PRODUCT REVIEW: Squeezmo

Product Information:

Where to Buy:  Squeezmo

Product Description:

Squeezmo™ is the modern solution to an old problem: soggy, drippy, unsightly tea bags.

Rather than allowing a mucky brown tea bag to spoil that nice saucer or throw it away after a single use, place a bag of your favorite variety in Squeezmo, press and pour the excess back into the cup.

There’s no waste and no mess. Now, one tea bag can brew multiple cups.

Product Review:

I was apprehensive about reviewing this product, mostly because I prefer to drink loose leaf tea as opposed to tea brewed from tea bags.  In addition, the flexible Squeezmo looks and feels a lot like plastic and I don’t generally like to use plastic items when brewing tea.   However, it isn’t plastic, it’s silicone.  Although to be perfectly honest, I couldn’t really tell you what the difference between silicone and plastic is (or even if there IS a difference).

Additionally, I am not particularly fond of tea gadgets, I prefer to keep it as simple as possible.  Generally, I don’t see the use of gadgetry to add to the simplicity of tea; rather, I see it as added complication.

BUT… this gadget is an exception!  Yes, despite my original misgivings about this device and my reservations about gadgets, I am finding this particular gadget – the Squeezmo – to be quite useful, helpful and enhancing to the pleasure of a simple cup of tea!  Who’dathunkit?

On the occasions when I brew tea from a teabag (I’d estimate that I brew 1 teabag every other day, with loose leaf tea filling in the rest of my daily tea consumption), I do not squeeze the teabag.  I know that tea drinkers are somewhat divided on this issue:  some choose to give their teabags a squeeze in an effort to extract all the liquid and additional flavor from the teabag, while others (and I) believe that in so doing, additional tannins are also extracted and bitterness can result.

So, even though I’ve now this nifty gadget that promotes the squeezing of the teabag, I don’t use it for that purpose.  What I do use it for is placement of the teabag after I’ve finished steeping my tea.  That’s always been a troublesome issue for me.  I can’t toss it directly into the garbage because it’s hot and it is likely to melt the trash bag … and what a mess that would be.  So, it ends up being placed on a saucer or in a bowl, making more mess in my kitchen (which really doesn’t NEED more mess).  Not to mention the mess that is made from the trail of tea drips from cup to aforementioned saucer.  Mess, mess, mess.

But this flexible, bright orange Squeezmo helps me with the mess!  I can place my hot teabag into the Squeezmo without dripping tea all over my counter and without having an unsightly teabag on a saucer or bowl.  After the teabag cools, I simply drop it into the trashcan and empty the additional tea that’s accumulated at the bottom of the Squeezmo into my teacup.

This is a no mess, no fuss kind of gadget that I don’t mind using!

Sensitive Sencha from Mhaidiva

Tea Information:

Leaf Type:  Green

Where to Buy:  Mhaidiva

About Mhaidiva:

Mhaidiva, the Lady of Tea, is the personification of everything that makes life worth living. She is the muse giving everyone who drinks her tea the gift of beauty, health, peace, harmony and creative thinking. She speaks to you in haiku, seventeen syllable poems written in three lines of 5-7-5. She shares philosophy, or lessons of life, expressed in one breath. She uses images of tea, evoking a mysterious solitude and meditative presence with romantic images of austere beauty.

Taster’s Review:

The aroma of this Sencha is quite grassy, like the air just after the lawn has been cut.  It smells fresh and green.  And this fragrance tells of the flavor of the cup – this is one of the grassier-tasting Sencha teas that I’ve tasted.

But that isn’t a bad thing.  In fact, this tea – to me – epitomizes the very base of green tea flavor.  It is light.  It is sweet.  It is crisp.  It is vegetative.  And it is good.  The sip starts with an introduction of the vegetal notes with a pleasant undertone of sweetness, and ends with a lightly drying astringency.

This Sencha is one of those teas that works well as either a hot or iced tea.  Hot – it needs nothing added.  It is pleasantly sweet and flavorful.  Iced – try adding a thin slice of your favorite citrus fruit.  It is quite refreshing without anything added, of course, but I found that the citrus fruit helps to bring out some of the distant fruit tones that are inherent in this tea.

This is one I’d recommend to the green tea enthusiasts out there who are looking for something pure and clean tasting, but with the convenience of a teabag.  This tea is a perfect departure from the typical “office teabag” while keeping things simple and convenient.  It’s a good one.