Genuine Fred OCTEAPUS Octopus Tea Infuser

This is totally adorable, but not amazingly practical. Honestly, I can't help but give it 4 stars for its level of cuteness!!! Even though I have regular empty tea bags for loose leaf tea, I use this on a regular basis and I love it!!! I wanted something cute to give to my sisters for Christmas, and this fit the bill. It's great for tea with big chunks- a lot of Teavana teas work pretty well in here. However, if your tea has anything finer than the holes in the octopus, it's just going to come out into your tea. I love rooibos tea, for example, and those filaments are absolutely too fine for this type of tea infuser. I have also found that it requires more dunking than a normal bag of tea to actually distribute the flavor into the water- I'm sure this is the case with any tea infuser though. Overall, a super cute product but not for the serious tea connoisseur.

I adore this little guy! I've only had him for a few days, and thus far, I've used him dozens of times (I drink A LOT of tea every day -- at least eight 16 oz. cups, often more). He's very durable, and since it's food-grade silicone, there's no plastic-y aftertaste or any toxic chemicals getting leached into the tea. It's easy to drink one's tea while he's still sitting in the cup, too, provided that the cup or mug you're using holds 12 oz or greater and is at least 3.5" - 4" tall.My only gripe (hence my "4.5 stars out of 5, but rounding up" headline) is that the shape of his head (where the loose tea goes) is a little tedious to empty once you're ready to rinse and refill him with fresh tea. Fortunately, his head is soft and flexible, so one may "squish" it to help coax the used tea leaves out. But I imagine some of the other designs are much more straightforward and involve less hassle.A final comment: I've seen that some tea infusers marketed as "food-grade silicone" sometimes come with steel inserts, which aren't always clearly visible in pictures provided by the manufacturer. In my opinion, steel inserts entirely defeat the purpose of using food-grade silicone. Most of us who wanted to transition or already have transitioned to silicone tea infusers do/did so because steel rusts -- yes, even so-called "stainless" -- and rust is definitely not something anyone wants to ingest! The Octeapus doesn't come with any steel inserts or other bits. He's entirely metal-free!

A solid little infuser. As others have noted, some leaves will come through with this strainer. It's not bad at all, though...I regularly see more escapees with those teapots with the strainers built in than with this. You can't make much tea at once (10-12 OZ max, based on how your cup is made) but that's good because that's about how much strong tea you could brew with the amount of leaves that fit in this guy. I recommend two or three swirls around the cup during brewing with it to fully disperse the brew before you take it out of the tea. The hilt/cap will stay on as long as you don't stir too hard and don't overfill (no more than halfway up the blade for black tea, probably less if you have one with leaves that tend to expand a bit more).

To be honest, I absolutely NEVER used this for tea. I had it in a donation pile and in a moment of desperation I gave it to my baby during a particularly fussy teething moment. I just purchased another one. It freezes, it has a firm AND a squishy mitten. It has a silicone cord that he regularly uses to hit that especially painful gum area. BETTER THAN YOUR AVERAGE TEETHER.

This is a really cute little tea infuser. It works great once you get it filled, and that is where the problem lies. It fills from the neck and the opening is not very large. Filling it can be a messy proposition. If you are using strictly loose leaf tea, you will have an easier time of it. Teas that have flowers, fruit pieces etc., can be really hard to get in that little opening. The head isn't overly large, but does hold a normal amount of tea and the head attaches firmly to the body. He is a little hard to clean for the same reason he is hard to fill, but once you get the old tea out the silicone will clean up like new. He hangs real well in my travel cup and despite his flaws I still use him regularly.

I knew what I was getting when I bought this due to the reviews. So I know it is not the easiest to clean and the size of the holes lets out some small tea leaves and I am submerging plastic into the boiling water I am about to consume. But it is a sword! It brings a smile to my fantasy story loving face when I use it. I am impressed that the lid/sword handle stays on firmly. Ideally it would be made of metal and fine mesh, be longer so it sits higher out of my big mugs and perhaps have hinges so it can open like a book for cleaning. But until someone starts selling those, this will do.

This little guy is ADORABLE!!! It steeped the tea well for me, I had to kind of drag him around the cup to get the water to circulate through, but I had no problems with it!! My tea leaves were a little small, so while a couple leaf pieces escaped, 99% of the others stayed in--It wasn't anywhere near that one pic of the steeper-guy who spews leaves!!!He ships fast too. I ordered him last Friday and got him on Monday. He was packaged in a little box (with picture-aided instructions on the back for those who dont recognize the obvious:P), and that box was packaged in one of those yellow ultra-bubble-wrapped manila envelopes--very well protected!!I would definitely recommend this to a friend, and I would definitely buy another!!

Octeapus is so cute, though not entirely practical. The head pops off so that you can fill it with tea, but it isn't easy to put back together. The holes are a little too large and the finer tea leaves fall out. I guess that's okay if you're into reading tea leaves, but it is otherwise annoying. The holes are only on one side so there isn't very good flow of water through the infuser. The longer tentacle does hook nicely onto the side of your mug, and it's easy to remove from the water. Despite the drawbacks, Octeapus is so adorable that it's almost worth it.

A tad fiddly, but really quite cool!

It looks really cool and the idea is good behind it, issue is its narrow and you must use a rather small spoon to get the loose leaf tea inside. It works but hard to clean and get the tea inside.

Bought as part of a care package for my partner to cheer him up during lockdown. One complaint is some teas are prone to escaping through the holes resulting in a leafy gritty brew. But generally it's great

It's such a cool tea strainer, I just love it! Thanks!

Really cute and works well.