Well, what is it exactly?  It looks like a cross between a fat marker and a syringe, but no, it’s a tea infuser that holds several infusions worth of loose leaf tea.  Cat bought me this unique looking tea infuser this past week from Tovolo (http://tovolo.com/prod/tea/teago.htm).  First, you load the tea into the basket and infuse the tea.  Then, you depress the end pushing all the liquor out of the infuser into the cup.  Once, you have most of the liquid out you can cap the end so there’s no mess.  All in all, it’s almost as convenient as a tea bag, but with loose leaf tea instead.

I was a little concerned that the infuser would not contain the liquid remaining in the infuser very well, but even when I inverted the infuser it did not leak.  The only other trick is getting your tea in and out of the infuser basket, which is very narrow, but this is a common issue I see with most infusers.

Cat also notes that the packaging is excessive for such a small product.  Otherwise, a very interesting and well thought out design.

Cat and I just received an new electric tea kettle from Capresso. We had been looking a glass kettle so we could catch the water just short of a boil for those green and white teas that suffer from steeping in 100 degree C water. My mom saw this kettle at her favorite tea shop in Kansas City, MO and shipped one out after rave reviews from the proprietor.

It is a very slick design. You can see the bubbles start to form on the chrome element so you can better guess when the water is just right for your that delicate white peony.