The last several years I have slowly changed my diet. I went from at least a soda or two a day to only occasionally when out to eww soda is gross. My main drink now is unflavored carbonated water. My second drink is tea. I didn’t used to like tea but after giving up soda, I still wanted something with flavor more than water so tea it was. I occasionally drink hot teas, but for the most part, I still prefer iced.
I’ve subscribed to Sips by to try a larger variety of teas. I then got a Bella ceramic tea kettle that has different temperature settings for different teas. The last goal was to find a tea mug I was happy with for hot and cold both. I was using just my ceramic Eeyore mug. Worked well enough. I could put tea bags right in the cup. I also use an infuser basket with screw on lid. It was really meant to go in a travel mug it came with, but I didn’t like the mug, so kept the infuser piece to use in other mugs. Also the Sips By box always comes with a muslin tea bag with some paper ones if you choose to have loose leaf teas included. So I have a bunch of those to use. All work well but I still found my biggest issue was when making iced. I’d either cold brew it which takes forever and tends to take a lot more tea for the same results. Or I’d brew up a cup, add ice. It always seemed a little off. The one item that kept popping up in my searches was the DavidsTea Travel Press. I was a bit leery of the $35 price tag. I have plenty of stainless steel mugs. Can use tea bags for loose leaf tea. Etc. So that wasn’t what sold me. What sold me was that it’s for hot and cold teas both.
It is super easy to use.
- Add your preferred tea amount in the stainless steel section of the mug (it’s designed for loose leaf, but I also use tea bags)
- Add water to the lower line for iced or the upper line for hot (it can be difficult to see especially as the hot water steams up the mug, so take it slow until you get the hang of it).
- Steep for the recommended or your preferred time
- With the lid open press the inner plastic wall down into place (empty for hot teas, filled with ice for iced tea).
That’s it. It’s easy to use and to clean. I have tipped it upside and shaken it around. It appears to be leakproof under most normal use situations but I probably wouldn't put it in a bag.
I will say if you only drink iced, DAVIDsTEA also makes an all plastic travel press for iced tea only. You can find that one HERE. Pros of that one: currently $24 vs the $35 of the stainless one. Cuter designs. But for me the $10 extra was worth it to be able to keep iced drinks colder longer and hot ones hot longer. I live in a warm climate, so stainless steel is best for cold drinks.
The plastic and stainless steel inner plastic walls are interchangeable so if something happens to the plastic piece, I will buy an iced one next time and use that piece with this stainless steel outer wall.
