The infuser core holds whatever you give it in the middle of the water, where it can steep without floating into your mouth. Start with cold water, fill to the shoulder and give the bottle a slow turn now and then. These are the three we keep coming back to.
Mint and lime
Steep 20 min
Bright and green. Take six or eight mint leaves and bruise them between your palms until you can smell them. Add two thin wheels of lime. Twenty minutes is enough. After an hour the pith starts to turn the water bitter, so lift the core out.
Cucumber and basil
Steep 30 min
Cool and soft. Slice a third of a cucumber as thin as you can and tear four basil leaves into the core. It is a gentle one, so give it half an hour. It keeps well in the fridge for a day.
Lemon and thyme
Steep 40 min
Warm and clean. Two wheels of lemon and three sprigs of thyme. Thyme is slow to give up its flavour, so leave it forty minutes before the first sip.
A few rules
- Use cold water. Heat pulls bitterness out of peel faster than it pulls out flavour.
- Lift the core out when it tastes right. Fruit left in for hours makes the water flat.
- Refill once over the same leaves, then start fresh.
- Rinse the core straight away, before pulp dries in the mesh.
And after you refill, press the base and give it sixty seconds of light.
