Aladdin Perfect Cup Tea Infuser 12oz, Chai

I picked this up at a Coffee & Tea Festival earlier this year in NYC. Spent $20 for it & it was the best $20 I ever spent! This is prefect for the tea lover who cannot bring themselves to use teabags, but must enjoy fresh tea leaves. The basket is big enough for whatever tea you want & the mesh is perfect for finer tea leaves. Yes, you will get the occassional tea leaf that makes its way out of the basket....deal with it. Nothing is 100% perfect....but this mug comes very close to it! I have been using mine every day for several months now & I have no problems with it. My tea stays warm for hours on end, the mesh of the basket is holding up wash after wash & there are no cracks or other issues for me to worry about. Cleaning - I soak the cap with the basket in a bowl of hot soapy water. I gently wash it with a cloth & let it air dry on the drain board being careful not to knock it or put anything on top of it. This simple little step is surely helping to prolong the life of my mug. AGain, it's used daily. Sometimes the same tea, sometimes other teas depending on my mood. I love having it at work for loose leaf tea which clearly I cannot make in a teapot. I'm sure my bosses would not like seeing me in my cubicle having a tea party! Overall, I would buy this again....in fact, I might just buy another for a spare. And I would highly recommend this mug to any tea lover in need of a way to make loose leaf tea on the go or at work. 8/27/12 Bought two more since I had the first one. Have to say, I still love it. I haven't found another that comes even close to doing the job for me. Now I can bring loose leaf tea to work & not worry about needing paper filters.

BPA free plastic, double walled, steaming hot liquid inside, slightly warm outside. On a cold day with steaming hot tea filled mug, holding this in your hands is like having a pleasant hand warmer. The infusion basket is really great and really does swing up into the lid as advertised and does an unbelievable job of brewing tea while in the down position. Even if it didn't swing down you could turn this mug upside down and let the tea infuse while the NO-LEAK lid keeps the liquid where it should be, in the mug. Other reviewers complain that the flip up access spout if hard to open and they aren't lying folks. It's impossible to open with one hand Clark Kent, and a real challenge for Super Girl with two hands. My solution? Just unscrew the lid, take a couple of sips and screw it back on. Tea stays hot in here a long time too. I brewed a mug and didn't open it to sip until over an hour later, thinking it wouldn't be steaming hot, and how would you know with the insulating properties of the double wall. It was hot just like I'd poured it from the whistling kettle and yes I burned my tongue. The plastic parts and the plastic of the mug itself is good quality right up there with Nalgene bottles. This mug is a keeper. Buy one for yourself and all your tea drinking friends.

I’ve had this traveling tea cup for a few years now. First, the construction of the cup and lid is solid. I haven’t had any issues with leaking or cracks. The tea infuser itself is strong along with the lever to move it. Unfortunately the mechanism that connects the switch lever to the basket is rather flimsy and occasionally jams. To its credit though it hasn't broke. The insulated cup keeps works great keeping your tea hot for a good amount of time. The flip lid seals very tightly and can be frustrating to open at times but has never leaked so I’d say it’s a good trade-off. Overall it’s a quality traveling cup. Pros: Good capacity Tight seals Durable Good insulation Cons: Infuser lifting mechanism sometimes jams

I now proudly own two Aladdin Perfect Cup Tea Infusers, 12oz mugs. That is I am more than a little happy. At the office, I had been using tea bags for brewing my tea and mostly Bodun made coffee presses for brewing coffee. The Tea infuser handles the one much better and, allowing for user error both can be better done in this mug. I love a good gimmick and this one comes close to its advertised perfection. In one assembly, you add your fresh coffee grounds or fresh lose tea leaves into a small mesh cup that hides up in the lid. Into the double walled plastic BPA free container you pour your hot water. There is a lever arm that pivots the cup down into the water and allows the steeping to begin. At desired strength, you move the lever and the cup is drawn back into the lid and above the level of the water. The lid does double duty as your drinking on the go drinking cup, lid. The assembly is designed to facilitate cleaning, but it can be tricky to completely empty the mesh cup and to completely clean the entire assembly. I have used the dish washer to no ill effect. What is odd is that I am better at making tea than coffee, and so far I much prefer this device for my office cuppa joe. There is no device related reason, but so far I am not getting the best tea out of this Perfect Tea Infuser. I think one part is that the small infuser cup only allows in about one table spoon of fresh grounds. This is a tad too much for tea, and allowing for reduced measures of tea, it is possible that in comparison, the retained coffee grounds do not continue to drip flavor into the coffee to the same degree as the drippings from the same infuser with tea. Good: The lid is a threaded, screw attachment to the cup -This is a Huge item for me as I have had to abandon 6-8 snap on lid type cups. The snap on lids can lose their snap and they can become leaky. The screw fitting is more reliable, should last longer and is less like to come off when the cup is older. Easy and intuitive to use You control your results You can use any fresh grounds/tea leaves you want You can ignore the mesh cup and use tea bags, or cold beverages Keeps the beverage hot enough, long enough for me. Your experience may vary Could be better: The snap cover over the drinking spout can be hard to open, often taking both hands. (while driving?) Once open the snap cover does not secure in any way. It will flop about and can leave your restraining forefinger wet. The lid on the mesh cup is held shut by a simple friction latch. This latch will fail over time. Forget that your coffee/tea is still brewing, you can get some very strong drink. Minor note: The Amazon offering was cheaper than the major mall chain stores where I got my first one. That vendor had only one color choice.

