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I have a huge secret to tell you.

But first, you might need to sit down.

Let me begin with a story.

I make tea from loose leaf herbs. I ditched tea bags a long time ago for the simple reason that loose leaf herbs just taste better and fresher. What can I say? I’m a foodie.

But the challenge of only drinking loose leaf tea is that there are never enough clean tea balls in my house for every cup of tea that I would dream of making. And eventually, those little mesh balls start wearing out or turning colors. Another disadvantage is that I can only make one cup at a time with those small tea balls. It’s unfortunate, but I lived with it.

Until I a friend told me a secret that I’m going to share with you.

Are you ready?

Here it is.

You can make loose leaf tea in a french press.

A french press? you ask. Are you serious?

Yes. I’m being quite serious. A french press makes twice as much tea as my tea ball, and it is far easier to dump and clean than those pesky mesh balls. Plus, with all of the to-do about tea bags being made from corn, I know my Paleo friends are just as concerned as I am to find more convenient ways to have tea. And trust me, I need convenient when making my Woman Tea–the tea that calms the monster inside of me when approaching the period week.

I couldn’t live without a french press now that I know the secret to making tea.

French presses are typically glass set into a metal handle that you use to make coffee. They are fragile and I’m always scared as heck that I’m going to drop the precious thing while washing it because I’m so much of a klutz that you wouldn’t believe it.

Enter the most incredible (and not glass) french press I have laid eyes on.

El Gato Malo.

Which is Spanish for “The Bad Cat.”

Thank goodness for college Spanish classes.

And this french press is one bad kitty.

It’s made of stainless steel and looks way too perfect and shiny in my kitchen. I’m in love. It’s durable. I can bang it up against the sink and it won’t crack or shatter. It just sparkles back at me as the water runs down its sides.

And making tea in it is amazing. Because it is stainless steel, it holds heat longer than my wimpy glass version. I can have a hot cup of tea, and come back for another hot cup of tea.

It is too perfect.

And this weekend I packed El Gato Malo up and took it with me to Arches National Park, where it performed flawlessly. I could never take my glass french press with me to the wilderness. It was perfect for camping…it held heat longer than I expected, and I could pack it away with my other pots and pans without worrying about it being destroyed. And that’s exactly what you need when camping.

The only weakness this beautiful french press has is the sound the lid makes when placing it on the body of the press. It’s a pretty loud clank, but now that I use it regularly, I just lower it with one hand to reduce the noise and there is no clanking to be heard.

This is such a fantastic product. I’m in love with mine and I know that you will love yours too.

I just can’t stop staring at how shiny it is!

And I also can’t stop using it, especially when I need to make my woman tea. Woman tea is comprised of two loose leaf teas, chamomile and red raspberry leaf, but it does wonders for all the woman parts at all times of the month, but most particularly the week of hell. I hope you enjoy my recipe, made in a french press!

Ingredients