TeaGo Mobile Tea Press - Opinions?

Ok, I’m trying to figure out how this actually works just by reading the description and the comments, and from what I can gather, it seems pretty awesome (some people had concerns about it not being easy to clean, although it does come apart, so maybe that takes care of that particular concern). Can you just attach it to any edge of any mug, plunge your tea down, and then un-plunge (lift up, release, whatever—this is just my floundering for words given I don’t quite understand how it works) when you’re done?
Anyway, if you do try it, I’d love to know what you think!

Well, I’ve gone ahead and ordered it and will probably report back in a couple of weeks after my next business trip. And yeah, I’m a little unclear on the plunger thing too. But I’m pretty excited about the idea of sitting in long meetings with the comfort of a cup of Laoshan Black. :)

Update 1: It arrived, and it seems like a pretty neat gizmo. I haven’t tested it yet, but I did fill the dry leaf reservoir to see how much it holds. Using American Tea Room’s Sultan’s Delight (because it has the smallest leaf of all my teas – but it’s only very slightly more dense-looking than my Laoshan Black). It held exactly 10 grams, so I’m guessing I could get 3 mugs out of it, if the mugs aren’t too big.

Hey, that’s neat. Let us know when you take it for a test-drive :)

Have you had a chance to play with this yet?

Not just yet. Business trip next Tuesday, so definitely then.

Update 2: Sitting here in a remote office drinking Laoshan Black instead of Lipton is heaven. The entire plunger is a storage container for dry leaf, so I’ve filled that and also carried some in the infuser basket itself. I think I’ll get four fresh brews out of that, so not too bad for a day trip. I don’t know that it’s much easier than filling your own tea bags for travel, and either would work fine assuming you have a place to clean out the brew basket. I don’t think the clip is terribly important, since even using a very tall mug, the brew basket still sat on the bottom when clipped on. You definitely need to use a smallish leaf – I wouldn’t use anything bigger than Laoshan Black, and I think CTCs would work just fine in this basket – it’s pretty tightly meshed. One minor downside is that unless you make a very small cup of tea, at least the bottom of the plastic part will touch the water. I don’t notice a taste difference, but it isn’t ideal. Then again, bleached tea bags aren’t ideal either.

I really love this little gadget though. I will definitely keep carrying it for day trips, and if you don’t carry tea in the brew basket itself, it makes a nice emergency stash for the purse/car/man bag (the storage part closes up pretty tightly). As a bonus, TSA was unfazed by it. :)

Update 3: Once you’ve used the plunger to squeeze water out, it definitely requires some sort of tool/swizzle stick to get the leaves out. They aren’t just going to rinse out on their own. Not a huge deal, but I can see where just taking tea bags would work better for some situations.

Update 4: Now I get it. The clip prevents the infuser from noisily rattling around in your mug as you walk back from the kitchen. Nice feature.

Thanks for all the updates! It sounds handy and useful, though not perfect—and isn’t that pretty much the case with every tea thing out there?