How to clean a tea infuser

Tip the leaves out and rinse the mesh under a hot tap while it is still wet. That is five seconds and it is the entire routine. Everything below is for the infuser you left on the side for two days, which is all of us at some point.

The daily version

1. Tip the wet leaves straight into the bin or the compost. They come out cleanly while wet and weld themselves on when dry.
2. Rinse the mesh under a hot tap, inside and out.
3. Shake it dry and leave it somewhere air can reach it.

Do not leave a wet infuser sitting in a closed cupboard or at the bottom of a sink. Stainless steel does not rust in ordinary use, but wet leaf sitting against it for days is how you get spots on cheaper mesh.

The dishwasher question

Some are dishwasher safe and the makers say so. finum publishes that its Brewing Basket is dishwasher safe. FORLIFE publishes that the infuser supplied with its Curve mug is dishwasher safe, that the ceramic mug is microwave and dishwasher safe, and that the infuser must be kept out of the microwave.

The practical caveat is that a dishwasher does not reliably clear a fine mesh. High-pressure water hits one side of a basket and the far side keeps its residue. Rinse first, then let the dishwasher do the rest if you want.

When the mesh is clogged

A clogged infuser drains slowly and the water sits above the leaf instead of moving through it, which under-extracts every cup afterwards. Two things cause it: fine leaf particles wedged in the weave, and mineral scale from hard water.

For leaf residue

1. Soak in hot water with a little dish soap for fifteen to twenty minutes.
2. Work a soft brush — an old toothbrush is ideal — over both sides of the mesh.
3. Rinse from the inside out, so you push particles the way they came rather than driving them deeper.

For mineral scale

1. Soak in a dilute white vinegar solution, or a citric acid solution, for twenty to thirty minutes.
2. Brush, then rinse thoroughly — vinegar residue will absolutely taste like vinegar in your next cup.
3. If your kettle also furs up quickly, this is the same hard water and both want descaling on the same schedule.

About the brown stain

The brown or orange discolouration on well-used mesh is tea polyphenol residue. It is cosmetic. It does not clog anything, it does not affect flavor once the infuser drains freely, and chasing it with bleach is both unnecessary and a bad idea on food equipment.

If it genuinely bothers you, a bicarbonate of soda paste and a soft brush lifts most of it. A stained infuser that drains properly is a working infuser.

What not to do

• No steel wool or abrasive pads. They deform fine mesh permanently, and a deformed weave lets leaf through.
• No bleach. It is unnecessary for tea residue and awkward to rinse out of a fine mesh completely.
• Do not put a metal infuser in the microwave, even if the mug it came with is microwave safe. FORLIFE states this explicitly.
• Do not store it damp in a sealed container. That is how a clean infuser develops a musty smell.

When to replace it

When the mesh is torn or visibly deformed, or when the frame's plastic rim has cracked. Both let leaf through, and neither is fixable. A basket infuser is inexpensive enough that replacing it is the right call the moment it stops filtering, and that is a good argument for the ten-dollar option over the forty-dollar one.