Bought 2011, Review written 2012: I've had this travel mug for around a year now, and it's amazing! It's the only one on the market (AFAIK) where you can actually retract the infuser so you don't have to have super strong tea, and you don't have to go fishing around inside the hot tea to get the bag out. The fact that the lower part is microwavable is a definite plus as well. The lid is good at keeping the heat in, I have to make sure to pop it open so it cools down, but with the lid sealed it's so water tight I have no problem throwing it into my purse or backpack along with electronics and paper. Dishwasher safe on the top rack too! (Though I recommend occasionally taking a really good scrubbing to the lid, as you can get dark stuff grimed in the corners.) After a year of use, the lever to lower the infuser isn't the smoothest, but with a little wiggling it always goes down. I dropped it on hard concrete a few weeks ago and the inside and outside parts separated, but with some really hard pushing my officemate got them to go back together - so it's not vacuum sealed now, if it ever was, but air is also a good insulator and I haven't seen any loss in the heat-storing ability. I'm going to buy a second one so I can keep one at the office and one for travel. Update 2015: I've now had this travel mug for four years (2011), and a second one that I bought in 2012. The original one in around 2014 (3 years of use) the seal between the inner and outer layers started to come apart, and the second one is doing that now in 2015 (also 3 years of use). Basically the layers are held together with a silicone ring and friction, and after around 3 years this comes apart and the two layers begin to separate. This makes one-handed use in the car difficult, as when you lift by the lid the bottom/outside part will remain behind. On both the basket action got a little stiff after a year or two of use, but still usable. Both can sometimes leak if not kept upright, but it's intermittent and in small amounts. In looking to replace this now, there still don't exist any other travel tea infusers that allow you to raise/lower the tea part. There are others that allow you to remove the tea strainer entirely, but it's not practical in a car to remove it and have it dripping all over the place. There were a few styles where you could flip the whole thing upside down or right side up to immerse the infuser, but none of those had lids that could be opened one-handed. So four years after buying my first one, I'm about to buy my third for me to replace my existing ones. Too bad I can't just replace the bottom part!

This mug has done everything I want it to do - I can microwave water to get it hot, make a great cup of tea, and keep it warm for a sufficient time. The infuser works great, and has stood up to daily use. I'm careful with it (I could see how a "ham handed" person could break it), and have had no issues at all. If I had to nitpick a negative aspect of the design, it's that the lid can be tough to open. Sure, it's spillproof, but it's hard to open. I tend to leave mine just slightly open...problem solved. For the person that wants to drink tea at work, and doesn't want to deal with the mess of a tea ball (assuming you like good, loose tea), this is the mug for you. Everyone at my job that is a tea drinker has since purchased one of these mugs after seeing mine.

I've bought several tea steeping mugs and this is, by far, the best tea infusing travel mug we've ever used. I purchased it for my SO for the holidays, and they liked it so much, I've had to order 3 more, one as a gift, and two more in the event that this one breaks. The mechanism allows you to steep tea for the correct length of time, without having to mess around with a removable steeping basket or flipping the device upside down, ensuring that just because you pour the hot water in a the start of your commute, you're not stuck with bitter over steeped tea at the end. Additionally, because it's double walled, your tea is still quite hot, even and hour or two after you've filled it. The plastic vessel is top shelf dishwasher safe, and the top portion consisting of the lid and steeping mechanism is easily washed by hand. I cannot recommend this tea mug enough.

I bought this tumbler hoping to avoid the oversteeping issue that plagued my mind during my search for the best tea tumbler out there for my morning commute. I previously bought a To Go Tumbler from Aladdin so I knew, at the very least, that the plastic would be durable considering I have a tendency to abuse my drink containers when doing errands. Like previous reviewers stating, being able to microwave my hot water in the same container as I steep my tea was a major plus. No fuss, no muss - a saying I totally agree with. The mug is also double walled so I can hold it while the water is hot and be at ease. My main issue comes from the primary reason why I even bought this product: the lid. First of all, the cover is set on way too tight. I'm pretty sure if I hold the container upside down, not a drop would spill which is great, but trying to open it while there's hot water inside is a precarious task. The only reason why I can even open the cover is by slipping my fingernails underneath it and pull whilst hoping I don't rip my nails completely off. Second, the mesh basket, which is neat and all. I can pull the side lever up and down, steep however long or short I want. However, the mesh basket, after three uses, small chunks of tea come loose and I'm sitting there staring at my drink and wondering how to drink through the tea bits. I drink a lot of rooibos and mate tea, so maybe the mesh was meant for loose leaf tea, but I'm still disappointed. Also, sometimes the mesh basket gets jammed on the side, forcing me to toggle the lever to bring the basket back up. More than once, by toggling the mesh basket loose, I've inadvertently dumped the entire of my leaves into my tea, so that's more than a little disappointing. Still, it's a decent product that does what it was advertised with a few slight bugs.

Excelente producto, muy útil y práctico. No hay necesidad de retirar el infusor, ya que cuenta con un sistema que lo eleva a la tapa para evitar que se siga infusionando el té. Sin duda, una buena compra

Je suis absolument ravie de mon achat et de son utilisation au quotidien ! Le système d'infusion est parfait pour moi qui consomme beaucoup de thé dans la journée. Vous ne pourrez plus vous en passer c'est sûr ! Petite remarque cependant : la contenance n'est pas de 600ml comme indiquée mais de 355ml

I got stuck paying full price for this because they no longer carry it in stores and its a great tea tumbler.

Best cup ever this is my second cup I was so relieved I could order another one. Was upset that I couldn't get it in blue cause the posted price for the blue one is outrageous. Real big typo error there.

Me gusta mucho porque pones directamente la hojas de te, no de bolsitas, o las ramitas de lo que quieras, a los cinco minutos levantas la tacita y ya no se sigue remojando, excelente, para no tomar te de bolsa. Lo recomiendo mucho.