Umbrella Tea Strainer with Saucer, Rotating Porcelain Loose Leaf Filter

A porcelain tea strainer shaped like a small open umbrella turned upside down, with a gold-tone crook handle and a red tassel standing up from the middle. You fill the bowl with loose leaves, set it on your cup and pour the hot water through, and afterwards it goes back into its own matching saucer instead of dripping across the counter.

No leaves floating in your tea. No wet metal ball left in the sink. No paper bag between you and a good loose leaf. Just leaves, water and a cup.

Most strainers end up hidden in a drawer

You already know how a tea strainer works, and you know where most of them live: a mesh basket or a hinged steel ball rattling at the back of a kitchen drawer, fished out only when someone wants loose leaf tea and put away again still damp. It does the job and nobody ever wants to look at it.

This one stays on the table. The floor of the porcelain bowl is pierced with tiny holes that let the tea through and keep even fine leaves and crumbs behind, so the tea runs through porcelain on its way into your cup rather than through a metal mesh. The eight pointed tips around the rim and the little crook handle make it look exactly like an umbrella, and the strainer turns a full 360 degrees.

On the cup, then back in its saucer

It sits over cups, mugs and teapots from 2.5 to 4 inches across, so it works on an everyday coffee mug as well as on a glass pitcher or a small gongfu teapot. Spoon in the leaves, pour the water over them, and let it run through into the cup below.

When the tea is ready, lift the strainer off by the crook and stand it back in the saucer, where the last drips land in porcelain rather than on the tablecloth. Rinse the leaves out under the tap and it is ready for the next pot. Any loose leaf tea works in it, and so do herbal blends.

Blue floral or red peony

Both designs are the same shape and size on white porcelain. Blue Floral is the classic blue-and-white look: cobalt flowers around the inside of the bowl, a deep navy band on the saucer and a small butterfly on each piece. It sits comfortably beside plain white cups, a dark wood tea tray or a stone counter.

Red Peony is brighter, with large coral-red peony flowers and blue scrolling vines on both the strainer and the saucer, and it brings a warm spot of color to a breakfast table or a pale kitchen. Either way, it is the kind of tea strainer you leave out on the tray, because it looks better there than it ever did in the drawer.

Specifications

Type: Loose leaf tea strainer with saucer

Material: Glazed porcelain, with a gold-tone metal handle and a tassel

Designs: Blue Floral (cobalt blue flowers on white), Red Peony (red peonies and blue vines on white)

Shape: Upside-down umbrella bowl with eight pointed tips and a crook handle

Filter: Fine holes in the porcelain floor of the bowl

Rotation: Turns a full 360 degrees

Set dimensions: 4.6 in wide x 3.9 in tall (11.8 x 10 cm), strainer standing in its saucer

Strainer dimensions: 4.2 in wide x 3.6 in tall (10.7 x 9.2 cm)

Fits: Cups, mugs and teapots 2.5 to 4 in (6.4 to 10 cm) across

Use: Loose leaf tea and herbal blends

Package Includes

1x Umbrella Tea Strainer with Handle and Tassel

1x Matching Saucer