Fred DEEP TEA DIVER Silicone Tea Infuser

Had some high hopes for this infuser. Its neat looking and has a nice cord, but after using it multiple times a day for the past week and a half, I find that its subpar when used with multiple types of tea.For starters, the diver alone measures roughly 2 1/4", with the cord being about 6 1/2". There are holes on the back of the "head" as well as on the front "stomach" and on his back. But my immediate response when I first unpacked it were that the holes were tiny. Moreso then I expected and i've found that its to the point that the water has a hard time penetrating the infuser. Originally I thought maybe I had it packed too tight but that wasn't the case when I packed it about half full.I then thought maybe it was the type of tea (originally using black loose leaf), but moving onto green, white and then herbal, I've noticed that its the same thing. I find myself looking at a floating infuser and you can clearly see air pockets inside. Most times I end up using the cord to try and "snap" the infuser up and down to force the air bubbles out so the water can get inside to steep. Most of the time it does work however u can imagine what a pain this is when your dealing with water that's just anywhere from 175 degrees to boiling.Another complaint is the hour-glass style design. I get that its supposed to be a diver, however after steeping, I notice that I always end up having to use a finger or the handle of a spoon to loosen up the tea leaves to get it all out and clean. Not usually an issue once it cools down but I like to make a stronger cup of tea by steeping twice and cleaning it gets to be a pain when you have to stick your finger into a hot infuser to get out hot tea leaves.Also, with regards to the strength, while some prefer to steep tea for a longer period to make a strong brew, I prefer the dual steep approach. I've found that I can fit about a teaspoon and a half in this infuser. While that's pretty good, lets be honest, not many people drink out of a tiny 8 oz tea cup anymore. My mug at work is 12 oz so making a stronger cup requires at least two brew cycles. And referring back to the paragraph above, its rather inconvenient emptying and repacking when its hot.So if a cute infuser is your thing and you don't necessarily care about strength or functionality, this might be for you. For those looking for a stronger cup of tea or even just a regular strength cup that's larger in size (over 8-10 oz), i'd suggest trying something else, such as the SS ones ive seen that will hold the leaves under the water and can hold at least two teaspoons worth.

I admit, this be the cutest tea infuser aye ever owned, but he just were'nt worth thee troubles he left in me heart. . . .Pros:* Really cute* BPA free* It sometimes holds tea and fits in a tea cupCons:* Pain to fill with loose tea. The opening in the bottom of the diver is small, and the silicone itself is very soft, so bits of tea stick to the rim of the infuser where it prevents a complete seal, and to the outside of the infuser where you can't really get them off, resulting in bits of tea floating in your beverage or worse, failure of the seal and tea all over the place.* Silicone is too thick. This causes the infuser to fail by trapping air that causes the infuser to float. When it floats, it doesn't really infuse into your hot water or it infuses so SLOWLY that your tea is cold before you even get to drink it. The only way to avoid this is to pack the infuser tight with an unnecessarily large amount of your expensive tea so as to eliminate air spaces in the infuser. Of course, if your tea expands too much, it causes the seal to fail, and we're right back to having tea all over the place.* Metal doohickey on the end of your infuser prevents you from warming tea in the microwave. Who would do that? Somebody who has been waiting 15-20 minutes for their tea to steep because their adorable infuser is floating at the top of the cup, laughing at them.* Pain to clean up. Just as air gets stuck in his noggin when you're trying to brew the tea, the tea itself gets stuck there when you're trying to clean him up.The infuser is so cute I kept it for 3 years. I tried and tried the first few weeks of those three years to come up with the right balance, or technique, or whatever to make it work; then I put it in the cupboard. It seemed too cute to just toss away so I justified keeping it as a "back up" in case my other infusers failed or broke. Today I got it down, filled it with my Jade Citrus Mint tea, and watched it float at the top of my cup, as my weak, sad tea became cold.Today I cut his tank line, exposed him to microwave radiation, and ultimately, after a moment of silence, consigned him to the depths of Jones' locker, aka, my Hefty bag.

I had great expectation for the Deep Tea Diver because I thought it was a great conversation piece that was also quite functional for a frequent looseleaf tea drinker like me. Well, package and looks were all great, but I found the opening on the bottom to be a bit too small for putting my Long Jing green tea in. Inevitably, few leaves would fall out to the counter. You need a very small teaspoon and some finesse to do so without being messy. That said, the little guy does hold his own in terms of amount of tea held. I was able to brew for a whole teapot with the guy full.Another minor issue is that when put in a cup, he doesn't stay down but floats halfway. You could sort of counteract it with the attached weight (got a nice firm mass to it for a little thing), but I wished that they had put some weight on the bottom cover or something.My suggestion: Make the opening slightly bigger, put air holes on the top (to help sink), and weight the bottom.*UPDATE in 2018*Still holding up though I use this infrequently. I've found some of my authentic green tea leaves come long so they don't all fit well here. Therefore, this is really for looseleaf tea that can be spooned onto a teaspoon. Also, when done, it's a bit of a pain to get wet leaves out of this guy as the grooves make it difficult.My new suggestion:Make it taller/bigger with smooth inside cavity, and make the guy weighted on the bottom.