off but just run water over it, yes it will retain odor/taste. You have to have a semi abrasive action to take off whatever hangs around. Really not an issue if you aren't a completely lazy bum. Takes me about 30 seconds to run a scrubby sponge around the inside and outside and I only need to do that if I've left it sitting around for hours on end with strong tea leaves inside.

The plunger does NOT get stuck unless you are a complete weakling or have a defective product. There's suction at work once you've pushed it all the way down, so of course it won't glide up smoothly with a light tug. I probably use more strength opening a jar of jam than I do lifting the plunger.

Combine this with the warmer and you've a GREAT product. You can have tea on hand for hours and sip your mornings away.

They also sell a 2 cup and a 6 cup model. Judge how much you might drink and then pick the one that suits you best. I sometimes wish I had the 6 cup one instead, as I find that if I have that much tea on hand at my desk, it's very easy to drink and suddenly find it all gone without thinking about it. I love it.

72 of 75 found the following review helpful:

You can See!!!  May 26, 2003
By Veronica Bennett
I received this tea press as a present and I love it. It is easy to clean and easy to see the strength of the tea brewing. In the time it takes to heat the water, you can fill the basket with your favorite loose tea, take your cup and saucer from the cabinet and put some cookies on a plate. And did I say how easy it is to clean? I take my tea leaves and feed my plants with them, then I simply rinse and wash the parts.

55 of 57 found the following review helpful:

Buy the right tea!  Jul 27, 2002

I love this tea press. In fact I have a large one for company and a small one when it is just the two of us. The previous reviewer said that there were tea leaves everywhere but I think she was probably not using tea leaves but processed tea which is very small and look almost like coffee grounds. So you do need to take care that you buy the right kind of tea which is pretty easy when you know what to look for. I have had mine for a year now and have never had a problem.

As for the care of this it is easy to clean and pretty sturdy. I recommend it to anyone who likes tea.

Enjoy!

38 of 39 found the following review helpful:

plastic infuser absorbs odors and tastes from flavored tea  Feb 23, 2004

I recently purchased this pot from Amazon, and also ordered a variety of high grade specialty teas from another internet company. One of the teas was a cranberry tea, which had dried cranberries in the blend. I cleaned the infuser well after brewing the flavored tea, but found my next brew of oolong tasted like the cranberry! The plastic infuser apparently absorbs odors and tastes very easily... and these flavors are difficult to remove without long-term soaking. Overall, the pot itself works very well, but be careful if you like a variety of blends and flavors.

19 of 20 found the following review helpful:

convenient way to deal with wet tea leaves  Dec 09, 2005
By E Rice
i have a collection of 2-4 cup tea pots which i use frequently. this is the one i use the most, because it's the most convenient.

since it's microwave safe, i can heat the warming water in the teapot. i like the press action, because i don't have to worry about removing an infuser until i'm ready to wash the teapot. i don't use gunpowder tea, so i have minimal problems with bits in the pot. yes, loose tea does sometimes get stuck in the strainer, but it's not that hard to remove. the shape of the pot keeps any tea leaves from ending up in the cup.

i have put the strainer and the teapot through the dishwasher many many times over the four years i owned my original (i'm ordering a replacement--no matter how good the manufacturer, glass still breaks when dropped in the sink). all the parts look the way they did the day i opened the package.

i highly recommend this teapot.

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