When brewing tea, one question that is not often thought about is the method by which tea is strained. Enough so that people who use tea bags for brewing tea may not even think about it as something that needs to be done. But even less thought about might be "what makes a good strainer?".🧐
Coffee people use filters, but that assumes the tea leaves don't get re-used, like teas from the Tea Tavern. 🤨 Tea bags are often made of a paper or fabric to wrap the tea, but the tea tavern sells loose leaf tea. 🤔 People sometimes get uncomfortable with plastic strainers, because the extreme temperatures they get put in makes them more fragile or leech plastics easier. 😰 If you are doing Gong Fu Cha, then your gaiwan or tea pot might strain a little, but it is common for some leaves to get through. 😱 The Tea Tavern has even had some patrons who worry about the rusting or taste of metals, when using metals strainers. 😵💫
Then, one day, the tea tavern's resident octopus introduced the tavern keeper to this strainer shelled species of turtle! 🐢 The tavern's friendly cephalopod provided the keeper with an introduction, in which the turtles showed off their trade: Straining tea with Yixing Zisha Clay. As purveyors of tea, the turtles mold a strainer out of clay to match the top side of their fine shells, adjust it to sit well on top of most sizes of tea cups. This allows the turtle to use the top, outer shell as a strainer for tea. 🍵
The Strainer Shelled Turtle were pleased to be of assistance to the Tea Tavern, and wanted to mention: "Should you be in need of assistance, I would love to make your acquaintance." 🐢 🎩
