LIBRE TEA Libre GlaSS N Poly Large, 420 ML

Awesome tea maker and exactly what I was looking for to have easy tea on the go. Easy to clean. Keeps the tea warm for about 3 hours I'd say. Some reviews mention that it's leaked on them but I have not found this to be the case.

I very much empathize with the reviewers who say they really /want/ to like this glass. I do, too! I had one of these for two years and really loved it. I took it everywhere, all the time. Then it finally got a crack a couple of months ago. I was ok with that--two years of good use are worth that. I never understood what other reviewers were saying about leaks until I received my replacement. After my first use, it already showed condensation water between the glasses. Whatever, I thought, I can live with that. But that condensation water was actually leakage from my tea! Now that I have used it for a month, there is tea between the glasses that can't be removed. What is worse, the trapped tea is now slowly starting to ferment (read: rot), so the entire cup is starting to smell to the point where I will have to throw the thing away.In hindsight, I think I got real lucky with my first Libre glass, which lasted a long time in spite of some condensation trapped between the glasses. But this last one was literally $35 out the window. And as I am reading other reviews, it sounds like that's a regular occurrence. With that much fluctuation in quality, I will not buy another one. I'm really disappointed, since there really aren't any good alternatives out there.

I'm a loose leaf tea junkie and have all sorts of tea brewing and drinking paraphernalia, from mesh tea balls and disposable DIY tea bags/filters, to tea presses, one-cup tea baskets and pots with built in strainers. This is by far my favorite item for the following reasons:- Easy to clean- Easy to pack- Fits into my car's and outdoor folding chair's cup holder (I take it to my son's cold morning soccer games too!)- Looks attractive (especially with the whole star anise pod floating in my favorite tea blend)- Keeps my tea warm- Big enough for a whole morning's worth of tea at my desk- Durable (I dropped it hard on the first day onto the wood laminate floor at work and the inner glass wall stayed intact)- Comfortable to hold temperature-wise even when the contents are piping hot- Love the glass interior--no metallic taste transfer, no reactive or toxic plasticsThings I would improve:- I wish it had an easy flip-top or push-button lid that I could open with one hand while driving- Along with the flip top lid, some type of smaller opening that prevents you from dumping a huge mouthful on your face while driving (I know, I should give up drinking and driving!)- As mentioned above, I dropped it on the day I received it and although the glass stayed intact, it dinged the bottom metal casing so that it would not sit flat, but nothing that a little tap of the hammer couldn't fix- Mesh filter could be a little finer--I drink mostly red/rooisbos tea and the leaves are fine like needles and a few small ones escape while I'm drinking. Albeit barely noticeable, it would be nice to have a tighter mesh like the type that is used on a tea ball- There is some heat transfer to the exterior as the outside plastic does get a little warm but it stays hot long enough to drink leisurely- Have to be careful screwing the lid on as it's easy to cross-thread and cause leaks. I always twist the lid in the opposite (opening) direction to ensure that it's all the way aligned, then I tighten it--this seems to prevent leakageAll that being said, this is still my favorite way to brew and drink my tea. I haven't used any of my drawerful of other tea tackle since I have owned my Libre bottle.

The entire appeal of this is the ability to brew loose leaf tea within the bottle, either by putting green tea in the bottom and leaving it in there, or black tea in the top and flipping it upside down to brew. The problem with either method is that the wire mesh between the lid and the water is WAY too wide/course to be of any use. There is literally a millimeter of space between the mesh, or to put it in simple terms, 1 of the line marks on a ruler. Only purchase this bottle if you will be using whole leaf teas. Any kind of herbal blend or more finely ground tea will come through the mesh and be undrinkable.I would return this if shipping wasn't so expensive. Now, I just use it to hold hot water while i brew 1 cup at a time with a simple fine mesh cup strainer.