The Best Tea Infusers of 2024

Full disclosure: I’ve used the Harold Import Co. tea infuser for years in my own life. I’ve always had a pleasant time using it—it’s small enough to fit any mug and it disperses tea quickly and evenly throughout. (One minor hitch: If even a small leaf gets between the two halves of the ball, others can sneak out.) But I was still curious to see how it would stand up to the other tea infusers we tested.

Mine has looked a little worse for the wear for as long as I can remember—its delicate stainless steel mesh denting from what I thought was too many washings. But after just two uses of the new one I used for testing, the fine mesh was already slightly dented. It doesn’t impede performance as far as steeping goes, but it’s a bit disappointing.

That said, it’s a solid choice for anyone looking for a simple tea infuser that’s a breeze to clean. Simply squeeze to open the hinge and watch all the leaves fall into the garbage. Just be careful with the scrubbing.

I was immediately intrigued by the functionality of the OXO Good Grips tea infuser, twisting the end of the handle and watching the ball open and close with a satisfying heft. In practice, however, this proved to be the most frustrating part of the experience.

This is not to say the twisting itself doesn’t work—it certainly does—but the movement actually traps tea leaves between its two halves, making cleaning a pain. This design also made this infuser the only one that actually let whole leaves escape, likely from being caught in between the mini cups while they were in the open position. During one test, enough leaves floated to the top that I stopped drinking it altogether.

That being said, if you’re especially thorough with your cleaning, this may not be a bad choice. I enjoyed how little space it occupied in the mug, and, since I have a tendency to leave my tea steeping as I drink, the fact that I could still sip easily around it. Also, for all its moving parts, it felt sturdy and well-made.

My favorite part of the Chefast tea infuser—sold with either two smaller or one larger infusers in a set—was the combo scoop/bag clip that came included. While not a part of any testing criteria, that scoop came in handy throughout testing for scooping tea into all of our infusers, and was the single-most talked about piece from colleagues passing by, even while sharing the company of silicone dinosaurs and manatees.

That being said, I was less excited to use the Chefast infuser itself. I tested using a big mug, so I opted for the large infuser. While it held a good amount of tea and kept leaves from getting into the water, it took a while (and plenty of dipping it up and down on my end) to get it to steep enough.

In terms of design, the chain coming from the lid was about double the length it needed to be, rendering the hook at the other end useless. And clicking the lid into the infuser basket didn’t feel as sturdy as I’d hope, making me wonder how durable this would be over many uses.

Sold separately, I’d purchase the bag clip scoop in an instant. But as a tea infuser alone? There are better ones out there.

The Forlife tea infuser was one of the more frustrating to use. Unlike the Yoassi (and most other similar-looking tea infusers on the market), the Forlife infuser only has one arm to hold it atop the mug, leaving you to balance a much thinner lip on the other side. Move it just so and that side falls into the water. While it never let any leaves escape, it seemed like such an unnecessary problem to have. I even tried it in a smaller mug, but at that point, it stood too tall to fit properly.

On the plus side, when the infuser is balancing properly, it works well to disperse tea throughout and contain leaves—and it comes with a dish to catch drips upon removal. It’s also large enough to fit a sponge into fairly easily for cleaning (even if leaves did get more stuck in the holes than I would’ve liked). But for being the most expensive tea infuser we tested, it was a let down.