Bocha Tea Infuser Review & How I Brew My Tea

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By now you guys have probably seen my tea post on Instagram. I recently purchased 6 different loose leaf teas and a sampler pack from Adagio and have already brewed 5 of the flavors. To say I’m addicted to tea is an understatement! I don’t discriminate when it comes to tea. I’ll drink a cup of hot tea in the middle of Houston’s blazing summer. I. DO. NOT. CARE. Lol, I’ll occasionally drink iced tea, but hot tea is my preference. Boy, has the Bocha Tea Infuser changed my world! 

What’s a Bocha Tea Infuser?

Anyway, I prefer to brew loose leaf tea sans bag. In order to brew loose leaf tea without a bag, you need some type of device that will allow the tea leaves to unfurl and to also strain the tea when you are ready to drink it. I started brewing loose leaf tea over a year ago and bought my first tea maker from Adagio. It worked beautifully in the beginning, but after a few months of my  2-3 daily cups ritual, the tea maker’s strainer began to leak onto the counter. The tea maker worked by placing the maker on top of your mug and, for lack of a technical term, the maker would “pee” into the mug. LOL, Well after several months of use the tea maker would, umm, develop incontinence and leak onto the countertops without the mug being underneath the maker. Well, I learned to just place a napkin under the maker after I had made my cup of tea.

The tea maker bit the dust a few weeks ago, the strainer broke and I couldn’t fix it so I decided to head over to Amazon and look at different brands of tea makers. Behold, the Bocha Tea Infuser and I “caught eyes for a moment and that was that.” *LL Cool J voice* (Please tell me you guys know what song that is from?!) I read the reviews, as per usual, decided I would give it a try because hey, you can’t beat the allure of a $17 tea maker! Since I have Amazon Prime I don’t have to wait very long for shipping! So two days later the Bocha Tea Infuser (this is not a sponsored post) arrived at my premises. There wasn’t any major setup involved. I only needed to remove the piece of paper from the inside of the maker, rinse it with hot, soapy water and proceeded to make my first cup of tea. I Snapchatted the demonstration of the Bocha Tea Infuser and showcased my Adagio tea. Here’s the video:

My Steps to the Perfect Cuppa Tea

I will tell you guys how I brew my tea since there is an art to brewing tea; I spent a few days researching how to properly brew tea when I first started drinking loose leaf.

1. Know what kind of tea you are brewing. Is it black, white, green, oolong, pu-erh, herbal, etc.? This is EXTREMELY important because you need to use the proper temperature for each variety of tea.
2. After you have figured out which variety of tea you are going to brew you need to set the temperature on your kettle or grab a thermometer if you don’t have a programmable electric kettle. Yep, it’s that serious! LOL, You do not want to scorch your tea or it will release too many tannins (the astringent, bitter flavor that you can sometimes taste in tea.) *Tip – The darker the tea (read: the more it has been oxidized) the more tannins it will release when it is brewed.
3. You need to measure your loose leaf tea and place it into the Bocha Tea Infuser. Rule of thumb is to use 1 teaspoon of tea for every cup, but I generally use 1 ½ – 2 teaspoons of tea because I like a stronger cup. Now, here is the optional step, if you would like to sweeten your tea as it brews add your sugar now! I’m not sure what it is but I love to add my sugar as the tea brews. I userock sugar, about 2-4 pieces, depending on how sweet I want my tea. I buy my rock sugar from an Asian grocery store, but you can also purchase some from Teavana or Adagio. I’ve used all three and they taste about the same, but the rock sugar from the Asian store is much cheaper. You can use granulated sugar, but it doesn’t provide that “clean” touch of sweetness that rock sugar provides. That’s the best way I can explain the flavor that it adds. You don’t ever want to overpower your tea with sweetness.
4. By now your water should be at the appropriate temperature so you should open the lid of the infuser and add your water. If you don’t have a programmable electric kettle, but have a stovetop tea kettle, go ahead and bring your water to a boil and then remove it from the stove. Add 1 ice cube at a time to drop the temperature while you have a thermometer inside the kettle to check the temperature. After you have added the water to the infuser SET YOUR TIMER! Over-steeped tea isn’t anything to write home about. Look at this chart for the proper brew times.

5. Once your timer has gone off you should press the red button on the Bocha Tea Infuser to release the tea through the filter into the bottom compartment/pitcher portion. *Tip – Before you pour your tea into your coffee mug take some of the hot water from the kettle and pour a little into your mug to warm it up; leave the water in the mug for 10 seconds and then pour it out. Proceed to add your tea into the warm mug. This will keep your tea warm for a longer period of time. If you would like to add a fresh squeeze of lemon or raw honey (if you didn’t already sweeten it with rock sugar) you can add it to the cup of tea now.

Re-Steep Those Leaves!

I know that may sound like a lot to prepare 1 cup of tea, but it is worth it and it will make you wonder why you waited so long to try loose leaf tea! Once you’ve made tea this way at least once or twice you will be able to make a cup of tea in the same amount of time it takes to make a cup using a tea bag, roughly 3-5 minutes. Here’s one more useful tip that many people do not know! Unlike tea from a bag, loose leaf tea is whole leaves that have been rolled tightly instead of being cut into small pieces, which means you can brew the same leaves more than once. I wouldn’t suggest brewing white tea more than once because the flavor is so delicate the first brew. Oolongs are excellent for being brewed for 2-4 infusions! I’ve also had success brewing green, black, and herbal teas for 2 infusions. So remember to get more uses out of your tea! However, I don’t recommend brewing the leaves again if they have been wet for more than 12-24 hours. Bacteria can grow on the leaves…don’t want you guys getting sick.

Anyway, let’s get back to the Bocha. There isn’t anything negative I can say about the infuser. The pitcher portion is made out of glass; the filter portion is made out of plastic. The actual filter is removable so it can be rinsed fully to remove the microscopic particles of tea that can be trapped in the filter. As I stated in my tea brewing procedure the tea is released into the pitcher portion by pressing the red button on top of the infuser. The Bocha is relatively simple to operate and very well built. I wish the capacity was more since I was used to brewing 10-12 ounce cups of tea in my old maker. The Bocha’s capacity is 8 ounces exactly if you fill it up to the top. Other than that, there isn’t a thing I’d change.

If you are new to the world of loose leaf tea brewing I would highly suggest giving the Bocha Tea Infuser a try! Are any of you avid tea drinkers? What’s your favorite tea and tea brand? Let me know in the comments section or on social media. Please do me  a favor and follow me on Bloglovin’ and follow me on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat to stay up-to-date. Also please subscribe to my YouTube channel because I will be adding recipe and chat videos soon!