Making a Mesh Tea Ball
Datetime:2013-07-04 Hits:
Usually made of metal or plastic, tea balls are containers that hold loose tea leaves steeped in hot water. A common container has open spaces throughout (much like a strainer) and is ball-like in shape. You can normally open up a tea ball like this with a center clasping mechanism. This allows the user to fill it with fresh tea leaves, and then close it up prior to immersing it in hot water. Mesh tea balls can be made of any woven fabric with screened pours.
1
Cut a 4-inch square piece out of woven fabric, such as muslin or flour-sack cloth. Use cloth that has not been previously dyed, if possible. Lay it on a clean surface and flatten it out. Then, cut a 5- to 6-inch piece of clean twine.
2
Place loose tea leaves on the center portion of the fabric square.
3
Pick up each corner of the cloth and bring them up above the center part. Gather the corners and the outer perimeter parts of the fabric to form a tiny sack.
4
Tie the twine securely around the top of the sack. Make sure it is tight so all of the tea leaves remain inside.
5
Put the tea ball into a cup of hot water. Allow it to steep for at least 5 minutes, then pull the twine to remove it from the cup.
6
Untie the twine and remove the tea leaves from the fabric before reusing the tea ball. Thoroughly wash out the cloth before adding more leaves.
