I admit the mechanism amuses me. The only issue is that after a while the oils in the tea actually clog up the pores in the strainer. Some teas are worse than others but eventually it gets to the point where the last bit of tea gets trapped in the steeper. It’s a pain to clean it out and I’ve never managed to get it completely clean.
The other evening it was clogged and I had nothing better to do so I tackled it again. I began by dumping a bunch of baking soda in a bowl with water and soaking it while I did the dishes and cleaned up the kitchen. That yielded a little bit of slightly tinted water and hardly a noticeable difference to the screen. Next, I tried making a paste of baking soda and scrubbing that on with a toothbrush. After two or three rounds of that the screen was a tiny bit cleaner but even with a toothbrush, I couldn’t seem to get at the corners. A side effect was that I had little white splatters of paste all over the front of my sweatshirt. It was quite a fetching look.
Next I gave the strainer a bath in vinegar to get rid of the baking soda in the hopes that maybe the bubbles would lift some of the oils. Nope, still gooey. One of the sources suggested that washing soda is more powerful than baking soda but I didn’t have any of that so my next thought was to try dishwasher detergent. I scrubbed away with that for a while and it didn’t make much difference either. I could have just tossed the steeper and bought another one but by this point I had spent about an hour and a half and it had become a matter of principle.
At one point in my life I had a dental bridge and so I still had some Polident lying around. I wondered if that would work. More fizzing, soaking and scrubbing for very little change. Then Richard came along curious about what I was doing. When I showed him he became a man on a mission and headed for the computer. As often happens in our house, he came upon a resource that I had missed. This one suggested boiling the strainer in a mixture of baking soda and dish soap. Well, why not?
I dug out a pot and simmered the strainer for about fifteen minutes. Then I got out the toothbrush again. When I scrubbed at the strainer this time the bristles came away brown. Hmm a good sign. I scrubbed off as much as I could and then repeated the process three more times. Success! The strainer was cleaner than it had been since I bought it.
After investing about four hours I now have a nice clean strainer and, I think, if I give it the treatment every couple of months I should be able to keep it clean. Was that a waste of time? Maybe but I do feel a disproportionate sense of satisfaction at having defeated the tea stains and if any of you have a similar problem I can recommend a solution. I guess that’s worth something.
