Tea, as a beverage, was discovered in Assam in the early 19th century. Assam is.the rich, green land of rolling plains and dense forests is the gateway to the north eastern part of India. The mighty Brahmaputra river that has its origins in Tibet charts its majestic course through this state. This mystic land of eternal blue hills and beautiful rivers is renowned for its tea, rich flora and fauna. In Assam, tea is grown both in the Brahmaputra and Barak plains. Tinsukia, Dibrugarh, Sibsagar, Jorhat, Golaghat, Nagaon and Sonitpur are the districts where tea gardens are mostly found. Assam produces 51% of the tea produced in India and about 1/6th of the tea produced in the world. Almost equally reknowned, Bodum Assam 2-Cup Tea Press 1842-01GVP was originally designed for the British Tea Council and the British really take their tea seriously. Using a similar mechanism found on Bodum's popular French-Press product, the Assam gets more flavor from the tea leaves than an ordinary tea pot. The secret is in the plunger mechanism which squeezes the tea leaves down, retaining their presence at the bottom of the pot, to infuse all their properties into the hot water. There are so many teas on the market, and many are or can be blended for particular qualities. Whether you choose black, green white, herbal, or medicinal tea, the Assam teapot is the best and easiest way to get a really delicious tea. So whether you're British or not, this teapot from Bodum is personifies the best.

Brew tea without removing the infuser

32-ounce capacity

All parts are dishwasher safe

Designed for the British Tea Council

Heat resistant borosilicate glass, stainless steel lid, polycarbonate strainer and plunger

Average Customer Review: ( 97 customer reviews )
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CLEANING:
You use a scrub brush every few days if needed. One of those yellow sponges with green scrubbies on them. The infuster does NOT hold on to flavor unless you are simply not washing it. The infuser is plastic, so if you don't actually wash it off but just run water over it, yes it will retain odor/taste. You have to have a semi abrasive action to take off whatever hangs around. Really not an issue if you aren't a completely lazy bum. Takes me about 30 seconds to run a scrubby sponge around the inside and outside and I only need to do that if I've left it sitting around for hours on end with strong tea leaves inside.

The plunger does NOT get stuck unless you are a complete weakling or have a defective product. There's suction at work once you've pushed it all the way down, so of course it won't glide up smoothly with a light tug. I probably use more strength opening a jar of jam than I do lifting the plunger.

Combine this with the warmer and you've a GREAT product. You can have tea on hand for hours and sip your mornings away.

They also sell a 2 cup and a 6 cup model. Judge how much you might drink and then pick the one that suits you best. I sometimes wish I had the 6 cup one instead, as I find that if I have that much tea on hand at my desk, it's very easy to drink and suddenly find it all gone without thinking about it. I love it.

72 of 75 found the following review helpful:

You can See!!!May 26, 2003
By Veronica Bennett
I received this tea press as a present and I love it. It is easy to clean and easy to see the strength of the tea brewing. In the time it takes to heat the water, you can fill the basket with your favorite loose tea, take your cup and saucer from the cabinet and put some cookies on a plate. And did I say how easy it is to clean? I take my tea leaves and feed my plants with them, then I simply rinse and wash the parts.

55 of 57 found the following review helpful:

Buy the right tea!Jul 27, 2002

I love this tea press. In fact I have a large one for company and a small one when it is just the two of us. The previous reviewer said that there were tea leaves everywhere but I think she was probably not using tea leaves but processed tea which is very small and look almost like coffee grounds. So you do need to take care that you buy the right kind of tea which is pretty easy when you know what to look for. I have had mine for a year now and have never had a problem.

As for the care of this it is easy to clean and pretty sturdy. I recommend it to anyone who likes tea.

Enjoy!

38 of 39 found the following review helpful:

plastic infuser absorbs odors and tastes from flavored teaFeb 23, 2004

I recently purchased this pot from Amazon, and also ordered a variety of high grade specialty teas from another internet company. One of the teas was a cranberry tea, which had dried cranberries in the blend. I cleaned the infuser well after brewing the flavored tea, but found my next brew of oolong tasted like the cranberry! The plastic infuser apparently absorbs odors and tastes very easily... and these flavors are difficult to remove without long-term soaking. Overall, the pot itself works very well, but be careful if you like a variety of blends and flavors.

19 of 20 found the following review helpful:

convenient way to deal with wet tea leavesDec 09, 2005
By E Rice
i have a collection of 2-4 cup tea pots which i use frequently. this is the one i use the most, because it's the most convenient.

since it's microwave safe, i can heat the warming water in the teapot. i like the press action, because i don't have to worry about removing an infuser until i'm ready to wash the teapot. i don't use gunpowder tea, so i have minimal problems with bits in the pot. yes, loose tea does sometimes get stuck in the strainer, but it's not that hard to remove. the shape of the pot keeps any tea leaves from ending up in the cup.

i have put the strainer and the teapot through the dishwasher many many times over the four years i owned my original (i'm ordering a replacement--no matter how good the manufacturer, glass still breaks when dropped in the sink). all the parts look the way they did the day i opened the package.

i highly recommend this teapot.

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